Podcasts about alex who

Tracklist 1. Hernan Cerbello - The Only One 2. Black 8 - Lunar 3. Moth - Luna 4. Not Demure - Waving But Drowning 5. Dowden - Dryad 6. Melodiam (AR) - Moon Arch 7. TEELCO - Into the Light (Ruben Karapetyan remix) 8. Rockka - Necromancer 9. Wild Dark - Born by the River feat. Alex Who? (Inamo remix) 10. Cary Crank - Choir of Hope (Taylan remix) 11. Serious - In The Beginning (Hernan Cattaneo remix) 12. Pate, Gui11ermo - Sky Voice 13. Ian O'Donovan - Frontier

Take a journey with us as we welcome in Jonah Gabriel to our roster, spanning through emotive ambient sounds and deep grooves, enjoy! -- Follow Jonah Gabriel @dj-jonah-gabriel https://www.instagram.com/djjonahgabriel/ https://www.facebook.com/people/DJ-Jonah-Gabriel/61559525153363 https://www.youtube.com/@djjonahgabriel -- "DJ Jonah Gabriel, a US-based DJ and aspiring producer, is known for his monthly Stickybeatz series. His sets, influenced by Ambient, Techno, Deep House, and Electronic Fusion, are diverse yet harmonious journeys through the landscape of electronic music. More than just a collection of tracks, his mixes are carefully curated narratives that reflect his deep connection with the music and its emotive power. With a keen ear for trends and respect for the genre's roots, DJ Jonah Gabriel delivers unforgettable musical experiences. Tune in for a captivating sonic journey." -- Tracklist: 1. Robot Koch & Savanah Jo Lack - Hideaway (Julien Marchal Remix) 2. Basstakil - Hazer 3. Apparat - Blank Page 4. Riccicomoto feat Silvia Bollnow - Flyin High (Dub Session) 5. DFRNT - The Hunt 6. Cutneckk - Aether 7. Deep Expanse Lotus 8. Twisted Psykie - Movin' On 9. Oskalizator - Nightfall 10. Arnab888 - Waiting For You 11. Ambient Light - Crystal Garden 12. Common Occupation - Twist (Original Mix) 13. MOLØ - Alden 14. ASC - Conjecture 15. Tantum - Grimm (Original Mix) 16. Wild Dark, Alex Who, Superlounge - Born By The River (Superlounge Remix) 17. Emphi - Agony 18. Adriatique - Hound  [Afterlife Records] 19. 34. Nicholas Van Orton, Kros - Termite (Original Mix) 20. Hicky & Kalo - Luminous Path 21. Cagedbaby-Hello There 22. Blazej Malinowski - Drifting 23. Joseph Ray - Changing Lanes 24. Noir - Spinner 25. Supernaive - W.I.C.K.E.D (Original Mix) 26. Alan Fitzpatrick - Something Wonderful (Mathew Jonson Remix) 27. Shackleton-You Bring Me Down 28. Boxcutter-Endothermic 29. Peverelist-Junktion 30. Doyeq - Never Back 31. Stillhead - Round the Corner

Voice la revue et analyse des 2 premier épisodes de la Série Ahsoka de Star wars en compagnie de Matt67 , Alex Who et Nicocrank .

Tracklist: 1. Marcovits - Hello 2. Br!tch - Take It Back 3. Richard Champion - When Morning Comes 4. Nate Katz feat. LondonBridge - Terrified 5. Liquaxis - Funky Industry 6. MATI - Where Did You Go 7. Joseph Julien - City Dweller 8. Wild Dark feat. Alex Who? - Born By The River (Born On The Banks Of Neva Dub) 9. Ormus - Sakyamuni 10. Hernan Cerbello - Black Socket 11. E-Klozion - Obstinato 12. Melodious - Affection (VegaZ SL & Dimel De Silva Mix) 13. Mustafa Gedik - Rihe (Manu Riga's Technotized Mix) 14. Baal - Take My Hand 15. Andy Schossow - Angels Cry 16. Michael Ferrell - Falling Stars And Burning Sand 17. Diego Oroquieta - Goblin 18. Moita - Vector Physical Magnitudes 19. Maky TR - Independent 20. Remco Beekwilder - Rwina 21. Alex Schultz - Saga 22. Zwick - Radiance 23. Ben Gold & Ruben De Ronde - Bliksem 24. Carlos Martz - Darkness (Good Choice Mix) 25. Twelve Sessions & FNX - Ziohm 26. Insignia - People Watching 27. Slusnik Luna vs Lowland - Last Train To Trancecentral

Welcome to Chapters 103! 103.1 AtalaiA's TOTW: Sascha Dive - Motorcity Groove - Bondage Music. 103.2 AtalaiA in the mix. New music from Jeremiah Asiamah, Jamie Jones, Wild Dark and labels including Fuse, Harabe and Hottrax. 103.3 Audylic. Laidback, downtempo and alternative music from AtalaiA's extensive collection that has soundtracked over 1000 Ibizan sunsets. 103.4 AtalaiA gets out the records to reveal his vinyl cut: Los Pastores & Neverdogs - Terepia Sonora (Tuccillo Remix). 1 Sascha Dive - Motorcity Groove - Bondage Music 2 Jaden Thompson - Shimmer - Midnight Parade 3 Jamie Jones - Piano Wax - Hottrax 4 Janeret - Pitch - FUSE 5 Azzecca - Other Side - Higher Ground 6 Robilardo - Deserted Spring - Kiksuya Records 7 AtalaiA - Oonagh - Sony, Orianna 8 Junior Sanchez, Oveous - Echoes Of Dance  9 Jeremiah Asiamah - Let's Work - Ground Up Records 10 Wild Dark - Born By The River ft. Alex Who? (Nhii Remix) - trueColors 11 Maris - Nebkara - Harabe 12 Los Pastores & Neverdogs - Terepia Sonora (Tuccillo Remix) https://pod.co/chapters Apple: https://apple.co/2KsgGgS Mixcloud: https://bit.ly/2GSQF9o SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/34dG4R1 Please subscribe / follow / review for free! ————————————- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2JS6fn7 Instagram: @atalaiamusica Beatport: https://bit.ly/2RcAnxq Facebook: https://bit.ly/2xNZeAL YouTube: https://bit.ly/3YPiAgf TuneIn: http://tun.in/pjsMJ www.atalaiamusic.com This show is syndicated & distributed exclusively by Syndicast. If you are a radio station interested in airing the show or would like to distribute your podcast / radio show please register here: https://syndicast.co.uk/distribution/registration

Welcome to Chapters 102! 102.1 AtalaiA's TOTW: Jaden Thompson - Memories - Midnight Parade. 102.2 AtalaiA in the mix. New music from Wild Dark, Jody Wisternoff, Space Motion & Budakid and labels including Adesso, Bondage, Manual and Exploited. 102.3 Audylic. Laidback, downtempo and alternative music from AtalaiA's extensive collection that has soundtracked over 1000 Ibizan sunsets. 102.4 AtalaiA's Vinyl Cut: Maribou State & Pedestrian - Mask - Pets Recordings. 1 Jaden Thompson - Memories - Midnight Parade 2 Wild Dark - Why Not ft. Alex Who? (Inámo Remix) - trueColors 3 Inflair - Sunrise - Origins Rcrds 4 Envotion - We Come From The Stars (Jody Wisternoff Remix) - Songspire Records 5 Space Motion & Angel Sanchez ft. Magnus - Moonlight - Space Motion Records    6 Pornbugs - Artica - Bondage Music 7 DJ Kid - Sirens - Adesso Music 8 Sam Warner - Motionetta - Muse 9 Budakid & El Zárate - Pizza Pizza - Exploited 10 Cosmonection - Elvira - OATH 11 Daniel Helmstedt - Reflections - Manual Deep 12 Blamma! Blamma! - Zsa Zsa ft. Kristina Train (Eelke Kleijn Remix) - Eskimo Recordings 13 Maribou State & Pedestrian - Mask - Pets Recordings https://pod.co/chapters Apple: https://apple.co/2KsgGgS Mixcloud: https://bit.ly/2GSQF9o SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/34dG4R1 Please subscribe / follow / review for free! ————————————- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2JS6fn7 Instagram: @atalaiamusica Beatport: https://bit.ly/2RcAnxq Facebook: https://bit.ly/2xNZeAL YouTube: https://bit.ly/3YPiAgf TuneIn: http://tun.in/pjsMJ www.atalaiamusic.com This show is syndicated & distributed exclusively by Syndicast. If you are a radio station interested in airing the show or would like to distribute your podcast / radio show please register here: https://syndicast.co.uk/distribution/registration

