Building a Newsletter From the Ground Up

Adam Vazquez 0:06
On this episode, we’re joined by Rachel Cantor, newsletter extraordinaire, Morning Brew alum, and the Brand and Content Lead at Tydo.

Rachel has had an explosive start to her career. We discussed her journey from graduating in the middle of covid to launching a personal newsletter, getting noticed on Twitter and getting hired at the King of newsletter companies, Morning Brew.

We also get into the details of how she finds deep content ideas that connect with her audience and Rachel walks us through a recent brainstorm she did for a new Tydo content series live on the show.

I absolutely loved getting to know Rachel, hear her story, and learn from her skills, and I know you will, too. Let’s dive in with Rachel Cantor from Tydo.

Intro 0:54
Put that content down. Content. The close is over. What’s your name? Content. That’s my name. You know why, mister? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW. That’s my name. Content Is for Closers.

Adam Vazquez 1:18
All right, we’re rolling. Yet again, Carlton, back for another episode of Content Is for Closers. This week, we’ve got Rachel Cantor on. Before we get to her, I wanted to ask you, what is your newsletter diet like these days?

Carlton Riffel 1:32
That’s a great question. Newsletters are hard because the better they get, the more problematic they become for achieving. I’m subscribe to some good ones. So yeah, I think like Shane Parrish, that’s a knowledge project me that I have a hard time swiping and archiving.

Adam Vazquez 1:54
That’s the knowledge project one?

Carlton Riffel 1:57
Yeah, it’s knowledge project. Yeah, there are a few other ones that I really enjoy in. It’s like most of the time if I haven’t reached inbox zero, it’s because of the newsletters that I’m waiting to jump in on.

Adam Vazquez 2:11
Did you find yourself adding or… I think there’s like one of two ways people went during COVID and subsequently: either they added a ton of newsletters (that’s the camp that I’m in) or I’ve met some people who— curated would be the nice way to say it, or like got rid of newsletters entirely. It was so overwhelming, that they just kind of got rid of everything except maybe one or two. Which way did you go?

Carlton Riffel 2:37
Yeah, I definitely added, and I’m an avid unsubscriber. If something’s not providing value, or if it shouldn’t be in my inbox. I’m, like, unsubscribe right away. But what some of these newsletters are great content, they’re good writing. And it’s just hard to find time sometimes to read all of them, especially if they come out weekly.

Adam Vazquez 3:01
Yeah, well, obviously, today’s guest Rachel Cantor got her start. In the newsletter space. She started newsletter during COVID. She tells the whole story on the episode here and leveraged that along with just posting on Twitter to get a job at Morning Brew, which is like the newsletter company, pretty crazy how she was able to do that. What were some of the takeaways that you had from the conversation?

Carlton Riffel 3:27
Yeah, so she’s a great writer and she’s had a ton of experience at some major companies that are doing really innovative content. And so I think it’s interesting, she, she presents a couple of different ideas. But one takeaway that I had from the conversation was that there is low hanging fruit or low hanging content, that’s easy to get at. And then there is very difficult, and there’s content that’s hard to develop, and you have to dig deeper for. And it seems like she’s really developed a great process for digging deeper and finding— Adam just broke his chair, if you’re not watching on YouTube.

Adam Vazquez 4:09
Something always happens in these intros, without fail. Sorry about that. Continue.

Carlton Riffel 4:14
Just gotta keep it interesting. So it’s finding ways to dig past those easy content pieces that are kind of the first content pieces that companies usually create. And so she gives a few examples of how she digs and how she figures out some of these interesting content pieces. She talks about a method using sticky notes and kind of having conversations with people that will help her discover some of those nuggets that allow her to create interesting pieces.

Adam Vazquez 4:46
Yeah, I was super challenged coming away from this conversation about a bunch of things. But the first part of that what you were talking about, I think the low-hanging fruit is something that obviously has become almost ubiquitous on the internet. You can find I find a doesn’t have the same interview or doesn’t have the same show concept within any given niche. And what Rachel’s done is taken such a deep dive and you describe the sticky note process, but she has a very specific system to uncover better ideas, deeper ideas, she goes into one case study, we kind of did a live brainstorm that I think people will enjoy. And to be honest, I think it’s something that we need to do better at with our content and in our company. So super challenged with that personally.

