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[00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:05.680] Hey, Entrepreneurs, it's Steph here with a special invite just for you.
[00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:10.800] Do you want to experience what it's like to be part of our Entrepreneursa League community of founders?
[00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.400] Now is your chance.
[00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:21.360] You can join me this month at one of our upcoming Entrepreneurs League info sessions where I'm going to share with you all you're going to get access to when you join the community.
[00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:27.040] Plus, I'll be giving away some big bonuses that you will only be able to get access to when you attend live.
[00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:35.600] Head over to refer.entrepanista.com forward slash info session to join us at one of our virtual info sessions this month.
[00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.640] That's refer.entrepranista.com forward slash info session.
[00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.560] Or head over to the show notes right now and tap the link to join us.
[00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:49.040] I can't wait to meet you there and learn more about you and your business.
[00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:51.840] I love people.
[00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:53.200] I'm a people person.
[00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.360] I love understanding the stories of the people that are running these businesses, right?
[00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:02.400] Like businesses don't just exist in a vacuum and create products or services.
[00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:09.680] They are run by people who have experiences, who have certain points of view, who have likely worked at other companies.
[00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:17.840] So I think that there's something really fun when someone can connect to a company by also understanding who's behind it.
[00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:28.160] If you're building a brand in today's fast-moving digital world, you cannot afford to ignore the power of content.
[00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:31.520] And this week's guest knows exactly how to help you stand out.
[00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:41.760] Sammy Cohen is the founder of Social Currency, the must-follow media platform that I personally cannot get enough of, where she is breaking down business and culture for the modern founder.
[00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:50.480] Sammy has built a loyal audience and community by doing what so many brands struggle with, showing up with relevance, clarity, and a whole lot of personality.
[00:01:50.480 --> 00:02:02.120] Get ready because Sammy is sharing all her strategies that helped her grow her platform, what's working right now in social media and podcasting, and how women founders can create content that actually gets the attention that you want.
[00:02:02.440 --> 00:02:11.960] Whether you're a personal brand or product-based business, you're going to learn all of her best tips to help you stop guessing and start connecting in a way that feels aligned and gets results.
[00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:16.840] Get ready to hear Sammy's story and her biggest business secret.
[00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:23.560] This is the Entrepreneur Podcast presented by Social Fly.
[00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:34.200] It's the best business meeting you'll ever have with must-hear real-life looks at how leading women in business are getting it done and what it takes to build and grow a successful company.
[00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:40.120] It's beyond the Graham with no filters, no limits, and plenty of surprises.
[00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:53.960] Sammy, I am so excited to sit down and have this conversation with you today because first I have to share with everyone.
[00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:55.720] I started following you on Instagram.
[00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:57.720] I don't know, maybe it was a couple of months ago.
[00:02:57.720 --> 00:03:03.400] I started seeing some of your posts on Instagram talking about all these incredible businesses, you breaking everything down.
[00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.240] And I'm like, who is Sammy?
[00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:06.520] I have to know more.
[00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:08.200] This content is amazing.
[00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:17.480] And I could see you were building this incredible business and knew that we had to have this conversation so you can share all of your alerting to their entrepreneur audience and listeners.
[00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:19.240] So thank you for being here, Sammy.
[00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:20.920] Thank you so much for saying that.
[00:03:20.920 --> 00:03:22.280] That is so kind of you.
[00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.160] And I am really excited to speak with you today.
[00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:29.160] Sammy, what inspired you to start social currency in your business?
[00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:46.560] So the origin story was actually back in the pandemic when a lot of people were stuck at home and trying to figure out what to do with their extra time when they were leaving the house, literally stuck at home with nowhere to go.
[00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:54.720] And I was working at Amazon at the time and I got to this point where I was so drained creatively.
[00:03:54.720 --> 00:03:58.640] And I really was looking for a creative outlet of some kind.
[00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:26.880] And my whole life, I've been obsessed with business and not just hearing about the businesses that are doing really well, the ones that everyone knows, but I loved hearing the stories of businesses that had a little bit more of a rocky journey and really understanding the why behind certain decisions that founders would make and how a company was able to get to the point that they were at today and really understanding like all of the nuances there.
[00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:36.720] So I put up my first video on TikTok actually in 2022, still very much working at Amazon, thinking, oh, this is just a fun little hobby because I'm so drained creatively.
[00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:41.440] Let me learn how to stitch together this video and TikTok and add captions.
[00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:43.200] And like, I thought I was so advanced at the time.
[00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:46.400] And looking back on that video, I'm like cringing.
[00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:47.760] It was so bad.
[00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:53.120] But also, a note for the listeners: always start before you're ready.
[00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:53.600] Always.
[00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:56.400] Like, if you wait until you're ready, you will never be ready.
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:58.320] So just put something out there in the first version.
[00:04:58.320 --> 00:05:06.080] It's okay if it's embarrassing when you're looking back because that means that you've likely progressed and you've really been able to refine your product as you go.
[00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:11.040] Anyway, I was really embarrassed about what the first version of this podcast was.
[00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:15.120] Now that I'm looking back on it, I was very, very much cringing.
[00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:21.240] And I realized as soon as that video went live that I loved the process.
[00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:36.680] Not only just the creative side of putting together the final product, but the research, understanding the most salient points that I was going to be discussing, and then putting it into a really cohesive minute to minute and a half piece.
[00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:38.840] And I just fell in love with it.
[00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.600] It sounds so cheesy, but from that very first video, I thought.
[00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:44.600] I am supposed to be doing this.
[00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:45.880] Like I love it.
[00:05:45.880 --> 00:05:47.720] And I had this aha moment.
[00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.720] And it wasn't right away that the videos took off by any means.
[00:05:51.720 --> 00:06:01.480] At first, it was truly me thinking about the companies that I thought were interesting and doing this truly as a passion project, side project, after work, before work.
[00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:07.000] And a few weeks in, one of the videos that I put out, I put it out at like 8 p.m.
[00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:07.320] at night.
[00:06:07.320 --> 00:06:08.200] I wake up the next morning.
[00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:10.600] I go on TikTok and it has over a million views.
[00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:12.920] And I'm like, whoa, what is this?
[00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:22.520] And it had, the video was on Tracy Romoulis, who is a friend of Kim Kardashian, who helps with the marketing of her businesses.
[00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:48.520] And I realized that there was this really unique intersection between business and culture that I felt like personally, I loved deep diving and discussing, but I realized that there was such an appetite in the creator ecosystem where people really wanted to see that type of content in a way that wasn't overly buttoned up business content with super complex terminology.
[00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:58.600] And these people who also loved pop culture, who loved seeing information about celebrities, red carpet, what's relevant in today's news cycle.
[00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:07.320] There was this opportunity to marry those two and create something that was business-focused, but also really entertaining and had a little bit of an edge.
[00:07:07.320 --> 00:07:14.200] So, that was a very long description of what led me to start what I'm doing, but that's that's how it all began.
[00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:17.680] No, it's so helpful to hear that backstory and your journey.
[00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:25.120] So, for those of our listeners that haven't yet followed you on Instagram and TikTok, well, first, share all the links.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:28.320] Everyone, go to the show notes right now because we're linking out to those links below.
[00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:34.240] But for those who haven't watched these videos, can you explain exactly what these videos are like?
[00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:39.760] And also, I would love to hear: like, how long does it actually take you to prep the content for this?
[00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:41.040] How are you doing the research?
[00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.760] Like, how have you found that sweet spot for these videos?
[00:07:43.760 --> 00:07:44.560] Tell me everything.
[00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:45.680] Yes.
[00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:52.640] So, for anyone who isn't familiar with my platform on Instagram and TikTok, it's the same handle, Sammy Cohen Talks.
[00:07:52.960 --> 00:08:00.320] And I really talk about business stories that are at the intersection of business and culture.
[00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:14.160] So, I don't want to just tell you about the latest company's earnings that are doing super well and just sharing the news line or the headline of the article.
[00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:20.640] I really want to get into the why behind how businesses are operating.
[00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:26.880] And sometimes, just to be very clear, sometimes these videos are not overwhelmingly positive, right?
[00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:54.400] Like, I think that there's so much to go into in really decoding and deconstructing the trouble spots in businesses and understanding what's not going right, especially when you look at a company that is really large, maybe it's a public company, really understanding that they got to that point, not just from having blowout earnings every quarter and having year-over-year growth, but a lot of companies, it's not a linear story.
[00:08:54.400 --> 00:08:56.320] In fact, no company has a linear story.
[00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.760] There are so many ups and downs, but I think I love talking on that.
[00:08:59.880 --> 00:09:03.720] And then the other piece I want to mention is I love people.
[00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:05.080] I'm a people person.
[00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:09.240] I love understanding the stories of the people that are running these businesses, right?
[00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:14.680] Like businesses don't just exist in a vacuum and create products or services.
[00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:21.880] They are run by people who have experiences, who have certain points of view, who have likely worked at other companies.
[00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:29.960] So I think that there's something really fun when someone can connect to a company by also understanding who's behind it.
[00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:37.640] And so I like to include as many main characters, if you will, the main characters of these companies when I'm talking about these stories.
[00:09:37.640 --> 00:09:39.560] And I try and make them really digestible.
[00:09:39.560 --> 00:09:42.840] So they're roughly, yeah, 60 to 90 seconds.
[00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:48.120] And it's something where hopefully it's a bite-sized segment you can watch and, you know, throughout your day.
[00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.320] And then you feel a little bit smarter or a little bit more in the know.
[00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:59.320] So that way, you know, when you're talking to a friend, a family member about something that you're seeing in the news, you can then say, oh, yeah, Sammy talked about this last week.
[00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.600] And, you know, it's something relevant that I can bring up in conversation.
[00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:03.880] Yeah, no, they're so good.
[00:10:03.880 --> 00:10:09.560] Everyone, go follow Sammy right now if you're not following her because her content is so good.
[00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:10.360] It's amazing.
[00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:12.680] So yes, tell me now how you do the research on this.
[00:10:12.680 --> 00:10:15.080] How long does it actually take to produce a video?
[00:10:15.880 --> 00:10:21.720] Do you ever reach out to the founder, whoever you're talking about to actually get information directly from them?
[00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:23.240] What's your process?
[00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:23.880] Yes.
[00:10:23.880 --> 00:10:27.480] So I will answer this in a few ways.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:31.240] So first, I think it's very dependent on the topic itself.
[00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.560] But generally, I'll lay out my general process and then I'll kind of explain the nuances.
[00:10:35.560 --> 00:10:43.000] So, generally, when I'm working on a video, it will be something that I think is most of the time it's a relevant business story.
[00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:54.960] So, it's something that's, if it's not breaking that week or that day, it's something in the past month that I feel like people will want to know today because of something larger that's happening in the markets or business more generally.
[00:10:54.960 --> 00:11:01.440] And so, for that, it usually will start with: I'll get interest from an initial piece of media.
[00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:05.360] Most of the time, that's like coming from either traditional media.
[00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:11.680] So, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, maybe it's a newsletter that I'm subscribed to that links to another article on another publication.
[00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:17.120] But usually, it starts with one main piece of data or an article.
[00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:19.760] From there, I will, of course, read the article.
[00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:22.080] I'll find like those interesting pieces.
[00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:34.160] And this connects to what I just spoke about: where is there an interesting story of either someone behind the business, maybe a surprising fact that people don't expect when it comes to this business that I can then tease out?
[00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:59.600] And then, is there another, is there another angle that I can explore there of maybe talking about the industry more broadly or just getting into something that my goal is, because I'm so focused on educating and creating a space where it's this intersection of entertainment and education and making it really fun to listen to, I try to have something surprising or an interesting takeaway in every single message.
[00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:05.520] So, I'll do that research, and usually the research takes, I'd say, generally around an hour.
[00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.200] From there, I will come up with a mini script.
[00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.440] And this isn't literally me writing out a full script.
[00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.400] It's usually bullet points of the key notes that I want to say.
[00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:28.400] And of course, for anyone who knows social, which is pretty much every company needs to be kind of like a media company nowadays, as we were talking about earlier, but I'll try and come up with a strong hook of like, okay, how can I catch someone's attention right away?
[00:12:28.400 --> 00:12:37.560] And then at the end, there's always a takeaway of some kind to really bring it full circle of what the listener needs to kind of understand coming out of this.
[00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:42.760] And I'd say that process is probably 20 minutes if I were to benchmark it.
[00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:52.040] And then the actual recording of the video, which is me with my phone, just doing takes, that's the fast part because I'll have my bullets in front of me.
[00:12:52.040 --> 00:12:54.840] I'm saying each thing as it comes to mind.
[00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.240] That part will probably take 10 minutes.
[00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:06.200] And then from there, the editing process will take probably another 25 to 30 minutes.
[00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:15.240] And then a key element also that I need to bring up is most of my content is green screen, which means if you're not familiar, I'm in the forefront and then there's an image right behind me.
[00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.440] And I always have the image that ties to what I'm speaking about, of course.
[00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:24.760] And then adding the images in and finding those images as well is probably another 10, 15 minutes.
[00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:29.480] So all in, it's in the ballpark of two hours.
[00:13:29.800 --> 00:13:31.640] And that's for a pretty straightforward one.
[00:13:31.640 --> 00:13:45.080] If there's something that's a little bit more nuanced or I'm going across a lot of different articles to gather the research, that two-ish hours can easily go up to three or three and a half, depending on the topic.
[00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:47.800] But that's the general timeframe.