Sponsors: Orange Beach Invasion, Scrapin the Coast, & Bayou Showdown + Mini Truck Showdown (June 2022 Las Vegas) & Kern County Showdown (Feb 2022 Bakersfield, CA) ODB & The Mayor intro the episode covering Scene Updates including the unfortunate passing of 2 brothers in our scene including Alex Anderson aka Alex Who? from Negative Camber and Louis Guerrero from Forbidden Fantasy. OLP reprises Alex Who's audio from Jan 2021 when Alex appeared as the first guest of 2021 #RIPAlexWho RIP Mark “Papa Smurf” Ballard! We miss you Dad.  Stay On Da Rise! 

Sponsors: Orange Beach Invasion, After Hours, Scrapin the Coast, & Bayou Showdown ODB & The Mayor intro the episode covering Scene Updates ODB interviews Alex Anderson aka "Alex Who?" covering MANY topics including Vans era to mini trucks Early days of mini truckin' West Coast Customs including working on "Pimp My Ride" Monster Garage reboot via Discovery+ and so much more!  Bumper music in this episode includes "Gnat" by Eminem   RIP Mark “Papa Smurf” Ballard! We miss you!   Stay On Da Rise! 

Who is Alex? Who is Anthony? Why they differ? Setting a foundation for upcoming events.  Follow Alex vs Anthony on social media  IG - @alexvsanthonyFB - https://www.facebook.com/AlexvsAnthonyPodcast/ Watch Alex vs Anthony on Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1oKpgHJAs8YE13gZHaByg

Have you ever thought about going back to school to pursue your alternative career? With Javier Carlin Are you burned out with your current healthcare career? Do you feel unappreciated and frustrated? This video is for you! Alex and Javier talk about feeling more accomplished and satisfied on the “other side.” In this episode of AHC: 01:20 – Introduction of Alex Engar 02:00 – Is there truth to finding an alternative career path? 02:30 – Are you frustrated with your profession? 03:10 – This is for people who feel burned out, feel they’re not sure that they made the right career choice and looking for another path but don’t know what is out there. 05:20 – FACT: Most PTs are burned out, constrained, exhausted following the standard career path 06:10 – Alex grew sick of things and stumbled into digital marketing 08:00 – Should I go back to school to find another career path? 08:20 – (Javier to Alex) Who do you listen to? 09:30 – Accept the reality that there are different ways of doing things in life. 14:00 – Freedom lies on the other side of a difficult situation – Greg Todd 19:15 – (Alex) It is better on the other side. 23:50 – Start to ask yourself these questions if you want to start a different path. 26:25 – Phases that you go through with the progression. 28:50 – Serving people give you the opportunity to better their lives. 29:20 – Imperfect action always beats perfect in action.

Today’s special brings you some Californian sunshine to heat up this freezing European Monday! Please join us in welcoming Dear Humans with their deep and soulful Sunshine Fizz! Dear Humans, based in Los Angeles, and consisting of DJ, producer and instrumentalist Epstein as well as vocalist and songwriter Alex Who?, refer to themselves as an intergalactic electro band. Originally from Colorado, Epstein has been a musician and producer for over 20 years. Originally an instrumentalist, he was first exposed to electronic music in 1997 and started djing house music in the Denver club scene by 2002. Epstein has been bringing together the sounds of Ibiza, Tulum, and Burning Man into melodic, dance floor-bound beats that are infused with live instruments and synthesizers. In March 2018, Epstein launched NCTRNL Recorcds which has quickly established itself as one of LA’s top deep house labels. Alex Who? Is a Dutch-Tanzanian Singer, songwriter, actress, model and performer. From a very young age Who? sang and acted, which led to her attending the Amsterdam school for Theatre and the Performing Arts while also traveling the world performing in clubs, leading a five-piece Jazz band and presenting a nationwide music television programme in Turkey. After graduating Who? was awarded various roles in Dutch television series and film before her demo caught the attention of Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic records. That triggered her move to the states, getting signed by Empire Records and releasing two EP’s in the past few years. Dear Humans created its first waves with their release “Like You” a few months back. It hasn't been one year since Corey and Alex joined forces and we already can't wait to get more of this fantastic combination of smokey, soulful vocals paired with deep electronic grooves. And, since they spend quite some time in the studio lately, we're excite to what's coming next! Thanks for this beautiful sip, we love it! This set is a recording of Dear Humans live performance at @hedone-berlin in LA of November 16th, 2019. Photo and cocktail credits: Thanks to Natalie of www.beatifulbooze.com for the beautiful shot on the artwork. Check out her website for more stunning and delicious cocktails as well as the recipe of the Sunshine Fizz! Cheers! The bartenders Link up! Dear Humans https://soundcloud.com/dearhumans https://www.instagram.com/dear.humans www.dear-humans.com Schirmchendrink https://www.soundcloud.com/schirmchendrink https://www.facebook.com/schirmchendrink https://www.instagram.com/schirmchendrink