Before we get to the episode, you guys know what time it is. We have to do it every single week. This week’s five-star review comes from BuilderB. The title is “Real Entrepreneurs, Actionable Insights,” like that so far. “Adam and Carlton do a great job of peeling back the layers and getting leaders to open up and share their stories. Keep them coming.” Five stars. Appreciate that BuilderB. Appreciate the five-star review. I appreciate you who are listening, pulling out your phone right now, to give us a five-star review as well.

Carlton Riffel 6:07
Right now. If you don’t do it right now—

Adam Vazquez 6:09
Yeah, then I’m not going to read it. I’ll know.

Carlton Riffel 6:13
Maybe we need to up the stakes. Maybe we need to give giveaway cash or something. Or if the price of Bitcoin keeps going up we can just give away…

Adam Vazquez 6:22
Yeah, what I’ll give away right now is Luna. If anyone wants to give me a review, I’ll give you a lot of Lunas. I don’t think it’s gonna exist by the time this comes out. I think it’s a safe bet. But yeah, maybe we need to increase the stakes. We should do we need to have a brainstorm Rachel canner style to figure out what the best idea here would be.

Carlton Riffel 6:45
We should. Get out some sticky notes. The other thing I will say is, I was actually a little excited yesterday. For those who aren’t in the Web3 crypto space, this may not be that interesting, but I’ve had it on my to-do list for two or three months to buy a bunch of Luna. So that’s one thing I’m thankful that has stayed on the to-do list. I even like made it through several of the steps because it wasn’t on the exchange I do most of my trading on. And so thankfully, we didn’t get that far. We’ll stop there.

Adam Vazquez 7:26
Well, if you don’t want to just be frozen in decision making, you want to process to help you think through ideas deeply. So you don’t want to be on either side. I’m too reactive. I go for the easiest, lowest-hanging fruit. Carlton maybe takes a little too much time baking ideas. Rachel provides the blueprint for figuring out exactly how to come up with a good idea. Let’s get an interview with her.

All right, welcome back in to Content Is for Closers, after several tries, Rachel Cantor, thank you so much for joining us. It took us a little bit to get here. I want to be honest. It was a little bit of an uphill battle.

Rachel Cantor 8:13
A little bit. Just a little bit.

Adam Vazquez 8:18
But we made it. We’re here. And thank you for making time. Before we get into too deep into the interview, I can’t remember where I saw this, but you are a lover of fiction—I saw somewhere, Twitter maybe—and I am as well. I’ve never asked this question on the show before, but I would be curious what you have read recently or are looking forward to reading this summer in the fiction category. Anything that’s top of mind?

Rachel Cantor 8:45
I just finished reading No One Is Talking About This by Patricia. Lockwood, which was very interesting. I would not say it’s my favorite read. But I do think it has a lot to do about internet culture and what it means to be online and how that impacts society and also how we go about our lives. And that was fascinating. But my most my favorite fiction read recently has been A Little Life. Have you read it?

Adam Vazquez 9:11
No.

Rachel Cantor 9:12
Okay, it’s a great book by Hanya Yanagihara. I think I’m pronouncing her name correctly, but it follows a group of four friends from college throughout their entire life. And it’s probably the saddest book I’ve ever read. I’m gonna be honest, upfront, like I think it is. And I’m not a sad book person like I read fiction because I want to escape from everything and be offline. But that being said, it is one of the most well written most like the characters are developed in the most beautiful way and then it has this amazing theme around friendship and I really learned a lot about friendship from it so badly recommend, but you will cry.

Adam Vazquez 9:54
Oh, man. That’s tough knowing that going in. A Little Life. And then what was the other one about internet culture?

Rachel Cantor 10:00
No One Is Talking About This. She wrote the entire book from her iPhone.

Adam Vazquez 10:08
Oh, wow. Okay. I’m going to Virginia this weekend. And I need so I like I was looking for a book I was specifically waiting for this conversation to get my next read. So I’ll report back on how sad I am after I’ve read them. But anyway, thanks for nerding out with me on that. So Rachel, you have had like quite an experience already. And we should say our mutual friend Rachel Braun connected us shadow Rachel and so I think you started off similar to Rachel in some ways in that you’re able to leverage Twitter in order to kind of kick off your career, spend some time at Morning Brew, we’ll get into what you’re doing now a Tydo, but take us back to the Twitter experience and kind of how that helped you launch into what you’re doing now.

