Podcast appearances and mentions of wes kao

Wes Kao is an entrepreneur, coach, and advisor. She co-founded the live learning platform Maven, backed by First Round and a16z. Before Maven, Wes co-created the altMBA with best-selling author Seth Godin. Today, Wes teaches a popular course on executive communication and influence. Through her course and one-on-one coaching, she's helped thousands of operators, founders, and product leaders master the art of influence through clear, compelling communication. Known for her surgical writing style and no-BS frameworks, Wes returns to the pod to deliver a tactical master class on becoming a sharper, more persuasive communicator—at work, in meetings, and across your career.What you'll learn:1. The #1 communication mistake leaders make—and Wes's proven fix to instantly gain buy-in2. Wes's MOO (Most Obvious Objection) framework to consistently anticipate and overcome pushback in meetings3. How to master concise communication—including Wes's tactical approach for brevity without losing meaning4. The art of executive presence: actionable strategies for conveying confidence and clarity, even under pressure5. The “sales, then logistics” framework—and why your ideas keep getting ignored without it6. The power of “signposting”—and why executives skim your docs without it7. Exactly how to give feedback that works—Wes's “strategy, not self-expression” principle to drive behavior change without friction8. Practical ways to instantly improve your writing, emails, and Slack messages—simple techniques Wes teaches executives9. Managing up like a pro: Wes's clear, practical advice on earning trust, building credibility, and aligning with senior leaders10. Career accelerators: specific habits and tactics from Wes for growing your influence, advancing your career, and standing out11. Real-world communication examples—Wes breaks down real scenarios she's solved, providing step-by-step solutions you can copy today—Brought to you by:• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security• Coda—The all-in-one collaborative workspace—Where to find Wes Kao:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/• Website: https://www.weskao.com/• Maven course: https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-communication-influence—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Wes Kao(05:34) Working with Wes(06:58) The importance of communication(10:44) Sales before logistics(18:20) Being concise(24:31) Books to help you become a better writer(27:30) Signposting and formatting(32:05) How to develop and practice your communication skills(40:41) Slack communication(42:23) Confidence in communication(50:17) The MOO framework(54:00) Staying calm in high-stakes conversations(57:36) Which tactic to start with(58:53) Effective tactics for managing up(01:04:53) Giving constructive feedback: strategy, not self-expression(01:09:39) Delegating effectively while maintaining high standards(01:16:36) The swipe file: collecting inspiration for better communication(01:19:59) Leveraging AI for better communication(01:22:01) Lightning round—Referenced:• Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/persuasive-communication-wes-kao• Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz' Bosworth (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto• Communication is the job: https://boz.com/articles/communication-is-the-job• Maven: https://maven.com/• Sales, not logistics: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/sales-not-logistics• How to be more concise: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/how-to-be-concise• Signposting: How to reduce cognitive load for your reader: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/sign-posting-how-to-reduce-cognitive• Airbnb's Vlad Loktev on embracing chaos, inquiry over advocacy, poking the bear, and “impact, impact, impact” (Partner at Index Ventures, Airbnb GM/VP Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/impact-impact-impact-vlad-loktev• Tone and words: Use accurate language: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/tone-and-words-use-accurate-language• Quote by Joan Didion: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/264509-i-don-t-know-what-i-think-until-i-write-it• Strategy, not self-expression: How to decide what to say when giving feedback: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/strategy-not-self-expression• Tobi Lütke's leadership playbook: Playing infinite games, operating from first principles, and maximizing human potential (founder and CEO of Shopify): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/tobi-lutkes-leadership-playbook• The CEDAF framework: Delegating gets easier when you get better at explaining your ideas: https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/delegating-and-explaining• Swipe file: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swipe_file• Apple Notes: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/notes/id1110145109• Claude: https://claude.ai/new• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/• Arianna Huffington's phone bed charging station (Oak): https://www.amazon.com/Arianna-Huffingtons-Phone-Charging-Station/dp/B079C5DBF4?th=1• The Harlan Coben Collection on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/81180221• Oral-B Pro 1000 rechargeable electric toothbrush: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UKM9CO/• The Best Electric Toothbrush: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-electric-toothbrush/• Glengarry Glen Ross on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Glengarry-Glen-Ross-James-Foley/dp/B002NN5F7A• 1,000,000: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/1000000—Recommended books:• On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548/• Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies: https://www.amazon.com/Stein-Writing-Successful-Techniques-Strategies/dp/0312254210/• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Memoir-Craft-Stephen-King/dp/1982159375• Several Short Sentences About Writing: https://www.amazon.com/Several-Short-Sentences-About-Writing/dp/0307279413/• High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884• Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Work-Revised-Updated/dp/0063003155/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

In this powerful episode, Wes Kao; co-founder of Maven and pioneer of cohort-based learning, joins us to explore what separates good leaders from great ones, and why intentional communication is at the heart of it all.We dive into everything from how to sharpen your judgment and make faster, better decisions, to why concise communication isn't just efficient, it's essential. Wes unpacks her signature concept of “avoiding negative inception” and shows how certain well-meaning phrases can actually sabotage your message and plant doubt.We also talk about how to turn worries into action, why owning your strengths is a quiet superpower, and what it looks like to challenge your own thoughts with intention. Wes shares her biggest leadership challenge to date, and how she learned to balance transparency with confidence, especially when leading through uncertainty.If you're a leader, creator, or communicator of any kind, this conversation is packed with tactical wisdom that will shift how you speak, lead, and show up.Topics we cover:The communication traps even smart leaders fall intoWhat it means to “incept negative ideas” and how to avoid itWhy saying less can help you lead more effectivelyThe underrated power of self-awareness and reframingHow to personalise your communication to truly connectTune in and learn how to lead not just with vision, but with voice.00:00 Introduction00:55 Wes Kao's Passion for Education 02:08 Good vs Great Leadership: What Sets Them Apart?04:12 How to Sharpen Your Judgement and Make Better Decisions 08:28 The Importance of Concise Communication 10:24 Stop Incepting Negative Ideas: How to Protect Your Message14:41 Turning Your Worries Into Action 18:54 The Beauty of Owning Your Strengths 22:53 Saying ‘No' to Unproductive Struggles 26:33 The Art of Challenging Your Own Thoughts 29:51 Wes Kao's Biggest Leadership Challenge and Lessons Learned 31:59 Transparency vs. Confidence: Communication as Leaders 35:05 The Importance of Personalising Your Communication 36:25 Episode Closing Follow Rachel here: https://www.instagram.com/ms_rach/Follow Wes Kao here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskaoSubscribe to her newsletter here: https://newsletter.weskao.com/

In this episode, we discuss why just having a good idea is not enough. Joined by Wes Kao, a brand strategist and co-founder of Maven, we explore why merely having good ideas won't lead to their adoption, and how to effectively communicate and implement those ideas to achieve success. Wes shares her personal story of learning the difference between insights and actionable suggestions early in her career, emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility and advocating for one's ideas.We delve into the concept of having a "spiky point of view" and its significance in standing out and driving impactful conversations. Wes also explains how translating unique ideas into actionable steps can garner the trust and support of managers and clients alike.Finally, we highlight the inspiring story of a young musician who maintained his distinct style in the face of initial rejection, ultimately revolutionizing the music industry.Key Learnings:1. Creative professionals must articulate the value and process behind their work to gain recognition and trust.2. There is a critical distinction between merely having insights and making actionable assertions.3. Advocating for a point of view and backing it up with credible steps can significantly influence stakeholders.4. Maintaining a "spiky point of view" helps in standing out and initiating meaningful discussions.5. Staying true to one's unique creative abilities, even in the face of rejection, can pave the way for long-term success and impact.Get full interviews, daily episodes, courses, and more at DailyCreative.app.Mentioned in this episode:NEW BOOK! The Brave Habit is available nowRise to important moments in your life and work by developing the habit of bravery. Available in paperback, ebook, or audiobook wherever books are sold. Learn more

Join Markus Bernhardt and Bjorn Billhardt as they explore how AI is reshaping leadership development. In this episode, discover the role of AI-driven simulations in creating dynamic learning experiences and why social interaction remains crucial. Explore the innovative 12-week MBA program designed for today's leaders and learn how AI can elevate L&D from a support function to a strategic powerhouse. Don't miss this engaging discussion on blending technology with human connection to transform professional growth. Shownotes: Bjorn Billhardt on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjornbillhardt/ The link to Abilitie, a Top 20 Leadership Development Company: http://www.abilitie.com Link to the 12-Week MBA, a part-time, virtual MBA certificate course: http://www.12weekmba.com The Voice AI demo Bjorn referenced:  https://fastvoiceagent.cerebrium.ai/ How Bjorn keeps up to date: Ethan Mollick's - One Useful Thing - https://www.oneusefulthing.org/ Wes Kao's Newsletter - https://newsletter.weskao.com/ Matt Tower's weekly roundup of happenings in the EdTech community: https://www.etch.club/p/etch-weekend-reading-52724

Ep. 240 Is distribution the undefeated catalyst in marketing?  Kipp and Kieran dive into some of the best episodes they've recorded on Marketing Against the Grain. Learn more on the critical importance of micro consumer segmentations, the value of combining brand and growth strategies, and the often misunderstood role of product marketing. In this episode, Kipp and Kieran spotlight invaluable insights from top marketing leaders to elevate your marketing game and boost business growth. Mentions Gary Vaynerchuk https://garyvaynerchuk.com/ Rand Fishkin https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/ Wes Kao https://www.weskao.com/ Shaan Puri https://www.shaanpuri.com/ Jason Lemkin https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin/ Joanna Lord https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannalord/ Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat  ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.