How does Alex Berman consistently get sales appointments and land deals with billion dollar brands? This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Experiment27 Chairman Alex Berman pulls back the curtain on the email strategy he uses to close deals with Fortune 500 companies. From identifying your target audience, to developing an offer and writing cold emails, Alex goes into detail on his campaign blueprint and shares how both he and his clients have used it to win business. Highlights from my conversation with Alex include: If you want to get in front of big brands, Alex recommends that you start by identifying industries where you've had strong performance or a great track record. Then develop a "no brainer offer" for other businesses in that industry. Alex says that enterprise level companies want to see that you've done work with other companies of their size and in their industry. If you can nail those two things, then cracking into big companies becomes much easier. If you don't have a relevant track record, he suggests going after a smaller company in that industry and then gradually working your way up in company size.  Once you have identified the industry you are targeting and you have your no brainer offer, the next step is to build a landing page for it. Alex recommends creating four different variations of the landing page and testing to see which performs best. When it comes time to email the target audience, use a short subject line. Alex says "Quick question" performs best for him. The first sentence of the email is then a custom compliment aimed at the recipient (the emails are one-to-one). Alex has found that adding this in produces 10X the responses. That is then followed by a one sentence case study highlighting work you've done for a similar company in the same industry, and a pitch to meet with the recipient. Start by testing different subject lines with small audiences of 50 to 100 people to see which ones work best. The goal is to get a subject line that has an open rate of 80% or greater. Alex generally strives for a 4% meeting book rate (so, four meetings or every 100 emails sent). Alex likes to test different times for sending emails, but has found in general that Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 10 am works best. The strategy that Alex uses works best for companies that sell a product or service valued at $1,000 or more. Below that, Alex says that a company is better off using Facebook ads. The biggest mistakes that companies make when implementing this strategy are outsourcing it, not customizing the emails correctly, and giving up too soon. It can take several tries at testing to land on a really powerful subject line and offer, and the best marketers are the ones that stick with it. Resources from this episode: Visit the Experiment27 website Subscribe to Alex Berman's YouTube channel Check out Alex's Email 10k course Listen to the podcast to get the details on Alex's email campaign blueprint and learn how to use it to close deals with your target prospects. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host Kathleen Booth, and today my guest is Alex Berman who is the chairman of Experiment27. Welcome, Alex. Alex Berman (Guest): Thanks for having me, Kathleen. Alex and Kathleen recording this episode together . Kathleen: Yeah you know, I was intrigued to read your background and your profile. It talks about how you help clients get meetings with billion dollar brands. So like, land the big whales, if you will, and I'm really excited to talk to you about that, but before we dig into it, will you just give my listeners a little bit of background on who you are, what you do, and what Experiment27 is? About Alex Berman and Experiment27 Alex: Sure. So Experiment27 is part of a bigger holding company that I run. X27 does "done for you" lead generation. So we help companies match with billion dollar brands, but then we also have Email 10K which is of course where people it for it, or they can do it themselves following the course, and there's also consulting for advanced entrepreneurs, but we just kind of help them with lead generation. So basically, if it has something to do with lead generation in the business to business space, that is my specialty. We've been doing this for almost a decade now, and also I run a YouTube channel where we have I think over 28,000 subs, and all we do is post about free business to business sales training. Kathleen: Oh, I love it. And how did you get to be such an expert in lead gen? Alex: A lot of trial and error. It's the same thing that we talk about ... I mean, it's like any marketing channel where the first time you try lead gen, the first I tried it I tried it all wrong. I was spamming a lot of people. I didn't have the offer down, and what I learned is by sending in small batches and by customizing the messages, it allows you to get a lot more feedback quicker, and if you're able to get feedback quicker, you're able to improve the emails constantly. So the main thing that I teach is it's an iterative process of testing a campaign, sending it out there, seeing what the results are, improving it, and then getting a new list of leads that hasn't seen the previous campaign and testing that optimized campaign with email, and then continuing to improve that over and over again. And what that allows you to do is, one, you can get a bunch of sales with cold email which is really cool, but the other thing it does is it really strengthens your offer. So when you do use inbound, you use social media, you use YouTube like we do, it makes the offer that much more likely to convert. Designing Marketing Campaigns That Target Billion Dollar Brands Kathleen: Hm. So walk me through this. If I am a marketer, and I come to you, and I say, "I'm looking to reach people at these huge companies," the billion dollar brands that you talk about, those can be hard target markets to crack into. Walk me through your process from beginning to end if you're going to do this for me. Alex: Sure. So if you're an established company, the first thing I'm going to do is ask what case studies you have and what sort of companies you've worked with in the past. And from there, what I want to do is try to find patterns. So for instance, a lot of our clients are software as a service businesses or services businesses where, let's say, you had a good case study with a potato chip company like a consumer packaged goods company. Then what we're going to do is create an offer just around that company. I call it a no-brainer offer, and what we want to do is come up with an offer that is so good that people can't say no. For instance, for lead generation which is what I sell, it might be something like we're gonna book ten meetings in the next week with people in your ideal customer base, or we're going to give you the money back. Something like that is what we really want to nail down in an ideal situation, and you could do it across ditches like video production we help some people. Usually it's coming up with either a video idea that they like or their money back or coming up with a list of what the video is going to be like bullet points, an outline. From there, once you have the no-brainer offer, it's writing that in a way that highlights the case study, and we could talk about this in a second what to actually put in that email because it's very similar to what we put in Facebook ads when we do that too. But once you have that no-brainer offer and you frame it in a way that is extremely niche specific, then you test it in the market and see what they say. What I've found is with enterprise companies, what they want to see is ... they want to see you've done work with the companies of their size, and they want to see that you've done work with companies that are very similar, as similar as possible, to them. If you can nail those two things, then you're all set to scale the enterprise. If not, I would not approach someone like a Fortune 500 but instead go after people that are $5+ million in revenue, and then try to get one of those smaller case studies that you can then leverage to get these large enterprises. How To Get Started Kathleen: Okay, so that was going to be my question which is, obviously everybody's got to start somewhere. So, it sounds like what you're saying is you start within the same industry or product service, vertical, but you just start with a smaller firm. Correct? Alex: Exactly. So one mistake that a lot of companies make, even big enterprises, is they don't have marketing that's specific for one vertical. So for instance, let's say you're running a software as a service business and you're crushing it with live events, and you're also crushing it with CPG, or you're also crushing it with retail. They will be sending all three of those customers to the exact same funnel, they exact same website. So one of the things that we focus on is not only separating the marketing, so we'll have three different websites for each of those, or one different website for each one of those verticals. Kathleen: A full website, not just a landing page? Alex: Well, a landing page is basically a website. Kathleen: Or a microsite, a microsite. Okay. Alex: It's like a microsite, it's a one or two page site. Usually it's just a headline, some kind of testimonial, some case studies, and then the contact form. Maybe a breakdown of the services. But yeah, and then it's not just coming up with that, but it's coming up with three or four of those options and then testing all four in the market, seeing which one gets the best response, and then only at that point doubling and tripling down on the marketing. Because a lot of entrepreneurs, they have a theory for what their customer looks like, or they have a theory, even if they've been running a business 10-15 years, they kind of know who their customers are, but they actually haven't done a real analysis and figured out one, who are the customers that will be most successful when using this, and then two, who are the customers that I actually make the most money from? And it's cool to do that analysis and then also compare it to which one of these offers actually gets people to buy most often, and then hopefully you find an overlap there. If not, you need to do more research. Developing An Email Outreach Strategy Kathleen: Okay, so you craft the offer, you develop your case study, and then you're sending ... it sounds like you're