- Duration: 33 min
- Platform: meet
- Source: Read.ai 01JV2T6F4HTASM67CBGG2BZPGZ (https://app.read.ai/analytics/meetings/01JV2T6F4HTASM67CBGG2BZPGZ)
Transcript
[Michael Houck]: Is as mr. Rogers would say a wonderful day in the neighborhood Smell the tariff news, which I love it’s great for the portfolio all seems all seems also saw that a Open AI is a Stargate thing is on hold. It looks like oh, really? Yeah, I mean somewhat predictable because they’re investing like they’re trying to get people to invest like a hundred billion on the back of their models and you know to our point we made in the newsletter a few weeks ago the models are not where the value will accrue so that um folks are just uh hesitant that’s interesting yeah looking at that more yeah but what I like about the tariff news is that uh we reduced ours less than they reduced theirs yeah we’re we went to 30 and they’re at like 10 or something so Hey, what’s up, man? Yeah. What’s up, Ben? How you doing? [Michael Houck]: Pretty good. [Michael Houck]: Pretty good. [Ben Ornstein]: I do not have an old computer and it’s probably my fault for opening too many tabs at once, but I have to restart my computer. Like that’s why I’m late because I had to restart my computer. Like almost once every couple Maybe that might be a little more frequent than it actually is, but too often. And my computer’s pretty new, so that’s not good. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Do you have a MacBook? [Ben Ornstein]: It’s a MacBook. It’s a good MacBook. It’s like, yeah, I paid a lot for it. [Blake Stewart]: Yeah, that happened to me, my last computer, like two years ago. I had to get a new one as well. I think it was just too much RAM and not enough storage or something. [Michael Houck]: Do you have AppleCare? [Ben Ornstein]: I do I did not pay for Apple care for it because yeah Maybe maybe you can buy Apple care and then like a month or two later like go in and you know I don’t know maybe it’s not like it’s not a make-or-break problem, but like it definitely decreases my efficiency sometimes Yeah You you mentioned that like you have like Google Sheets like freeze like zoom and stuff like that too like that’s weird when I’m on a call and I go to a Like I was on a call with Andrew this morning, and I didn’t have to restart the computer, but it froze for like a good three seconds. [Blake Stewart]: Not good. I would go to your finder, your folder, and like delete a bunch of large files. Have you done all that? [Michael Houck]: I’ve done that. I probably have to do it again. [Michael Houck]: I probably have to do it again. That’s crazy, man. Yeah. I don’t know. That’s a weird one. Yeah Yeah, it is a painful one. Um Okay, well let’s dive into stuff. Um So let’s do ads first. So I’m going to share my screen to show you guys where we’re at with everything Um, how do I there we go Okay, so let’s change the date to include today because for some reason by default it does not include day. Right. So there’s six ads live now. I brought the other old one back into play as well. And so in total, like efficiency is really good. We’re basically for $2, we're getting a subscriber, which is, um, which is pretty solid. Uh, it's not like best in class, but it's, it's also like serviceable. Um, so considering the fact that we have limited ads live and this is like our first week doing this, I'm pretty happy with this. So we spent like 500 bucks so far. I've ramped this up to 160 per day. So this week spend should increase. What is that to like, I don't want to do the public math, but it's like 900 bucks or something. I don't know. So, so yeah, we'll see how that goes this week. A couple things on this. So I want to show you guys this old dashboard that we have, which is, where is it? I found it last night, but I can't find it now. I think it's in my other email. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Ah, yeah, here it is. [Michael Houck]: Okay, let me bring this into the tab so you guys can see it. Okay, so we used to run this dashboard with Matt McGarry's team, and I want to bring this back. It shows like like how we're doing CPA wise, spend wise. We were doing multiple platforms before, which is why we have a share of spend per platform and stuff like that. And I was factoring in their agency fees into our CPA. So this is actually good. So you can see, even with their agency fees, we were doing like $2 to $250 to $270, somewhere in there most weeks. Earlier on, we were doing much better because not a lot of people on SparkLoop at this time, and so we were able to make a lot of it back through