Ep. 235 Is instant success holding you back from true mastery? Kipp, Kieran, and guest, Wes Kao (co-founder of Maven and altMBA), dive into the lessons learned from Seth Godin about embracing the craft, overcoming fear of failure, and achieving true success through strategic thinking. Learn more on why perfecting your skills requires deliberate effort, the crucial difference between strategy and strategic thinking, and how constructive feedback can transform teams. This episode breaks down how high standards, strong leadership, and hands-on experience are the key drivers of high performance and long-term success. Mentions Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/cmt Wes Kao https://www.weskao.com/ Seth Godin https://seths.blog/ Maven https://maven.com/ altMBA https://altmba.com/ Resource [Free] Steal our favorite AI Prompts featured on the show! Grab them here: https://clickhubspot.com/aip We're on Social Media! Follow us for everyday marketing wisdom straight to your feed YouTube: ​​https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGtXqPiNV8YC0GMUzY-EUFg  Twitter: https://twitter.com/matgpod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matgpod  Join our community https://landing.connect.com/matg Thank you for tuning into Marketing Against The Grain! Don't forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Apple Podcasts (so you never miss an episode)! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-against-the-grain/id1616700934   If you love this show, please leave us a 5-Star Review https://link.chtbl.com/h9_sjBKH and share your favorite episodes with friends. We really appreciate your support. Host Links: Kipp Bodnar, https://twitter.com/kippbodnar   Kieran Flanagan, https://twitter.com/searchbrat  ‘Marketing Against The Grain' is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.

There's a set of skills we rely on everyday at work, often without realizing it: how we think about problems, make decisions, market our ideas, manage up, give feedback...they're all part of the operating system of how we interface with the business world.I'm fascinated by these things both because they have a massive impact on our effectiveness and because they often go unexamined. They're just part of how we operate. But what if our ways of working are holding us back? What if we could optimize them and radically improve our performance? Today's guest is a serial entrepreneur, marketer, and operator. These days she focuses on exploring and writing about these "deceivingly basic" topics in one of my favourite newsletters, which reaches more than 250,000 people. Thanks to Our SponsorMany thanks to the sponsor of this episode - Knak. If you don't know them (you should), Knak is an amazing email and landing page builder that integrates directly with your marketing automation platform. You set the brand guidelines and then give your users a building experience that's slick, modern and beautiful. When they're done, everything goes to your MAP at the push of a button. What's more, it supports global teams, approval workflows, and it's got your integrations. Click the link below to get a special offer just for my listeners. Try Knak About Today's Guest Wes Kao is an entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and advisor who writes at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, an edtech company that raised $25M from First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin.https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/Key Topics[00:00] - Introduction[01:28] - Why write about “deceivingly basic” topics [06:56] - Rigorous thinking[10:43] - Building a culture of rigorous thinking [21:10] - Bottom line up front[26:39] - Relationship with your manager[37:23] - Change management[41:32] - Empathy[44:09] - Being a LinkedIn creatorThanks to Our SponsorThis November, MOps-Apalooza is back in sunny, Anaheim, California, and it's going to be the marketing ops event of the year, packed with hands-on learning from real practitioners. This is the only truly community-led tech-agnostic MOPS conference out there. It's got the best speakers, the best networking, the best social events, and maybe even a trip to Disneyland. This isn't your 50,000 person tech company conference. It's an intimate gathering of folks who are in the trenches every day. Registration is capped at 700 attendees, and tickets are going fast. MOps-Apalooza 2024 Resource LinksWes Kao's Newsletter Learn MoreVisit the RevOps FM Substack for our weekly newsletter: Newsletter

SummaryIn this episode of our podcast, "How to Raise from a16z and Sequoia Capital? with Wes Kao (Founder of Maven & altMBA)," we dive deep into the world of startups, education, and personal branding with our guest Wes Kao, a renowned founder and entrepreneur. We also explore the topics of leadership, entrepreneurship, and fundraising. Wes emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and leveraging one's strengths when starting a company. She also highlights the value of credibility indicators in fundraising and the need to find the right fit with investors. The conversation provides insights into the process of pitching to venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz. In this conversation, Wes Kao shares insights on fundraising, building a personal brand, and the challenges of scaling as a founder. Finally, Wes talks about her approach to writing newsletters and the importance of thinking deeply about the topics you write about.Takeaways1.Self-awareness and leveraging one's strengths are crucial when starting a company.2.Credibility indicators, such as fundraising from well-known venture capital firms, can provide a boost in the ecosystem.3.Leadership is learnable, and there are different ways to be a leader.Entrepreneurship can be learned, but it's important to have a point of view and an unfair advantage.4.The fundraising process should focus on finding the best fit with investors who can support the company's growth. Credibility and experience are crucial in fundraising, and first-time founders should not compare themselves to veteran founders.5.Creating a sense of inevitability in your storytelling can instill confidence in investors and de-risk your venture.6.Marketplaces like Maven differ from publishers like Reforge in the cohort-based learning space.7.Consistently sharing your ideas and insights online can unlock various opportunities and help build a personal brand.8.Writing newsletters requires deep thinking and a focus on providing valuable insights and frameworks.Chapters00:00 Trailer02:00 Who is Wes Kao05:50 Lessons from Seth Godin08:55 Shipping Fast Is Important16:20 Why Wes Kao Pickup Education Sector20:42 Can leaders and enterpreuners are by birth24:40 Unfair Advantage27:00 Fundraising and the Importance of Credibility41:51 Building a Personal Brand (Complete Guide)48:00 The Art of Writing Newsletters54:15 Ritual56:35 ConclusionConnect with Mudassir

In this episode we cover "How to talk about deadlines at work" by Wes Kao. This is is a super practical guide for two sides of the same coin - missing deadlines. We cover the perspective of IC's and how we can best communicate deadline misses, and we also cover the manager perspective on setting the right culture around deadlines. We've got scripts for you to use, tactical tips, and personal advice so make sure to listen to the end!

Wes Kao is a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and advisor who writes an amazing newsletter for high-performers in tech. She is co-founder of Maven, an edtech company that raised $25M from First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. Here is what we talked about: (00:00) Introduction (03:08) Managing up (10:13) Bridging the gap between managers and reports (13:33) The “Bad Things / Good Things” framework (19:14) Good communication in the remote era (24:17) The transition to remote work at Maven (29:28) Sync vs async communication (33:41) Asynchronous videos (38:39) Transitioning to a Manager (46:57) Psychological safety (53:03) Over-communicating is communicating (58:59) Wes' approach to reading — You can also find this at:

While the title of this episode, The Framework Framework™ is tongue-in-cheek, I'm pulling this out of the BFF bonus vault because it's one of the community's favorites. I'm sharing the first steps to how you can set up a framework to help bolster your IP and your business; either by scaling through programs like certification and licensing, and to make your material more memorable and accessible to the groups you care most about reaching. I shared this in June 2023 as a follow-up to the fantastic workshop that Pamela Slim did for us on Certification and Licensing. You can access over 100 bonus episodes and that workshop by joining Free Time as a paying subscriber. You'll get instant access to Stephanie Huston's How to Batch Create and Customize Your Annual Content Calendar, with an epic multi-tab template in Google Sheets. Be sure to also check out the resources below, including Wes Kao's detailed LinkedIn post on how to turn your ideas into frameworks.