Rachel Cantor 10:08
Totally. So I graduated in 2020. And I always liked writing, but I didn’t see myself becoming a writer at all, quite honestly. But I’ve always been that friend people go to for recommendation. So I did kind of what everyone did throughout the pandemic and I started my own newsletter. And I started building it organically. It was just a passion project. I had no ambition for it to become a job. I had no ambition it for it to grow into a major audience. It was just something I love doing. And I was new to Twitter, I was kind of poking around finding content, following people I admired in different spaces. And then one day I threw out a tweet. It’s kind of funny looking back at the exact tweet. I literally said something like “check out my newsletter. It features” and I tagged Morning Brew. I think I tagged Scott Galloway, honestly, because I included maybe one of his podcasts, and then a brand I loved, and the managing editor Neil saw my tweet, read my newsletter, loved it, and then cold DM to me about my job, which was really wild. It doesn’t usually happen that way.

Adam Vazquez 12:01
I feel like some people will send out a tweet being like, I hope this gets me a job. And like in the dream scenario, you get the managing editor in the first tweet and the DM, so it just worked out for you that way.

Rachel Cantor 12:13
Yeah, I mean, definitely props to Neil, because he’s like, in in the DMS, monitoring that seeing things and always reading, like, oh, just constantly learning and reading. I think that’s really a testament to him, and also to The Brew and the kind of culture they’ve built there too. But I think the one thing that it did teach me from that experience is to always put what you create out into the world. And we talk a lot about building in public. And it can kind of be it’s hard, right? Like you’re building something, and you’re like, scared to share it with everyone, and I’ve totally been there. But I think even if you’re building something and it’s imperfect, that’s part of the process. And people are more attracted to the messiness and imperfect nature of it, I would say, because over time, you’ll refine it and build it, but the fact that you’re out there, (1) it’s an opportunity to grow an audience, (2) it’s an opportunity to grow your brand, and (3) you never know what’s gonna come from it. I really learned to put things out into the world. And I wasn’t always like that, I think I had this kind of negative self-talk around self-promotion, I was just because it’s like, sometimes a little cringy when you’re like promoting your own stuff. I’ve seen people who promote their own stuff and it’s in a way that—

Adam Vazquez 13:26
Oh, 100%. It’s very difficult to do.

Rachel Cantor 13:30
It’s hard. I had a friend kind of reframe it for me where she was like, what you’re actually creating is adding value to people. And the fact that you’re not sharing it is a missed opportunity for people. So if you share what you think is adding value, then it’s not really like self-promotion, it’s not really necessarily comes from that selfish, ego-driven place, you’re actually trying to help people and also simultaneously share the cool stuff you’re doing.

Adam Vazquez 14:00
Yeah, I think that broke for me somewhat early in my career. I Well, my first job was a terrible job. And that you had to like make like 100 Phone cold calls a day like that job. And so the sales manager would reef would try to tell us to reframe as well, like, you’re not bothering them, you’re not pestering them, you’re trying to help them improve their business or whatever, which, for that really wasn’t the case. But just learning that reframing anything I do on Twitter or anything I do on LinkedIn is just so much less painful because of that experience. But that reframing is super important. So I would say yes, testament to Neil, but also testament to you of obviously what you wrote had meaning or impact or quality to some degree that he was interested immediately. What was your newsletter about?

Rachel Cantor 14:53
It was all recommendations kind of similar to like what I ended up building out at The Brew, but it was a combination and also a pro personal narrative and like the things I was experiencing, as a new grad during the pandemic, and the questions, I was asking myself, but also go to brands that I’ve been loving trends around pop culture, like, why are we seeing so many nonalcoholic brands? And then like, what is this meme format that’s going around? Or why is there this massive google doc of icebreakers? And like, sharing fun things to like, it got people through a lot of like dark days during the pandemic.

Adam Vazquez 15:30
Yeah, like a fun look at what was going on online. So you leverage that, you started working at The Brew, and what were you doing at Morning Brew?

