How to hone your information advantage.
The trend tracker
Welcome to another edition of the YouTube Nuggets where we cover Media Empires newsletter, where they share insights and tips from influential media creators, podcasters, newsletter writers, and media executives.
In this issue, we're going to recap the latest episode of the Media Empires YouTube channel, where Erik Torenberg interviewed Steph Smith, host of the a16z podcast and the driver behind the newsletter Trends for The Hustle, which was acquired by Hubspot.
Steph Smith is a prolific content creator and strategist who has built a loyal audience across multiple platforms. She is also the author of Doing Content Right, a book that teaches you how to create and distribute content that attracts and retains an audience.
In this episode, Steph and Erik discussed:
- How Steph developed her nonlinear background and how it helped her gain an edge in the media industry.
- How Steph thinks about her "unfair" information advantage and how to hone it by being curious, observant, and analytical.
- How Steph grew The Hustle's Trends newsletter from scratch to over 100,000 subscribers by creating high-quality, actionable, and data-driven content for entrepreneurs and investors.
- How Steph navigates the challenges of building out great educational content in tech, especially in emerging and complex topics like crypto, AI, and biotech.
- How Steph views the intersection of media and tech companies and why she believes that media companies need to embrace technology to stay relevant and competitive.
- How Steph creates an emotional connection with her audience by being authentic, vulnerable, and relatable.
- How Steph thinks about ownership deals in media and why she decided to join a16z as a podcast host after The Hustle's acquisition.
- How Steph envisions the future of the creator economy and why she is excited about digital virtual influencers and the metaverse.
- What Steph would do if she was unconstrained by time, money, or resources.
- How Steph uses subreddit data to identify product opportunities and market gaps.
- How Steph chooses a medium for her content based on her goals, audience, and personal preferences.
- What Steph's advice is for building a media network and why she thinks that collaboration is key?
If you want to watch the full episode, you can find it on YouTube ➡️
We hope you enjoyed this recap and learned something new from Steph Smith. She is someone to follow if you want to level up your content game. You can find her on Twitter, where she shares her insights on media, tech, and life.
That's all for this issue. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!