starting with an initial email. Is that right? Alex: Yeah. It's normally a short email. We can breakdown what the email says if you want. Kathleen: Yeah, let's do it. I love to get as specific as possible. Alex: Okay. So the first thing that I like to test is the subject line. Normally I'll just say if people are writing their first email from scratch, I would say just go with "quick question" because I've sent over 2 million emails now, and that one still outperforms cross niche. So the highest chance to get an open rate is with "quick question." So sending that as a subject line's good. Then what we do is the first sentence of the email is a custom compliment towards the person's business, and this is not something you can outsource, this is not something that you can kind of fake, especially at the enterprise level. It needs to be a custom compliment, and it sounds something like, "Hey Kathleen, really love your Inbound Success Podcast. Long time listener. Love the interview you did with Alex Berman." Just something like that. Or if it's someone at Sony like, "Hey," director of marketing name, "congrats on the Q4 growth. Loved the latest earnings report." You know, just something that's very specific to their business, and what that does is it gets them to keep reading the next part which is the one sentence case study which usually goes like ... Let's say you are talking to Sony, and you worked with ... Who's a competitor to Sony? Like Hitachi. So that custom compliment. So, "Hey, I really love what you're doing with Sony. Love the Q4 growth. We just wrapped a project with Hitachi where we optimized their entire backend, and we were able to generate a 14% increase in," I don't know like new user engagement or whatever you guys did. "We'd love to do the same for Sony. Are you around for a quick call later this week? Let me know, and I can send over a couple times." Kathleen: You know, and I can serve as a testimonial to the fact that this approach works because all right, I'm going to actually read the email that you sent pitching me for the podcast which totally follows your formula. So the subject line was "Huge fan," and you said, "Hey, Kathleen. Just listened to your interview with Sangram Vajre from Terminus, and I was really impressed with the idea of using AI to fit data and automatically build landing pages and ABM campaigns for prospects." That was the initial compliment line, and then you said, "It would be incredible to come on your show as a guest. I run a YouTube channel with over 23,000 subscribers and have been on more than 100 podcasts including," and then you listed some out. So totally following the format you just described which is awesome. I love that you practice what you preach, and it worked, and I got back to you and said, "Yes!" So there you have it. Alex: Yeah. We practice what we preach because every other way is inefficient. Like okay, what I found is when we started doing the personal lines, when we started doing that we got a ten times increase. I know it takes more time. That might have taken four or five minutes. Like I had to look up that podcast episode, we had to listen to part of the episode and figure out what it was, and then after we booked, I did check out the actual episode so I wasn't lying. That all takes time, for sure, but the response boost is worth it, and the conversion rate increase which you might not even see when you send the emails out, but you'll see it like three, four months later. The number of people that work with you or get you on their podcast or whatever from an email like that is much higher than one of these generic cold emails that people are sending out. Kathleen: Absolutely. Now, you mentioned ... I love that you have this formulaic approach. I mean, it's formulaic, but it's like customized formulaic I would say. It's a blueprint more so than a copy and paste. So you apply this blueprint to the email, and you mentioned sending it out to a smaller group in the beginning. So define small. Alex: Small would be anywhere from ... So you want to make sure you get enough data. I would say a minimum of 50 people, a maximum of 100 people with a pitch like this. And what you want to test is a few things. So for instance, what was the subject line that you just read? Kathleen: Huge fan. Alex: Huge fan, okay. So huge fan might have been iteration number four or five, and the first thing that we're looking for is, and by the way this is all broken down in our course, Email 10K, email10k.com. What we want to do is you want to find the subject line that gets over an 80% open rate. So for instance, for podcasts if you open that, that's amazing. Quick question might have gotten under 80% so that was optimized out. When we were sending to breweries, actually the one that won when we were doing ... It was digital marketing for breweries in the United States, it was a beer emoji, and when we were sending to the entertainment companies like Netflix and TV Land and stuff like that, what was booking meetings was, "I was born to work with HBO," or "I was born to work with your company." Benchmarking Success Alex: So that is found through ... Yeah, just hardcore testing. 100 at a time. That's the first thing you're looking for is ... Well two things you're looking for, one is are people opening the email? You want at least an 80% open rate before you even touch anything else, and then two, are the emails any good? Meaning if you get a super high bounce rate then you're going to want to change the way you're finding leads. Kathleen: Now quick clarifying question on that. So you're testing these subject lines. Are you testing simultaneously different subject lines with different small audiences, or are you testing sequentially? Like, you send one, it doesn't work, you send another one? Alex: Sequentially's usually enough. Because the numbers that we're talking about ... So what you want is an 80% open rate. You want at least a 4% meeting book rate. So every 100 emails, you're getting 4 people signed up. So when you're dealing with numbers like that, it's a little easier to see when things are failing or they're succeeding. You'll be able to see pretty quick because you're either going to get a 14% open rate or like a 30%, or it's going to be 90. Right? And that's ... You're really going for those major win emails. Kathleen: All right. So it sounds like shorter subject lines work really well also. Alex: It completely depends on the niche. What I've found is in some niches, yeah, "quick question" works really well, shorter subject lines work really well, and that's because your custom compliment can be seen. If you look at Gmail or even Outlook, you'll see the subject line, and then you'll see that first line of the email. So if you have even just "Quick Q," which also works pretty well, they see that subject line, but then they also see the first line of the email before they open. So a good first line also will improve open rates. Testing Email Copy Kathleen: Yeah, that makes sense. So all right, you test this out, you land on a good subject line. You already have the body copy within the email written. Are you testing that as well? Alex: Yeah. So the main thing I want to make sure first is the subject line gets over 80% before we touch anything to do with the body. I would stick to the exact template that we talked about earlier. That's the baseline template, and then from there if 80% of the people are opening, and you're getting ... Usually it's about 20% reply or less, then we're rewriting the body of the email. Usually it's messing around with the case studies or messing around with the personalized compliments. A lot of people when they first start the compliments, they either go too far in one direction. So for instance, if I was sending this email to you and I had pointed out something specific about the Terminus podcast and written this long paragraph to you, the chances that that would work, especially to an enterprise level company, would be very level. But what people are trying to find and what we're trying to find is you want a compliment that's short enough but it's not super creepy. Like, you don't want it to look like you did a crazy amount of research. Kathleen: Yeah, you're stalking them. Alex: Yeah, exactly. But you also don't want it to be too generic. So part of it is finding that balance. How Long To Run Email Tests Kathleen: Now how long do you wait after you send those initial emails out to kind of close the test? Because obviously, I don't know, in my experience I find that some people look at their email right away, and then for other people it could be a day or two, and they might still open it. What's the right amount of time for that? Alex: After seeing hundreds of these campaigns, it's kind of evolved a little bit because I don't want it to say ... Like, the gut feeling is we should wait a couple days on our tests. What I've found is when a campaign works, it works so well that you can tell after like three or four hours. Kathleen: Wow. Alex: Especially if you're sending at the right times. For instance, the best time I've found actually is a couple hours before this. It's like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00AM Eastern time is usually the best because it overlaps early morning Pacific, and then the other best time is later in the afternoon. So like 3:00 Pacific so you hit like 3:00-4:00PM Pacific. Kathleen: Okay. Alex: But if you're sending on those times, you should be able to see opens and engages. And then the other thing I'll do sometimes with replies is, and this is a little bit of an advanced tactic, but if someone does reply to your email and you're trying to follow up, you can see when they reply and then queue your followups to go out whenever they're checking their emails. Kathleen: Yeah, there's actually a great platform that we've used called Seventh Sense that does that for you which is pretty cool. It just tracks email open times, and then it develops a personal send time for everybody in your database. It's like magic. Alex: Yeah no, it's sick. Because I just sent 50 followups the other day, and it was crazy. Some people only do emails at like 3:00AM Pacific, or maybe they'll do emails at like midnight. Kathleen: Yeah. Yeah. Alex: You just can't tell. Kathleen: So if you have such a short amount of turnaround time that's necessary to conclude a test, it sounds like you can go through this entire process within a week. Alex: You