[00:13:47.800 --> 00:13:55.720] Do you ever reach out to the founder to interview them to find out if the information is accurate based on what's being shared in the media?
[00:13:56.040 --> 00:13:57.000] Yes, yes.
[00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.800] I'd say that's definitely the exception and not the rule.
[00:13:59.800 --> 00:14:08.400] But there have definitely been cases for topics that are, I'd say, a little bit more nuanced.
[00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:12.200] Where, where if, and it also depends on the type of company and the founder.
[00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:19.680] If this is a public company, obviously, I'm not going to be emailing the CEO of a public company and expect a two-hour turnaround, right?
[00:14:19.680 --> 00:14:27.440] But if it's something where there's a smaller company that's also very social forward, so I know that they're going to check their DMs.
[00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:35.680] Another key part is that a lot of this is very focused on current of the moment stories, right?
[00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:45.040] So, usually, I'll get an idea in the morning, and depending on how quickly I need to move on it, like I'm coming up with that video that day and releasing it.
[00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:53.920] So, now that, and I know we'll get into this, but right now I'm at a place where I'm working a full-time job and doing all of this.
[00:14:53.920 --> 00:15:01.760] So, I've been less disciplined about creating a content bank of stories that are a little bit more evergreen that I can just, you know, do ahead of time.
[00:15:01.760 --> 00:15:04.000] So, I'm not constantly scrambling.
[00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:17.520] But I think moving forward, now that I'm going to be doing this full-time, the goal is to be way more structured and have a lot more content that I'm doing a few days in advance, which would give me more time to be able to have conversations with these companies.
[00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:28.160] And so, I think, I think there's definitely an opportunity to get companies more involved, but there's also a piece of it too where I like being as objective as possible.
[00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:35.600] And I will always share my point of view as relevant as it needs to be, depending on the topic that I'm covering.
[00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:42.640] But I also don't necessarily want to sway my perspective sometimes.
[00:15:42.640 --> 00:15:54.720] Like, as an example, I did a video last year on Erwan and how I felt the smoothies, the smoothie collaborations that they were doing, were a little bit of a reach sometimes.
[00:15:54.720 --> 00:16:00.280] And they would partner with these companies who just weren't super on brand for Erwan.
[00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:05.400] Like they would do a skincare, not even skincare, but like a company that creates deodorant.
[00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.440] And I'm like, I don't really want to have like a deodorant smoothie.
[00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:13.720] Like to me, those aren't really like palatable together, separately, fine, but together, no.
[00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:19.960] And I put out a video and I specifically referenced that deodorant smoothie debacle in my mind.
[00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.600] And I could have reached out to Erwan.
[00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.840] I could have, I could have done it.
[00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:34.760] And I put the video out and lo and behold, one of the executive vice presidents reached out to me after and was like, hey, actually, like we saw the video and like these are our counterpoints.
[00:16:34.760 --> 00:16:40.840] So, you know, a lot of the time I will get comments from the company afterwards.
[00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:51.400] And if it's, if it's worthwhile, I can do a follow-up video and address the comments, which to be honest, I haven't really done too much of, but in the future, it's definitely on the table.
[00:16:52.280 --> 00:16:58.760] So, so the very long answer to that is I try to reach out when possible, but not super frequently.
[00:16:58.760 --> 00:17:00.920] No, that totally makes sense.
[00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:10.680] Hi, Entrepreneurs.
[00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:11.720] It's Steph here.
[00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:18.360] As a founder, I know firsthand that building a business can feel so lonely, but it doesn't have to.
[00:17:18.360 --> 00:17:23.000] And that's why we created our Entrepreneursa Founders Weekend Wealth and Wellness Retreat.
[00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.160] And I can't wait to meet you in person there.
[00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:39.400] So you're officially invited to join us from April 30th to May 3rd, 2026 at the stunning PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for three transformative days of connection, collaboration, and real business growth.
[00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:49.600] This isn't just another business conference, it is a curated retreat designed to help you build authentic, lasting relationships with women who truly understand your journey.
[00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:56.720] From business panels and workshops to wellness activations and so much more, this is the room that you need to be in.
[00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:08.240] So, if you are ready to invest in yourself and your business and your vision and your next level of success, head over to entrepreneurs.com forward slash founders weekend to reserve your ticket today.
[00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:16.480] That's entrepreneursa.com forward slash foundersweekend, or head over to the show notes right now and tap the invitation to reserve your ticket.
[00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:18.080] I'll see you there.
[00:18:27.600 --> 00:18:32.240] Now, your business is shifting because you're actually able to focus on this business full-time.
[00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:38.720] But I want to take a step back because you've been building this on the side for the past two and a half, almost three years.
[00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:48.480] When did you realize that you like we're onto something here and this could be built into more than just social accounts and engagement, but an actual business?
[00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:56.960] So, I think I had some signs early on that people were interested in the general topic that I was exploring.
[00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.960] I knew that to be the case, but I didn't know the extent to which I could grow it.
[00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.920] So, as I said earlier, when I started, this is truly just a passion project.
[00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:07.840] It was something that I was really excited about.
[00:19:07.840 --> 00:19:19.280] And I put up the videos because I was really, to me, it was the most fun hobby and it was like fun external validation to see people who are like, oh, I find this interesting too.
[00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:20.080] Great.
[00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:28.320] And I, as you said, I've been working on it now for, yeah, just over, we just hit the three-year mark.
[00:19:28.320 --> 00:19:32.840] And I, for the first two years, it was truly a passion project.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:44.200] And I'd say, in terms of my own experience, which has been far from linear on the social front, I knew that there were these interesting topics at the intersection of business and culture.
[00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:49.240] But when I started, I was still trying to figure out my voice and my angle.
[00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:55.960] And I didn't really know if my whole platform was going to be around that or if I was going to have another niche.
[00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:13.320] So the reason I bring this up is when I put out that video that I mentioned around Tracy Romalis and Kim Kardashian and all of that, a lot of the comments on the video were specifically talking about the pop culture piece versus the business that she had built.
[00:20:13.320 --> 00:20:16.760] And I realized, okay, the pop culture angle is really strong.
[00:20:16.760 --> 00:20:22.520] And because I was just on TikTok at the time, this is even before when I started on TikTok, Reels wasn't really a thing.
[00:20:22.520 --> 00:20:31.480] It was technically, I think, still, it had been around, but people weren't really doing cross collaborative or cross-promotion on both platforms like they are now.
[00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:35.000] Now it's the standard to do both, but then it wasn't.
[00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:43.240] And so when I, when I first started, I kind of leaned very hard into pop culture.
[00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:46.600] I'd say for that first year or so on TikTok.
[00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:53.880] And I would do things like the career of Selena Gomez, you know, and hey, Selena Gomez is great.
[00:20:53.880 --> 00:21:04.360] And it's interesting to hear about her career, but also the comments that I would get, the follows and conversion I would get from that video wasn't for the business side.
[00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:09.000] It was more so stands of Selena Gomez were like, we want more Selena content.
[00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:20.080] And I realized very early on that even though I love pop culture, the only part that's or the part that is the most interesting to me is the part that really intersects with business.
[00:21:20.080 --> 00:21:31.760] So I'm down to hear about the celebrities and talk about that, but like I want to hear about how that's laddering up to a business or the way that they're positioning themselves in like the broader market.
[00:21:31.760 --> 00:21:37.200] And I liked more of an esoteric lens for lack of a better word.
[00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.440] So for me, I quickly learned, well, not so quickly, I did that for the first year.
[00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:49.200] And then after that, I went on a little bit of a side quest because I'd gotten engaged and I went to full, thank you.
[00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:53.120] Now it's been a while, but I went to full wedding mode, right?
[00:21:53.120 --> 00:22:02.080] Like a crazy fiancé who's like doing every possible search for wedding venues and where to get the wedding dress and everything.
[00:22:02.080 --> 00:22:09.440] And on TikTok, TikTok is known for the very, very strong micro communities or niche interests.
[00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.120] And wedding talk is very real and very strong.
[00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:18.640] And I went really deep into wedding talk and was putting out tons of videos on exactly that.
[00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:24.800] It's like best wedding venues in the US and like how to find your vendor for X, Y, or Z.
[00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:26.000] And it was fun.
[00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:27.520] I was very in it at the time.
[00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:30.000] So that's what made the sense for me then.
[00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.680] But I also knew myself so well.
[00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:37.760] And I knew the second, the day after my wedding was over, I didn't want to think, talk, touch that subject anymore.
[00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:40.320] Like I was not going to be Sammy Cohen, the wedding expert.
[00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:41.120] Definitely not.
[00:22:41.120 --> 00:22:42.160] That's so funny.
[00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:42.480] Yeah.
[00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:46.880] And so I came back for my wedding and I got married January 2024.
[00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.760] And so I got back and I was like, well, great.
[00:22:49.760 --> 00:22:54.640] I've been doing a lot of this wedding stuff and I don't even want to go into that space anymore.
[00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:08.760] And so it was at that point where I took a step back and I realized, okay, at that point, I had gained some degree of followers on TikTok and I had followers who were following me for all different reasons, right?
[00:23:08.760 --> 00:23:14.920] Because I had the pop culture era, I had the wedding era, and I knew that I didn't want to really be in those spaces.
[00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:22.280] So I thought, okay, what is something I can really stick with that for me will provide value?
[00:23:22.280 --> 00:23:29.880] And I personally felt the best because I'm not any kind of lifestyle influencer and I don't pretend to be one.
[00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:32.040] I will never be just about that.
[00:23:32.040 --> 00:23:36.680] But I realized I am so excited about the business thing.
[00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:38.280] And it's been consistent throughout my life.
[00:23:38.280 --> 00:23:39.560] I got my MBA from Berkeley.
[00:23:39.560 --> 00:23:42.680] I've worked at these like big tech corporate companies.
[00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:44.760] And I realized, okay, this is going to be my space.
[00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:46.760] It's going to be this intersection of business and culture.
[00:23:46.760 --> 00:23:51.800] So it was really like January of 2024 where I was starting to figure that out.
[00:23:51.800 --> 00:23:54.680] And I did a lot of stuff that was more career focused at first.
[00:23:54.680 --> 00:24:03.320] And then I really hit my stride last summer, summer of 2024, where I put out the series about the rise and fall of direct to consumer companies.
[00:24:03.320 --> 00:24:09.400] And I did this big video on the rise and fall of Outdoor Voices, which is this big athletic athleisure company.
[00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:15.320] And I talked about Casper and Allbergs and all of these companies of that time period away.
[00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:22.520] And I very, very quickly saw that engagement shot up when I was talking about these topics.
[00:24:22.520 --> 00:24:24.280] And I was so passionate about it.
[00:24:24.600 --> 00:24:32.920] That is when I think I started following you because your videos started coming into my trusty algorithm, knowing I like that content.
[00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:34.920] And that's when I said, I'm like, oh my God, I love this.
[00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:40.360] This is like, you're speaking directly to me and our, and our entrepreneurist cro here.
[00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:41.480] Yes.
[00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.200] Well, I'm so glad to hear that that resonated.
[00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:49.920] And I think that was the aha moment for me where I realized, okay, I love doing this.
[00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:53.280] This is clearly something that's working well on social.
[00:24:53.280 --> 00:24:56.240] I can keep doing this all day because this is what I love talking about.
[00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.520] So let me double down.
[00:24:57.520 --> 00:25:01.840] And so really it was, it was last summer where I decided, okay, I'm going to double down.
[00:25:01.840 --> 00:25:07.600] And then very quickly after that, when engagement shot up, my follower count started really rising.
[00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:27.040] I saw, okay, there's, there's a lot of opportunity because really it seems, it seems crazy to say it, but I'd say overnight, like not overnight, but within the span of a few months, I'd say the Outdoor Voices video, which is the first video in that series, I put out end of July of 2024 last year.
[00:25:27.040 --> 00:25:31.920] And then come September was when I started monetizing.
[00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:42.720] I did not take a single dollar from any social media posts that I had done for the first two-ish years of doing all this because it was truly for me, fun.
[00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:48.720] And I'd had little opportunities like brands that are promoting X, Y, or Z and to do a sponsored video.
[00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:59.200] And I said no, because I knew that I kind of needed to figure out my space in the market before taking these like one-off deals because I knew they weren't really going to lead to anything.
[00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:01.200] And it was more of a distraction.
[00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.920] So it wasn't until I really found this niche.
[00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:18.320] And then come September, I had just like overnight brands that I really respected, that I personally used, that were, in my opinion, very high caliber brands who had said, you know, we love your content.
[00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:19.600] We'd love to work with you.
[00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:29.680] And that was the aha moment of like, okay, I'm like finally at a point where I'm creating content that I really enjoy, that I believe is providing value that people are responding to.
[00:26:30.040 --> 00:26:41.800] And it's working on the monetization side as well because brands are seeing this and they say, okay, Sammy stands for X and we want her to provide, you know, some kind of content about our business.
[00:26:41.800 --> 00:26:44.360] And that's how that's how it really started.
[00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:51.880] No, I'm so glad you shared this whole backstory because I think it's so important for everyone to understand that, well, one, you just got started, right?
[00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:52.520] You took the leap.
[00:26:52.520 --> 00:26:56.920] You started doing something for yourself that you enjoyed and you kept going, right?
[00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.560] You weren't monetizing anything for over two years and you were just trying to feel out what worked and what made sense for you.
[00:27:03.560 --> 00:27:05.560] And then like you didn't give up, right?
[00:27:05.560 --> 00:27:08.520] You could have just stopped and been like, I don't want to post about weddings anymore.
[00:27:08.520 --> 00:27:09.240] Like I'm done.
[00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:10.680] This is not what I want to do.
[00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:21.000] But you loved it and you kept pivoting until you hit that stride and point where like, okay, now there's something here that you love and there's potential opportunity to make a lot of money.
[00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:22.360] So now you get to that point.
[00:27:22.360 --> 00:27:24.040] These brands are coming to you.
[00:27:24.040 --> 00:27:25.800] You have these opportunities.
[00:27:25.800 --> 00:27:31.560] Did you already know a lot about like the influencer space and the media space when these brand deals started coming to you?
[00:27:31.560 --> 00:27:33.240] Or did you have to learn everything then?
[00:27:33.560 --> 00:27:40.120] I had to learn everything because I had never been any kind of content creator, influencer.
[00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:42.280] Granted, I had been in this space for two years.
[00:27:42.280 --> 00:27:43.560] I just had never monetized.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:49.160] So it was my first time negotiating with brands and figuring out like, what do I even charge a brand?
[00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:51.000] What are the different elements of a rate card?
[00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:01.240] Luckily, nowadays, you can figure that stuff out in literally an hour online, but I chat GPT, baby, all day, every day.
[00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:08.120] And so for for me, that part was was um not the hard part.