Blogs, podcasts, emails and bears – in one podcast – oh my!  Today's podcast is all about the powers of influence, engagement and response. First, we'll learn how people (including marketers) respond when you use AI, humor and emails for evil. Okay, evil's a strong word. How about using it for bad instead of good? Moving on… In our last episode, there were claims about the AI empire coming to destroy blogs, but Andy Crestodina is proving that bloggers have struck back! We'll examine his new blogger survey and talk to him about blog SEO, strategy and trends. Finally, we'll learn about podcasters, their influential superpowers, and why you need more than a microphone and a brand to wield that power. You'll get all these plus insights from Remington Begg, Karen Nicholas, Laura Bernhard, Wes Kao, Carlijn Postma, Alex Sanfilippo and Trent Anderson. Finally, you'll meet A.M.I., the new podcast co-host. You get of this in one superpowered hour! Marketer powers – activate! Show notes - https://marketingsuperpowerpodcast.com/episode/the-influencer-power-of-blogs-podcasts-and-bears

Wes Kao is the Co-Founder of Maven, the platform for cohort-based courses. Prior to Maven, Wes helped other companies like Morning Brew build their own cohort-based courses, and she founded altMBA. Today she joins us to discuss the future of online education and how Maven plays a role. Wes attended UC Berkeley and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Inc. as a leading voice on online education and innovation.Twitter of Host (Shamus Madan): @mbitpodcastTwitter of Guest (Wes Kao): @weskaoSign up for my free newsletter here: https://mbitpodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Wes Kao (@wes_kao) talks disrupting traditional education, what it's like to raise $25M, how to stay motivated as a founder, why cohorts are the gold standard of online learning, and how to apply the science of love to product-founder fit with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

In this episode, Ish interviews Wes Kao, founder of Maven.  Wes shares her founder story, why she started an online learning platform for experts in their field, what her day-to-day looks like, and advice for creators eager to learn.  If you enjoyed this episode, drop a review and share it with your friends.More free tools & resources found here.Follow Ish Verduzco on TwitterFollow Ish Verduzco on Linkedin 

The best content creators on the planet have what Maven's Wes Kao calls a "Spiky Point of View." A spiky point of view can be the one thing that separates you from all the other content clutter out there. According to Wes: A spiky point of view can be debated. A spiky point of view isn't controversial for the sake of it. A spiky point of view teaches your audience something relevant they don't already know. A spiky point of view is rooted in evidence, but it doesn't have to be a proven fact or universal truth. A spiky point of view requires conviction.  Now is a great time to find you spiky point of view. Done right, this is something you can build your business upon. In other words, if you are going to create something like a Blazing Saddles, you better be willing to beat up the old lady, punch a horse, and annihilate the fourth wall. This episode is sponsored by Lulu.com Writing a book is one of the best things you can do for your brand.  It's never been a better time for creators to publish. Lulu has been empowering creators to publish and prosper for the last 20 years. Their ecommerce plugins make it easy for you to publish your book and sell it directly to your fans from your own site, while they handle all of the printing and shipping on the back end. You keep 100% creative control, 100% of your customer data, and 100% of your profits. Using Lulu is free and Lulu only charges for the printing and shipping of your books. Create a free account today at Lulu.com to get started. ------- Like this episode? SUBSCRIBE on Apple, Spotify or Google. See all Content Inc episodes at the Content Inc. podcast home. Get more on building your content creation business by subscribing to TheTilt.com newsletter.

This is the episode you'll want to come back to when you feel defeated by what you don't yet have in your business (more money, more employees, more support, etc). In this conversation with Wes Kao - the co-founder of the altMBA and one of the creators of the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin - Wes breaks down what she does to take action in the midst of the realities of business and life. She also explains what cohort-based education is and how it can be the perfect format for creatives and entrepreneurs to share their expertise. You don't want to miss it - click play now. 

Don't miss out on the next #womenintech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://womenintechshow.com. Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/“Remix: Wes Kao, Mia Kogan-Spivack, and Lauren Kelley-Chew”        #womenintech Show is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support the Women in Tech podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/womenintechTo be featured on the podcast go to http://womenintechshow.com/featureHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevorahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/espreeGuest,Wes Kaohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://twitter.com/wes_kao Guest,Mia Kogan-Spivackhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-kogan-spivack-81188b216/Guest,Lauren Kelley-Chewhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kelley-chew-md-27052024Listen to the original episodes below:Wes Kao, https://podcast.womenintechshow.com/episodes/wes-kao-of-mavenMia Kogan-Spivack, https://podcast.womenintechshow.com/episodes/mia-kogan-spivackLauren Kelley-Chew, https://podcast.womenintechshow.com/episodes/lauren-kelley-chew-of-levelsBe featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/In LA? Here's some awesome resources for you to become immersed in the LA Tech scene -For a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comGet Podcast Listeners, http://getpodcastlisteners.com/Resources Mentioned:Maven, https://maven.comLevels, https://www.levelshealth.com/Credits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory Produced, Edited and Mastered by Cory Jennings, https://www.coryjennings.com/Production and Voiceover by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Team support by Janice GeronimoMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Wes Kao, Mia Kogan-Spivack, and Lauren Kelley-Chew

Wes Kao is the co-founder of Maven. Before that, she co-founded of the altMBA with Seth Godin. She's also a writer and content creator.In this episode, her and Alex discuss overcoming self-conciousness as a creator, gained 150k twitter followers in a year, running a start up, unconventional routes of education, and having a spiky point of view.Please leave a 5-star review on Apple & Spotify! This episode was edited and produced by Josh Perez.Follow Make Something Cool on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube.

Inspirational stories plus practical takeaways from the entrepreneurship world.Today's guest is Wes Kao, the Co-Founder of Maven. It's a platform that hosts cohort-based courses from some of the world's greatest business experts including Anthony Pompliano, Shaan Puri, and Li Jin. Wes co-founded Maven with Gagan Biyani who also founded Udemy and they've already raised $25m in just a year.Wes previously co-founded the AltMBA with Seth Godin and helped other huge creators such as Tiago Forte, David Perrell, and Scott Galloway. She's one of the world's foremost experts on how to build a compelling cohort-based course and why it's the future of the knowledge economy.We hope you enjoy the episode and don't forget to share it with others. You can learn more at http://www.entrepreneurshandbook.co.Website: https://maven.com/Wes's Website: https://www.weskao.com/Keynotes:Introduction (0:00)Starting as early as high school (1:47)A phenomenal experience (5:23)Taking the initiative (10:08)Making every line count (14:14)Talking about distribution and kicking it off with a bang (17:00)How do you derisk? (22:08)Credibility and experience (25:14)The relaunch (29:33)The discovery piece (31:31)Talking about an audience (33:53)Big ambitions (36:41)The aliveness of working with Maven (39:48)

Wes Kao has worked with Seth Godin (where she co-founded the altMBA and served as executive director), David Perell on his Write of Passage course, Professor Scott Galloway on Section4, and Morning Brew. Currently, she’s the co-founder of Maven, a cohort-based learning platform where I taught my own course. Wes is passionate about telling stories that stay true to the creator’s intentions while keeping your audience listening. In today’s episode, you will learn how to use state changes to keep your audience engaged, how to communicate more clearly by focusing on the how more than the why, how to manage up for success, and how to communicate your priorities to set a boundary.—Where to find Wes Kao:• Website: https://www.weskao.com/• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wes_kao• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:• Modern Treasury: https://www.moderntreasury.com/• Berbix: https://www.berbix.com/start• Makelog: https://www.makelog.com/lenny—Referenced:• The Super Specific How: How to make your cohort-based course more rigorous: https://www.weskao.com/blog/super-specific-how• It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer’s Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences: https://www.amazon.com/Was-Best-Sentences-Worst-Crafting/dp/158008740X• Guide to Better Business Writing (HBR Guide Series): https://www.amazon.com/HBR-Guide-Better-Business-Writing/dp/142218403X• Seth Godin’s blog: https://seths.blog/• The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving: https://www.amazon.com/Minto-Pyramid-Principle-Writing-Thinking/dp/0960191038• Doctor Foster: https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Foster/dp/B01DT0WQ2C• Suzy Batiz: https://www.suzybatiz.com/• Amanda Natividad’s Marketing 201 course: https://maven.com/amandanat/content-marketing• Dr. Marily Nika’s course:  https://maven.com/marily-nika/technical-product-management—In this episode, we cover:[03:39] Wes’s early career[07:08] How to land a job with Seth Godin[09:56] What makes Seth Godin stand apart[14:50] Wes’s framework for better writing: the super-specific how[18:08] Writing and teaching without the BS[21:45] State changes: how to keep your audience engaged when teaching[25:51] The data of “eyes light up” moments[29:27] What managing up can do for you[32:51] How to manage up effectively[34:17] Lenny’s template for proactive communication[36:19] The skills you need to communicate clearly through writing[43:50] How to protect your bandwidth (without having to say no to your boss)[47:32] How Lenny sets priorities and communicates them[48:24] Lightning round!—Production and marketing: https://penname.co/ Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