Rachel Cantor 15:40
So when I joined, they launched a newsletter called The Essentials, they launched that in April 2020. And the person that spun out have a section in the daily newsletter, the one that’s the massive, over like 3 million subscribers now newsletter, but they have this section in the daily that was called, I think it’s called like the daily planner. And it was like things to do during the pandemic, when everyone was going stir crazy. And because that was like the most clicked upon section in the newsletter, they ended up building something called the essentials, which was all focused on how to stay happy and healthy. During the pandemic, and just internet culture, it was kind of like that cool friend, keeping you in the know. And all of the writers that Morning Brew were rotating through writing that on top of their existing verticals, so it was a lot of work. And they also like didn’t have, they were finding things and kind of curating what they were reading, but it also wasn’t necessarily their specialty in a lot of ways. So they were like, Oh, we’re running, we’re running out of things. And simultaneously, The Brew was noticing like this newsletter is performing really well. I think there’s an opportunity here to build a lifestyle focus newsletter, and tap into what is the life of the modern business leader outside of just business news. And so when I joined, I took over writing the essentials. And then while I was doing that, we were developing what would be essentials? 2.0, which turned into Sidekick. So it was like, how do we take what worked on the essentials? What didn’t work? Like what do we want to do more of what fits the modern business leader, and then create that into like a brand new brand identity, newsletter design, and all of that, and then launched Sidekick and wrote that there.

Adam Vazquez 17:22
Wow, that was a huge product to just takeover right off the bat. That’s awesome.

Rachel Cantor 17:27
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Building a newsletter from the ground up is a really interesting process and one that I loved.

Adam Vazquez 17:36
Yeah. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about that. I feel like see, like you mentioned 2020, there were just newsletters galore. Everyone started newsletters, every brand started newsletter. And a lot of people got, I think frustrated early on with, it seemed like if you didn’t get like initial hockey stick growth, and it was difficult sometimes to sustain or to grow a brand. What did you learn through that experience about growing an audience through a newsletter?

Rachel Cantor 18:05
For my personal newsletter, I just learned that consistency is key. And I know time and time again, people say that, but it’s really true. It’s like you have to keep writing, and you have to keep doing it. And that’s how you get better. That’s how you grow an audience. And then that’s also how you learn what works and doesn’t work. At The Brew, everything we did from the beginning was audience-driven. And I think that’s super important. I always say when you’re starting a personal newsletter, I don’t think you necessarily have to worry about that. Because that can kind of get into your psyche a little bit. And I would say create, like what you want to create and build what you think like will add value. And then from there, you could tap into the audience and iterate. Sometimes people are too focused on what other people want at the start. And again, that gets into like, why are you starting a newsletter in the first place? You should probably like know why you’re starting it and also how it’s going to be different because like you said, it’s a crowded space.

Adam Vazquez 18:59
Yeah, so let’s say your thinking of it from a brand’s perspective, what does that mean when you say it’s— what was the term you said? Audience lead?

Rachel Cantor 19:08
Audience-driven.

Adam Vazquez 19:09
Driven, yeah. What does that mean?

Rachel Cantor 19:12
From the perspective of The Brew or just like any brands really?

Adam Vazquez 19:15
Yeah, not necessarily a personal newsletter but from a brand’s perspective who’s trying to start a newsletter.

Rachel Cantor 19:21
Yeah. One, you should ask yourself, what is the purpose of the newsletter? So is it to drive leads? Is it to build a community? Is it to spotlight existing customers or users and think about or to establish yourself as a thought leader in a space and that’s what you want to do? So I think thinking through that, and then the other piece is the audience and so I guess when I mean when I say don’t necessarily start with audience with a personal newsletter because that’s like really driven from you, but then with a brand and something like through Obviously, you have to think about audience. And obviously you have to think about growth, its business. And so diving into actually talking to audience members, like I spent a lot of time in my early days when I joined, Morning Brew, I read through every past edition. And then I also read through the inbox. And Brew is a unique place in that there are a lot of reader replies, but I went through almost every email and I started collecting feedback. And I’m a big post-it note fan. So I was like posted noting all over grouping the different types of feedback into different things like, and then figuring out what are the patterns there? And then I would actually, like hop on the phone with readers who loved the newsletter. Really don’t ask them like, yeah, it was, it was actually super fun. You did all of this. Like it was basically like how you build a product at a tech company. Yeah, doing user feedback on all that. And that was really fun, because you learn about people’s media habits, and how they consume. And then also you can figure out kind of like where you fit into the picture. Because obviously, there’s the issue of, there are so many newsletters, there’s so much to consume. So how can you best serve the audience. So that’s kind of what I mean by diving into that.