[00:28:08.120 --> 00:30:01.800] I think the hard part, once I actually found this monetization piece, and it's still it's it's something that I'm i'm trying to figure out but it's like okay i've i've found this almost product market fit if if you will of what i'm doing but it's like all right this is v1 what is v2 and v3 and v4 how do i grow so i'm not just this talking head on instagram or tick tock and there's value there not anything wrong with that but i knew i wanted so much more and in order to turn what i'm doing into a more sustainable business being that of a media platform or whatever else it turns into in the future i knew that i needed to still think beyond what i was doing coming up sammy shares all about her new podcast social currency and her best tips for new ventures and building a brand founders are always asking us what has been the secret to our success building multiple seven-figure businesses do you want to know how it's our community we created the entrepreneursa league for founders like you because the most successful entrepreneurs do not navigate business alone we navigate the challenges and opportunities with the support of people we know love and trust the relationships you build in business will be the key to your success trust me it's how we've done it and i'm giving you access to everything we've used to grow and scale our businesses over the past decade plus you're going to meet your new best friends in business right inside the community our members have access to everything we've used to grow our businesses over the past 10 plus years from in-person events to virtual events, business education, funding resources, office hours with myself and other top founders in your industry, press opportunities, and access to our community platform where you can instantly get all of your business questions answered.
[00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:08.520] You can join us in the community over at refer.entreprenista.com forward slash join us.
[00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:14.280] That's refer.entreprenista.com forward slash join us to join the community.
[00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:17.640] Or head to the show notes right now and tap the link to join.
[00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:19.960] I cannot wait to meet you.
[00:30:20.600 --> 00:30:24.200] So what is your vision now for your media empire?
[00:30:24.840 --> 00:30:27.560] So it's very much ever-evolving.
[00:30:27.560 --> 00:30:35.560] But as of today, I am really excited to share that I'll be launching a podcast and the podcast is called Social Currency.
[00:30:35.560 --> 00:30:47.240] And the name social currency to me felt very fitting for the type of content that I'm covering, given that also the podcast is going to be at the same intersection of business and culture.
[00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:49.000] There will be two episodes a week.
[00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:55.960] One episode will be me interviewing the CEO of a pretty large consumer company that most people have heard of.
[00:30:55.960 --> 00:31:04.120] And then the other is going to be a solo episode deep dive, which is similar to the episodes that I'm doing on social right now, but it's a longer form deep dive.
[00:31:04.120 --> 00:31:13.800] So instead of a 90-second clip, it'll be still not super long, but it'll be 15 minutes, 20 minutes of me going into more of an actual story of what's going on.
[00:31:14.120 --> 00:31:24.760] And I see the podcast as really the first venture that I'm doing outside of social to continue to build the Sammy Cohen and social currency brand.
[00:31:25.080 --> 00:32:02.240] I see what I'm building as so much more than just existing in these little parts, but I really more broadly want to build something that people find value in, and they're able to really absorb more information, especially about business, because the information is delivered to them in a way that's actually entertaining and fun in the same way that, you know, people love pop culture for that reason, where it's like almost like this instant rush of like dopamine, or like people love true crime because it's like, oh, wow, it's like so juicy and riveting.
[00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:07.120] And I want my content to have those same pieces of like dopamine, or this is riveting.
[00:32:07.120 --> 00:32:07.920] I want to learn more.
[00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:10.480] I want a part two, part three, part four.
[00:32:10.800 --> 00:32:13.120] And there is a way to do this with business.
[00:32:13.120 --> 00:32:21.920] And I just see this huge white space of creating business content that feels juicier and entertaining that I just, I know it's working.
[00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.120] So it's like, how do I continue to build what I'm building?
[00:32:25.120 --> 00:32:28.160] So when you made the decision, okay, I want to start a podcast.
[00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.080] And now you have a newsletter too, right?
[00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:30.800] Yes, yes.
[00:32:30.800 --> 00:32:31.840] And I started the newsletter.
[00:32:31.840 --> 00:32:32.400] It's a good point.
[00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.600] I started the newsletter last year.
[00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:43.120] And for me, the reason why I started that is because I do so much research every week on these topics that I'm going to be covering on social.
[00:32:43.120 --> 00:32:48.880] But there were so many newsletters or so many articles that I didn't get to, right?
[00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:57.920] Like these were, this is content that I thought was really interesting, but maybe like wasn't perfect for social because there wasn't really like a great hook I could find or what have you.
[00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:00.000] So I thought, okay, I'm doing all this research.
[00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.440] I'm basically summarizing what these articles are anyway on my own.
[00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:10.480] Why don't I just put out a newsletter that captures a lot more of the weekly happenings in business?
[00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:18.800] And then also I can put some interesting resources and links there for people who are interested also in business.
[00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:20.240] And that's how it started.
[00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:24.000] So I launched that end of May 2024.
[00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:27.840] And I also, of course, that newsletter is called Social Currency as well.
[00:33:27.840 --> 00:33:29.760] And that goes out weekly now too.
[00:33:30.520 --> 00:33:39.880] So that was kind of the very first step, the real first step I took outside of my social media videos to create this platform.
[00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:44.920] Was it on your mind too that, okay, I'm building all this on social and like, what if this goes away?
[00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:51.080] Like I need to get to everyone on newsletter and get their email because, you know, when Instagram goes out, you don't own your audience.
[00:33:51.080 --> 00:33:51.880] You can't talk to them.
[00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:54.040] You've got a problem on your hands.
[00:33:54.040 --> 00:33:54.840] Totally.
[00:33:54.840 --> 00:33:55.480] Yes.
[00:33:55.480 --> 00:34:11.800] I think the concept of diversification and owning access to your audience, I think has gone, has gotten to a point now with all of the drama that honestly is still surrounding TikTok and whether or not it's going to be in the US.
[00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:14.280] I started my platform on TikTok, right?
[00:34:14.280 --> 00:34:27.720] So like for me, and now my audience is actually much larger on Instagram, but I always felt this sense of insecurity around relying on these platforms that owned the entire audience that I had built.
[00:34:27.720 --> 00:34:32.040] And if that went away, like I would be in such a tough spot.
[00:34:32.040 --> 00:34:41.960] So I think for any founder or person who's interested in developing any kind of social media brand, number one, you can't just be on one platform.
[00:34:41.960 --> 00:34:47.880] You have to be on several and as many as you can, which is really tough to do.
[00:34:48.200 --> 00:34:52.520] So you don't have to do that right away, but that's definitely the end goal.
[00:34:52.520 --> 00:35:11.240] And then secondly, I think it's whatever platforms you're on, also own your audience as much as you can, whether that's a direction newsletter, whatever else you're going to do to have a direct line where if you, everything else went away, you would be able to still communicate to your followers and not be completely dead silent.
[00:35:11.240 --> 00:35:19.920] So I think, and I honestly started doing that kind of out of a fear state because I was at a point where I was really insecure about the state of TikTok.
[00:35:19.920 --> 00:35:23.120] And also, yeah, Instagram has glitches from time to time.
[00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:25.760] Yeah, Instagram's glitches.
[00:35:26.080 --> 00:35:27.120] It's the same thing.
[00:35:27.120 --> 00:35:31.040] I feel like I don't even know when Instagram goes out.
[00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:33.520] Like, will I not be able to talk to people for a day?
[00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:36.960] What will that mean for an advertisement that's supposed to go live today?
[00:35:36.960 --> 00:35:38.960] You know, it's, it's really scary.
[00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:39.600] Absolutely.
[00:35:39.600 --> 00:35:41.920] I talk about this all the time on the podcast in our community.
[00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:49.680] Like, own your audience, get their email, because when everything else goes away or the algorithms change, you don't have control over that.
[00:35:49.680 --> 00:35:56.880] And like, if you're building all these, you know, brand deals and now you can't reach all the people that you were reaching before, like, you need to own your audience.
[00:35:56.880 --> 00:35:58.640] So I know you're on Beehive, right?
[00:35:58.640 --> 00:35:59.040] Yes.
[00:35:59.040 --> 00:35:59.520] Yes.
[00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:01.520] We've done some partnership work with them.
[00:36:01.520 --> 00:36:12.400] They're amazing, especially for creators, media companies, being able to like quickly grow your list and have all the tools that you need to actually do that.
[00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:19.840] Have you been able to really use like their monetization tools on top of all the relationships that you have now to be able to monetize quickly your newsletter?
[00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:20.560] Yes.
[00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:22.880] So fully transparent.
[00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:35.120] My newsletter, in terms of monetization, I going back to the conversation we just had, my current state has been, okay, gather as many emails from my audience as possible.
[00:36:35.120 --> 00:36:35.920] And it's all free.
[00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.480] I don't have a paid tier or anything like that.
[00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:41.760] So I've more so been focused on just developing the channel.
[00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:46.320] I've tried out the Beehive, they call them the boosts.
[00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:48.160] And like that, there's also like referral programs.
[00:36:48.160 --> 00:36:49.680] There are all these different monetizations.
[00:36:49.680 --> 00:37:01.400] I've dabbled in them for sure, but I haven't fully turned on that channel yet, just because I think, honestly, my biggest issue right now in everything that I'm doing is bandwidth.
[00:36:59.520 --> 00:37:10.360] Because with the full-time job, too, like anything that I'm doing on social right now is literally between the hours of like 5 a.m.
[00:37:10.520 --> 00:37:12.680] and like 8 a.m.
[00:37:12.680 --> 00:37:18.760] in between meetings throughout the day and like 30 minute segments or then after work at like six and later.
[00:37:18.760 --> 00:37:25.960] So my work schedule for social is bananas and like I don't have consistent chunks of time.
[00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:29.000] So that's my biggest issue, which will be changing very soon.
[00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:30.520] And I'm very excited about that.
[00:37:30.520 --> 00:37:33.400] But yeah, in short, I love Beehive though.
[00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:34.680] I speak so highly of it.
[00:37:34.680 --> 00:37:38.200] I think the analytics, the back end is really great.
[00:37:38.200 --> 00:37:43.640] The UI is also just incredibly easy to use and very intuitive.
[00:37:43.640 --> 00:37:47.400] And, you know, I get questions a lot about like Substack versus Beehive.
[00:37:47.400 --> 00:37:54.920] And Substack is amazing too and works for, I think, certain verticals very, very well.
[00:37:54.920 --> 00:38:00.120] Like the fashion girlies Substack like all day, every day, in my humble opinion.
[00:38:00.120 --> 00:38:03.880] Like that's kind of a must for people in certain spaces.
[00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:11.320] But for me, I was more interested in like the data I'd be able to get and like the back end analytics and Beehive analytics are great.
[00:38:11.560 --> 00:38:27.080] I was interested in eventually the option to do a paid tier, but just I was really interested in the data, the back end, the UI, and like the fact that you can put in surveys and polls and like really interact with your audience in a more comprehensive way, I felt.
[00:38:27.080 --> 00:38:30.280] So that's why I chose Beehive.
[00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:34.200] And this is not sponsored, obviously, but from my end, it's not.
[00:38:35.160 --> 00:38:41.400] I recommend it to anyone who's in that position of about to start one because I really like the experience.
[00:38:41.400 --> 00:38:43.560] Along this line of business tools, as we're talking about it.
[00:38:43.560 --> 00:38:53.280] And then I want to go back to the podcast and the vision with a media company, but along the line of business tools, what other business tools are you using in your business right now that have really been helping you?
[00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:57.840] Because a lot of our entrepreneurs always want to know, like, what is everyone else using to get in on?
[00:38:58.160 --> 00:39:02.800] Yeah, so I won't say it's quite a business tool, but it is also a business tool.
[00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:06.880] But like, I'm on Claude and ChatGPT every day, every day.
[00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:18.640] It helps tremendously with the both research front for my stories, but also like some of the points that I'm making in my videos.
[00:39:18.640 --> 00:39:23.360] I'll put something into ChatGPT and I'll ask it to refine it for me or Claude for that matter.
[00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:27.360] So using those all of the time, literally every single day.
[00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:31.120] I'd say in terms of organization, I'm a big Notion fan.
[00:39:31.120 --> 00:39:32.720] So I love Notion.
[00:39:33.360 --> 00:39:36.000] Notion is just, I love the user interface.
[00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:41.600] I think it's really one of the best tools for organization that I've seen.
[00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:45.680] And then outside of that, I'm just like a Google suite girly.
[00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:58.320] So everything on Google, my team and I, we use Google spreadsheets for tracking like our like newsletter stuff, but production stuff for the podcast, everything there is Google.
[00:39:58.320 --> 00:39:59.280] So yeah.
[00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:00.080] Oh, I love that.
[00:40:00.080 --> 00:40:00.400] Yeah.
[00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:01.760] I'm with you on all those tools.
[00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:11.280] So when you started making your plan to leave your corporate job to actually focus on this full-time, like what went into all of that decision making?
[00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:20.400] We have so many members in our community that are, you know, starting businesses now, essentially, on the side, working full-time and trying to figure out like when is that right time to take the leap and go all in?
[00:40:21.040 --> 00:40:23.120] It's a really great question.
[00:40:23.120 --> 00:40:26.880] And I give advice on one end of the spectrum.
[00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:30.760] And I think that there are so many different angles you could take this.
[00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:40.360] But my personal experience was building the social media platform for three years before I jumped into it full-time.
[00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:59.880] So I think for me personally, I felt a tremendous amount of freedom, of flexibility, of ability to, as I said earlier, with my content strategy and style, I could A-B test, I could try out different things when I wasn't dependent on the income from my social media world.
[00:40:59.880 --> 00:41:00.920] And so it was great.
[00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:09.000] Any money that I got in from social media was, you know, going into the piggy bank for, you know, when I eventually decided to use it or expand the company.
[00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:23.240] But for me, my advice more generally, for anyone who's thinking about doing a side hustle and they're trying to figure out when to go in full-time, I think I got to a point and I tried to be as objective as possible with this.
[00:41:23.240 --> 00:41:30.760] And also to be fully transparent, my husband is a tech founder and very much in the world of entrepreneurship himself.
[00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:37.720] So we are two people who are tied together who will not have a corporate traditional job very soon.
[00:41:37.720 --> 00:42:02.040] So from my perspective, I said, when I get to the point where I can very easily match the salary that I'm making at Amazon, that will be the time where I can leave and not be cash strapped and feel like I'm, you know, in this place where every month I'm going to be really stressed out about, you know, everything that I need to pay for.
[00:42:02.040 --> 00:42:10.360] And so for me, that was that was a clear point where I knew I was going to be mentally able to handle that transition.
[00:42:10.680 --> 00:42:14.920] And I think it took me, it took me a while to get there, but I.
[00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:25.520] But I think my advice is: whatever your threshold is financially, or perhaps it's not even a financial threshold, but it's more so a state of mind.
[00:42:25.520 --> 00:42:33.120] Maybe it's, you know, you need to feel as if you can fully dedicate your time, effort, and energy into building your business full-time.
[00:42:33.120 --> 00:42:34.960] And that's not going to stress you out or freak you out.
[00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:43.200] Because I've always been of the mindset where if you do anything from a state of scarcity or desperation, it's not going to go over well.
[00:42:43.200 --> 00:42:45.520] Like your output isn't going to be as good as it needs to be.
[00:42:45.520 --> 00:42:51.760] You're going to be probably way more insecure, which will then just trickle into other areas of your life.
[00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:57.360] So I believe you really need to wholeheartedly also like kind of manifest that this will work.
[00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:00.880] And in order to do that, you have to be confident in the decision that you're making.
[00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:02.800] And it took me a very long time.
[00:43:02.800 --> 00:43:09.040] If you had asked me even a year ago, because a year ago, I hadn't done the outdoor voices and the direct-to-consumer videos.
[00:43:09.040 --> 00:43:14.320] And like, I wasn't really even fully in the space that I'm at now, a year ago.
[00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:19.600] So if you were to ask me May 2024, like, will you be leaving to build social currency full-time?
[00:43:19.680 --> 00:43:20.640] I would have laughed at you.
[00:43:20.640 --> 00:43:24.160] I would have said, there's no way I'll feel comfortable to do that.
[00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:28.960] So it got to a point, of course, where I'm in a different position now.
[00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:44.960] But it's also, I think, to kind of wrap this up on a more inspiring note: if I've learned anything from my time doing the social media journey, building this platform, it's that things can change in the best way so quickly.
[00:43:44.960 --> 00:44:03.480] Like all it takes is one viral video, one moment that your content reaches the right people that it needs to reach, and it can have a wild and transformative impact on your life, on your income, on the business that you hope to build someday.