LifeBlood: We talked about cohort-based courses, the value of interactive and peer-to-peer learning, why only 6% of traditional online courses get completed, and the profound role community plays in our success and development, with Wes Kao, CoFounder of altMBA and CoFounder of Maven, the first platform for cohort-based courses. Listen to learn why questioning whether or not you've got what it takes to create a course is the sign you're ready! You can learn more about Wes at WesKao.com, Maven.com, Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks, as always for listening! If you got some value and enjoyed the show, please leave us a review here: ​​https://ratethispodcast.com/lifebloodpodcast You can learn more about us at LifeBlood.Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook or you'd like to be a guest on the show, contact us at contact@LifeBlood.Live.  Stay up to date by getting our monthly updates. Want to say “Thanks!” You can buy us a cup of coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lifeblood

We welcome YOU back to America's leading higher education podcast, The EdUp Experience! It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode, YOUR guest is Wes Kao, Co-Founder of Maven, YOUR host is Dr. Joe Sallustio, & YOUR sponsor is Advance 360 Education! What are Cohort-Based Courses (CBCs)? What are there completion rates? What does Wes see as the future of education? Listen in to #EdUp! Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - Elvin Freytes & Dr. Joe Sallustio ● Join YOUR EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! We make education YOUR business! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/edup/message

Today on the podcast Mitko (@mitkoka) is joined by Wes Kao (@wes_kao) the cofounder of Maven - the first course platform focused specifically on Cohort-Based Courses. Wes came up with the idea of cohort-based courses while she was working with Seth Godin and together they launched the AltMBA which was the first cohort-based course of this kind on the internet. During this conversation you will learn how Wes ended up working with Seth in the first place, the problem with the current generation of Massive-Open-Online-Courses or MOOCs, and how running your courses through a cohort helps boost your revenue, helps improve completion rates, and most importantly helps students implement what they learn.

Effective communication is no longer a nice to have, it's essential. But how do you make interactions count in a world filled with noise? This week I sat down with Wes Kao who opened her playbook on how to make interactions count. With over 150 brand launches under her belt and A-list clients like Seth Godin, Scott Galloway and Morning Brew as clients, Wes knows how to take a messy message and make it magical. Whether you're an entrepreneur or at the job of your dreams, learning how to communicate can open up your career with recognition, promotions, new opportunities and awards you've dreamed of. If you're ready to build a game-changing community, this episode is for you!Notes:09:08 How To Clarify & Distill Your Content12:26 What Is A Spikey Point Of View17:12 Where To Start When Sharing Online20:42 Wes' Spikey POV On Transferable Skills25:20 The Power Of Managing Up33:50 How To Get A Yes40:14 Speed Round If you loved this episode you should check out “Converting Content To Clients” https://kimkaupe.com/alexbsheridan/ If you enjoyed today's episode, please:1.) Sign up for notes at copymyhomework.com for a full list of resources, links and recommendations listed on today's episode.2.) Post a screenshot of the episode & tag me on LinkedIn or Instagram @kimkaupe so we can talk about your favorite parts!3.) Leave a positive review (shameless, but someone's gotta say it right?!)4.) Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday on your favorite podcast app.Connect with Kim over on the socials!Instagram + TikTok: @kimkaupeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimkaupe

Join Morning Brew's Business Casual host Nora for a deep dive as she finds out how creators can best prepare themselves to survive the long haul. She speaks with experts in monetization, marketing, strategy, and a successful longtime creator. This episode features conversations with Wes Kao, the founder of Maven, Tisha Alyn, a creator who specializes as a golf media personality, and Patreon co-founder Sam Yam. For more info on our presenting sponsor, check out realvision.com/businesscasual.  Host: Nora Ali Producer: Bella Hutchins  Video Editors: McKenzie Marshall and Christie Muldoon Production, Mixing & Sound Design: Daniel Markus Music: Daniel Markus & Breakmaster Cylinder Fact Checker: Kate Brandt  Senior Producer: Katherine Milsop VP, Head of Multimedia: Sarah Singer  Full transcripts for all Business Casual episodes available at https://businesscasual.fm

Wes Kao is the Co-Founder of Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses. To date, they've raised over $25M from the likes of First Round Capital, Nitesh Banta and Andrew Chen at Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she was the Co-Founder of the altMBA with Seth Godin, growing the altMBA to thousands of alumni in 550 cities in 45 countries and creating the cohort-based course category. She has built courses for Professor Galloway, David Perell, Tiago Forte, Morning Brew, and more. Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com

Original Air Date: January 25, 2021 To become a strong marketer, you must develop a skill set that extends beyond just “marketing.” This could include a knowledge of human psychology, design aesthetics, analyzing data, how to create & publish content, or an assortment of other skills. This empowers you to be able to bring your vision to life because you are able to execute it every step of the way. This week's guest, Wes Kao, has coined a term to perfectly describe this marketer. She calls this an ‘End-to-end marketer.' Wes explains that an end-to-end marketer can “have a vision, can develop a strategy, and can execute to bring their idea to life.” During our interview together, Wes offers key insight into how being an end-to-end marketer is becoming a necessary skill set in today's marketplace. Wes Kao has the hands-on experience to back up her insights. Wes Kao is a marketer who helps B2C brands launch new products and create new categories. Previously, she was the co-creator and Executive Director @ Seth Godin's altMBA where she helped thousands of change agents level up. In the past fifteen years, she has launched 150+ products, features, and campaigns @ Flite (acq Snapchat), BareMinerals, L'Oreal, and Gap

Wes Kao is the Co-founder of Maven, the first education platform to offer Cohort-based & Community-driven courses. Maven raised $20 million in Series A funding last year. Before that Wes built the Alt-MBA course with Seth Godin. She helped grow the business to thousands of students across 550 cities. She has over 130K followers on Twitter sharing her thoughts on marketing, online courses & mental frameworks. In this episode we talk about: - What inspired Wes to pursue a career in Marketing - How to push through Imposter Syndrome early in your career - How to get promoted & get more responsibility at work - The value of Rigorous thinking & noticing details - How to find & develop your career superpower

1 on 1s are the single most important tool managers have to be great leaders. You can use these meetings to help you bring out the best in your team, fix problems, get buy in, and so much more. That's why, as we wrap up Season 1, we're bringing you all the best advice on 1 on 1s from our many amazing guests.  Listen in to learn what the most important things are for you to remember for your 1 on 1s, and get a preview of some episodes you may want to go back and listen to. Lessons and links from today's episode: A big THANK YOU to our many amazing guests. In today's episode we heard from: Mark C Crowley, from Episode 2,“Why You Should Lead from the Heart(and how to start)” Wes Kao, from Episode 4,“Managing Up: Advice for Mangers & ICs to master their most important relationship at work” Mike Pretlove, from Episode 7,“Building an Unconventional Career as a Leader” Fabian Carmago, from Episode 8,“8 Essential Things You Must Consider When Becoming a Manager” Jeremy Brown, from Episode 15,“How to Rapidly Grow from Team Lead to Executive.” Krzysztof Rakowski, from Episode 16,“How to Become a Better Manager in Just 15 Minutes a Week” Valentina Thörner, from Episode 17,“The Harsh Truths of Leading Remotely(and what to do about it)”  Click the titles of any of the episodes to listen into them and see the show notes for that episode. Show Notes And a few links for you to learn more based on their advice: Mark C Crowley's book “Lead from the Heart” can be found here as well as his interview on our blog here.Learn why open door policies fail here. Talking about the personal life of your team can be scary. It's beneficial, but you're not their therapist. Learn how to handle when the meetings get too personal here.  Wes Kao has a fantastic tweetstorm on managing up you can check out here. Learn more about managing up well here, and ask these questions of your boss to master managing up. Getting buy in is important to as Wes discusses, which you can learn how to get buy in here. Mike Pretlove reminds us that building rapport and empathy for your team is hugely important. Learn over 80 ways you can connect with anyone. Giving feedback is great to do in your 1 on 1s. Learn a battle tested, proven way to give feedback to your team members and the podcast episode on it here. You can also read about how Mike had the lowest turnover and highest engagement in his company by using Lighthouse software. Fabian Carmago mentions our post on the evolution of your 1 on 1s over time, which you can read here.Being a good coach is a key part of being a great manager. Krzysztof Rakowski told us about how managers must always be learning and growing. A growth mindset is key for every manager.  Valentina Thörner told us 1 on 1s are a, “one hill I will die on” because they're so important in remote environments.Ask these questions to help support your remote team members. Here's Dr. Katerina Bohle Carbonell's talk on analyzing communication patterns here. Jeremy Brown reminded us about the importance of using your 1 on 1s to coach and praise your team.Praise your team regularly. Learn 21 ways to bring more praise and positivity to your team here.  A giant THANK YOU to Jeremy, Valentina, Mark, Fabian, Wes, Mike, Krzysztof and our many other guests for sharing their advice, insights, and hard earned perspectives. As you can see, even though we covered dozens of different topics in this first season, 1 on 1s keep coming up. They really are the centerpiece of great management. Which is also why we built Lighthouse to help you make these meetings awesome. From helpful prep and structure to suggested questions for dozens of different topics, we help you be a better leader and expand the value of your 1 on 1s every day. Sign up for a free trial here.  And thank you for listening to this season! We've appreciated every bit of feedback and praise we've heard from you all on the season. As a closing ask, two things of you: If there's a burning management problem you have that you hope we'll do a future episode on how to handle, please email us at blog@getlighthouse.com or reply to one of our podcast emails to let us know. Please share the podcast with a fellow manager you think would benefit. The more people we help, the more we're encouraged to continue the show for many future seasons.