Adam Vazquez 21:09
I love that. I love how old school that is in just like a huge grouping and with paper and pen, the clusters of feedback that would come through and then literally talking to humans. I feel like that gets left out so much in, in content today. And when you said I had like this vision of Have you seen Horrible Bosses when Charlie Kelly’s like trying to figure out something and he’s got all this post-it notes and the strings all over? Do you know what I’m talking about?

Rachel Cantor 21:35
I know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen it, but I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Adam Vazquez 21:39
That’s the mental image I got of what you were trying to do to map all that. But that’s such a great exercise to go through.

Rachel Cantor 21:45
That literally was it. I call it a post-it note party. I will like blackout time in my calendar to do it. I do it with almost all large pieces of content.

Adam Vazquez 21:56
Yeah. Going into publishing the content, you do it based on like past feedback?

Rachel Cantor 22:02
I do it for like brainstorming different content series, and then also for like, the larger strategy, and then distribution of it.

Adam Vazquez 22:12
Very cool. Well, that’s super helpful. Okay, so you did that, you were at The Morning Brew for a while, you had some good time, obviously, and learned a lot. And then at some point you transition to where you are now, which is Tydo. And you sent me— I was looking a little bit this new content series. And I wanted to get into your brain around this a little bit. Well, maybe you could just set the table and explain what it is that you all just launched, the content series you just launched.

Rachel Cantor 22:36
Totally. So we launched this content series called Tydo Tables. And the whole purpose of it is to is really this core question, which is like, what if we gathered really niche groups of direct-to-consumer founders and operators in a single room to have one single roundtable conversation? what would come of that? And what types of unique opportunities, questions and problems are they facing in their niche? And then how do we create that experience? And then how do we turn that into really amazing insights and content?

Adam Vazquez 23:09
Okay, and then also, what does Tydo provide as a company?

Rachel Cantor 23:13
Tydo is an e-commerce enablement tool that helps direct to consumer brands better understand their data, and analytics, and then make smarter decisions and leverage that data into action.

Adam Vazquez 23:25
What I loved about this was, first of all, obviously, DTC founders and operators are essentially your target customer. And for the most part, I would imagine, and you’ve created this series, that, obviously is Super Value additive, and gives these founders a reason to listen to you. But it’s also so insightful for you all, to be able to hear these conversations and hear what’s important to them. And I was just, it’s not a, I wouldn’t say it’s a normal content execution that either is brand driven, and you’re going out and saying things to founders, or even something like this, where you’re having a conversation with an operator one on one, but you are platforming and enabling the founders to talk to each other. How did that come about? How did you guys come up with that idea?