[00:43:59.840 --> 00:44:05.080] And that was truly a moment for me.
[00:44:05.240 --> 00:44:10.840] I think I was in the position where I was ready to jump on that moment when it came.
[00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:12.360] And it was the Outdoor Voices video.
[00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:15.240] I woke up, it was like a million views overnight.
[00:44:15.240 --> 00:44:17.560] And I was like, oh my God, this, this is it.
[00:44:17.560 --> 00:44:19.880] It was like that full light bulb moment.
[00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:23.720] Like the very next day, I created another video and I turned it into a series.
[00:44:23.720 --> 00:44:30.200] And from that series alone, I think I gained like over 50,000 followers just like within the span of two weeks.
[00:44:30.200 --> 00:44:34.040] So it was just like, boom, you, you have to be ready to look for that moment.
[00:44:34.040 --> 00:44:37.240] And when it comes, you just, you're ready for it.
[00:44:37.240 --> 00:44:46.840] So I think that that more uplifting thought process of like, if you are really ready for something, your moment is always like right around the corner.
[00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:50.520] You never know when it's going to be able to pop up.
[00:44:50.520 --> 00:44:55.240] And then, of course, on the more reactive side, when it is there, you have to be ready to jump on it.
[00:44:55.240 --> 00:44:55.720] Absolutely.
[00:44:55.720 --> 00:44:57.240] You just give me the chill showing that story.
[00:44:57.240 --> 00:44:58.440] That's so awesome.
[00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:00.200] Like right when that moment hits.
[00:45:00.200 --> 00:45:00.760] Okay.
[00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:07.240] So now you had to learn the whole media world and what to charge these brands, how to build your email list.
[00:45:07.240 --> 00:45:09.960] Now you're launching a brand new podcast that just launched.
[00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:13.880] Like what have been your biggest learning lessons from learning this whole new industry?
[00:45:13.880 --> 00:45:16.200] Because let's remind everyone, you are in logistics, right?
[00:45:16.200 --> 00:45:16.440] Yeah.
[00:45:16.440 --> 00:45:19.000] We're going from logistics to the media.
[00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:20.440] It's a whole different world.
[00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:20.840] Yeah.
[00:45:21.160 --> 00:45:21.480] Yeah.
[00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:29.560] Amazon logistics is like, they do not tell you a single thing about anything creative or media focused.
[00:45:29.560 --> 00:45:37.880] But I think a few key lessons I've learned is that I have had to literally fake it till I make it.
[00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:40.040] I don't have a background in media.
[00:45:40.040 --> 00:45:45.600] Before I went to Amazon, I worked at Aldi operations for a grocery chain, right?
[00:45:45.600 --> 00:45:50.560] So like, talk about somebody who is just out of her depths when figuring this stuff out.
[00:45:50.560 --> 00:45:56.560] But I mean, the part I think that was able to work for me is I'm very business minded.
[00:45:56.560 --> 00:45:58.400] I got my MBA from Berkeley.
[00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:07.120] I've really been able to understand social from the lens of business, of growth, of consumer product, all this stuff.
[00:46:07.120 --> 00:46:18.320] And so for me personally, I've learned that in order to be successful, you need to truly think of yourself as a media operation.
[00:46:18.560 --> 00:46:22.960] I know that Gary Vaynerchuk, love him or hate him, I think he's brilliant.
[00:46:23.520 --> 00:46:28.640] And yeah, he's really like the best of the best in all things marketing.
[00:46:28.640 --> 00:46:33.040] And I really look at what he's done with his career.
[00:46:33.040 --> 00:46:43.440] And even if you take anything that Gary does and you look at it in a vacuum, he really is a masterclass on how to, number one, promote yourself.
[00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:48.000] Number two, create content that exists on multiple channels and multiple platforms.
[00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:49.520] And it's repurposed.
[00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:55.680] It's all like really hook forward and snappy and like gets the attention of people.
[00:46:55.680 --> 00:46:58.800] And people love him because of his point of view.
[00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:11.440] But I think one thing that has been something I'm very much learning on the fly as I'm going, because I've been doing the social media stuff now for a few years, but like the podcast is a whole new beast.
[00:47:11.440 --> 00:47:13.120] I mean, you know better than anyone.
[00:47:13.120 --> 00:47:14.720] We've been doing it since 2018.
[00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:23.520] It's a different animal than just posting on Instagram and it's longer form, and there's different, you know, people who tune into a podcast versus social.
[00:47:23.520 --> 00:47:32.280] And I think I've really had to learn how to take content and reframe it to work across different channels.
[00:47:32.600 --> 00:47:42.920] And I think for me, that piece, because now my bandwidth and my time is going to be a lot more stretched, because it's not like I can spend going back to our time piece of how long a video takes.
[00:47:42.920 --> 00:47:56.040] Like, if a video is going to take me four hours to post on social media, but then I have a podcast filming that day and I have to then repost all these other things across all these different platforms, like I don't have time for that anymore.
[00:47:56.040 --> 00:47:59.320] So it's thinking, okay, how do I scale beyond myself?
[00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:08.440] And as a social media brand, that, of course, Sammy Cohen Talks will always continue to exist as Sammy Cohen Talks, but I'm building this brand that goes beyond me.
[00:48:08.440 --> 00:48:10.920] So how do I take what I'm doing and scale?
[00:48:10.920 --> 00:48:13.160] So now I'm building this team.
[00:48:13.160 --> 00:48:15.720] I have someone who helps me with the newsletter.
[00:48:15.720 --> 00:48:17.720] I have a producer.
[00:48:17.720 --> 00:48:23.640] I have a editor for all my videos now that are going on the podcast.
[00:48:23.640 --> 00:48:37.640] Like I have all these different elements that I think I have all these different elements that I think are very much going to be needed in this version 2.0 of social currency and where I take this platform.
[00:48:37.640 --> 00:48:40.440] Where did you find your people that you're working with?
[00:48:40.440 --> 00:48:41.560] Are they freelance for you?
[00:48:41.560 --> 00:48:42.920] Do you bring people on the team full-time?
[00:48:42.920 --> 00:48:44.520] How have you managed all that?
[00:48:44.520 --> 00:48:45.080] Yeah.
[00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:54.520] So when I started, when I first came up with the concept of the podcast, people have been watching or people had been asking for it for a while.
[00:48:54.520 --> 00:48:58.920] And I had a network reach out to me last year around October.
[00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:02.280] And very early on, I actually didn't think I was going to go with the network.
[00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:07.080] I thought I was going to just self-produce because I'm kind of used to doing everything on my own anyway.
[00:49:07.080 --> 00:49:11.080] And I really had some incredible organic conversations.
[00:49:11.080 --> 00:49:16.560] It's a very small network called Money News Network, and they focus specifically on business and finance.
[00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:22.080] And that has been a help specifically on the podcast side because my producer is through the network.
[00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:23.760] We're talking all of the time.
[00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:28.800] She understands the vision and what I'm going for and has been very, very helpful there.
[00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:34.080] My other hot tip, I think, just for everyone else that I found was actually through LinkedIn.
[00:49:34.080 --> 00:49:48.000] So I, one thing, and I think I recommend this for anyone who's listening to this podcast is now cats out of the bag on LinkedIn as not just being a place for cringy posts where you say, I'm proud to announce my new promotion, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:49:48.080 --> 00:49:52.320] But now people are, it's becoming a more video centric platform.
[00:49:52.320 --> 00:49:57.200] People are putting almost the same types of content that they're putting on other platforms on LinkedIn.
[00:49:57.200 --> 00:50:01.760] And so I try as much as I can to actually just cross-post on LinkedIn too.
[00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:03.280] So I'm growing my following there.
[00:50:03.280 --> 00:50:06.160] But I feel like your content would like crash on LinkedIn.
[00:50:06.160 --> 00:50:06.400] Yeah.
[00:50:06.400 --> 00:50:06.720] Yeah.
[00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:07.920] It's doing well.
[00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:08.480] It's doing well.
[00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:14.080] But I'm, I'm now, I think I'm getting to a point where I'm, at first when I was doing it, I wasn't posting all of my videos.
[00:50:14.080 --> 00:50:18.480] And now it's just like in my Rolodex of like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn.
[00:50:18.480 --> 00:50:20.640] But it took me some time to get there.
[00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:29.040] And I, through the initial following that I built on LinkedIn, I obviously people follow you on LinkedIn just as they do on other platforms.
[00:50:29.040 --> 00:50:39.120] And I had someone who my editor who does like my graphic design and editing stuff for my podcast now, she just followed me and sent me a message to say, hey, love your content.
[00:50:39.120 --> 00:50:42.960] If you ever are looking for someone, I'd love to chat.
[00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:44.720] And I was like, what the heck?
[00:50:44.720 --> 00:50:45.280] Why not?
[00:50:45.280 --> 00:50:47.280] Because at the time, I was very naive.
[00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:51.520] I thought I was going to handle all of my own editing because I do all of my own editing for social.
[00:50:51.520 --> 00:50:56.000] And then I got a little deeper into the podcast world and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:50:56.480 --> 00:51:00.000] This needs a small army to produce this and make this right.
[00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:04.120] And that was just, it came out of the cold outreach on LinkedIn.
[00:51:04.120 --> 00:51:09.320] And I also, I was able to get the person who helps my newsletter, same thing.
[00:51:09.320 --> 00:51:11.640] She reached out to me, said, I love your content on social.
[00:51:11.640 --> 00:51:16.120] If you ever want any help on any front, and I got that message from her.
[00:51:16.120 --> 00:51:19.400] And that day I was like, actually, how do you feel about newsletters?
[00:51:19.720 --> 00:51:21.000] And then we started working together.
[00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:25.800] So LinkedIn is the best place, in my opinion, to connect with people.
[00:51:25.800 --> 00:51:27.960] I think you can also like, it's just brilliant.
[00:51:27.960 --> 00:51:29.320] You can see exactly what someone does.
[00:51:29.320 --> 00:51:31.400] You can see what their work experience is.
[00:51:31.400 --> 00:51:36.840] And for me, I think that's the tip, the hot tip I have is LinkedIn is the way to go.
[00:51:36.840 --> 00:51:39.320] Yeah, I'm all about LinkedIn right now.
[00:51:39.400 --> 00:51:40.280] Have been for a long time.
[00:51:40.600 --> 00:51:41.800] I share with everyone in the community.
[00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:44.360] I'm like, if you, you cannot sleep on LinkedIn right now.
[00:51:44.360 --> 00:51:49.400] There is so much opportunity, not just for promotional content and like free reach.
[00:51:49.400 --> 00:51:50.920] Like there's real free reach on LinkedIn.
[00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:59.240] There isn't, that does not happen really on many other platforms, but also, like you said, just the ability to connect with the right people and the right people find you.
[00:51:59.240 --> 00:52:02.760] Like the people you want will come to you when you're when you're putting out that content.
[00:52:02.760 --> 00:52:04.920] And we're, I'm going to get you into the entrepreneursally community.
[00:52:04.920 --> 00:52:10.120] So you can, it's basically LinkedIn on steroids with all women founders of everyone, everyone supporting each other.
[00:52:10.120 --> 00:52:12.200] So we're going to, we're going to get you into the platform.
[00:52:12.200 --> 00:52:18.040] Sammy, I could probably talk to you for the next three hours, but I'm sure you need to get back to creating content.
[00:52:18.040 --> 00:52:19.320] Tell me this, though.
[00:52:19.320 --> 00:52:21.480] What is your biggest business secret?
[00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:27.960] Something you've never shared with anyone before that you feel is like just a big tip or something that's happened that you need everyone to know about?
[00:52:28.280 --> 00:52:31.400] Ooh, this is juicy.
[00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:40.680] I'd say, well, my biggest secret I technically let out of the bag on this podcast, but I'll go into it a little bit more.
[00:52:40.680 --> 00:52:48.720] But I have fully been working basically two full-time jobs at the same time.
[00:52:49.040 --> 00:52:51.280] And it's taboo to say that, right?
[00:52:51.280 --> 00:52:57.360] Because it's like, you know, whenever you're working full-time, especially in corporate America for big tech, Amazon, right?
[00:52:57.360 --> 00:52:59.840] Like that should be your priority.
[00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:06.720] But for me, very early on, I realized that working in Amazon logistics was not going to be my end-all be-all.
[00:53:06.720 --> 00:53:12.960] I saw what my boss and my boss's boss was doing, and I realized I don't really want to be doing that in the next few years.
[00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:16.000] And that isn't going to bring me the highest level of fulfillment.
[00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:23.200] So I think for me, I learned very early on in my career, you have to own your destiny and you have to be proactive.
[00:53:23.200 --> 00:53:26.480] Like the opportunity that you're excited about isn't going to drop in your lap.
[00:53:26.480 --> 00:53:28.800] You need to go out there and you need to make it.
[00:53:28.800 --> 00:53:42.000] And so I hustled for the last three years to get to where I am now, like crazy hours, but I did it because I wanted to get to where I am now to the point where I can create my own destiny.
[00:53:42.000 --> 00:54:04.320] And I do feel as if I'm now taking that next step, having the full support, having an audience that's already like really bought into what I'm doing, which is such a world of difference and gives me the confidence going back to what we said before where I know I'm making this next step and it's the right next step for me that will ultimately make me way more successful than if I were to stay at Amazon anyway and even be like my boss or my boss's boss.
[00:54:04.320 --> 00:54:10.480] Like I want social currency to be massive and I think it will be, but I had to get the confidence to take that next step.
[00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:17.440] Yeah, and it takes time and we're here and I'm here to cheer you on every step of the way and so excited for what you're building.
[00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:21.440] It's so needed and so helpful to so many women founders.
[00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:22.800] Last question for you, Sammy.
[00:54:22.800 --> 00:54:25.680] What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
[00:54:26.720 --> 00:54:38.120] Being an entrepreneurista means that you are, number one, willing to do what it takes to make your dreams come true.
[00:54:38.120 --> 00:54:39.720] And I know that sounds cheesy.
[00:54:39.720 --> 00:54:50.760] And I think even breaking it down more than that, I think that means you're not afraid to wake up two hours earlier than normal to get what you need done.
[00:54:50.760 --> 00:54:56.920] And you're willing to make the introductions also to other people and to continue to give it forward.
[00:54:56.920 --> 00:55:15.880] Because if I've learned anything so far in the entrepreneurship world, which is a massive and very nuanced one, it's that when you give something forward, when you make an intro to someone, when you help someone out, it always comes back to help you in some way.
[00:55:15.880 --> 00:55:22.280] And you may not even know at the time, but that person that you gave that intro to, maybe they had a great conversation that came out of it.
[00:55:22.280 --> 00:55:25.640] Maybe they worked with that person that you introduced them to.
[00:55:25.640 --> 00:55:30.600] And you may see a year from now where they're able to give you an intro or something like that.
[00:55:30.600 --> 00:55:44.920] But I wholeheartedly, when I can, if someone comes to me with an ask and I'm able to do it, I always try and make it happen because I really think also, especially as women, it's really important to support each other in this space.
[00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:49.800] And I think it's a very different world being a woman in business versus a man in business.
[00:55:49.800 --> 00:55:59.720] And I think women that support each other are able to create these really incredible, beautiful synergies and make magic out of it.
[00:55:59.720 --> 00:56:00.600] So yeah.
[00:56:01.160 --> 00:56:02.280] That is so true.
[00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:05.160] Well, that is what being an entrepreneur is all about.
[00:56:05.160 --> 00:56:13.920] It was actually, Sammy, when you just said that one of the first things that Courtney and I ever learned in business was when we went to a networking group, and their whole like tagline back then was givers gain.
[00:56:13.920 --> 00:56:14.080] Right.
[00:56:14.040 --> 00:56:19.760] And we just saw early on how when you give and when you help others, like it always comes back full circle.
[00:56:19.840 --> 00:56:23.920] And when you lead from that place of, I always share with our members, like, how can I help you?
[00:56:23.920 --> 00:56:26.640] And we're all able to do so much more together.
[00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:28.960] So I'm so glad, so glad you that you shared that.
[00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:30.240] I'm so excited for you.
[00:56:30.240 --> 00:56:32.560] And everyone, make sure you're following Sammy.
[00:56:32.560 --> 00:56:35.600] Can you share all the links, handles, your new podcast, share everything.
[00:56:35.600 --> 00:56:37.840] We're going to link out to everything in the show notes now.
[00:56:37.840 --> 00:56:38.320] Yes.
[00:56:38.560 --> 00:56:42.320] Sammy Cohen Talks on Instagram and TikTok.
[00:56:42.320 --> 00:56:44.720] I'm just Sammy Tanner Cohen on LinkedIn.
[00:56:45.040 --> 00:56:51.680] And then you can find my new podcast handle, which is just social currency on Instagram.
[00:56:51.680 --> 00:56:52.800] Amazing, everyone.
[00:56:52.800 --> 00:56:53.920] Go follow Sammy now.
[00:56:53.920 --> 00:56:57.200] Sammy, thank you so much for sharing your journey and story.
[00:56:57.200 --> 00:57:01.200] I'm Stephanie, and this is the best business meeting I've ever had.
[00:57:01.520 --> 00:57:02.800] Hi, Entrepreneurs.
[00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:10.960] It's Steph here, and I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired and with some actionable tips that you can apply to your own business.
[00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:18.320] The way we've grown our community and resources is by sharing content like this for years and asking for help along the way.
[00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:23.840] So here's where we need your help so we can continue to make as much impact as possible together.
[00:57:23.840 --> 00:57:40.880] If you can leave us a five-star review and extra credit if you share this episode on Instagram, LinkedIn, or DM it to a founder friend who would benefit from hearing it, not only would it mean the world to us, but you sharing this episode is going to help someone who just may need to hear what we share today.
[00:57:40.880 --> 00:57:43.920] And you know I love nothing more than giveaways and prizes.
[00:57:43.920 --> 00:57:50.640] So every month I'll be giving away a one-on-one session with me to someone who has shared the episode and left a review.
[00:57:50.640 --> 00:57:58.400] So send me a personal DM over on Instagram at Steph Jill Carton once you've done it, so you can be entered to win.
[00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:03.800] Wishing you a productive week ahead and stay tuned for another impactful episode next week.