can, and one of the things that I talk to new entrepreneurs about is especially when you're starting your business or if you have a business for a while and you're trying to find what market is worth investing in for your inbound, I would run 10-20 tests. Just even test different offers and different positions within that. Like before you even deal with optimizing or making sure the subject line works or whatever, stick to that basic template of "quick question" and write an email, and then write 10 different emails for 10 different offers. Like maybe one is selling your company like you only work with chip manufacturers. Or only work with software as a service startups, whatever. Just doing what we talked about with the case studies. Because what I've found is one of those ten, or even two of those ten, are going to blow away all the other tests, and then you only focus on those two. Kathleen: And then you just slightly change the contents to adjust for different industries and roll it out? Alex: The ... Yeah, you change the one sentence case study. So we just worked with this company, and we did this thing. Following Up On The Initial Email Send Kathleen: Okay, great. So I love this format. So is there something that comes after the email iterations, or is that it? That brings in the meetings? Alex: That brings in the ... So there are followups on top of it. One, and I broke all of these down in the course, but one is just like, "Hey, I'm sure you're busy and wanted to make sure this didn't get buried." That's a couple days later. Then the third one is, I call it like the big win. So something like, "Hey, we just had a big win working with this solar manufacturer we did that ..." like basically a second one sentence case study, and then asking them for another call like, "Hey, we'd love to talk. If you're around ..." I always try to end emails with question marks, too. Kathleen: Yeah. Alex: "Would you mind if I sent over a few times for a quick call?" is how I'll usually end them. Or I'll just say, "Let's talk?" Alex's Results Kathleen: Great. You teach this method, you've done this with different clients. Talk me through what kinds of results you've seen, and is it specific to a certain type of business or industry or company size? Alex: Is it specific ... So anyone that sells to people that check their emails. That's ... This is what I like to think about, so- Kathleen: A narrow target audience. Alex: It's narrow ... Well so if you think about it though like some businesses aren't good for this. So for instance what I found is loans or mortgages aren't really good because with those you just have to hit so many people that Facebook ads is a better thing. Used cars is also not a good niche for this. But most of the B2B. Anyone that's selling to manufacturers or anyone that works in an office. Things like that are best for this sort of thing. Revenue size I've found does not matter. We've met with most of the Fortune 500 for our clients and for ourselves, and we've met with smaller ... Like everyone from local businesses up to billion dollar brands this is good for. I try to avoid companies under $5 million in revenue because I mean, I like dealing with people that can actually afford this service. I don't like dealing with local businesses. Kathleen: Yeah, yeah. But I guess a local business could presumably take your class or if they heard this they could test out executing it for themselves. They could DIY. Alex: Yeah, for sure. Okay, so what businesses are benefiting from this? Kathleen: Yeah. Alex: I thought you were talking about what businesses are worth selling to. Kathleen: Oh, oh, oh, oh. Yes. Okay, got you. Yes. Alex: So what businesses are benefiting from this? It's usually any sort of business that has a higher ticket. Because this sort of thing like we're talking about, we're personalizing the emails. Every single email, it takes a decent amount of time. So I would say if your cost is under $1,000 per user, it's probably not worth doing this. You should probably do like Facebook ads or something. But if you're selling a service, like my background is selling mobile apps to the enterprise so we're used to selling $100,000 apps, or like $200,000 applications, websites, that sort of stuff, or even a lot of our clients will sell like $25,000 packages, $30,000 packages. Cold email is perfect for those. Kathleen: Great. Okay. So considered purchases, if you will. High dollar value sales. Alex: High dollar value sales, and sometimes they're not considered. I mean, you get the right no-brainer offer. Our initial marketing reviews were $8,500, and we would sell those after a couple weeks, and then that would just go into the retainers. It all depends on the type of client you're going after. Right? Because like for Sony, or for Home Depot or whoever, like $8,500 is very small. Kathleen: Yeah, that is not a considered purchase for them. Very good point. So talk me through the results that your clients are seeing with this, and how long does it take to see those results? Alex: So if you get an email right off the bat ... I actually just saw something in our private Facebook group this morning, some guy sold ... his name was Mark O, he sold $4,500 and then $4,000 off a month like two days after starting, but that's when everything goes perfectly if you get the offer right. If you're willing to put in the time and you're willing to test and you're willing to be wrong 9, 10, 11 times and just keep going back and iterating, I mean it could work pretty quick. It 100% depends on how fast you are, how intuitive you are with the data, and then how much you're willing to actually put into it because a lot of people, they find cold emailing extremely boring, and I did too until ... I had to purposely reframe each email as, "Okay, this email's worth $3. This email's worth $5," like whatever, like I had to reframe it just to get myself to actually work because it is super tedious work. Kathleen: Yeah, but it sounds like it gets easier over time. Alex: It does, and it gets faster. And once you have an offer, it's much better. The hardest part and the thing where you can get stuck for months at a time is trying to find the way that your business should be positioned to get massive amounts of money, and I know it sounds kind of weird, but it's like there is a way to frame any business where it becomes a no-brainer for clients, and then everything else becomes easy. And if you're not at that point where it feels easy and things are like going, until you've been there it's hard to describe it, but there's ... And you'll see it once you get it. There's such a difference between a business that works and a business that just kind of works. Kathleen: Hm. Interesting. Well I love it. 10x improvements like you were talking about are certainly attractive, and the fact that you can do all of this in a week is also very attractive. It's just it sounds like it's really just a matter of time and elbow grease. Alex: Yeah, and if you compare it to something like Facebook ads, like we run Facebook ads as well, and it's a similar strategy where you're filming 10-20 ads and putting budget behind all of them. Those actually take time to get the data in, and it costs money. Right, if you compare it to something like cold email, all that costs is time which for some people is money, but if you're a new entrepreneur and you're not charging like $700 an hour, it's not that much money. Common Mistakes Businesses Make When Targeting Big Brands Kathleen: Yeah. Now what do you see as the most common mistakes that people make when trying to do this? Alex: First most common mistake is they think they can outsource it all, and they don't want to do the customization. I recommend against that, especially in this initial ... the hardest phase, the research phase. Once you have something that works, you can scale pretty easy. They try to outsource too early, too. They customize in the wrong way. A lot of our clients are ... well actually, not a lot of our clients. Some of our clients are international. And so English isn't the greatest for them. Even if they come from like Germany or some Western country. So framing that compliment in a way that doesn't come off as like too crazy is actually something that I struggle with a lot with our coaching clients. That's number two. And then number three would be giving up too soon. And actually giving up too soon/settling too soon. Because you might try three tests, and like test one and test two book zero meetings, and then test three books two meetings. Then you might be like, "oh, I'm going to put my entire business onto test three," when really if you had tested like four or five more times, you might have sent an email that got eight meetings. Kathleen: Yeah. How do you know when to stop testing? Alex: So I would never stop testing. I know even with our ... so with the course part of our business, we spend 30% of our revenue on research and development. So just testing new ads and doing all that stuff outside of scale. I would never stop testing. It's always surprising. What we saw our add to cart cost go from $100 to $6 this week just by testing a new series of ads. Kathleen: Wow. That's crazy. Alex: Right? You can only get those improvements by constantly throwing stuff out there and seeing what works. Kathleen: Yeah. Very cool. And I love how specific you've been just in terms of sharing guidance on the actual wording of subject lines that works and the wording of some of the emails. It's really helpful. If somebody wants to try this, how do you recommend narrowing down your list? Because a lot of the people I know ... You said send it to 50 or 100 people. A lot of the people I know have lists that are much larger than that. Is it just literally a matter of, "All right, I'm going to export this list of 10,000 people, and I'm just going to take the first 100," or is there some other way ... Do you start with like a certain subpopulation? Alex: So what I would do is if you have an inbound list, I would actually ignore it for now. So you have marketing that works for your inbound list, right? Keep that going. What I would actually do is go over to Upwork or go over to LinkedIn and just start making lists of your ideal clients. I would send 100 cold. I would make a list of these people cold instead of going through the people that are subscribed. Because what you want is you test with the cold traffic where you can quickly iterate, and