Rachel Cantor 24:14
Yeah, that idea came up in a brainstorm session around content for like a big like 2022 Tydo content session we did. And instead of physical post, it’s we use figma in a fig jam. Okay, but it started. Yeah, same idea. It started in a big jam thinking through. I don’t know, I’ve been thinking a lot about these, like, just in real life experiences, and then also like digital experiences, and how are they different? How are they similar? What can we gain from both of them and then I’m someone who really, I love in-real-life experiences. I think they’re so magical. There’s something about like being in a room, the energy you feel, and it can be a mess, but also there are these like, really special moments and I don’t know like the way to describe them per se, but you just feel you leave feeling so energized in a way that no zoom webinar, or Twitter conversation can really match up to. And I’ve been thinking a lot about that and just about how all these founders are so siloed. And you have this group of founders, direct-to-consumer founders who are thriving on Twitter who are having amazing conversations, and DTC Twitter is huge. It’s like such a, it’s such a niche space, but also there are those founders who are not part of that conversation. And like, why, why are they left out of the conversation? How can we bring them in? And how can founders learn in a way where they feel really safe and open, because when you’re online, too, there’s always someone who’s gonna criticize you, there’s always someone who’s gonna say something, and it’s not a safe space, per se, to explore those problems and challenges. And I like looked back on so many key moments of growth in my life and feel like they really came from these in real life moments, whether it’s like, I went on an entrepreneurial retreat that was in person and like sitting around a circle, or just conversations in the classroom, or things like that. And so we were thinking about that, and how to, how to curate an experience that’s really unique, and feels really intimate. And that’s kind of the impetus for Tydo tables. And we were just like, let’s, let’s try it. And we had this, we had a few ideas for the first series. And one of them was about CPG, and kind of what’s happening in the consumer packaged goods space. And so we went to Austin. And we had this amazing private room at a restaurant and had this two-hour conversation with 14 founders and operators of these food and beverage brands. And Austin is really interesting space to build a CPG brand. That’s why we chose Austin. It was very purposeful. Everything about it was super purposeful. I think you can kind of see that from the content too. But we were in that room. And it was just two hours of like pure magic of you could see these new founders who were just launching a like a food brand, or like a yes, snack brand on the side is there like a full-time project like product manager or something. And then versus like, the founder of a massive like canned cocktail companies sitting next to each other or like founders being like, I’ve always wanted to talk to this person. But he’s never responded to my emails. And now I get to be in the room with him. Like that’s so cool. Or a founder was like, we’re shelf mates at this store in Austin. But we’ve never met in person and having those moments. And then from there, they’ve actually been able to everyone in that room has built a strong relationship with each other. So there’s a group of women from that conversation who now do like bi-weekly, female founder gatherings where they brainstorm on their businesses. And then so communities of users are spinning out. And I also think what’s interesting about it that you noted as well was like, it wasn’t a sales pitch about Tydo. Like Tydo was not a part of the conversation. It’s called Tydo Tables, this series and it’s on Tydo. But in the content, it’s not about Tydo. It’s about that merchant and founder perspective.

Adam Vazquez 28:26
Yeah, so smart. And a couple things that you said there that I just feel like we’re really resonated. One is, I feel like what you’re talking about the in-person experience has become even more magnified based on our experience last 36 months, or whatever, to where we all crave it so much that when when you do have it, it’s even more intense those feelings of whatever the magic, like you called it. And you said something else that founders are used to. I think that we’ve gotten so good at communicating safely online because we know that everything is documented. Everything is transparent. And so I can be attacked pretty easily. And I was curious if you’ve seen this, like, in a few in real life, things that I’ve done. And then this isn’t a good way. I’m not saying like, but like people have said things that I’m like, Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that level of honesty or depth. But it’s because it wasn’t necessarily just being typed. And they were able to express it and then give context that you can’t give online. And so anyway, it just created this entire energy that, as you said, you just can’t manufacture even if it’s a closed off like, this is great, but it’s just so much so different when you’re in the room with people.

Rachel Cantor 29:43
Yeah, and you feel that there’s more vulnerability. I think that comes out of that, too.

Adam Vazquez 29:47
Yeah. So okay, so that was the execution, and then how did that get distributed or how did that get tied back to value for the brand?

Rachel Cantor 29:58
Yeah, so we had that in real-life experience. And then I went into deep writing research mode and also design mode, because it’s like, how do you bring that type of experience that was so magical in person to a piece of magical content? And I also think it’s really interesting, too, because we went from experiential to content and that’s a really interesting pipeline to think through, how do you bring that to them? How do you bring the in-real-life to digital? Is a key question. But oftentimes, so Tydo Tables is a gated asset. So you have to put in your email to receive the content, it’s free. But I think oftentimes, gated content can get a bad rap. And so I was really purposeful with like, Okay, how do we make sure that this content is so valuable that people like it is worth it for people. And so we really put a lot of time and effort into not only the writing of it, but also the design of it, and then creating an entire content experience, not just like one piece, it’s not just the report, you go to a unique website experience that’s interactive. And then also, each theme within that report has its own landing page. So that’s also another component of it. And then you have the option to either receive the full report on the homepage, or you could go to each theme and receive just that specific theme report. But then you’re put into an email flow where you get each theme one day after. So it’s like, also cool. It’s really interesting, where it is the full report, and that is this, the content is at its center at the core. But then how do you create landing page experiences? How do you create and how do you bring that content to life in email, which is also another channel too. So that’s kind of how we thought about, we thought about that, where it was actually building a full experience, and not just one piece of content?