Prompt 2: Key Takeaways

Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.

Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...". 

Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive. 

IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}

Prompt 3: Segments

Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.

For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)  
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion

IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
  "segments": [
    {
      "segment_title": "Topic Discussion", 
      "timestamp": "01:15:30",
      "key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
      "segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
    }
  ]
}

Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.

Prompt 4: Media Mentions

Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:

Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)  
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)

DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names

IMPORTANT: 
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
  "media_mentions": [
    {
      "title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
      "category": "Book",
      "author_artist": "N/A",
      "context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
      "context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
      "timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
    }
  ]
}

If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}

Full Transcript

[00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:05.680] Hey, Entrepreneurs, it's Steph here with a special invite just for you.
[00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:10.800] Do you want to experience what it's like to be part of our Entrepreneursa League community of founders?
[00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.400] Now is your chance.
[00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:21.360] You can join me this month at one of our upcoming Entrepreneurs League info sessions where I'm going to share with you all you're going to get access to when you join the community.
[00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:27.040] Plus, I'll be giving away some big bonuses that you will only be able to get access to when you attend live.
[00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:35.600] Head over to refer.entrepanista.com forward slash info session to join us at one of our virtual info sessions this month.
[00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.640] That's refer.entrepranista.com forward slash info session.
[00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.560] Or head over to the show notes right now and tap the link to join us.
[00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:49.040] I can't wait to meet you there and learn more about you and your business.
[00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:51.840] I love people.
[00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:53.200] I'm a people person.
[00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.360] I love understanding the stories of the people that are running these businesses, right?
[00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:02.400] Like businesses don't just exist in a vacuum and create products or services.
[00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:09.680] They are run by people who have experiences, who have certain points of view, who have likely worked at other companies.
[00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:17.840] So I think that there's something really fun when someone can connect to a company by also understanding who's behind it.
[00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:28.160] If you're building a brand in today's fast-moving digital world, you cannot afford to ignore the power of content.
[00:01:28.160 --> 00:01:31.520] And this week's guest knows exactly how to help you stand out.
[00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:41.760] Sammy Cohen is the founder of Social Currency, the must-follow media platform that I personally cannot get enough of, where she is breaking down business and culture for the modern founder.
[00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:50.480] Sammy has built a loyal audience and community by doing what so many brands struggle with, showing up with relevance, clarity, and a whole lot of personality.
[00:01:50.480 --> 00:02:02.120] Get ready because Sammy is sharing all her strategies that helped her grow her platform, what's working right now in social media and podcasting, and how women founders can create content that actually gets the attention that you want.
[00:02:02.440 --> 00:02:11.960] Whether you're a personal brand or product-based business, you're going to learn all of her best tips to help you stop guessing and start connecting in a way that feels aligned and gets results.
[00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:16.840] Get ready to hear Sammy's story and her biggest business secret.
[00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:23.560] This is the Entrepreneur Podcast presented by Social Fly.
[00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:34.200] It's the best business meeting you'll ever have with must-hear real-life looks at how leading women in business are getting it done and what it takes to build and grow a successful company.
[00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:40.120] It's beyond the Graham with no filters, no limits, and plenty of surprises.
[00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:53.960] Sammy, I am so excited to sit down and have this conversation with you today because first I have to share with everyone.
[00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:55.720] I started following you on Instagram.
[00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:57.720] I don't know, maybe it was a couple of months ago.
[00:02:57.720 --> 00:03:03.400] I started seeing some of your posts on Instagram talking about all these incredible businesses, you breaking everything down.
[00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.240] And I'm like, who is Sammy?
[00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:06.520] I have to know more.
[00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:08.200] This content is amazing.
[00:03:08.200 --> 00:03:17.480] And I could see you were building this incredible business and knew that we had to have this conversation so you can share all of your alerting to their entrepreneur audience and listeners.
[00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:19.240] So thank you for being here, Sammy.
[00:03:19.240 --> 00:03:20.920] Thank you so much for saying that.
[00:03:20.920 --> 00:03:22.280] That is so kind of you.
[00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.160] And I am really excited to speak with you today.
[00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:29.160] Sammy, what inspired you to start social currency in your business?
[00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:46.560] So the origin story was actually back in the pandemic when a lot of people were stuck at home and trying to figure out what to do with their extra time when they were leaving the house, literally stuck at home with nowhere to go.
[00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:54.720] And I was working at Amazon at the time and I got to this point where I was so drained creatively.
[00:03:54.720 --> 00:03:58.640] And I really was looking for a creative outlet of some kind.
[00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:26.880] And my whole life, I've been obsessed with business and not just hearing about the businesses that are doing really well, the ones that everyone knows, but I loved hearing the stories of businesses that had a little bit more of a rocky journey and really understanding the why behind certain decisions that founders would make and how a company was able to get to the point that they were at today and really understanding like all of the nuances there.
[00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:36.720] So I put up my first video on TikTok actually in 2022, still very much working at Amazon, thinking, oh, this is just a fun little hobby because I'm so drained creatively.
[00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:41.440] Let me learn how to stitch together this video and TikTok and add captions.
[00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:43.200] And like, I thought I was so advanced at the time.
[00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:46.400] And looking back on that video, I'm like cringing.
[00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:47.760] It was so bad.
[00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:53.120] But also, a note for the listeners: always start before you're ready.
[00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:53.600] Always.
[00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:56.400] Like, if you wait until you're ready, you will never be ready.
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:58.320] So just put something out there in the first version.
[00:04:58.320 --> 00:05:06.080] It's okay if it's embarrassing when you're looking back because that means that you've likely progressed and you've really been able to refine your product as you go.
[00:05:06.080 --> 00:05:11.040] Anyway, I was really embarrassed about what the first version of this podcast was.
[00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:15.120] Now that I'm looking back on it, I was very, very much cringing.
[00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:21.240] And I realized as soon as that video went live that I loved the process.
[00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:36.680] Not only just the creative side of putting together the final product, but the research, understanding the most salient points that I was going to be discussing, and then putting it into a really cohesive minute to minute and a half piece.
[00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:38.840] And I just fell in love with it.
[00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.600] It sounds so cheesy, but from that very first video, I thought.
[00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:44.600] I am supposed to be doing this.
[00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:45.880] Like I love it.
[00:05:45.880 --> 00:05:47.720] And I had this aha moment.
[00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.720] And it wasn't right away that the videos took off by any means.
[00:05:51.720 --> 00:06:01.480] At first, it was truly me thinking about the companies that I thought were interesting and doing this truly as a passion project, side project, after work, before work.
[00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:07.000] And a few weeks in, one of the videos that I put out, I put it out at like 8 p.m.
[00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:07.320] at night.
[00:06:07.320 --> 00:06:08.200] I wake up the next morning.
[00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:10.600] I go on TikTok and it has over a million views.
[00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:12.920] And I'm like, whoa, what is this?
[00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:22.520] And it had, the video was on Tracy Romoulis, who is a friend of Kim Kardashian, who helps with the marketing of her businesses.
[00:06:22.520 --> 00:06:48.520] And I realized that there was this really unique intersection between business and culture that I felt like personally, I loved deep diving and discussing, but I realized that there was such an appetite in the creator ecosystem where people really wanted to see that type of content in a way that wasn't overly buttoned up business content with super complex terminology.
[00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:58.600] And these people who also loved pop culture, who loved seeing information about celebrities, red carpet, what's relevant in today's news cycle.
[00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:07.320] There was this opportunity to marry those two and create something that was business-focused, but also really entertaining and had a little bit of an edge.
[00:07:07.320 --> 00:07:14.200] So, that was a very long description of what led me to start what I'm doing, but that's that's how it all began.
[00:07:14.200 --> 00:07:17.680] No, it's so helpful to hear that backstory and your journey.
[00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:25.120] So, for those of our listeners that haven't yet followed you on Instagram and TikTok, well, first, share all the links.
[00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:28.320] Everyone, go to the show notes right now because we're linking out to those links below.
[00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:34.240] But for those who haven't watched these videos, can you explain exactly what these videos are like?
[00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:39.760] And also, I would love to hear: like, how long does it actually take you to prep the content for this?
[00:07:39.760 --> 00:07:41.040] How are you doing the research?
[00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:43.760] Like, how have you found that sweet spot for these videos?
[00:07:43.760 --> 00:07:44.560] Tell me everything.
[00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:45.680] Yes.
[00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:52.640] So, for anyone who isn't familiar with my platform on Instagram and TikTok, it's the same handle, Sammy Cohen Talks.
[00:07:52.960 --> 00:08:00.320] And I really talk about business stories that are at the intersection of business and culture.
[00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:14.160] So, I don't want to just tell you about the latest company's earnings that are doing super well and just sharing the news line or the headline of the article.
[00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:20.640] I really want to get into the why behind how businesses are operating.
[00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:26.880] And sometimes, just to be very clear, sometimes these videos are not overwhelmingly positive, right?
[00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:54.400] Like, I think that there's so much to go into in really decoding and deconstructing the trouble spots in businesses and understanding what's not going right, especially when you look at a company that is really large, maybe it's a public company, really understanding that they got to that point, not just from having blowout earnings every quarter and having year-over-year growth, but a lot of companies, it's not a linear story.
[00:08:54.400 --> 00:08:56.320] In fact, no company has a linear story.
[00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.760] There are so many ups and downs, but I think I love talking on that.
[00:08:59.880 --> 00:09:03.720] And then the other piece I want to mention is I love people.
[00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:05.080] I'm a people person.
[00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:09.240] I love understanding the stories of the people that are running these businesses, right?
[00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:14.680] Like businesses don't just exist in a vacuum and create products or services.
[00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:21.880] They are run by people who have experiences, who have certain points of view, who have likely worked at other companies.
[00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:29.960] So I think that there's something really fun when someone can connect to a company by also understanding who's behind it.
[00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:37.640] And so I like to include as many main characters, if you will, the main characters of these companies when I'm talking about these stories.
[00:09:37.640 --> 00:09:39.560] And I try and make them really digestible.
[00:09:39.560 --> 00:09:42.840] So they're roughly, yeah, 60 to 90 seconds.
[00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:48.120] And it's something where hopefully it's a bite-sized segment you can watch and, you know, throughout your day.
[00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.320] And then you feel a little bit smarter or a little bit more in the know.
[00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:59.320] So that way, you know, when you're talking to a friend, a family member about something that you're seeing in the news, you can then say, oh, yeah, Sammy talked about this last week.
[00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.600] And, you know, it's something relevant that I can bring up in conversation.
[00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:03.880] Yeah, no, they're so good.
[00:10:03.880 --> 00:10:09.560] Everyone, go follow Sammy right now if you're not following her because her content is so good.
[00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:10.360] It's amazing.
[00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:12.680] So yes, tell me now how you do the research on this.
[00:10:12.680 --> 00:10:15.080] How long does it actually take to produce a video?
[00:10:15.880 --> 00:10:21.720] Do you ever reach out to the founder, whoever you're talking about to actually get information directly from them?
[00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:23.240] What's your process?
[00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:23.880] Yes.
[00:10:23.880 --> 00:10:27.480] So I will answer this in a few ways.
[00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:31.240] So first, I think it's very dependent on the topic itself.
[00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:35.560] But generally, I'll lay out my general process and then I'll kind of explain the nuances.
[00:10:35.560 --> 00:10:43.000] So, generally, when I'm working on a video, it will be something that I think is most of the time it's a relevant business story.
[00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:54.960] So, it's something that's, if it's not breaking that week or that day, it's something in the past month that I feel like people will want to know today because of something larger that's happening in the markets or business more generally.
[00:10:54.960 --> 00:11:01.440] And so, for that, it usually will start with: I'll get interest from an initial piece of media.
[00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:05.360] Most of the time, that's like coming from either traditional media.
[00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:11.680] So, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, maybe it's a newsletter that I'm subscribed to that links to another article on another publication.
[00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:17.120] But usually, it starts with one main piece of data or an article.
[00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:19.760] From there, I will, of course, read the article.
[00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:22.080] I'll find like those interesting pieces.
[00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:34.160] And this connects to what I just spoke about: where is there an interesting story of either someone behind the business, maybe a surprising fact that people don't expect when it comes to this business that I can then tease out?
[00:11:34.160 --> 00:11:59.600] And then, is there another, is there another angle that I can explore there of maybe talking about the industry more broadly or just getting into something that my goal is, because I'm so focused on educating and creating a space where it's this intersection of entertainment and education and making it really fun to listen to, I try to have something surprising or an interesting takeaway in every single message.
[00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:05.520] So, I'll do that research, and usually the research takes, I'd say, generally around an hour.
[00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.200] From there, I will come up with a mini script.
[00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:11.440] And this isn't literally me writing out a full script.
[00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.400] It's usually bullet points of the key notes that I want to say.
[00:12:14.400 --> 00:12:28.400] And of course, for anyone who knows social, which is pretty much every company needs to be kind of like a media company nowadays, as we were talking about earlier, but I'll try and come up with a strong hook of like, okay, how can I catch someone's attention right away?
[00:12:28.400 --> 00:12:37.560] And then at the end, there's always a takeaway of some kind to really bring it full circle of what the listener needs to kind of understand coming out of this.
[00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:42.760] And I'd say that process is probably 20 minutes if I were to benchmark it.
[00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:52.040] And then the actual recording of the video, which is me with my phone, just doing takes, that's the fast part because I'll have my bullets in front of me.
[00:12:52.040 --> 00:12:54.840] I'm saying each thing as it comes to mind.
[00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.240] That part will probably take 10 minutes.
[00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:06.200] And then from there, the editing process will take probably another 25 to 30 minutes.