Episode 156: Flash back to high school, and imagine you could take courses in crypto, content creation, audience building and product management. Well, you may not be in high school anymore, but it is not too late to learn about the subjects you were actually interested in and build your passion into a business. Today's guest, Wes Kao, is the co-founder of Maven, a cohort-based course platform that is turning conventional education on its head. Natalie and Wes discuss the various subjects and teachers available on the platform, and how content creators can begin designing their own courses and monetizing them in no time. Wes has the kind of resume any entrepreneur dreams of, and her strategies for reframing your mindset are gamechangers. Grab a pen and paper, because you're going to want to take notes!    Today's episode dives into:    How to foster a loyal community and encourage bi-directional learning  Why your Spikey point of view could help your brand and make you stand out    Ways to reframe your mindset and turn bugs into features   The future of the creator economy      Thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community! Please be sure to rate, follow, review, and of course, post to your highlight reel. Follow your host Natalie on Instagram @nataliebarbu and @therealreelpodcast. Follow Wes on Twitter @wes_kao and Maven @MavenHQ      Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Check out these deals just for you:  METABOLIC REDS – Go to getreds/real to unlock your offer of a free Metabolic Greens with your purchase of Metabolic Reds.  TAILOR BRANDS – Go to www.tailorbrands.com and use the code realreel40 for 40% off.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't miss out on the next #womenintech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://womenintechshow.com. Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/“Remix: Rebecca Jones, Wes Kao, and Helena Belloff”#womenintech Show is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support the Women in Tech podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/womenintechTo be featured on the podcast go to http://womenintechshow.com/featureHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevorahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/espreeGuest,Rebecca Joneshttps://twitter.com/lexmcbexhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajonesuk/Guest,Wes Kaohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://twitter.com/wes_kaoGuest,Helena Belloffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/helenabelloff/Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/In LA? Here's some awesome resources for you to become immersed in the LA Tech scene -For a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comGet Podcast Listeners, http://getpodcastlisteners.com/Resources Mentioned:Comma, https://www.usecomma.comMaven, https://maven.comAltMBA, https://altmba.comLevels, https://www.levelshealth.comCredits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory Produced, Edited and Mastered by Cory Jennings, https://www.coryjennings.com/Production and Voiceover by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Team support by Janice GeronimoMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Rebecca Jones, Wes Kao, and Helena Belloff

Wes Kao is co-founder of Maven, a platform that helps creators build cohort-based courses. Before that, she co-founded the altMBA with acclaimed author and marketer Seth Godin. If you're not yet familiar with them, cohort-based courses (CBCs) are a not-so-new way of learning with a group of other people. They take the best parts of traditional classroom education and blend them with online classes to create a rich learning experience. In this episode, Wes shares why CBCs are the best way to learn and why it's crucial you always test (and validate) your course idea. Having a substantial social following doesn't guarantee a courses' success. If you have an idea for a course, give this episode a listen before moving forward. And be sure to check out Wes's free course accelerator. Sponsored by Grin.co - https://grin.co Athletic Greens - https://athleticgreens.com/futur Peloton - https://onepeloton.com/app Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't miss out on the next #womenintech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://womenintechshow.com. Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/“Remix: Helena Belloff, Wes Kao, and Jane Portman”#womenintech Show is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support the Women in Tech podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/womenintechTo be featured on the podcast go to http://womenintechshow.com/featureHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevorahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/espreeGuest,Helena Belloffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/helenabelloff/Guest,Wes Kaohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://twitter.com/wes_kaoGuest,Jane Portman,https://twitter.com/uibreakfastBe featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/In LA? Here's some awesome resources for you to become immersed in the LA Tech scene -For a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comGet Podcast Listeners, http://getpodcastlisteners.com/Resources Mentioned:Levels, https://www.levelshealth.comKaggle, https://www.kaggle.comL' Oreal, https://www.loreal.com/en/Maven, https://maven.comAltMBA, https://altmba.comUserlist, https://userlist.comUI Breakfast, https://uibreakfast.comPeople Mentioned:Yann LeCun, https://twitter.com/ylecunCredits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory Produced, Edited and Mastered by Cory Jennings, https://www.coryjennings.com/Production and Voiceover by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Team support by Janice GeronimoMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Helena Belloff, Wes Kao, and Jane Portman

In this episode I talk to Wes Kao, co-founder of altMBA. Her latest startup is called Maven, and it's all about cohort-based courses.Wes is fantastic at course design. Before Maven, she did a bunch of amazing things working with a lot of different creators.We talk about the State Change Method, which is something I use to make my presentations much more interesting. We talk about building an audience on Twitter. We also talk about course design, cohort-based courses, and a lot of other fun things.In this episode, you'll learn: Tips for writing short-form content that boosts engagement A big advantage Twitter gives you over other platforms How to know if your content is ready to publish Why cohort-based courses are so lucrative Links & Resources (H5) Seth Godin altMBA Gagan Biyani Wes Kao's Links (H5) Maven Wes' website Follow Wes on Twitter Wes' blog post: Course Mechanics Canvas: 12 Levers to Achieve Course-Market Fit Wes' blog post: The State Change Method: How to deliver engaging live lectures on Zoom

Don't miss out on the next #womenintech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://womenintechshow.com. Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/“Remix: Wes Kao, Helena Belloff, and Lauren Kelley-Chew”#womenintech Show is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support the Women in Tech podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/womenintechTo be featured on the podcast go to http://womenintechshow.com/featureHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevorahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/espreeGuest,Wes Kaohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://twitter.com/wes_kaoGuest,Helena Belloffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/helenabelloff/Guest, Lauren Kelley-Chewhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kelley-chew-md-27052024Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/In LA? Here's some awesome resources for you to become immersed in the LA Tech scene -For a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comGet Podcast Listeners, http://getpodcastlisteners.com/Resources Mentioned:Maven, https://maven.comAltMBA, https://altmba.comLevels, https://www.levelshealth.comPeople Mentioned:Seth Godin, https://www.sethgodin.comCredits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory Produced, Edited and Mastered by Cory Jennings, https://www.coryjennings.com/Production and Voiceover by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Team support by Janice GeronimoMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Wes Kao, Helena Belloff, and Lauren Kelley-Chew

Don't miss out on the next #womenintech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://womenintechshow.com.Be featured in the Women in Tech Community by creating your profile here http://womenintechvip.com/“Wes Kao of Maven”#womenintech Show is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support the Women in Tech podcast go to https://www.patreon.com/womenintechTo be featured on the podcast go to http://womenintechshow.com/featureHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevorahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/espreeGuest,Wes Kaohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://twitter.com/wes_kaoListener Spotlight,Mike Veldhuishttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hwveldhuis/In LA? Here's some awesome resources for you to become immersed in the LA Tech scene -For a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comGet Podcast Listeners, http://getpodcastlisteners.com/Resources Mentioned:Maven, https://maven.comUdemy, https://www.udemy.comSkillshare, https://www.skillshare.comAltMBA, https://altmba.comPurple Cow, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/purple-cow-seth-godin/1100041613The Dip, https://www.amazon.com/Dip-Little-Book-Teaches-Stick/dp/1591841666L' Oreal, https://www.loreal.com/en/Alchemist, https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416High Output Management, https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884People Mentioned:Lenny Rachitsky, https://www.lennyrachitsky.comSeth Godin, https://www.sethgodin.comJason Calacanis, https://calacanis.comCredits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory Produced, Edited and Mastered by Cory Jennings, https://www.coryjennings.com/Production and Voiceover by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Team support by Janice GeronimoMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Wes Kao