then once you have something that's working with those cold people, then you can take it back to your main list, and you know it'll work versus burning your main list on an offer that may or may not be okay. Kathleen: Do you have any concerns around if somebody does that, jeopardizing their sender score just because people hitting spam or what have you? Alex: Yeah, so normally ... And actually if you "Alex Berman how to avoid the spam box," on YouTube, I broke it down. But normally I'll recommend starting with a brand new domain for cold email, and then you warm it up over like two weeks. You subscribe to some newsletters, you make it seem like a normal email, and actually I would have a different domain for your cold emails, a different domain for your inbound like your email list emails, and a third domain ... actually even a third and fourth domain. Like third domain for cold ad traffic lists, right just in case, because spam is an issue there. And even a fourth domain for just customer communication. That way you protect everything. You keep it all super segmented. Kathleen: Does that get really confusing? Alex: Not for me. I mean, for our ads we've got like alex@X27.io, like alex@X27Marketing.com is our other list. alex@Experiment27.com. It's all pretty easy. Kathleen: And I'm assuming they all redirect at some point to...? Alex: They all redirect ... Yeah they all go to my normal inbox. Kathleen: Okay, got you. Very helpful. All right. Alex: It's a good way to protect your sender score there. Because what you'll also do is a lot of times if you want to test a bunch of different cold email campaigns also, you might, and what I make people consider a lot is you might want to buy a domain for each one of these different niches as well, and then that domain will just redirect to a website that's specific for that niche. The Impact of GDPR Kathleen: Do you worry at all with European like GDPR rules and the increasing focus on doing something similar in the US, do you worry at all that that approach is going to get tougher to use because cold emailing will begin to become disallowed essentially under regulations? Alex: If it's illegal, I recommend not doing it. What I've found is there's always a place for a personalized compliment. The personalizing the emails thing is ... that's what increases our response rate, and it's also what takes it out of the spammy territory. We're not sending messages to 10,000 people. We're not robocalling. It's nothing crazy like that. But I would ... Yeah, if you're in like ... Especially if you're in Europe or the UK or Canada or Australia, definitely consult a lawyer before working with someone like us or doing anything related to this. Kathleen: Yeah, it is getting- Alex: As far as I know, in America it's totally good so far except for maybe California is a little iffy right now. Kathleen: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. But it's interesting the direction everything's heading. It'll be interesting to see where it goes. Okay. Well- Alex: It will be, but it's not like these go away. You can use these same strategies ... Once you get this testing strategy down, you can use it for Facebook ads, you can use it for cold LinkedIn messages. You can use it for text messages. You can use it at events just like testing your elevator pitch at events. It's all the same kind of thing. Just taking words and trying to test the way that you're phrasing things to find ... it's almost unlocking a lock. You want to find a way of wording your business that gets people to buy. How To Learn More About Alex's Strategy Kathleen: Yeah. I love all of this. You've mentioned a couple things like you have a course and you have a YouTube channel. Can you say a few words about if somebody's intrigued and wants to learn more, where they can go to find more information? Alex: Sure. If you want us to do this for you, I would actually just start at the YouTube channel, AlexBerman.com will go right to the YouTube channel, and if you do want to learn this kind of stuff, it's Email10K.com, that's the course. Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: Okay, love it. Now, we can't finish up this interview without me asking you the two questions that I ask all of my guests. The first one being we talk a lot about inbound marketing on this podcast. Is there a particular person or company that you think is really just killing it right now with inbound? Alex: Really killing it with inbound. I'm actually not ... I haven't been impressed with very many people when it comes to inbound. Even the greats, I don't know if they're testing or what they're doing, but I see a lot of weird stuff. Kathleen: Oh yeah? Alex: Who have I really ... I actually like Russell Brunson, what he's been doing with his ad strategies, and he runs a SaaS. It doesn't even seem like it. He's selling a software as a service, but he's selling it like an info product. There's some real next level stuff that Russell Brunson's doing. Kathleen: Oh, I'll have to check him out, and I will share his name and the link to his stuff in the show notes. Alex: He does a two week free trial, and then it's only like $150 a month for his software, and somehow he's been able to frame his thing in a way where it appeals to B2B, it appeals to entrepreneurs, and it appeals to ... He's going after like people that are selling multilevel marketing. He's got everything down in terms of how he's framing his thing. Kathleen: Interesting. I can't wait to check that one out. Second question, the biggest kind of complaint I hear from marketers is that digital is changing so quickly. There's so much to keep up with. It's like drinking from a fire hose. How do you personally stay up to date and keep yourself educated on latest developments? Alex: So this sounds kind of counterintuitive, but what I've found is if you stick to the basics and you just try to get like those fundamentals right, everything comes into play. So for instance, when I was getting into Facebook ads, all I had to do was take the offer that I knew worked and put it in general targeting, and then the Facebook AI figured out what it was because we knew the offer worked. Same with YouTube videos. We just have to create content, and it'll find an audience because our offer system. So I think if you create a product that people want, and you phrase it in a way that is very hard to say no to, you'll win, and it doesn't matter if you're at an event or if cold emails get banned, or like cold calling doesn't work anymore. None of that will matter if you can crack that, and then number two is just go where your customers are. I've gotten a surprising amount of work off of Instagram recently. Like to the point where I barely even use LinkedIn anymore. Kathleen: Wow. Alex: But that just comes down to who my target audience is, right? I'm going after younger people now, especially for this course offer, and they're mostly on Instagram versus when I was going after office workers ... Actually, all the office workers are on email versus any of the other social media channels. So I honestly, I don't worry about that at all. Kathleen: That's great. You have figured something out, then, because the vast majority of the other folks I talk to stress about it a lot, so there's definitely a lesson to be learned on the approach that you're taking. Alex: Ooo, okay. So I actually did figure this out. So if you want to figure out where your clients are, write a super targeted Facebook ad and put like $100 in it, and what'll happen is you put no targeting in. The way that Facebook works now is they'll find buyers, and what I've found there is not only will they find out who your ideal buyer is, for instance one of our ads is targeting ... it's converting really good with women between ages 25-65+ which is crazy, and then one of our other ads is only for men which is great, but the main thing that I've found was if you go to placements, it'll tell you exactly where your ads are converting. So for instance, some of our ads do really well on Facebook. Actually, one of my consulting clients was only selling on Instagram. Like hard pitching Instagram, and when we did this ad test we found out a bunch of his people were on Facebook, and he went out and did the same cold pitching on Facebook, and it was like 10-20 minutes, and he already had a bunch of leads coming in. So that's another easy way to find it out. Kathleen: Yeah, you know it's interesting you bring that up because I found that too that paid ads in general are the fastest way to test messaging because you instantly can see what's working and what's not. Alex: Yeah, exactly. You can test messaging there, you can test placements, and then the way that Facebook ... Facebook's getting so smart in terms of their machine learning. So it'll give you data you didn't even know you had. The ad that I wrote, I had no idea it would appeal ... The one that hits women, I think it was getting add to carts for like $10 for $1,000 course which is crazy, but for men it was $16 with the same ad. So I had no idea. Kathleen: Which is still reasonable, but $10's better than $16 every day. Alex: Exactly. Especially when you're comparing it to ... I was at $100 before. Kathleen: Oh, that's great. Alex: But no, you have no idea. It's only the machine learning that taught me that this type of ad works for this market. Kathleen: Yeah, it's crazy what Facebook can do now. It's a little scary sometimes, but it's also really cool. Alex: Yeah. How To Connect With Alex Kathleen: Great. Well if somebody wants to connect with you, has a question, wants to learn more, how can they reach out to you? Alex: Best way to talk to me is to grab the course, Email10K.com. I'm in the Facebook group right now. It's unlimited consulting. If you do just want to like, talk for free, I would go to the YouTube channel. AlexBerman.com will go there. And just leave a comment. I'm usually in there. You Know What To Do Next... Kathleen: Okay. Great. I'll put those links in the show notes, and if you're listening and you liked what you heard or you learned something new, of course I would really appreciate it if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. That goes a long way to getting the podcast in front of other listeners like yourself who could find value, and if you know somebody doing kickass Inbound marketing work, tweet me @WorkMommyWork because I would love to interview them. Thanks, Alex. Alex: Thanks.