Adam Vazquez 31:55
Yeah, there’s a theme here where you seem to think very thoroughly through the entire throughline of the content and make sure that there are those experiences are fulfilling to the consumer. But also, at least in this case beneficial to the brand by getting their email or whatever other data. That’s so cool, we’ll make sure to link to that page. And if you haven’t seen the Tydo Tables, be sure to check them out.

The thing about podcast ads is that they normally suck, right? I mean, you’re listening to a conversation you’re actually enjoying, and then you hear the host come on in a completely different pitch and tell you why you should buy some meal prep service, or listen to another pod instead of this one. But you wanted to listen to this one. That’s why you’re on this episode. That’s why you’re here in the first place. Well, this ad is no different. So just bear with me because I need to remind you that today’s show is brought to you by herd media herd is a podcast and YouTube production agency serving b2b service based companies. That’s what we work with. That’s who we serve. If you’re a b2b company, listen to this, we can help you we create, produce and distribute content to help you find customers. So you can focus on what you’re great at. If you want to learn more. Once the show resumes in like 15 seconds, open your browser on your phone and visit trustheard.com to find out how your company can start a show that drives revenue. It’s finally over. Let’s get back to the show.

Rachel, thank you so much for coming on and spending time with us. And before we let you go, I asked everyone, what is one content trend, one project anything that you have either upcoming or that you’re noticing personally, that just has you excited?

Rachel Cantor 33:37
I’m really excited about TikTok. I know that’s like kind of a generic answer. But I think that there are so many cool ways to bring content to life on that platform. And it’s something that I’ve been thinking a lot about, especially from like working at a tech company. How do you create content on that channel that resonates and doesn’t feel salesy?

Adam Vazquez 34:00
Have you toyed with it much?

Rachel Cantor 34:05
I have. I’ve created a few just to experiment I’m definitely not a good like TikTok or myself, but I think I think it’s a fun platform and you learn a lot by just doing it.

Adam Vazquez 34:17
Yeah, I’m curious to see as it seems like it’s hitting the level where good marketers like yourself are getting I mean, not to say that everyone before wasn’t a good marketer but people are using it like very strategically. And so I’m very curious to see what that looks like in terms of the executions like there’s been a lot of spin-off brands or little almost like content series I feel like that have gone on there but more and more brands like what you’re talking about are getting into it. What’s your favorite—or if you have a favorite—TikTok inspo right now?

Rachel Cantor 34:53
Oh, I love watching because I’m in DTC and an e-commerce and I love the brand side of it and all the storytelling And I love following Dilma, I don’t know if you’ve seen her videos, but she does these deep dives on direct to consumer brands and oh core, like, why did glossier, like lay off a bunch of people? Or like, why this works for this brand or their strategy? And so I find that content really interesting. Yeah. And that’s someone and that type of content. I’ve been watching closely because it’s more, it’s educational, but just comes across so much better in TikTok than on our platforms.

Adam Vazquez 35:29
Yeah, for sure. Cool. Thank you again, Rachel, so much for joining us. If people want to follow along with you, your writing all the work that you’re doing, what’s the best place for them to keep tabs on you?

Rachel Cantor 35:38
Definitely Twitter. It’s just my name, Rachel Cantor, and then an underscore. I would say stay tuned there. I usually post about kind of all my personal projects, and also anything fun, that’s Tydo-related as well.

Adam Vazquez 35:53
Awesome. We gotta get whoever Rachel Cantor not underscore is to give you that handle.

Rachel Cantor 36:00
I know. Rachel Braun and I were both talking about that, because we’re both underscores and we were like, we really need the full name.

Adam Vazquez 36:10
We’ll work on that next time. Well, thank you again, Rachel. We will be following all the stuff that you do with Tydo and with your own brand, and appreciate you coming on.

Rachel Cantor 36:18
Thank you. Thanks so much.

Carlton Riffel 36:20
And that’s a wrap. Thank you for listening to this episode of Content Is for Closers. We hope you find this show really helpful as you grow your business with content. Maybe you know of other people who would find this show helpful as well. How about you send them our way? If you didn’t like this show and you want to tell us that, then you can head over to contentisforclosers.com where you can send us a message, give us some feedback, ask questions, or find detailed notes for every episode. Until next time, keep creating and keep closing.