Edutech! When students partner up with the best operators in their field, radical change takes place. Education meets internet creators, through Wes Kao's Maven platform. Education is one of the last multi-trillion dollar markets virtually untapped by tech. Why? Because very few innovators out there can see the potential. But Maven can, and it's just raised $25 million from a16z and First Round. Joe and Wes discuss how Maven's 10 instructors are already making $100k+ for a 3-week online class, why world class creators like Pomp, Li Jin and David Perell are offering hyper-tactical lessons, and how new audiences no longer need gatekeepers deciding who can and can't teach. Wes gets into mini-apprenticeships, learning from creators at the top of their game, and how Maven is unlocking an army of internet native professors with a cohort ready to learn. The education revolution is happening.  Follow Wes: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao (linkedin.com/in/weskao) Check out the Just Raised newsletter: https://bit.ly/3Ghj2tY Stay up-to-date on all things Just Raised: https://workweek.com/brand/just-raised/ or follow Joe Sweeny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeySweeny (https://twitter.com/JoeySweeny) And if you're a fan of Acquired, Invest Like The Best, Business Breakdowns or 20VC, you'll love Just Raised

Join us as our host, George Kamel, talks to Wes Kao. Wes co-founded altMBA with our friend Seth Godin. She is also a co-founder of Maven. Wes talks about the power of rigorous thinking and the transformational impact it can have on your culture and your team. Later in the episode, George chats with Kacy Maxwell, the executive director of ramseysolutions.com. Kacy shares how you can use a few frameworks as your guide to encourage your team to think critically.   You'll learn: How to tell if you're a lazy thinker Why lazy thinkers are followers not leaders The type of thinking that can transform your culture The two keys to critical thinking   Sign up for The EntreLeadership Podcast Takeaways—a weekly email where you'll get three tangible takeaways and a tactical action step related to each week's episode: https://bit.ly/podcast-takeaways   Support our sponsors: BELAY: https://bit.ly/33SwBlO Hite Digital: https://bit.ly/HiteDigital NetSuite: https://bit.ly/NetSuiteEntre Exodus 90: https://bit.ly/Exodus90Entre Kyro Digital: https://bit.ly/KyroDigital   Links mentioned in the episode: The EntreLeadership Podcast: https://bit.ly/TheEntreLeadershipPodcast Wes Kao's website: https://bit.ly/3IMB7C3 Maven's website: https://bit.ly/3hCUGAK altMBA's website: https://bit.ly/3sFRriw Download the Critical Thinking Cheat Sheet: https://bit.ly/3hIiWlf Schedule a call with Tim, our producer: https://bit.ly/3bJOSmi   Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: EntreLeadership Summit: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipSummit EntreLeadership Master Series: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipMasterSeries   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: Elite: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipElite Advisory Groups: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipAdvisoryGroups Executive Coaching: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipExecutiveCoaching Workshops: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipWorkshops Weekly Report Tool: https://bit.ly/WeeklyReportTool   Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our app. Download the Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq

We talk a lot about online courses on the Goal Digger Podcast. After all, online courses play a major role in my business and have changed my life completely. We've talked about mini-courses, signature courses, how to build, sell, and automate your course… But maybe the structure of the courses we talk about doesn't quite fit the topic or idea you have. Maybe you need a different kind of online course for what you want to teach. Ever hear of a cohort? Cohort-based courses combine live workshops, videos, articles, and projects to create impactful learning experiences. It's about your students learning from each other and by doing. I am so excited to explore this different kind of online course. Wes Kao helped create the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin. Now she's taking the category she helped create to the next level with her new startup Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses.  PRE-ORDER MY FIRST BOOK: jennakutcher.com/book GOAL DIGGER FB COMMUNITY: https://www.facebook.com/groups/goaldiggerpodcast/ GOAL DIGGER INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/goaldiggerpodcast/ GOAL DIGGER SHOWNOTES: jennakutcherblog.com/wes

Since leaving the classroom in 2016, I've missed one aspect of teaching more than any other: connecting with students in real-time, as I teach the material. And while I love creating evergreen courses, today's guest has a better way to teach online. Wes Kao, a co-founder of both altMBA and Maven, tells us about Cohort-based Courses (CBCs), and I am all in! She'll tell us how CBCs have better completion rates, allow for much less upfront work, and allow you to charge more. If you want to create an online course in 2022, I strongly recommend you consider them. Plus, in Build Something More, where does YouTube sit with all of this? Top Takeaways: Most online learning is one direction. The teacher pre-records a video and teaches. But Cohort-based Courses offer bi-directional learning, which is huge in the online space. It allow instructors to get real time feedback and pivot when needed.When deciding what to teach, you need to consider what you're an expert in. Ask yourself, "If Harvard were asking me to guest lecture, what topic would they invite me to teach?" You should also survey your audience to understand where they are at and what they want to learn.CBCs are best when they are interactive. You should shoot for 75% interactive, 25% knowledge transfer. Think about how your students can learn something, and practice it right now; this allows them to reinforce what they learn, and get real time feedback from you and fellow students. Show Notes: Wes KaoWes Kao on TwitterWes Kao Podcast10 YouTube Statistics That You Need to Know in 2021The Future of Education is Community: The Rise of Cohort-Based Courses - Forte LabsMaven: Create and teach cohort-based coursesMasterClassMorning BrewSeth GodinBuilding and Evovling Profitable Project Plan with Jennifer BournBuild Something ClubSponsored by: Riverside.fm | Nexcess | Ahrefs | TextExpander

Wes Kao is co-founder of Maven, the first platform for cohort-based courses. Maven helps creators build a cohort-based course and deliver an incredible student experience at scale. She helped build cohort-based courses for Outlier.org (from the co-founder of MasterClass), David Perell's Write of Passage, Tiago Forte's Build a Second Brain, Section4/Professor Scott Galloway, and Morning Brew. Previously, Wes was the co-founder of the altMBA. Under her leadership, the altMBA grew from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries in three years. She designed the altMBA's beloved coaching system, grew the global community, built the marketing engine, and built a team of 40 people to support rapid scaling. In this episode, we talk about Wes's early experiences building cohort-based courses, how you can decide whether teaching a CBC is right for you, the frameworks you can use to design your course curriculum, and why Rigorous Thinking helps her to build quickly without wasting time on failed experiments. Learn more about Wes Kao Learn more about Maven Wes's piece on Spiky Points of View Follow Wes on Twitter Follow Jay on Twitter Follow Creative Elements on Instagram Full transcript and show notes *** SPONSORS View all sponsors and offers *** IF YOU LOVE CREATIVE ELEMENTS Leave me a voicemail Subscribe to weekly episode emails Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Buy Me A Coffee *** ABOUT JAY CLOUSE Learn more about me Subscribe to my newsletter, Creative Companion Connect with me on Twitter Connect with me on Instagram Join #Tweet100 *** FOR PODCASTERS Enroll in my podcasting workshop Enroll in my course on podcasting, Podcast Like The Pros Learn more about Podpage *** PODGLOMERATE NETWORK This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.  Since you're listening to Creative Elements, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Rocketship.fm and Freelance to Founder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Managers should be multipliers for their teams. How can you unlock their productivity and unblock them on time wasters? That's what leverage is all about. Eric Jorgenson, author of the Almanack of Naval Ravikant, has thought about leverage so much he's got a whole course and blog dedicated to it. We have him on the Creating High Performing Teams podcast today to talk about how managers like you can apply leverage to your work day and unleash your team to focus on the highest value things they can do. Show Notes:  Being a manager is about being a multiplier. Leverage is how you find was to multiple you and your team's efforts. Book recommendation: Shape Up by Ryan SingerCovers: Start with finding just one thing you can outsource. Be okay with it being 70-80% as good as you would do it…then reflect on how valuable it was to get that time back Other tactics and examples of leverage:Write out your key decisions in a Decision Journal and reflect on the results after the factInclude the details of the decision so it's easier to understand all the date you had then ConvertKit records a podcast for every new employee so people can get to know them at a time they choose at scale Founder Shane Mac gives every employee on his team a budget to have an Executive Assistant to save time and offload any tedious/repetitive tasks. Remember in Episode 5 with Wes Kao, they have a #repetitive channel that people can post when they're doing the same thing again and again. What you can do as a manager:Do the math on the value / cost of you and each employee's time. Teach them to outsource or, where possible, do not do low value tasks.Buying tools are high leverage; compare the monthly cost of the tool to your employee hours cost to do themselves. “If you repeat yourself, record yourself” to create leverage, whether a template, instructions, or something else.And on the flip side ask, “What can I uniquely only do?” and focus on this things. Ask your team members in their 1 on 1s questions like:What are you spending time on every day or week? What do you spend a lot of your time doing? What's repetitive? Key actions for you to take today from the interview:  Study the idea yourself to really understand itRevisit Andy Grove's legendary leadership book, “High Output Management”  Remember: There are no points for difficulty, so look for opportunities to get leverage with low effort on your part. It starts with one, so just find one place, and then build momentum from there. What can they do right now with their team to make a difference?Teach them to prioritize high-impact projects Reward good outcomes, not inputs or effort with your team Avoid theater.Give more headcount or support profit center teams better First Actions today:  What are you spending time on every day or week?  Ask your team in 1 on 1s about how they could have more leverage: What do you spend a lot of your time doing? What's repetitive?  Do the calculation of your costs for your time and that of your team. Use that as a measure of how much ROI various tools and other investments have to have to justify the spend. Where to find and follow Eric Jorgenson:  Check out Eric's course on building leverage in your life and career at https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage Subscribe to Eric's free newsletter at https://www.ejorgenson.com/newsletter And you can read his blog posts on leverage here: https://www.ejorgenson.com/blog?category=Leverage