RHONY 304  Alex wants to confront Jill about the kid climbing up the leg comment Bethenny and Jill had a confrontation at fashion week, it did not go well.  ACT ONE JASON AND BETHENNY TALK Jason comes home. This is the same day as the Jill Stuart show allegedly. Bethenny tells him that this fight with Jill which wasnt a big deal apparently was. Bethenny can’t believe Jill played the message for people. Jason: You can’t let it bother you. WORST advice ever.  Jason wants to talk about figuring out the living situation. Jason basically says he will be proposing soon.  LUANN AND KELLY AT PAMELA ROWLAND SHOW Kelly and luann walk up to the tent and pose for cameras. There’s a really funny moment in the future when Luann poses for the paparazzi and the guy tells her to mix up her poses. KELLY asks Luann want to call her; countess? Luann says just call her luann. Kelly insists on calling her countess; Kelly is such a kissass.  Bethenny shows up. Luann amkes what Bethenny considers a dig about how normally Bethenny doesn’t come to many shows. Bethenny walks away.  Luann poses with Rinna! Bethenny greets Rinna as well. Luann tells Bethenny while they’re posing that that wasn’t a dig, she really thinks Bethenny looks great. Bethenny said I told you I would be up front. Luann doesn’t want to do this here; Bethenny does. Luann says that Bethenny really hurt Jill’s feelings; Bethenny says how is she your good friend when Jill has been talking about how you sleep around with everyone for the past year? BURNNN!  Bethenny calls Luann a snake. Luann calls Bethenny nasty. I mean if these two had ANY idea what was to come down the line. Kelly sits between Luann and Bethenny. Bethenny over Kelly goes “You’re talking about me and I’m right here!” a photographer approaches and they immediately smile for it. ITS SO GOOD.  Luann says: I didn’t call you a skank darling. Bethenny says I didn’t use that word, I said snake. ...but oh just wait, because in a few years, Bethenny will call you a slut!  Kelly leaves Bethenny and Luann to go sit with her friend Lisa who I assume is Lisa Rinna. So now Bethenny and Kelly have to switch places so Bethenny sits next to Luann so Kelly can sit next to Rinna.  Bethenny has regrets for everything she yelled at Luann, specifically that she told Luan that Jill wasn’t her friend.  ACT TWO RAMONA AND AVERY AT A FASHION SHOW More fashion shows! I wish they would go back to fashion week.  Avery still hates Ramona.  Kelly sits down next to Ramona. I don’t believe they’ve seen each other (or maybe they haven’t had a chance to chat) since Kelly wasn’t invited to Ramona’s house for labor day episode 2.  Kelly: You didn’t invite me to your party, that’s not very nice! Ramona: Oh I’m so sorry! (but not meaning it) Ramona makes up some bullshit about how she didn’t want to have an altercation between Kelly and Bethenny. KEEP THIS PARTY CONVO IN MIND!!  Kelly doesn’t buy any of it.  After the show, Kelly says she has to go to something else after this. Kelly says she’s taking Jill to Perez Hilton’s party after this downtown. Ramona goes oh, and you didnt invite me after you just gave me crap for not inviting you?! That’s not how that works Ramona!! Kelly shouldn’t invite you BECAUSE you didn’t invite her!  Ramona: this is my chance to bust her ass. WHATEVER she just wants to go to the party! Rmana: I said that just to tease her, and I didn’t expect her just to invite me and she did, so I thought that’s nice of her, so I should be nice and go. LIARRR you just want to go to perez hilton’s party.  THENNNN ramona puts avery in a cab for the first time ever in her life and sends her away. Avery: I’m going by myself…! Like she can’t believe it. Avery screeches away into the night. Kelly in bite is bothered that Avery left in a cab alone. That may be the first empathetic normal thing Kelly has ever said.  PEREZ HILTON’S PARTY  Ew. Perez is so so gross. Perez peeks into Jill’s dress to see her boobs.  Kelly fills in Ramona about the pamela roland show about Bethenny and Luann’s argument. Jill butts in and tells the story as if she was there.  Jill goes on about her confrontation with Bethenny. Ramona is determined not to take sides and she wants to get better about it.  ACT THREE ROBERT VERDI LOUNGE Bethenny is serving skinnygirl cocktails at the lounge. Alex can tell Bethenny needs to talk. Alex and Bethenny have this very confidante relationship but nothing beyond that. It helps to open up to a people pleaser because they’ll give you the nurturing that you need at that moment.  Alex brings up the thing at Ungaro about Jill saying did the boys crawl up your leg? Alex is going to take Jill out and talk to her about it. Bethenny thinks Jill made that dig because Alex seems like she’s bonding with Bethenny.  Kelly shows up. Bethenny has her try a skinnygirl. Kelly is so weird about trying it, like she is about trying on clothes.  Bethenny makes a joke about taking prozac and valium, and kelly says why would you do that?! Bethenny says she’s kidding. In bite, bethenny says: I don’t think Kelly is a moron… I don’t think she’s quick.  Kelly tells Bethenny she feels bad about their drama and wants to clear the air. Bethenny thinks its genuine, refreshing, and nice. You would really believe listening to this that they would be good now. But scary island is just around the corner.  Kelly says she will be nice to bethenny because there’s no reason not to, but she will never ever trust her. I don’t know that I could be nice to someone I couldn’t trust.  SECRETS OF A JEWISH MOTHER COVER SHOOT Jill’s mother looks like someone playing Judy Garland. They’re posing on the couch. Gloria is smiling and through the smile says, “Not happy, i’m not happy!!” The photographer says, “It’s just for options, we’re just getting options!” Gloria: that’s not a good option.  It’s a lot of eye rolling and complaining. Jill is sprawled out on the couch and posing. Gloria says of the three of them Jill is too sexy. Jill’s sister tells the stylist, we should all be going to the same place. The stylist looks like she wants to murder her  This scene annoys me so much but also I can’t look away because everyone is hamming it up SO much for the camera. It’s all performance.  RAMONA AND BETHENNY AT DINNER Ramona asks Bethenny for the situation with Bethenny and Jill. Bethenny says Luann interfered and that Bethenny was like, who are you? And ramona says, “Right, the empire.” She meant umpire. Ramona still refuses to take a side.  Ramona asks Bethenny if she’s coming to the Saks event tomorrow, but Bethenny had no idea about it. I love when they say ‘a lot of people we know will be there’ but what ramona really wanted to say what, oh well its a cast event.  Ramona says she alluded to the fact that she was goign to see Bethenny to Jill today, and Ramona says Jill will want information and will be on her like ‘white rice.’  ACT FOUR JILL HOSTING SAKS EVENT Jill is getting her HMU done for the saks event she’s hosting. Luann enters and demands a double kiss from the makeup man. Luann and Gloria talk. Luann tells her the divorce is finalized today.  Luann: I have this sadness and finALITTTY about it. Why does she say that?  Jill comes out and says: I don’t care if you married a count, you were born a countess. Luann: THATS THE NICEST THING YOU’VE EVER SAID TO ME!!!  SAKS PARTY Jill is so obnoxious in this. Ramona is shocked this event is happening, because she heard that Jill was blackballed for returning so many outfits. Ramona says that Jill’s outfit was too metallic and she could’ve looked more chic.  Jill yells at people: This is Sak’s private club for only the best of the best clients, of course I have my own private gold key.  Alex and Simon arrive. Luann thinks that Simon loves fashion. Simon is talking to Luann and references Mario’s countless joke. Ramona interrupts and this is when she goes BANANAS. She tells Simon that when she and Luann were planning some sort of get together, Luann didn’t want to do it because she didn’t want simon and alex to be there.  Luann claims Ramona is lying. Alex: “You said you didnt want to invite us over?” Luann (fakely) Never… Luann is SO caught red handed. Ramona walks away and is just on her own playing with her hair and staring, her eyes are popping out of her head. It’s INSANE how out of it she is.  Alex pulls Ramona aside and said she has to talk to Jill, about the kid thing. Alex to Ramona: You know what you can do? You can get me a drink. Ramona leaves, Alex asks Jill about the kid comment. Jill immediately says it was Luann’s story. Alex starts crying.  Alex says sometimes Jill really pisses her off, and she makes digs are her. Here’s the thing… I truly don’t know what else Jill did to really piss her off that much. Simon and Alex always refer to confrontations as whatever event it was. Alex: “I’ve been holding it in since Ungaro!”  Luann approaches. Alex: Who saw francois crawling up someones leg? Luann: without missing a beat… me. Luann: Well that was simple. I like you so much better than Ramona. Alex is STILL upset and says that both Jill and Luann are bugging her at this point. WHY?! I think Alex just wants prolonged drama and wants to be mad.  Everyone sits down…  Ramona screams I love youuu I love youuu to Jill. Jill tells Ramona that Kelly has to leave early. Ramona gets on Kelly, why do you always leave early? Why bother coming at all? Ramona and Kelly end up on the other side of the table. Luann tells Ramona that her divorce is finalized. Ramona is very sympathetic. Luann is surprised because Ramona just came at her 5 minutes ago about the simon and alex thing. Ramona apologizes for coming at Luann. Ramona: I’d still say it all over again…  Ramona then turns to Kelly: “Did you get your breasts redone again?” Kelly is SHOCKED. Isn’t this what everyone talks about all the time? Is it just the year this is in?  ACT FIVE Ramona leaves the table. Kelly says she’s so jealous. I hate when people say other people are jealous. It’s so childish.  Kelly calls Ramona out for being inappropriate. Ramona: WHO CARES?! Alex marches over to be a part of the conversation and just watch. Kelly is pissed and storms off.  NEXT EPISODE…  Alli Zarin does a photoshoot.  Jill picks up a reporter.  The women audition designers for Brooklyn fashion week.  Jill released an article trashing bethenny in the paper. Kelly and Bethenny fight over it.  The awful phone call where Bethenny calls Jill in the street and Jill hangs up on her. 