SparkLoop. Today we wouldn’t be able to get this low, even with SparkLoop. But you can see the referrals early on from SparkLoop were insane. We were making like 3k a week for a little while. But the platform doesn’t work like that anymore. They have stronger controls for like engagement and stuff like that than they used to. So this is just a way that we can track the data. I added in data from last week. So we’ll use this going forward. I’m gonna update it a little bit this week, but yeah, we’ll just track here kind of going forward. And if we can get spend up into like this range again, I’d like to. The blocker to doing that is basically just seeing if this drives conversion to ideally like ghostwriting. So we’ll see if it works. It’s not like a perfect funnel because we’re advertising just broad founder audience and we’re trying to get conversion to like specific content thing. [Blake Stewart]: So we’ll see how it does. Yeah, great. In that welcome series or pushing you’ve got some other deals in there like pushing other signups. What are those? Back to me. I’m just waiting on the link, but that’ll be a $2 Which one is this? [Michael Houck]: The deep view newsletter. Okay, cool. Yeah, we're doing right now. We have the needs to exist startup idea database live. I haven't written the email for TLDR yet, but I'm going to do that. Then we have the option to do HubSpot as well. If the DeepView is doing $2 per, that might actually be the way to go, though. Because at that point, even if we have OK conversion, it’ll be a meaningful chunk of the CPA. So yeah, our goal is to find a way to get this to break even, to net zero, basically. Yeah, we’re. OK. So that’s that. We’ll see how it goes this week. But I’m pretty excited about it. I think the results are good for where we’re at. And I’m trying to think of anything else to say on this for now, but I don’t think I do. [Blake Stewart]: Is there a clear difference in the type of ad that’s performing better? [Michael Houck]: So you’ve got. [Michael Houck]: Yeah, so we have two types right now. So these top two. Bottom one are ones Matt McGarry had set up before. And then the middle three are the sort of AI generated ones that Ben did a couple weeks ago. And I think, you know, it’s clear, we’re seeing that the the Matt McGarry ones are performing better. The reason for this is because, in my opinion, the Matt McGarry ones, it’s all you can see all the text in one place. Right. So like with the ones that we did. Right. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: And so I think that’s what’s hurt. [Ben Ornstein]: I think the background on that on that one that you just pulled up was so good, though. [Ben Ornstein]: So I thought you kept the text on that one because it shows like it fading to night, like it shows like the progression of a day. [Michael Houck]: I really like it. Yeah, I agree. I mean, it’s engaging for sure. And I think that we should we can reuse those like there’s nothing against reusing it. But with the next batch, we’ll want to keep that in mind as like a learning for in general to always put the full text right away so people can digest it immediately. Because I think you even see, right, like just in terms of number of impressions, like the the ads algo, I sort of figured out that it’s pushing the other ones more. This one I just turned on yesterday. So that’s why it’s low. And these 2k impressions, most of them were from like the first day. So it’s sort of learned already that the other ones are where we want to want to focus. Good to know. Okay, so on that note, then, Ben, where are we at with the plan? I think we said no new creative this week, because we’ve got these kind of doing well. And we have a backlog of other ones that we haven’t taken live yet. But yeah, I guess for next week, what are you thinking? [Ben Ornstein]: I could do a couple more of the creator ones, like the AI avatar ones. I could also re-use the ones, like the one that we just did there. Actually, no. No, never mind. I Was gonna say I could reuse that same Background like the one you just pulled up, but it would take credits to redo it even with static Yeah, but we’ll have those credits next week, right? All right, so so that I’ll reuse and do that. That’ll be one of them I’ll do more of the AI avatar ones But but specifically for the pitch deck database and for the investor database And then I’ll also try out a couple more different static ones. You’ve sent me them. I have a list of all of them and I’ll try to like duplicate or recreate those ones for us. [Michael Houck]: Yeah, and just flag to me what