[00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:15.240] And then a key element also that I need to bring up is most of my content is green screen, which means if you're not familiar, I'm in the forefront and then there's an image right behind me.
[00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.440] And I always have the image that ties to what I'm speaking about, of course.
[00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:24.760] And then adding the images in and finding those images as well is probably another 10, 15 minutes.
[00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:29.480] So all in, it's in the ballpark of two hours.
[00:13:29.800 --> 00:13:31.640] And that's for a pretty straightforward one.
[00:13:31.640 --> 00:13:45.080] If there's something that's a little bit more nuanced or I'm going across a lot of different articles to gather the research, that two-ish hours can easily go up to three or three and a half, depending on the topic.
[00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:47.800] But that's the general timeframe.
[00:13:47.800 --> 00:13:55.720] Do you ever reach out to the founder to interview them to find out if the information is accurate based on what's being shared in the media?
[00:13:56.040 --> 00:13:57.000] Yes, yes.
[00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.800] I'd say that's definitely the exception and not the rule.
[00:13:59.800 --> 00:14:08.400] But there have definitely been cases for topics that are, I'd say, a little bit more nuanced.
[00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:12.200] Where, where if, and it also depends on the type of company and the founder.
[00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:19.680] If this is a public company, obviously, I'm not going to be emailing the CEO of a public company and expect a two-hour turnaround, right?
[00:14:19.680 --> 00:14:27.440] But if it's something where there's a smaller company that's also very social forward, so I know that they're going to check their DMs.
[00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:35.680] Another key part is that a lot of this is very focused on current of the moment stories, right?
[00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:45.040] So, usually, I'll get an idea in the morning, and depending on how quickly I need to move on it, like I'm coming up with that video that day and releasing it.
[00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:53.920] So, now that, and I know we'll get into this, but right now I'm at a place where I'm working a full-time job and doing all of this.
[00:14:53.920 --> 00:15:01.760] So, I've been less disciplined about creating a content bank of stories that are a little bit more evergreen that I can just, you know, do ahead of time.
[00:15:01.760 --> 00:15:04.000] So, I'm not constantly scrambling.
[00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:17.520] But I think moving forward, now that I'm going to be doing this full-time, the goal is to be way more structured and have a lot more content that I'm doing a few days in advance, which would give me more time to be able to have conversations with these companies.
[00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:28.160] And so, I think, I think there's definitely an opportunity to get companies more involved, but there's also a piece of it too where I like being as objective as possible.
[00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:35.600] And I will always share my point of view as relevant as it needs to be, depending on the topic that I'm covering.
[00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:42.640] But I also don't necessarily want to sway my perspective sometimes.
[00:15:42.640 --> 00:15:54.720] Like, as an example, I did a video last year on Erwan and how I felt the smoothies, the smoothie collaborations that they were doing, were a little bit of a reach sometimes.
[00:15:54.720 --> 00:16:00.280] And they would partner with these companies who just weren't super on brand for Erwan.
[00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:05.400] Like they would do a skincare, not even skincare, but like a company that creates deodorant.
[00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.440] And I'm like, I don't really want to have like a deodorant smoothie.
[00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:13.720] Like to me, those aren't really like palatable together, separately, fine, but together, no.
[00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:19.960] And I put out a video and I specifically referenced that deodorant smoothie debacle in my mind.
[00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.600] And I could have reached out to Erwan.
[00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.840] I could have, I could have done it.
[00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:34.760] And I put the video out and lo and behold, one of the executive vice presidents reached out to me after and was like, hey, actually, like we saw the video and like these are our counterpoints.
[00:16:34.760 --> 00:16:40.840] So, you know, a lot of the time I will get comments from the company afterwards.
[00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:51.400] And if it's, if it's worthwhile, I can do a follow-up video and address the comments, which to be honest, I haven't really done too much of, but in the future, it's definitely on the table.
[00:16:52.280 --> 00:16:58.760] So, so the very long answer to that is I try to reach out when possible, but not super frequently.
[00:16:58.760 --> 00:17:00.920] No, that totally makes sense.
[00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:10.680] Hi, Entrepreneurs.
[00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:11.720] It's Steph here.
[00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:18.360] As a founder, I know firsthand that building a business can feel so lonely, but it doesn't have to.
[00:17:18.360 --> 00:17:23.000] And that's why we created our Entrepreneursa Founders Weekend Wealth and Wellness Retreat.
[00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.160] And I can't wait to meet you in person there.
[00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:39.400] So you're officially invited to join us from April 30th to May 3rd, 2026 at the stunning PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for three transformative days of connection, collaboration, and real business growth.
[00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:49.600] This isn't just another business conference, it is a curated retreat designed to help you build authentic, lasting relationships with women who truly understand your journey.
[00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:56.720] From business panels and workshops to wellness activations and so much more, this is the room that you need to be in.
[00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:08.240] So, if you are ready to invest in yourself and your business and your vision and your next level of success, head over to entrepreneurs.com forward slash founders weekend to reserve your ticket today.
[00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:16.480] That's entrepreneursa.com forward slash foundersweekend, or head over to the show notes right now and tap the invitation to reserve your ticket.
[00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:18.080] I'll see you there.
[00:18:27.600 --> 00:18:32.240] Now, your business is shifting because you're actually able to focus on this business full-time.
[00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:38.720] But I want to take a step back because you've been building this on the side for the past two and a half, almost three years.
[00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:48.480] When did you realize that you like we're onto something here and this could be built into more than just social accounts and engagement, but an actual business?
[00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:56.960] So, I think I had some signs early on that people were interested in the general topic that I was exploring.
[00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.960] I knew that to be the case, but I didn't know the extent to which I could grow it.
[00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.920] So, as I said earlier, when I started, this is truly just a passion project.
[00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:07.840] It was something that I was really excited about.
[00:19:07.840 --> 00:19:19.280] And I put up the videos because I was really, to me, it was the most fun hobby and it was like fun external validation to see people who are like, oh, I find this interesting too.
[00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:20.080] Great.
[00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:28.320] And I, as you said, I've been working on it now for, yeah, just over, we just hit the three-year mark.
[00:19:28.320 --> 00:19:32.840] And I, for the first two years, it was truly a passion project.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:44.200] And I'd say, in terms of my own experience, which has been far from linear on the social front, I knew that there were these interesting topics at the intersection of business and culture.
[00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:49.240] But when I started, I was still trying to figure out my voice and my angle.
[00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:55.960] And I didn't really know if my whole platform was going to be around that or if I was going to have another niche.
[00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:13.320] So the reason I bring this up is when I put out that video that I mentioned around Tracy Romalis and Kim Kardashian and all of that, a lot of the comments on the video were specifically talking about the pop culture piece versus the business that she had built.
[00:20:13.320 --> 00:20:16.760] And I realized, okay, the pop culture angle is really strong.
[00:20:16.760 --> 00:20:22.520] And because I was just on TikTok at the time, this is even before when I started on TikTok, Reels wasn't really a thing.
[00:20:22.520 --> 00:20:31.480] It was technically, I think, still, it had been around, but people weren't really doing cross collaborative or cross-promotion on both platforms like they are now.
[00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:35.000] Now it's the standard to do both, but then it wasn't.
[00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:43.240] And so when I, when I first started, I kind of leaned very hard into pop culture.
[00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:46.600] I'd say for that first year or so on TikTok.
[00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:53.880] And I would do things like the career of Selena Gomez, you know, and hey, Selena Gomez is great.
[00:20:53.880 --> 00:21:04.360] And it's interesting to hear about her career, but also the comments that I would get, the follows and conversion I would get from that video wasn't for the business side.
[00:21:04.360 --> 00:21:09.000] It was more so stands of Selena Gomez were like, we want more Selena content.
[00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:20.080] And I realized very early on that even though I love pop culture, the only part that's or the part that is the most interesting to me is the part that really intersects with business.
[00:21:20.080 --> 00:21:31.760] So I'm down to hear about the celebrities and talk about that, but like I want to hear about how that's laddering up to a business or the way that they're positioning themselves in like the broader market.
[00:21:31.760 --> 00:21:37.200] And I liked more of an esoteric lens for lack of a better word.
[00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.440] So for me, I quickly learned, well, not so quickly, I did that for the first year.
[00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:49.200] And then after that, I went on a little bit of a side quest because I'd gotten engaged and I went to full, thank you.
[00:21:49.280 --> 00:21:53.120] Now it's been a while, but I went to full wedding mode, right?
[00:21:53.120 --> 00:22:02.080] Like a crazy fiancé who's like doing every possible search for wedding venues and where to get the wedding dress and everything.
[00:22:02.080 --> 00:22:09.440] And on TikTok, TikTok is known for the very, very strong micro communities or niche interests.
[00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.120] And wedding talk is very real and very strong.
[00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:18.640] And I went really deep into wedding talk and was putting out tons of videos on exactly that.
[00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:24.800] It's like best wedding venues in the US and like how to find your vendor for X, Y, or Z.
[00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:26.000] And it was fun.
[00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:27.520] I was very in it at the time.
[00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:30.000] So that's what made the sense for me then.
[00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.680] But I also knew myself so well.
[00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:37.760] And I knew the second, the day after my wedding was over, I didn't want to think, talk, touch that subject anymore.
[00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:40.320] Like I was not going to be Sammy Cohen, the wedding expert.
[00:22:40.320 --> 00:22:41.120] Definitely not.
[00:22:41.120 --> 00:22:42.160] That's so funny.
[00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:42.480] Yeah.
[00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:46.880] And so I came back for my wedding and I got married January 2024.
[00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.760] And so I got back and I was like, well, great.
[00:22:49.760 --> 00:22:54.640] I've been doing a lot of this wedding stuff and I don't even want to go into that space anymore.
[00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:08.760] And so it was at that point where I took a step back and I realized, okay, at that point, I had gained some degree of followers on TikTok and I had followers who were following me for all different reasons, right?
[00:23:08.760 --> 00:23:14.920] Because I had the pop culture era, I had the wedding era, and I knew that I didn't want to really be in those spaces.
[00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:22.280] So I thought, okay, what is something I can really stick with that for me will provide value?
[00:23:22.280 --> 00:23:29.880] And I personally felt the best because I'm not any kind of lifestyle influencer and I don't pretend to be one.
[00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:32.040] I will never be just about that.
[00:23:32.040 --> 00:23:36.680] But I realized I am so excited about the business thing.
[00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:38.280] And it's been consistent throughout my life.
[00:23:38.280 --> 00:23:39.560] I got my MBA from Berkeley.
[00:23:39.560 --> 00:23:42.680] I've worked at these like big tech corporate companies.
[00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:44.760] And I realized, okay, this is going to be my space.
[00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:46.760] It's going to be this intersection of business and culture.
[00:23:46.760 --> 00:23:51.800] So it was really like January of 2024 where I was starting to figure that out.
[00:23:51.800 --> 00:23:54.680] And I did a lot of stuff that was more career focused at first.
[00:23:54.680 --> 00:24:03.320] And then I really hit my stride last summer, summer of 2024, where I put out the series about the rise and fall of direct to consumer companies.
[00:24:03.320 --> 00:24:09.400] And I did this big video on the rise and fall of Outdoor Voices, which is this big athletic athleisure company.
[00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:15.320] And I talked about Casper and Allbergs and all of these companies of that time period away.
[00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:22.520] And I very, very quickly saw that engagement shot up when I was talking about these topics.
[00:24:22.520 --> 00:24:24.280] And I was so passionate about it.
[00:24:24.600 --> 00:24:32.920] That is when I think I started following you because your videos started coming into my trusty algorithm, knowing I like that content.
[00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:34.920] And that's when I said, I'm like, oh my God, I love this.
[00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:40.360] This is like, you're speaking directly to me and our, and our entrepreneurist cro here.
[00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:41.480] Yes.
[00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.200] Well, I'm so glad to hear that that resonated.
[00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:49.920] And I think that was the aha moment for me where I realized, okay, I love doing this.
[00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:53.280] This is clearly something that's working well on social.
[00:24:53.280 --> 00:24:56.240] I can keep doing this all day because this is what I love talking about.
[00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:57.520] So let me double down.
[00:24:57.520 --> 00:25:01.840] And so really it was, it was last summer where I decided, okay, I'm going to double down.
[00:25:01.840 --> 00:25:07.600] And then very quickly after that, when engagement shot up, my follower count started really rising.
[00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:27.040] I saw, okay, there's, there's a lot of opportunity because really it seems, it seems crazy to say it, but I'd say overnight, like not overnight, but within the span of a few months, I'd say the Outdoor Voices video, which is the first video in that series, I put out end of July of 2024 last year.
[00:25:27.040 --> 00:25:31.920] And then come September was when I started monetizing.
[00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:42.720] I did not take a single dollar from any social media posts that I had done for the first two-ish years of doing all this because it was truly for me, fun.
[00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:48.720] And I'd had little opportunities like brands that are promoting X, Y, or Z and to do a sponsored video.
[00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:59.200] And I said no, because I knew that I kind of needed to figure out my space in the market before taking these like one-off deals because I knew they weren't really going to lead to anything.
[00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:01.200] And it was more of a distraction.
[00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.920] So it wasn't until I really found this niche.
[00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:18.320] And then come September, I had just like overnight brands that I really respected, that I personally used, that were, in my opinion, very high caliber brands who had said, you know, we love your content.
[00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:19.600] We'd love to work with you.
[00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:29.680] And that was the aha moment of like, okay, I'm like finally at a point where I'm creating content that I really enjoy, that I believe is providing value that people are responding to.
[00:26:30.040 --> 00:26:41.800] And it's working on the monetization side as well because brands are seeing this and they say, okay, Sammy stands for X and we want her to provide, you know, some kind of content about our business.
[00:26:41.800 --> 00:26:44.360] And that's how that's how it really started.
[00:26:44.360 --> 00:26:51.880] No, I'm so glad you shared this whole backstory because I think it's so important for everyone to understand that, well, one, you just got started, right?
[00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:52.520] You took the leap.
[00:26:52.520 --> 00:26:56.920] You started doing something for yourself that you enjoyed and you kept going, right?
[00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:03.560] You weren't monetizing anything for over two years and you were just trying to feel out what worked and what made sense for you.
[00:27:03.560 --> 00:27:05.560] And then like you didn't give up, right?
[00:27:05.560 --> 00:27:08.520] You could have just stopped and been like, I don't want to post about weddings anymore.
[00:27:08.520 --> 00:27:09.240] Like I'm done.
[00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:10.680] This is not what I want to do.
[00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:21.000] But you loved it and you kept pivoting until you hit that stride and point where like, okay, now there's something here that you love and there's potential opportunity to make a lot of money.
[00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:22.360] So now you get to that point.
[00:27:22.360 --> 00:27:24.040] These brands are coming to you.
[00:27:24.040 --> 00:27:25.800] You have these opportunities.
[00:27:25.800 --> 00:27:31.560] Did you already know a lot about like the influencer space and the media space when these brand deals started coming to you?
[00:27:31.560 --> 00:27:33.240] Or did you have to learn everything then?
[00:27:33.560 --> 00:27:40.120] I had to learn everything because I had never been any kind of content creator, influencer.
[00:27:40.120 --> 00:27:42.280] Granted, I had been in this space for two years.
[00:27:42.280 --> 00:27:43.560] I just had never monetized.
[00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:49.160] So it was my first time negotiating with brands and figuring out like, what do I even charge a brand?
