Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
00:53:44 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[00:53:44] S0: of the day. Okay. So this is just a a core leg to the stool of paid ads as EGC. Exactly. Clearly working. Do you think this will work for every company? Is this something most BPs... I don't know. Yeah. Does this... Do you think this won't work? [00:53:58] S1: I think this works for everyone. It's like it goes back to what I was saying. It's just finding those users that can speak to the users you wanna acquire. And at the end of day, one thing that we look at at Wispr is, like, the b to b side and the enterprise side is all made up of individuals. And if you can find a way to make your content speak to an individual who's part of those teams, and maybe you get them as, like, a solo... How would you say? Like, a solo customer or whatever to download the app, then use it, then they tell a friend in the company, and then more people in the company start using it. And then maybe you chase down those enterprise clients and actually close the deal. Like, that's realistically how most companies can approach that at the end of the day. And it's not like, oh, like, who from x company is gonna watch my video and, like, hop on an enterprise call and, like, wanna close or whatever. But I think if you, like, approach it from, like, companies are made up of people and you just look at it like that and you think, okay. How how do I wanna sell to these people and how would these people respond well to getting sold to? I think you just have to break it down super simply and you're like, oh, yeah. This would work for anyone.
00:53:58 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:53:58] S1: I think this works for everyone. It's like it goes back to what I was saying. It's just finding those users that can speak to the users you wanna acquire. And at the end of day, one thing that we look at at Wispr is, like, the b to b side and the enterprise side is all made up of individuals. And if you can find a way to make your content speak to an individual who's part of those teams, and maybe you get them as, like, a solo... How would you say? Like, a solo customer or whatever to download the app, then use it, then they tell a friend in the company, and then more people in the company start using it. And then maybe you chase down those enterprise clients and actually close the deal. Like, that's realistically how most companies can approach that at the end of the day. And it's not like, oh, like, who from x company is gonna watch my video and, like, hop on an enterprise call and, like, wanna close or whatever. But I think if you, like, approach it from, like, companies are made up of people and you just look at it like that and you think, okay. How how do I wanna sell to these people and how would these people respond well to getting sold to? I think you just have to break it down super simply and you're like, oh, yeah. This would work for anyone. [00:54:57] S0: Okay, that makes sense. Also what I'm hearing though is it's probably most effective for kind of product led growth, bottom up sort of products, not like a Workday or a Salesforce, more like a, yeah, Wispr Flow or Notion and [00:55:10] S1: things like
00:55:10 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:55:10] S1: things like [00:55:11] S0: that. Awesome. And you know, like if you think about it, it makes so much sense why this would work. An influencer innately is someone that influences you to do something. You're basically getting influencerscreators to create content that pitches the product, and then you put them in people's feed through paid ads, and I get why it works because they're there trying to convince them how [00:55:31] S1: awesome also think that a good distinction as well is, like, it's not just an influencer or a creator. I almost think that creators with no following end up being better investments for brands because influencers kind of were seen now as sellouts a lot of the time and like when you see a big face or a big celebrity like selling a product, it's like, oh my gosh. This person has been selling me things for like the last ten years. I know she's just getting a bag or he's just getting a bag, and they're not really genuine. And there's something about, like, not really knowing who the person is, and they're not famous. They don't have a lot of followers. And if you have, like, these partnership ads coming from their account, it just feels a lot more genuine as well. So [00:56:06] S0: just wanted It's feel that like the less they look like an influencer. [00:56:09] S1: Exactly.
00:56:09 · Hector Serrano, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:56:09] S1: Exactly. [00:56:10] S0: The less they look like they're trying to convince you and they're just talking like a regular human about how awesome your product is. I get why that would work. Like what I think about right now is there's that survey that someone did a while ago of just what do want to be when you grow up, and for young people it was like creator, influencer versus [00:56:26] S1: Yeah, like stream. I think a lot people were saying they want be a streamer, a live streamer. Streamer versus [00:56:30] S0: like astronaut or lawyer. Yeah. And so you know, this is a career path is what you're describing. This is a way you're making money doing this. A lot of people are actually making money, being a So creator for people listening that are like wait, maybe this could be a career for me someday, maybe I should explore this creator life, Any advice for someone that's embarking on this? Because for many people, it may feel like I will never be as great as Hector just talking off the cuff on a video and looking interesting. Any advice for someone that's trying to explore this path and do better?
00:57:00 · Hector Serrano
[00:57:00] S1: I think the best advice would be to stop looking for advice. It's... It sounds it sounds dumb, but a lot of times I'll have a lot of friends reach out and be like, hey. I wanna get started. And I've had this happen for, like, maybe the last three years where people are like, hey. I wanna get started, I wanna start making videos like you. And I hop on a call with them for, two hours. I send them over a bunch of different guides, PDFs, things I've made, etcetera, for how they can get started, and they don't do anything with it. And it's like, at the end of the day, if if you're a person who's gonna ask before doing, you're probably not gonna succeed. And even the best people... I've I've had the privilege of working with a lot of the most famous podcasters or influencers or celebrities. And a lot of these people also stutter, and they also have to refilm things. And they have, like, specific things that they do to, like, lock back in, whether it's, like, weird noises they make with their mouth or, like, they fidget with their hands or they have, like, a phrase they repeat over and over again. Or I've I've even seen some creators where they start stuttering a lot after they've been doing the same script over and over again, and they'll put a pen in their mouth and will, like, open their mouth bigger and, like, talk and announce... Annunciate. Is that how you say it? Annunciate the words. Mhmm. Like, I guess, more. And then when they stop and they take the pen out of their mouth, then they would have pronounced it better. So it's like it's like a a natural thing as a creator. And, like, even if you're doing this for five, ten, fifteen years, there's gonna be moments where you have to cut the video or you're gonna stutter and you're gonna have to refilm for 10 times, and you might cuss out your camera and turn it off, but it's just like turn it back on and keep filming sort of thing. Yeah, that'd be my advice, just get started and stop looking for more advice. There's no better way to learn to get creative than just turning on the camera and posting.
00:58:33 · Lenny Rachitsky, Hector Serrano
[00:58:33] S0: I love that advice. And what I'm also hearing is you don't have to, like, one, you don't see how much people struggle doing this stuff. Like, you see this polished video, and you don't know they have to put a pen in their mouth for fifteen minutes first. [00:58:46] S1: Or cuts out their camera. Yeah. Like, even even my video that that went kind of viral on x, like, I think it's, what, a fifteen minute cut? It was probably... I did two cuts before that. That would probably take thirty minutes. And then I did that last one, which is probably, again, like, thirty minutes, and then I packaged it into a nice video. And it's like, I do this for a living, and I've managed our tribe group for the last seven months, and I know it like the like the back of my hand or whatever. And even then, I still struggle, like, going through and putting my thoughts concisely and going through everything, but it's not perfect, but I put the message out, I gave some value, and people enjoyed it. And, yeah, I don't think I don't think it needs to be perfect. [00:59:26] S0: That's so great to hear because watching that video, you're just so chill, so relaxed, just sitting there talking with a little iPad and, like, how... Yeah. People see that are like, I will never be as good at this. So that's really helpful to hear. When I think about starting to create a, being a content creator, feel like I need to get a little fuzzy mic or something. Feel like the step one or a tiny little iPhone. [00:59:43] S1: Yeah, it's a Canon of it's a Canon of having to.