-Who will host Jeopardy after Alex? -Who is suing Jussie Smollett? -There is a new vegetable. WTF -Why has your man NOT proposed yet? -Q To Do -FC is having an Orange out on Sunday. -New Italian spot coming to Kenwood

Alex: "Who lost their shoes?!"Jaclyn: "I think he dunked his shoes off!?" Alex: "Never in my life have I seen that!" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/partinmealex/message Get full access to WAC Hoops Nation Newsletter at wachoopsnation.substack.com/subscribe

Alex: "Who lost their shoes?!" Jaclyn: "I think he dunked his shoes off!?" Alex: "Never in my life have I seen that!" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/partinmealex/message

On today’s episode we sit down with Alex Roberts to create characters for her new game, Star Crossed! Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Cold Open 00:03:27 - Recap 00:03:43 - Amelia and Ryan - What two things about me do I not know is attractive? 00:04:24 - Player agency and X card use 00:09:18 - Back to picking two traits for Amelia and Ryan 00:13:11 - Amelia and Ryan - Why can’t I act on my feelings? Why is that so important to me? 00:17:16 - Play what you know 00:19:46 - Can you play with more than two people? 00:25:46 - Ryan and Alex - What brought our characters together? 00:27:32 - Ryan and Alex - What’s keeping us apart? 00:29:56 - Ryan and Alex - Who am I? 00:30:18 - Ryan and Alex - What is most attractive about ourselves? 00:31:08 - Ryan and Alex - What two things about me do I not know is attractive? 00:32:31 - Ryan and Alex - Why can’t I act on my feelings? Why is that so important to me? 00:35:01 - Alex and Amelia - What brought our characters together? Who am I? 00:38:45 - Alex and Amelia - What is most attractive about ourselves? 00:39:07 - Alex and Amelia - What two things about me do I not know is attractive? 00:41:17 - Alex and Amelia - Why can’t I act on my feelings? Why is that so important to me? 00:46:49 - Episode Closer Guests and Projects: Alex Roberts: @muscularpikachu Backstory Podcast @backstorycast Bully Pulpit Games www.bullypulpitgames.com Dialect by Thorny Games www.thornygames.com/dialect-rpg/ Threadbear by Stephanie Bryant www.drivethrurpg.com/product/215255/Threadbare-RPG Sig: The City Between by Genesis of Legend www.genesisoflegend.com/products/sig/ Game systems discussed in this episode: Star Crossed! by Bully Pulpit Games Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bullypulpitgames/star-crossed-the-two-player-game-of-forbidden-love Other Games Mentioned as inspiration for Star Crossed!: Dread by Impossible Dream (amazon) (website) Kagematsu by Cream Alien Games (website) Hot Guys Making Out by Tao Games (drivethru) (website) Breaking the Ice by Black and Green Games (drivethru) (website - romance trilogy) Fiasco by Bully Pulpit Games (amazon) (drivethru) (website) Character Inspired Mix Tapes: Amelia and Ryan’s Couple Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/verovladamir/playlist/7nguieqg9s4h9CqQMNifHp?si=aFX7r4HdTpaLO80McU5kbQ YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIQvSCMCGGkKn12lcNm8I3thhTK2MFvPt Ryan and Alex’s Couple Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/verovladamir/playlist/1fiectTQbuKO4d1gXOhiFd?si=WarEhAgHRUymPn4Cad94AQ YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIQvSCMCGGkLN3LhyGuLoBP9bMyNgJCNi Alex and Amelia’s Couple Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/verovladamir/playlist/5GLObBcZZxfRMjAoH8Tg3n?si=tWr0fDgPRpytAK3yVTfP-A YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIQvSCMCGGkIb1bw9OiDjDpX9ty-l8b7t Character sheets for this episode: https://blockpartypodcastnetwork.squarespace.com/completed-characters/2018/4/23/series-32-characters-star-crossed-with-alex-roberts Music: Opening: Meditation Impromptu 03 by Kevin MacLeod Clip 1: Autumn Day by Kevin MacLeod Clip 2: Backstory podcast opening theme Clip 3: Sovereign Quarter by Kevin MacLeod Clip 4: Delicate Frost by Winter Solstice used in the Star Crossed Kickstarter video created by @banana_chan_vid Main Theme: Hero (Remix) by Steve Combs Our Podcast: Character Creation Cast: @CreationCast Amelia Antrim: @gingerreckoning Ryan Boelter: @lordneptune Our Website: http://www.charactercreationcast.com

Alex Taussig is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snapchat, Mulesoft, Max Levchin’s Affirm, The Honest Company and many more incredible companies. As for Alex, at Lightspeed, he has made investments in Zola, Daily Harvest, Vector & Poncho. Before moving to the West Coast, Alex spent 7 years at Highland Capital Partners, where, as a Partner, he made investments in thredUp, JauntVR and RentJuice (acq by Zillow) and was involved in several IPOs. Alex is also the writer of a fantastic newsletter: Drinking From The Firehose. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alex was inspired by being at Harvard at the time of Facebook to make the move into tech and how that landed a role in VC with Highland Capital Partners? 2.) Why is Alex optimistic about the current state of the retail environment, despite media skepticism? What are the value propositions that physical retail provides online retailers (Warby Parker, Real Real etc)? How does Alex believe we will see the re-platforming of retail in the future? 3.) In today's incumbent world, how can consumer apps demonstrate breakout growth? What does Alex mean when he discusses the importance of product channel fit? Once found, should fuel be poured on the fire to exploit the fit? What would suggest sustainable vs non-sustainable product channel fit to Alex? Who has done this particularly well? 4.) Why does Alex believe that Amazon's cash flow is one of the main reasons for it's success? What is the key working capital metric? How does this unpack into 3 core elements? What is "negative working capital"? What are the core benefits of this? How can startups use these mechanics to use cash flow as their prime advantage? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Alex’s Fave Book: The Divine Comedy Alex’s Most Recent Investment: The Daily Harvest As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alex on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Leesa is the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Leesa have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is ordered completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com to start the New Year with better nights sleep! Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.