you’re gonna do first so that I can like sign off on so we don’t waste the credit sort of going back and forth on the same idea. But yeah, I think this week I’m gonna take live some of the investor database ones and that way we can compare that. My guess is the Pitch Deck ones will do better, but the Investor Database ones might be sort of more aligned to who we want to subscribe. So we’ll see, but okay, sounds good. Let’s see, what else? I think that’s it on ads, unless I’m missing anything else. [Ben Ornstein]: For now, just because of lack of credits, yeah, I think so. [Michael Houck]: Blake, how are we doing on Valley? [Blake Stewart]: We got one more meeting over the weekend, so that makes the numbers a little bit better. I mean, all in all, it’s still good. A lot of great responses. I think you got one that was like, hey, that’s how a DM should be done. So people are responding well to them. I’m still catching a lot of flows that are a little too just conversational of just like, hey, you want to talk about content? And people are like, yeah, for your marketing. Yeah, I mean responses are coming in good I yeah took off autopilot because I wasn’t liking all that so Outreach is slowed down a bit. But Yeah, I mean all in all it’s it’s still cruising along and you have responses are good one more meetings good but you know higher intent meetings, so So just cruising Okay Yeah, let’s see if one of these first two converts. [Michael Houck]: Yeah. I’ve gotten some hilarious responses. [Ben Ornstein]: Some have been like, what is this AI slop? And then others are not saying that. And they’re just like, that’s how a DM should be done. But I got people responding authentically engaging. Yeah. [Blake Stewart]: Yeah, so that’s why I’m not confident in just letting it run autopilot. That second meeting we got was also, I think the reason he wanted to meet was because of Valley. And he was like, Hey, how can we set this up for us? And so I put a note on that meeting in Valley, but yeah, I mean, maybe we just kind of spit it until, you know, content is more other than one-on-one outreach. So it’s the same effect. Yeah. [Michael Houck]: If he, if he pushes, I can just send him that. Zaid and Zaid can give me your referral thing. [Ben Ornstein]: There you go. Yeah. [Michael Houck]: It’ll be worth it. Okay. Um, so let’s keep an eye on it. Any, any, any tweaks that we’re like, we know we’re going to make this week or is it still sort of like you’re figuring it out? It’s fluid. [Blake Stewart]: Like, you know, yeah, I’m going to run that other campaign today with, uh, less research agents. Um, just so I can kind of really measure the difference between the two. I don’t think that will have that big of an effect. I still, I want to, I need to learn more about this sales navigator and maybe get our list a little bit better and like learn how I can optimize that. But really, it’s just, I mean, it is still kind of time consuming just to approve all the messages now. And then, yeah, like you mentioned with Raina’s profile, if we want to go in, I can kind of look at everyone’s, I mean, yours is obviously fine, but like, add more megaphone studio to our profile. So when people look at us, like I don’t have megaphone studios on my LinkedIn. [Michael Houck]: So yeah, yeah, I combined them. So it’s just like the megaphone LinkedIn page is like the one you can use. But that’s fair. I think so. I think we should try more of the like post URLs for the list. [Blake Stewart]: I can’t filter on title or location. So I ran one and it was, you know, like giving me like it sells like an SDR person and like you’re up something. So like it’s, I agree. It’s probably going to have, you know, some good engagement targets, but then it’s, it’s still. [Michael Houck]: Maybe flag that to them as a, as a feature request, because like, I would love for us to go to like Alex Lieberman’s, page and just grab all of his tweets about StoryArb, and not tweets, but LinkedIn posts about StoryArb, and just find the people on there who are actually founders and reach out. Yeah. [Blake Stewart]: I think that’s my main goal, trying to learn LinkedIn Sales Navigator a little bit better just so I could isolate some of those. Even that just doesn’t really have the filters we completely want to be able to target. [Michael Houck]: What I’m saying is that if you can combine that with the filters, right? Like if that has some way for you to do that. [Blake Stewart]: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Okay. And maybe they don’t, maybe they’re like, it’s one or the other. [Michael Houck]: And we’re just, you know, in that case, I agree with you. It probably does make sense to stick with the lists that are, you know, more filtered down. [Blake Stewart]: Yeah, I’m wondering if I could combine TweetScraper. If you could just upload your own prospect list, too. You don’t have to use LinkedIn. [Michael Houck]: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, you probably could then. Because we have unlimited subscription to that, right? Yeah. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: OK. [Blake Stewart]: I mean, that’s what it’s coming down to. That first filter is what needs to be the most important. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Cool. [Blake Stewart]: All in all, it’s good. I guess I will try and double outreach this week so that we can measure and hopefully get two meetings next week instead of one and then compare. [Michael Houck]: Do you still feel like there’s a path to five to ten meetings a week? [Blake Stewart]: Yeah, I do. [Blake Stewart]: I just don’t know how to really get to autopilot. Quicker. I want to, once we toggle that on, I mean, it’s going to be able to, to do it. It’s just a matter of us sending some bad messages, you know, what percentage of them are going to be cringe. Yeah. [Michael Houck]: I mean, I’m not opposed to that, you know, it’s all about results at the end of the day. Um, if people are like, why are you sending me this AI slop? Like just tell them to fuck off. Like, you know, the next guy will pay us three K, you know, it’s I don’t know if this has been part of your like concern. [Blake Stewart]: I don’t I don’t care what comes from my account like I don’t want you to say like, you know But like I’m also not like you you can say whatever you want, yeah worst case I’m gonna be great at spending it, you know people are gonna they’re Realizing that LinkedIn and social media like AI is kind of moving into Right, I think for these posts. Oh, okay. [Ben Ornstein]: So to spin it like hey, if you’re not using the AI you’re falling behind so yeah, and People are connecting. [Blake Stewart]: I see so many people connecting with me. [Michael Houck]: So yeah positive positive Let’s keep it rolling then and we’ll try some of that and I see how it goes cool, okay Okay. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Next up content. [Michael Houck]: So that’s mostly on me right now. So I posted this morning when I woke up early metrics, sub stack has two likes. And their, their full metrics thing isn’t available yet for some reason. I guess it takes time. Threads is low as expected, just one like, but LinkedIn doing well. We have like 53 likes and a couple comments so far. So, um, you know, LinkedIn is going to be our most engaged audience, but sub stack, Ben, to your point on the thread is a high potential. So, um, I’m just going to be grinding on this every day. Are we putting stuff out? Um, and the big thing for me is going to be, I need to be able to spend the time on like the content op stuff for the account too. So I need to be engaging with people, not just your private, like I need to go find actual posts and leave thoughtful comments on them. Um, especially on sub stack and threads, obviously. So on LinkedIn, um, so I’m going to try to carve out, if I get my sleep schedule back to normal, I’m going to try to carve out a couple hours in the morning every day to do that. Um, so we’ll see if that, if that works, for back posting, which is good. [Ben Ornstein]: That’s great. And then maybe when we fully transition or get to a closer place where a lot of it’s transitioned, maybe that’s something I could handle specifically for your account. [Michael Houck]: Maybe. Maybe. I’d much prefer to do it myself, honestly. But we’ll see. Ideally, it is something we can have either Andrew or you do, but for now, I definitely want to do it myself. [Michael Houck]: Yeah, makes sense. [Blake Stewart]: I’m going to share a list of Twitter posts and LinkedIn posts that are kind of relevant. I don’t know if it’ll be good for you to comment on and kind of engage with. [Michael Houck]: Well, I can’t comment on anything on Twitter. [Ben Ornstein]: Hey, someone just got back and said, Hey, Ben, thanks for reaching out. [Michael Houck]: Would love to learn more. [Michael Houck]: There you go. There you go. There we go. It’s one. Yeah. So, uh, the content calendar, I added that to, um, notion, uh, Blake, I added spots in there for sponsor stuff. So, um, let me know if that system works or if there’s another strategy. That you think makes sense. But I still like the idea of the sponsor copy, I think, being in Slack rather than Notion. But I also see the argument to just drop it in Notion and have it all be there. So I don’t know. We can test whatever you prefer. [Blake Stewart]: There is fine with me. OK. Yeah. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: We’ll keep it in Slack for now. [Blake Stewart]: Yeah. I would like about Notion, it’s just months out in advance. Slack’s just two weeks, so I could cater it a little bit better. [Michael Houck]: Yeah, so feel free to, I know we have sponsors booked out for a little bit, feel free to add those future-looking cards, and it’ll help me, because I’ll be like, oh, if I’m writing something for that day, or if I’m thinking about it, it’ll just be on my mind. So I’m going to use that content calendar every single day. [Blake Stewart]: Sweet. Cool. Nice. Nice work on that. [Michael Houck]: That’s huge. [Michael Houck]: I’m trying to think what else. I guess the next thing is once we have a week or so of this under our belt, the visual element is going to be really big. So I’m going to start looping Selene in to create a lot of carousels for us for LinkedIn, stuff like that. So this will be a fully branded and ramped up operation pretty soon. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Nice. [Michael Houck]: This is awesome. [Michael Houck]: Yeah, it’s going to drive a ton. For us. [Blake Stewart]: Is your goal still 200k subs by the end of the year? Increase it a bit? [Michael Houck]: Yeah, I think when when you join, that’s what we said. I would love to get there. I think, you know, for newsletter subs, that’s going to be just based on ads, like 90% of growth is going to come from ads for the newsletter. But social is really good for building trust, which could be good for things like, you know, finding the best podcast guests if we want to restart that, we’re obviously driving leads for studio and anything else that we launch that’s high ticket. So yeah, the goal is collect emails for sure. But the majority of that growth is going to come from ads. So really, the sort of calculus that we need to do if we’re going to hit that 200k by the end of the year is, can we get the CPA low enough? And can we get the payback fast enough? Order to turn our capital quickly enough to invest more each month basically because right now I think we’re you know, this limited budget 160 times 30 times or divided by 2 is We’re adding like 2,500 subscribers per month, right? So annualize that’s like a little under 30k So that’s obviously nowhere near we need to go because people are gonna unsubscribe to So we need to prove out the revenue side of it the payback side of it before we can invest more But if we can you know, I’d love to invest 10k a month 15k a month in this Make sense. Yeah Okay, and then I think that’s it for content okay, I guess one other thing on content so Ben I will have a YouTube video recorded that we’ll send to ClipWing, I want to say by end of day Wednesday. So I have a couple topics I’m going back and forth on right now. So I might loop you in for some research between now and then. Just keep an eye out for that. Sounds good. And then last thing is sponsorships. [Blake Stewart]: How are we doing? I need some feature placements. We’re struggling to get those. I’ll probably message all of our third party agencies that have some good, they tend to get those booked out for us. Other than that, we’re booked out on everything else through first week of June. So just, yeah. Cool. Okay. [Michael Houck]: I mean, I think now that we’re adding more folks to the newsletter again, you know, obviously we want that revenue from the featured placements, but if we don’t have it, there are, people who we can get the studio offer in front of So I’m not as down on it. [Blake Stewart]: But obviously, we still want to fill them. Yeah. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Yeah. [Michael Houck]: Pushing those. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: But yeah. [Michael Houck]: OK. We can brainstorm more tomorrow also when we chat. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: OK. [Blake Stewart]: Sounds good. All right. OK. [Michael Houck]: Anything else for today? [Ben Ornstein]: On the content front, no, but I could say like five different things right now. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Yeah. [Ben Ornstein]: Very unrelated. Yeah. [Michael Houck]: If it’s, if it’s other stuff, we can, we can take it offline and, but yeah. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: Okay. Cool. Sounds good. Good meeting. [UNKNOWN_SPEAKER]: All right guys.