Wes Kao has a refreshing perspective on education and knows how to build systems that provide incredible learning experiences. Take a listen to see what Wes Kao thinks about the current methods that we use to educate as well how to build transformational learning experiences for students. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What does it take to have a good relationship with your manager? How can you manage up in a way that creates win-win scenarios for you and the person most in charge of your career and work future? In this week's episode of Creating High Performing Teams, we have special guest Wes Kao who wrote an awesome, viral tweetstorm on the subject. We had her on to discuss the advice she shared, and to dig into the nuance of managing up that didn't fit in the 280 character limit of Twitter.

Wes Kao is the cofounder of Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses. In just one year, the Maven team launched over 100 cohorts, saw dozens of instructors make $10K, multiple made $250K+, and raised a $20m Series A from Andreesen Horowitz.   Their course creators include Anthony Pompliano, Li Jin, Sahil Lavingia, Shaan Puri, and Sahil Bloom.   Prior to starting Maven she was the co-founder of the altMBA, which launched the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin. She's led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups, and is recognized as a leading expert in B2C marketing.    In this episode, Wes and Aaron discuss how to go from being and outside to an insider, why MOOCs fail, and how Wes got a job with Seth Godin.   Sign up for a Weekly Email that will Expand Your Mind.   Wes Kao's Challenge; Figure out how you can turn bugs into features.   Connect with Wes Kao Linkedin Wes on Twitter Maven on Twitter Maven.com WesKao.com If you liked this interview, check out episode 422 with Pomp. Underwritten by Piper Creative Piper Creative makes creating podcasts, vlogs, and videos easy.    How? Click here and Learn more.   We work with Fortune 500s, medium-sized companies, and entrepreneurs.   Follow Piper as we grow YouTube Instagram Subscribe on iTunes | Stitcher | Overcast | Spotify

Today I talked to Pamela Slim about her new book The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You (McGraw Hill, 2021). Almost all the new jobs created in America come from small businesses, Pamela Slim reports. The precise number may be as high as over 99%. And those same businesses provide over 50% of the nation's GDP. So why not focus more on them? Slim does so by being expansive. Her focus includes Native American, Black, Latinx, Asian, disabled and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. How can they find their niches, then expand them? Who's their ideal customer? What challenges or problems does a company's branded offer solve? What kind of partners can one find? What kind of eco-system of “watering holes” allows one to join a greater community and thrive together? What do cohort-based courses like Wes Kao and Seth Godin's altMBA program look like? If taking a business partner, what pitfalls to be on guard against? Those are among the topics this episode explores. Pamela Slim is an author, community builder, business coach, and former director of Training and Development at Barclays Global Investors. Among her accomplishments is partnering with author Susan Cain to build and launch The Quiet Revolution. Among her books is Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I talked to Pamela Slim about her new book The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You (McGraw Hill, 2021). Almost all the new jobs created in America come from small businesses, Pamela Slim reports. The precise number may be as high as over 99%. And those same businesses provide over 50% of the nation's GDP. So why not focus more on them? Slim does so by being expansive. Her focus includes Native American, Black, Latinx, Asian, disabled and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. How can they find their niches, then expand them? Who's their ideal customer? What challenges or problems does a company's branded offer solve? What kind of partners can one find? What kind of eco-system of “watering holes” allows one to join a greater community and thrive together? What do cohort-based courses like Wes Kao and Seth Godin's altMBA program look like? If taking a business partner, what pitfalls to be on guard against? Those are among the topics this episode explores. Pamela Slim is an author, community builder, business coach, and former director of Training and Development at Barclays Global Investors. Among her accomplishments is partnering with author Susan Cain to build and launch The Quiet Revolution. Among her books is Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/dan-hills-eq-spotlight

Today I talked to Pamela Slim about her new book The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You (McGraw Hill, 2021). Almost all the new jobs created in America come from small businesses, Pamela Slim reports. The precise number may be as high as over 99%. And those same businesses provide over 50% of the nation's GDP. So why not focus more on them? Slim does so by being expansive. Her focus includes Native American, Black, Latinx, Asian, disabled and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. How can they find their niches, then expand them? Who's their ideal customer? What challenges or problems does a company's branded offer solve? What kind of partners can one find? What kind of eco-system of “watering holes” allows one to join a greater community and thrive together? What do cohort-based courses like Wes Kao and Seth Godin's altMBA program look like? If taking a business partner, what pitfalls to be on guard against? Those are among the topics this episode explores. Pamela Slim is an author, community builder, business coach, and former director of Training and Development at Barclays Global Investors. Among her accomplishments is partnering with author Susan Cain to build and launch The Quiet Revolution. Among her books is Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. Dan Hill, PhD, is the author of nine books and leads Sensory Logic, Inc. (https://www.sensorylogic.com). His new book is Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo. To check out his related “Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight” blog, visit https://emotionswizard.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode of Masters of Community, we speak with Wes Kao, Co-founder of Maven and Mentor at Backstage Capital. Our host, David Spinks, VP of Community at Bevy and Co-Founder of CMX, moderated the conversation. Before Maven, Wes co-founded altMBA alongside bestselling author Seth Godin. By founding Maven, she wanted to democratize education by improving the online experience for instructors and students. Wes is a thought leader in building cohort-based courses and frequently writes on her blog about marketing, online courses, and rigorous thinking. She unfolds the concept of cohort-based courses and ways of building and managing them effectively. Who is this episode for? Community builders, community managers, and course instructors Three key takeaways: 1. Understanding cohort based courses: Maven is the first platform for cohort-based courses, which are courses that take place during a period with a group of other people. As community organizers, make sure you find the right balance in teaching your students. Create an environment of making sure that your students contribute to the community, support each other, and learn from one another. 2. Building cohort based courses: Firstly, market the course upfront. Secondly, design your curriculum and establish the frameworks, exercises, breakouts, and discussions. Thirdly, find the right instructors. Finally, think about your sales and marketing funnel. 3. Forming communities within cohort based courses: Lean into debatable topics where your students have a chance to share their thoughts and learn from each other. Empower community members to connect without you jumping in all the time to answer. Create a culture where the students feel comfortable giving direct and genuine feedback. Notable Quotes: 1. “Cohort based courses are more engaging and active in learning versus passive content consumption” 2. “With the cohort based course, once you realize that you don't have to do it all yourself, that's where the sky parts and new opportunities open up” 3. “Course based courses allow students to connect without you as an instructor needing to be the center of that. Acknowledging that letting go of the reins results in better outcomes, more connections, deeper bonds, and relationships amongst yours.” 4. “So I think one of the most exciting things about cohort-based courses is that there's the flexibility for you to make it what you want it to be” Answers to rapid-fire questions: 1. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would that food be? Zucchini 2. What's your favorite book to give as a gift or recommend to others? It's Not Personal by Alice Katz 3. What is your favorite course that you've ever been a part of? Alive OS by Suzy Batiz 4. Who in the world of community would you most like to take out? Mister Rogers 5. What's the weirdest community you've ever been a part of? A plant shaming group on Facebook 6. If you were to find yourself on your deathbed today, and you had to condense all of your life lessons into one piece of advice for the rest of the world, what would that advice be? Worry less

Learn more about Wes, Maven, and Backstage Capital:Wes' LinkedInWes' WebsiteWes' TwitterMaven's LinkedInMaven's WebsiteBackstage Capital CommunityEpisode resources:The Business of Belonging: How to Make Community your Competitive AdvantageSend your stories and feedback on this episode to pod@cmxhub.comIf you enjoyed this episode, then please either:Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple PodcastsFollow on Spotify

As co-founder of the altMBA, Wes Kao helped create the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin. Wes has led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups, and is recognized as a leading expert in B2C marketing. Now she's taking the category she helped create to the next level with her new startup Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses.I learned heaps from this conversation as Wes unpacked all things cohort-based learning. Tune in to find out more about creating an engaging course, how the best courses evolve, growing your community, and the power of beta-testing.  Talking Points The rising trend of learning cohorts Some common mistakes made by first-time course creators Why it's never too late to start a cohort-based learning course The impact of people working from home How to make the most out of online learning Repurposing evergreen content into cohort-based course Quote"The less tools you have, the less things will break."Helpful Links AltMBA Episode 343: Consistency Over Authenticity with Seth Godin Wes Kao's website Wes Kao's Twitter Maven's Twitter Maven Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As co-founder of the altMBA, Wes Kao helped create the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin.  Wes has led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups, and is recognized as a leading expert in B2C marketing. Now she's taking the category she helped create to the next level with her new startup Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses. I learned heaps from this conversation as Wes unpacked all things cohort-based learning. Tune in to find out more about creating an engaging course, how the best courses evolve, growing your community, and the power of beta-testing.   Talking Points The rising trend of learning cohorts Some common mistakes made by first-time course creators Why it's never too late to start a cohort-based learning course The impact of people working from home How to make the most out of online learning Repurposing evergreen content into cohort-based course Quote "The less tools you have, the less things will break." Helpful Links AltMBA Episode 343: Consistency Over Authenticity with Seth Godin Wes Kao's website Wes Kao's Twitter Maven's Twitter Maven Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice.   If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page.   If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.