[00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:51.000] What are the different elements of a rate card?
[00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:01.240] Luckily, nowadays, you can figure that stuff out in literally an hour online, but I chat GPT, baby, all day, every day.
[00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:08.120] And so for for me, that part was was um not the hard part.
[00:28:08.120 --> 00:30:01.800] I think the hard part, once I actually found this monetization piece, and it's still it's it's something that I'm i'm trying to figure out but it's like okay i've i've found this almost product market fit if if you will of what i'm doing but it's like all right this is v1 what is v2 and v3 and v4 how do i grow so i'm not just this talking head on instagram or tick tock and there's value there not anything wrong with that but i knew i wanted so much more and in order to turn what i'm doing into a more sustainable business being that of a media platform or whatever else it turns into in the future i knew that i needed to still think beyond what i was doing coming up sammy shares all about her new podcast social currency and her best tips for new ventures and building a brand founders are always asking us what has been the secret to our success building multiple seven-figure businesses do you want to know how it's our community we created the entrepreneursa league for founders like you because the most successful entrepreneurs do not navigate business alone we navigate the challenges and opportunities with the support of people we know love and trust the relationships you build in business will be the key to your success trust me it's how we've done it and i'm giving you access to everything we've used to grow and scale our businesses over the past decade plus you're going to meet your new best friends in business right inside the community our members have access to everything we've used to grow our businesses over the past 10 plus years from in-person events to virtual events, business education, funding resources, office hours with myself and other top founders in your industry, press opportunities, and access to our community platform where you can instantly get all of your business questions answered.
[00:30:01.800 --> 00:30:08.520] You can join us in the community over at refer.entreprenista.com forward slash join us.
[00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:14.280] That's refer.entreprenista.com forward slash join us to join the community.
[00:30:14.280 --> 00:30:17.640] Or head to the show notes right now and tap the link to join.
[00:30:17.640 --> 00:30:19.960] I cannot wait to meet you.
[00:30:20.600 --> 00:30:24.200] So what is your vision now for your media empire?
[00:30:24.840 --> 00:30:27.560] So it's very much ever-evolving.
[00:30:27.560 --> 00:30:35.560] But as of today, I am really excited to share that I'll be launching a podcast and the podcast is called Social Currency.
[00:30:35.560 --> 00:30:47.240] And the name social currency to me felt very fitting for the type of content that I'm covering, given that also the podcast is going to be at the same intersection of business and culture.
[00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:49.000] There will be two episodes a week.
[00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:55.960] One episode will be me interviewing the CEO of a pretty large consumer company that most people have heard of.
[00:30:55.960 --> 00:31:04.120] And then the other is going to be a solo episode deep dive, which is similar to the episodes that I'm doing on social right now, but it's a longer form deep dive.
[00:31:04.120 --> 00:31:13.800] So instead of a 90-second clip, it'll be still not super long, but it'll be 15 minutes, 20 minutes of me going into more of an actual story of what's going on.
[00:31:14.120 --> 00:31:24.760] And I see the podcast as really the first venture that I'm doing outside of social to continue to build the Sammy Cohen and social currency brand.
[00:31:25.080 --> 00:32:02.240] I see what I'm building as so much more than just existing in these little parts, but I really more broadly want to build something that people find value in, and they're able to really absorb more information, especially about business, because the information is delivered to them in a way that's actually entertaining and fun in the same way that, you know, people love pop culture for that reason, where it's like almost like this instant rush of like dopamine, or like people love true crime because it's like, oh, wow, it's like so juicy and riveting.
[00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:07.120] And I want my content to have those same pieces of like dopamine, or this is riveting.
[00:32:07.120 --> 00:32:07.920] I want to learn more.
[00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:10.480] I want a part two, part three, part four.
[00:32:10.800 --> 00:32:13.120] And there is a way to do this with business.
[00:32:13.120 --> 00:32:21.920] And I just see this huge white space of creating business content that feels juicier and entertaining that I just, I know it's working.
[00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.120] So it's like, how do I continue to build what I'm building?
[00:32:25.120 --> 00:32:28.160] So when you made the decision, okay, I want to start a podcast.
[00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.080] And now you have a newsletter too, right?
[00:32:30.080 --> 00:32:30.800] Yes, yes.
[00:32:30.800 --> 00:32:31.840] And I started the newsletter.
[00:32:31.840 --> 00:32:32.400] It's a good point.
[00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.600] I started the newsletter last year.
[00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:43.120] And for me, the reason why I started that is because I do so much research every week on these topics that I'm going to be covering on social.
[00:32:43.120 --> 00:32:48.880] But there were so many newsletters or so many articles that I didn't get to, right?
[00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:57.920] Like these were, this is content that I thought was really interesting, but maybe like wasn't perfect for social because there wasn't really like a great hook I could find or what have you.
[00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:00.000] So I thought, okay, I'm doing all this research.
[00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.440] I'm basically summarizing what these articles are anyway on my own.
[00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:10.480] Why don't I just put out a newsletter that captures a lot more of the weekly happenings in business?
[00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:18.800] And then also I can put some interesting resources and links there for people who are interested also in business.
[00:33:18.800 --> 00:33:20.240] And that's how it started.
[00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:24.000] So I launched that end of May 2024.
[00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:27.840] And I also, of course, that newsletter is called Social Currency as well.
[00:33:27.840 --> 00:33:29.760] And that goes out weekly now too.
[00:33:30.520 --> 00:33:39.880] So that was kind of the very first step, the real first step I took outside of my social media videos to create this platform.
[00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:44.920] Was it on your mind too that, okay, I'm building all this on social and like, what if this goes away?
[00:33:44.920 --> 00:33:51.080] Like I need to get to everyone on newsletter and get their email because, you know, when Instagram goes out, you don't own your audience.
[00:33:51.080 --> 00:33:51.880] You can't talk to them.
[00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:54.040] You've got a problem on your hands.
[00:33:54.040 --> 00:33:54.840] Totally.
[00:33:54.840 --> 00:33:55.480] Yes.
[00:33:55.480 --> 00:34:11.800] I think the concept of diversification and owning access to your audience, I think has gone, has gotten to a point now with all of the drama that honestly is still surrounding TikTok and whether or not it's going to be in the US.
[00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:14.280] I started my platform on TikTok, right?
[00:34:14.280 --> 00:34:27.720] So like for me, and now my audience is actually much larger on Instagram, but I always felt this sense of insecurity around relying on these platforms that owned the entire audience that I had built.
[00:34:27.720 --> 00:34:32.040] And if that went away, like I would be in such a tough spot.
[00:34:32.040 --> 00:34:41.960] So I think for any founder or person who's interested in developing any kind of social media brand, number one, you can't just be on one platform.
[00:34:41.960 --> 00:34:47.880] You have to be on several and as many as you can, which is really tough to do.
[00:34:48.200 --> 00:34:52.520] So you don't have to do that right away, but that's definitely the end goal.
[00:34:52.520 --> 00:35:11.240] And then secondly, I think it's whatever platforms you're on, also own your audience as much as you can, whether that's a direction newsletter, whatever else you're going to do to have a direct line where if you, everything else went away, you would be able to still communicate to your followers and not be completely dead silent.
[00:35:11.240 --> 00:35:19.920] So I think, and I honestly started doing that kind of out of a fear state because I was at a point where I was really insecure about the state of TikTok.
[00:35:19.920 --> 00:35:23.120] And also, yeah, Instagram has glitches from time to time.
[00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:25.760] Yeah, Instagram's glitches.
[00:35:26.080 --> 00:35:27.120] It's the same thing.
[00:35:27.120 --> 00:35:31.040] I feel like I don't even know when Instagram goes out.
[00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:33.520] Like, will I not be able to talk to people for a day?
[00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:36.960] What will that mean for an advertisement that's supposed to go live today?
[00:35:36.960 --> 00:35:38.960] You know, it's, it's really scary.
[00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:39.600] Absolutely.
[00:35:39.600 --> 00:35:41.920] I talk about this all the time on the podcast in our community.
[00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:49.680] Like, own your audience, get their email, because when everything else goes away or the algorithms change, you don't have control over that.
[00:35:49.680 --> 00:35:56.880] And like, if you're building all these, you know, brand deals and now you can't reach all the people that you were reaching before, like, you need to own your audience.
[00:35:56.880 --> 00:35:58.640] So I know you're on Beehive, right?
[00:35:58.640 --> 00:35:59.040] Yes.
[00:35:59.040 --> 00:35:59.520] Yes.
[00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:01.520] We've done some partnership work with them.
[00:36:01.520 --> 00:36:12.400] They're amazing, especially for creators, media companies, being able to like quickly grow your list and have all the tools that you need to actually do that.
[00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:19.840] Have you been able to really use like their monetization tools on top of all the relationships that you have now to be able to monetize quickly your newsletter?
[00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:20.560] Yes.
[00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:22.880] So fully transparent.
[00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:35.120] My newsletter, in terms of monetization, I going back to the conversation we just had, my current state has been, okay, gather as many emails from my audience as possible.
[00:36:35.120 --> 00:36:35.920] And it's all free.
[00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.480] I don't have a paid tier or anything like that.
[00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:41.760] So I've more so been focused on just developing the channel.
[00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:46.320] I've tried out the Beehive, they call them the boosts.
[00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:48.160] And like that, there's also like referral programs.
[00:36:48.160 --> 00:36:49.680] There are all these different monetizations.
[00:36:49.680 --> 00:37:01.400] I've dabbled in them for sure, but I haven't fully turned on that channel yet, just because I think, honestly, my biggest issue right now in everything that I'm doing is bandwidth.
[00:36:59.520 --> 00:37:10.360] Because with the full-time job, too, like anything that I'm doing on social right now is literally between the hours of like 5 a.m.
[00:37:10.520 --> 00:37:12.680] and like 8 a.m.
[00:37:12.680 --> 00:37:18.760] in between meetings throughout the day and like 30 minute segments or then after work at like six and later.
[00:37:18.760 --> 00:37:25.960] So my work schedule for social is bananas and like I don't have consistent chunks of time.
[00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:29.000] So that's my biggest issue, which will be changing very soon.
[00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:30.520] And I'm very excited about that.
[00:37:30.520 --> 00:37:33.400] But yeah, in short, I love Beehive though.
[00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:34.680] I speak so highly of it.
[00:37:34.680 --> 00:37:38.200] I think the analytics, the back end is really great.
[00:37:38.200 --> 00:37:43.640] The UI is also just incredibly easy to use and very intuitive.
[00:37:43.640 --> 00:37:47.400] And, you know, I get questions a lot about like Substack versus Beehive.
[00:37:47.400 --> 00:37:54.920] And Substack is amazing too and works for, I think, certain verticals very, very well.
[00:37:54.920 --> 00:38:00.120] Like the fashion girlies Substack like all day, every day, in my humble opinion.
[00:38:00.120 --> 00:38:03.880] Like that's kind of a must for people in certain spaces.
[00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:11.320] But for me, I was more interested in like the data I'd be able to get and like the back end analytics and Beehive analytics are great.
[00:38:11.560 --> 00:38:27.080] I was interested in eventually the option to do a paid tier, but just I was really interested in the data, the back end, the UI, and like the fact that you can put in surveys and polls and like really interact with your audience in a more comprehensive way, I felt.
[00:38:27.080 --> 00:38:30.280] So that's why I chose Beehive.
[00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:34.200] And this is not sponsored, obviously, but from my end, it's not.
[00:38:35.160 --> 00:38:41.400] I recommend it to anyone who's in that position of about to start one because I really like the experience.
[00:38:41.400 --> 00:38:43.560] Along this line of business tools, as we're talking about it.
[00:38:43.560 --> 00:38:53.280] And then I want to go back to the podcast and the vision with a media company, but along the line of business tools, what other business tools are you using in your business right now that have really been helping you?
[00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:57.840] Because a lot of our entrepreneurs always want to know, like, what is everyone else using to get in on?
[00:38:58.160 --> 00:39:02.800] Yeah, so I won't say it's quite a business tool, but it is also a business tool.
[00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:06.880] But like, I'm on Claude and ChatGPT every day, every day.
[00:39:06.880 --> 00:39:18.640] It helps tremendously with the both research front for my stories, but also like some of the points that I'm making in my videos.
[00:39:18.640 --> 00:39:23.360] I'll put something into ChatGPT and I'll ask it to refine it for me or Claude for that matter.
[00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:27.360] So using those all of the time, literally every single day.
[00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:31.120] I'd say in terms of organization, I'm a big Notion fan.
[00:39:31.120 --> 00:39:32.720] So I love Notion.
[00:39:33.360 --> 00:39:36.000] Notion is just, I love the user interface.
[00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:41.600] I think it's really one of the best tools for organization that I've seen.
[00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:45.680] And then outside of that, I'm just like a Google suite girly.
[00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:58.320] So everything on Google, my team and I, we use Google spreadsheets for tracking like our like newsletter stuff, but production stuff for the podcast, everything there is Google.
[00:39:58.320 --> 00:39:59.280] So yeah.
[00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:00.080] Oh, I love that.
[00:40:00.080 --> 00:40:00.400] Yeah.
[00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:01.760] I'm with you on all those tools.
[00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:11.280] So when you started making your plan to leave your corporate job to actually focus on this full-time, like what went into all of that decision making?
[00:40:11.280 --> 00:40:20.400] We have so many members in our community that are, you know, starting businesses now, essentially, on the side, working full-time and trying to figure out like when is that right time to take the leap and go all in?
[00:40:21.040 --> 00:40:23.120] It's a really great question.
[00:40:23.120 --> 00:40:26.880] And I give advice on one end of the spectrum.
[00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:30.760] And I think that there are so many different angles you could take this.
[00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:40.360] But my personal experience was building the social media platform for three years before I jumped into it full-time.
[00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:59.880] So I think for me personally, I felt a tremendous amount of freedom, of flexibility, of ability to, as I said earlier, with my content strategy and style, I could A-B test, I could try out different things when I wasn't dependent on the income from my social media world.
[00:40:59.880 --> 00:41:00.920] And so it was great.
[00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:09.000] Any money that I got in from social media was, you know, going into the piggy bank for, you know, when I eventually decided to use it or expand the company.
[00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:23.240] But for me, my advice more generally, for anyone who's thinking about doing a side hustle and they're trying to figure out when to go in full-time, I think I got to a point and I tried to be as objective as possible with this.
[00:41:23.240 --> 00:41:30.760] And also to be fully transparent, my husband is a tech founder and very much in the world of entrepreneurship himself.
[00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:37.720] So we are two people who are tied together who will not have a corporate traditional job very soon.
[00:41:37.720 --> 00:42:02.040] So from my perspective, I said, when I get to the point where I can very easily match the salary that I'm making at Amazon, that will be the time where I can leave and not be cash strapped and feel like I'm, you know, in this place where every month I'm going to be really stressed out about, you know, everything that I need to pay for.
[00:42:02.040 --> 00:42:10.360] And so for me, that was that was a clear point where I knew I was going to be mentally able to handle that transition.
[00:42:10.680 --> 00:42:14.920] And I think it took me, it took me a while to get there, but I.
[00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:25.520] But I think my advice is: whatever your threshold is financially, or perhaps it's not even a financial threshold, but it's more so a state of mind.
[00:42:25.520 --> 00:42:33.120] Maybe it's, you know, you need to feel as if you can fully dedicate your time, effort, and energy into building your business full-time.
[00:42:33.120 --> 00:42:34.960] And that's not going to stress you out or freak you out.
[00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:43.200] Because I've always been of the mindset where if you do anything from a state of scarcity or desperation, it's not going to go over well.
[00:42:43.200 --> 00:42:45.520] Like your output isn't going to be as good as it needs to be.
[00:42:45.520 --> 00:42:51.760] You're going to be probably way more insecure, which will then just trickle into other areas of your life.
[00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:57.360] So I believe you really need to wholeheartedly also like kind of manifest that this will work.
[00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:00.880] And in order to do that, you have to be confident in the decision that you're making.
[00:43:00.880 --> 00:43:02.800] And it took me a very long time.
[00:43:02.800 --> 00:43:09.040] If you had asked me even a year ago, because a year ago, I hadn't done the outdoor voices and the direct-to-consumer videos.
[00:43:09.040 --> 00:43:14.320] And like, I wasn't really even fully in the space that I'm at now, a year ago.
[00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:19.600] So if you were to ask me May 2024, like, will you be leaving to build social currency full-time?
[00:43:19.680 --> 00:43:20.640] I would have laughed at you.
[00:43:20.640 --> 00:43:24.160] I would have said, there's no way I'll feel comfortable to do that.
[00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:28.960] So it got to a point, of course, where I'm in a different position now.
[00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:44.960] But it's also, I think, to kind of wrap this up on a more inspiring note: if I've learned anything from my time doing the social media journey, building this platform, it's that things can change in the best way so quickly.
[00:43:44.960 --> 00:44:03.480] Like all it takes is one viral video, one moment that your content reaches the right people that it needs to reach, and it can have a wild and transformative impact on your life, on your income, on the business that you hope to build someday.
[00:43:59.840 --> 00:44:05.080] And that was truly a moment for me.
[00:44:05.240 --> 00:44:10.840] I think I was in the position where I was ready to jump on that moment when it came.
[00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:12.360] And it was the Outdoor Voices video.
[00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:15.240] I woke up, it was like a million views overnight.
[00:44:15.240 --> 00:44:17.560] And I was like, oh my God, this, this is it.
[00:44:17.560 --> 00:44:19.880] It was like that full light bulb moment.
[00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:23.720] Like the very next day, I created another video and I turned it into a series.
[00:44:23.720 --> 00:44:30.200] And from that series alone, I think I gained like over 50,000 followers just like within the span of two weeks.
[00:44:30.200 --> 00:44:34.040] So it was just like, boom, you, you have to be ready to look for that moment.
[00:44:34.040 --> 00:44:37.240] And when it comes, you just, you're ready for it.
[00:44:37.240 --> 00:44:46.840] So I think that that more uplifting thought process of like, if you are really ready for something, your moment is always like right around the corner.
[00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:50.520] You never know when it's going to be able to pop up.
[00:44:50.520 --> 00:44:55.240] And then, of course, on the more reactive side, when it is there, you have to be ready to jump on it.
[00:44:55.240 --> 00:44:55.720] Absolutely.
[00:44:55.720 --> 00:44:57.240] You just give me the chill showing that story.
[00:44:57.240 --> 00:44:58.440] That's so awesome.
[00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:00.200] Like right when that moment hits.
[00:45:00.200 --> 00:45:00.760] Okay.
[00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:07.240] So now you had to learn the whole media world and what to charge these brands, how to build your email list.
[00:45:07.240 --> 00:45:09.960] Now you're launching a brand new podcast that just launched.
[00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:13.880] Like what have been your biggest learning lessons from learning this whole new industry?
[00:45:13.880 --> 00:45:16.200] Because let's remind everyone, you are in logistics, right?
[00:45:16.200 --> 00:45:16.440] Yeah.
[00:45:16.440 --> 00:45:19.000] We're going from logistics to the media.
[00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:20.440] It's a whole different world.
[00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:20.840] Yeah.
[00:45:21.160 --> 00:45:21.480] Yeah.
[00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:29.560] Amazon logistics is like, they do not tell you a single thing about anything creative or media focused.
[00:45:29.560 --> 00:45:37.880] But I think a few key lessons I've learned is that I have had to literally fake it till I make it.
[00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:40.040] I don't have a background in media.
[00:45:40.040 --> 00:45:45.600] Before I went to Amazon, I worked at Aldi operations for a grocery chain, right?
[00:45:45.600 --> 00:45:50.560] So like, talk about somebody who is just out of her depths when figuring this stuff out.
[00:45:50.560 --> 00:45:56.560] But I mean, the part I think that was able to work for me is I'm very business minded.
[00:45:56.560 --> 00:45:58.400] I got my MBA from Berkeley.
[00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:07.120] I've really been able to understand social from the lens of business, of growth, of consumer product, all this stuff.
[00:46:07.120 --> 00:46:18.320] And so for me personally, I've learned that in order to be successful, you need to truly think of yourself as a media operation.
[00:46:18.560 --> 00:46:22.960] I know that Gary Vaynerchuk, love him or hate him, I think he's brilliant.
[00:46:23.520 --> 00:46:28.640] And yeah, he's really like the best of the best in all things marketing.
[00:46:28.640 --> 00:46:33.040] And I really look at what he's done with his career.
[00:46:33.040 --> 00:46:43.440] And even if you take anything that Gary does and you look at it in a vacuum, he really is a masterclass on how to, number one, promote yourself.
[00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:48.000] Number two, create content that exists on multiple channels and multiple platforms.
[00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:49.520] And it's repurposed.
[00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:55.680] It's all like really hook forward and snappy and like gets the attention of people.
[00:46:55.680 --> 00:46:58.800] And people love him because of his point of view.
[00:46:58.800 --> 00:47:11.440] But I think one thing that has been something I'm very much learning on the fly as I'm going, because I've been doing the social media stuff now for a few years, but like the podcast is a whole new beast.
[00:47:11.440 --> 00:47:13.120] I mean, you know better than anyone.
[00:47:13.120 --> 00:47:14.720] We've been doing it since 2018.
[00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:23.520] It's a different animal than just posting on Instagram and it's longer form, and there's different, you know, people who tune into a podcast versus social.
[00:47:23.520 --> 00:47:32.280] And I think I've really had to learn how to take content and reframe it to work across different channels.
[00:47:32.600 --> 00:47:42.920] And I think for me, that piece, because now my bandwidth and my time is going to be a lot more stretched, because it's not like I can spend going back to our time piece of how long a video takes.
[00:47:42.920 --> 00:47:56.040] Like, if a video is going to take me four hours to post on social media, but then I have a podcast filming that day and I have to then repost all these other things across all these different platforms, like I don't have time for that anymore.
[00:47:56.040 --> 00:47:59.320] So it's thinking, okay, how do I scale beyond myself?
[00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:08.440] And as a social media brand, that, of course, Sammy Cohen Talks will always continue to exist as Sammy Cohen Talks, but I'm building this brand that goes beyond me.
[00:48:08.440 --> 00:48:10.920] So how do I take what I'm doing and scale?
[00:48:10.920 --> 00:48:13.160] So now I'm building this team.
[00:48:13.160 --> 00:48:15.720] I have someone who helps me with the newsletter.
[00:48:15.720 --> 00:48:17.720] I have a producer.
[00:48:17.720 --> 00:48:23.640] I have a editor for all my videos now that are going on the podcast.
[00:48:23.640 --> 00:48:37.640] Like I have all these different elements that I think I have all these different elements that I think are very much going to be needed in this version 2.0 of social currency and where I take this platform.
[00:48:37.640 --> 00:48:40.440] Where did you find your people that you're working with?
[00:48:40.440 --> 00:48:41.560] Are they freelance for you?
[00:48:41.560 --> 00:48:42.920] Do you bring people on the team full-time?
[00:48:42.920 --> 00:48:44.520] How have you managed all that?
[00:48:44.520 --> 00:48:45.080] Yeah.
[00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:54.520] So when I started, when I first came up with the concept of the podcast, people have been watching or people had been asking for it for a while.
[00:48:54.520 --> 00:48:58.920] And I had a network reach out to me last year around October.
[00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:02.280] And very early on, I actually didn't think I was going to go with the network.
[00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:07.080] I thought I was going to just self-produce because I'm kind of used to doing everything on my own anyway.
[00:49:07.080 --> 00:49:11.080] And I really had some incredible organic conversations.
[00:49:11.080 --> 00:49:16.560] It's a very small network called Money News Network, and they focus specifically on business and finance.
[00:49:16.880 --> 00:49:22.080] And that has been a help specifically on the podcast side because my producer is through the network.
[00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:23.760] We're talking all of the time.
[00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:28.800] She understands the vision and what I'm going for and has been very, very helpful there.
[00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:34.080] My other hot tip, I think, just for everyone else that I found was actually through LinkedIn.
[00:49:34.080 --> 00:49:48.000] So I, one thing, and I think I recommend this for anyone who's listening to this podcast is now cats out of the bag on LinkedIn as not just being a place for cringy posts where you say, I'm proud to announce my new promotion, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:49:48.080 --> 00:49:52.320] But now people are, it's becoming a more video centric platform.
[00:49:52.320 --> 00:49:57.200] People are putting almost the same types of content that they're putting on other platforms on LinkedIn.
[00:49:57.200 --> 00:50:01.760] And so I try as much as I can to actually just cross-post on LinkedIn too.
[00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:03.280] So I'm growing my following there.
[00:50:03.280 --> 00:50:06.160] But I feel like your content would like crash on LinkedIn.
[00:50:06.160 --> 00:50:06.400] Yeah.
[00:50:06.400 --> 00:50:06.720] Yeah.
[00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:07.920] It's doing well.
[00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:08.480] It's doing well.
[00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:14.080] But I'm, I'm now, I think I'm getting to a point where I'm, at first when I was doing it, I wasn't posting all of my videos.
[00:50:14.080 --> 00:50:18.480] And now it's just like in my Rolodex of like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn.
[00:50:18.480 --> 00:50:20.640] But it took me some time to get there.
[00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:29.040] And I, through the initial following that I built on LinkedIn, I obviously people follow you on LinkedIn just as they do on other platforms.
[00:50:29.040 --> 00:50:39.120] And I had someone who my editor who does like my graphic design and editing stuff for my podcast now, she just followed me and sent me a message to say, hey, love your content.
[00:50:39.120 --> 00:50:42.960] If you ever are looking for someone, I'd love to chat.
[00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:44.720] And I was like, what the heck?
[00:50:44.720 --> 00:50:45.280] Why not?
[00:50:45.280 --> 00:50:47.280] Because at the time, I was very naive.
[00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:51.520] I thought I was going to handle all of my own editing because I do all of my own editing for social.
[00:50:51.520 --> 00:50:56.000] And then I got a little deeper into the podcast world and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:50:56.480 --> 00:51:00.000] This needs a small army to produce this and make this right.
[00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:04.120] And that was just, it came out of the cold outreach on LinkedIn.
[00:51:04.120 --> 00:51:09.320] And I also, I was able to get the person who helps my newsletter, same thing.
[00:51:09.320 --> 00:51:11.640] She reached out to me, said, I love your content on social.
[00:51:11.640 --> 00:51:16.120] If you ever want any help on any front, and I got that message from her.
[00:51:16.120 --> 00:51:19.400] And that day I was like, actually, how do you feel about newsletters?
[00:51:19.720 --> 00:51:21.000] And then we started working together.
[00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:25.800] So LinkedIn is the best place, in my opinion, to connect with people.
[00:51:25.800 --> 00:51:27.960] I think you can also like, it's just brilliant.
[00:51:27.960 --> 00:51:29.320] You can see exactly what someone does.
[00:51:29.320 --> 00:51:31.400] You can see what their work experience is.
[00:51:31.400 --> 00:51:36.840] And for me, I think that's the tip, the hot tip I have is LinkedIn is the way to go.
[00:51:36.840 --> 00:51:39.320] Yeah, I'm all about LinkedIn right now.
[00:51:39.400 --> 00:51:40.280] Have been for a long time.
[00:51:40.600 --> 00:51:41.800] I share with everyone in the community.
[00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:44.360] I'm like, if you, you cannot sleep on LinkedIn right now.
[00:51:44.360 --> 00:51:49.400] There is so much opportunity, not just for promotional content and like free reach.
[00:51:49.400 --> 00:51:50.920] Like there's real free reach on LinkedIn.
[00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:59.240] There isn't, that does not happen really on many other platforms, but also, like you said, just the ability to connect with the right people and the right people find you.
[00:51:59.240 --> 00:52:02.760] Like the people you want will come to you when you're when you're putting out that content.
[00:52:02.760 --> 00:52:04.920] And we're, I'm going to get you into the entrepreneursally community.
[00:52:04.920 --> 00:52:10.120] So you can, it's basically LinkedIn on steroids with all women founders of everyone, everyone supporting each other.
[00:52:10.120 --> 00:52:12.200] So we're going to, we're going to get you into the platform.
[00:52:12.200 --> 00:52:18.040] Sammy, I could probably talk to you for the next three hours, but I'm sure you need to get back to creating content.
[00:52:18.040 --> 00:52:19.320] Tell me this, though.
[00:52:19.320 --> 00:52:21.480] What is your biggest business secret?
[00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:27.960] Something you've never shared with anyone before that you feel is like just a big tip or something that's happened that you need everyone to know about?
[00:52:28.280 --> 00:52:31.400] Ooh, this is juicy.
[00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:40.680] I'd say, well, my biggest secret I technically let out of the bag on this podcast, but I'll go into it a little bit more.
[00:52:40.680 --> 00:52:48.720] But I have fully been working basically two full-time jobs at the same time.
[00:52:49.040 --> 00:52:51.280] And it's taboo to say that, right?
[00:52:51.280 --> 00:52:57.360] Because it's like, you know, whenever you're working full-time, especially in corporate America for big tech, Amazon, right?
[00:52:57.360 --> 00:52:59.840] Like that should be your priority.
[00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:06.720] But for me, very early on, I realized that working in Amazon logistics was not going to be my end-all be-all.
[00:53:06.720 --> 00:53:12.960] I saw what my boss and my boss's boss was doing, and I realized I don't really want to be doing that in the next few years.
[00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:16.000] And that isn't going to bring me the highest level of fulfillment.
[00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:23.200] So I think for me, I learned very early on in my career, you have to own your destiny and you have to be proactive.
[00:53:23.200 --> 00:53:26.480] Like the opportunity that you're excited about isn't going to drop in your lap.
[00:53:26.480 --> 00:53:28.800] You need to go out there and you need to make it.
[00:53:28.800 --> 00:53:42.000] And so I hustled for the last three years to get to where I am now, like crazy hours, but I did it because I wanted to get to where I am now to the point where I can create my own destiny.
[00:53:42.000 --> 00:54:04.320] And I do feel as if I'm now taking that next step, having the full support, having an audience that's already like really bought into what I'm doing, which is such a world of difference and gives me the confidence going back to what we said before where I know I'm making this next step and it's the right next step for me that will ultimately make me way more successful than if I were to stay at Amazon anyway and even be like my boss or my boss's boss.
[00:54:04.320 --> 00:54:10.480] Like I want social currency to be massive and I think it will be, but I had to get the confidence to take that next step.
[00:54:10.480 --> 00:54:17.440] Yeah, and it takes time and we're here and I'm here to cheer you on every step of the way and so excited for what you're building.
[00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:21.440] It's so needed and so helpful to so many women founders.
[00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:22.800] Last question for you, Sammy.
[00:54:22.800 --> 00:54:25.680] What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
[00:54:26.720 --> 00:54:38.120] Being an entrepreneurista means that you are, number one, willing to do what it takes to make your dreams come true.
[00:54:38.120 --> 00:54:39.720] And I know that sounds cheesy.
[00:54:39.720 --> 00:54:50.760] And I think even breaking it down more than that, I think that means you're not afraid to wake up two hours earlier than normal to get what you need done.
[00:54:50.760 --> 00:54:56.920] And you're willing to make the introductions also to other people and to continue to give it forward.
[00:54:56.920 --> 00:55:15.880] Because if I've learned anything so far in the entrepreneurship world, which is a massive and very nuanced one, it's that when you give something forward, when you make an intro to someone, when you help someone out, it always comes back to help you in some way.
[00:55:15.880 --> 00:55:22.280] And you may not even know at the time, but that person that you gave that intro to, maybe they had a great conversation that came out of it.
[00:55:22.280 --> 00:55:25.640] Maybe they worked with that person that you introduced them to.
[00:55:25.640 --> 00:55:30.600] And you may see a year from now where they're able to give you an intro or something like that.
[00:55:30.600 --> 00:55:44.920] But I wholeheartedly, when I can, if someone comes to me with an ask and I'm able to do it, I always try and make it happen because I really think also, especially as women, it's really important to support each other in this space.
[00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:49.800] And I think it's a very different world being a woman in business versus a man in business.
[00:55:49.800 --> 00:55:59.720] And I think women that support each other are able to create these really incredible, beautiful synergies and make magic out of it.
[00:55:59.720 --> 00:56:00.600] So yeah.
[00:56:01.160 --> 00:56:02.280] That is so true.
[00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:05.160] Well, that is what being an entrepreneur is all about.
[00:56:05.160 --> 00:56:13.920] It was actually, Sammy, when you just said that one of the first things that Courtney and I ever learned in business was when we went to a networking group, and their whole like tagline back then was givers gain.
[00:56:13.920 --> 00:56:14.080] Right.
[00:56:14.040 --> 00:56:19.760] And we just saw early on how when you give and when you help others, like it always comes back full circle.
[00:56:19.840 --> 00:56:23.920] And when you lead from that place of, I always share with our members, like, how can I help you?
[00:56:23.920 --> 00:56:26.640] And we're all able to do so much more together.
[00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:28.960] So I'm so glad, so glad you that you shared that.
[00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:30.240] I'm so excited for you.
[00:56:30.240 --> 00:56:32.560] And everyone, make sure you're following Sammy.
[00:56:32.560 --> 00:56:35.600] Can you share all the links, handles, your new podcast, share everything.
[00:56:35.600 --> 00:56:37.840] We're going to link out to everything in the show notes now.
[00:56:37.840 --> 00:56:38.320] Yes.
[00:56:38.560 --> 00:56:42.320] Sammy Cohen Talks on Instagram and TikTok.
[00:56:42.320 --> 00:56:44.720] I'm just Sammy Tanner Cohen on LinkedIn.
[00:56:45.040 --> 00:56:51.680] And then you can find my new podcast handle, which is just social currency on Instagram.
[00:56:51.680 --> 00:56:52.800] Amazing, everyone.
[00:56:52.800 --> 00:56:53.920] Go follow Sammy now.
[00:56:53.920 --> 00:56:57.200] Sammy, thank you so much for sharing your journey and story.
[00:56:57.200 --> 00:57:01.200] I'm Stephanie, and this is the best business meeting I've ever had.
[00:57:01.520 --> 00:57:02.800] Hi, Entrepreneurs.
[00:57:02.800 --> 00:57:10.960] It's Steph here, and I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired and with some actionable tips that you can apply to your own business.
[00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:18.320] The way we've grown our community and resources is by sharing content like this for years and asking for help along the way.
[00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:23.840] So here's where we need your help so we can continue to make as much impact as possible together.
[00:57:23.840 --> 00:57:40.880] If you can leave us a five-star review and extra credit if you share this episode on Instagram, LinkedIn, or DM it to a founder friend who would benefit from hearing it, not only would it mean the world to us, but you sharing this episode is going to help someone who just may need to hear what we share today.
[00:57:40.880 --> 00:57:43.920] And you know I love nothing more than giveaways and prizes.
[00:57:43.920 --> 00:57:50.640] So every month I'll be giving away a one-on-one session with me to someone who has shared the episode and left a review.
[00:57:50.640 --> 00:57:58.400] So send me a personal DM over on Instagram at Steph Jill Carton once you've done it, so you can be entered to win.
[00:57:58.400 --> 00:58:03.800] Wishing you a productive week ahead and stay tuned for another impactful episode next week.