Show Notes:Thread on Spiky POV: https://twitter.com/wes_kao/status/1449389707385790473?s=20 Blogpost on Spiky POV: https://www.weskao.com/blog/spiky-point-of-view-lets-get-a-little-controversialThe Super Specific How: How to make your cohort-based course more rigoroushttps://www.weskao.com/blog/super-specific-howThe State Change Method: How to deliver engaging live lectures on Zoomhttps://www.weskao.com/blog/the-state-change-method

Our guest Wes Kao is the cofounder of Maven, a new online education platform that's raised $25M from A16Z and First Round. Maven's classes are like mini-apprenticeships. Live courses where you can learn tangible, hard skills from operators who are excellent at that skill. Writing, blockchain development, product management - you learn by doing and Wes and the team at Maven aim to make each class hyper tactical. We talk about why professors need to become entertainers, where earlier models of online education fall short, Wes' Hierarchy of Bullshit, and how you can potentially build your own online course business with Maven's tools. Courses are actually pretty fantastic businesses. Maven is prelaunch, but 10 instructors are already making over a hundred thousand dollars per three-week class. Maybe more of us should be teaching. Check out all of Maven's classes and their open roles here: https://maven.com/about Thanks for listening! And give us a follow on Twitter!

#513 A lot has changed recently when it comes to online courses. For a while, it was all about having as much content as possible. Sixty hours of video and five hundred worksheets? Great! Ship it! We might have thought that way once, but we know now that's just the wrong way to build a course. We want our course experiences to be more efficient—for both the course creator and the students taking it. But online courses have continued to evolve beyond just more efficiency. It's about the experience people have around that content, and how we can enhance their learning through extra guidance and community. This evolution is showing up in the form of cohort-based courses—”cohort” meaning a group of people, in this case, course students. The concept isn't exactly new. Cohort-based learning has been around for a while. (You may be familiar with “schools” and “classrooms.”) But when it comes to online education, cohort-based courses have come to the fore thanks to people like Seth Godin and his altMBA program, which a lot of very successful people have gone through. Credit for coming up with the altMBA concept actually goes to someone named Wes Kao—and she's our special guest here today. Wes is a cofounder at Maven, a platform where you can create and teach your own online cohort-based courses. In fact, I and a couple of my teammates on Team SPI have had the privilege of taking a cohort-based course from Wes and her team on how to do our own cohort-based courses. We're now running several “boot camps,” as we call them, where we lead a group of people through our courses in a more structured format, with accountability, working hours, and group collaboration. We're going to talk today with Wes about exactly what a cohort-based course looks like, how it'll deliver better results, and how to go about creating your own cohort-based course. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/session513.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Creating a course can be a daunting task. From content to pricing, there are a lot of unknowns when getting started. Wes Kao joins Stewart Hillhouse to discuss the 12 levers she uses to simplify course design to ensure course-market fit. On this episode of Top Of Mind, Wes and Stewart discuss: • How to transform your students through your course • How to design a course that you enjoy teaching • How to get students to sign up for your course • And So Much More Wes Kao is the Co-Founder of Maven and previously co-founded the altMBA with Seth Godin. Twitter: https://twitter.com/wes_kao LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/ Course-Mechanics Canvas: https://www.weskao.com/blog/course-mechanics-canvas Connect with Stewart on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stew_hillhouse Join Top Of Mind: https://stewarthillhouse.com/topofmind/

Wes Kao is the co-founder of Maven.com. In this episode, she shares her spiky point of view on the future of education. In our candid discussions, she talks about her worldview on CBCs (Cohort-Based Courses). Arielle and I are learning the best practices & her secret sauce of CBC in her Maven Course Accelerator #MVN3. https://future.a16z.com/cohort-based-courses/

Let's be honest, content is king. And the challenge today is finding ways to make that content not just resonate with people, but also more helpful by giving users a community that not only creates a lasting impression, but one they can benefit from. Wes Kao knows content, and as the creator and co-founder of Maven, what she sees as the answer to improving the online course education experience for instructors and students. Paralleling the development of the technology along with curating a powerful roster of instructors, Maven has already seen financial success before the platform has even hit the market. This reflects Wes' nuanced approach to modern, content creation. While quality still reigns supreme, the days of begging for subscribers might be trending downwards, in favor of a more hyper-personalized approach.  “Like and subscribe is dead because people used to need hundreds of thousands of followers to be able to make a living online.Things are shifting so that if you are a creator these days, you can make a pretty healthy living from a smaller audience of true fans who love what you do and want to, uh, want to engage with you and are willing to invest more in, um, in your content because they find it so valuable.”And what is it that consumers are valuing these days? Community. The days of online interactions are on the rise,, which means those users are looking for new ways to flex their creative muscles.  Wes, knows how to curate these communities and In this episode of Marketing Trends, she delves into the way she approaches hiring, growing and developing her business, as well as shares some of the nuggets of wisdom she gleaned from her time with Seth Godin. Wes has so many insights! Be prepared to take a few notes and learn a lot. Here we go!Main Takeaways:Focus on Behavior in Marketing: There is often too much emphasis placed on the next and newest marketing tools, instead of a focus on the actual principles of human behavior. Being able to answer those deep marketing questions, knowing how to increase or decrease desire, is where you can have real impact. The basics of understanding people and cognitive biases are the pillars of what makes for a good marketer.Keys to Hiring Well: Having a good team makes for a successful company and knowing how to suss out the right candidates means taking a few extra steps aside from having a verbal or in-person interview and looking over their CV. When you're going through the hiring process, make sure that you look beyond the candidate's resume, and focus on some of their ancillary activities. Seeing that people have side projects, personal websites, newsletters, etc. will show you about how a person presents themselves online, what they care about, and how much effort they put into their work. Take home projects are also a great way to ensure that you're hiring someone who can do the job you have for them, and not just someone with some cool job titles in their past.Community has Become More Valuable than Content: Videos, lectures, articles are a dime-a-dozen and you get can really high-quality content about almost anything for free online today. If you want to make it in the content game, you have to focus on the community aspects of your business that you're offering. Provide ways for people to connect with like minded people and develop relationships with them. That's when people will open their wallets.‘Like and Subscribe' as a Business Model is Dead: You used to have to rely on big numbers of followers or view counts to be able to have a successful business, or influences, but what matters now is less about overall numbers and more about the level of active particitants that are viewing your content. Spreading vanilla messages that resonate with a mass audience is not what drives engagement. Hyper personalized content that the listener or viewer can relate to is.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world's number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.

Wes had the honor and pleasure to work with Seth Godin where she developed the AltMBA. Probably one of the more well-known cohort-based courses out there. She's currently heading Maven which is a platform where teachers can host their CBC's. In this episode, you'll learn what acquisition channels work great to onboard new students into your courses. We also talk about how you can become successful as a cohort-based teacher.

The rise of cohort-based learning, and why traditional education systems can't weather the tech evolution storm forever.Education has always been cohort-based, however, when the internet arrived this disrupted community-driven learning into an asynchronous field.Digital cohort-based courses are redirecting education back around to the start in order to better develop, challenge, and build on ideas together. How is it different from MOOCs? They're miles apart. Zoom lectures and monologues aren't allowed, it needs to be engaging and invite active participation and learning to the forefront.Wes Kao, co-founder of Maven, joins Niko on the podcast to talk about the future of learning, cohort-learning (our favourite topic) and key variables to scrutinise when starting any business (not just a cohort). Maven is THE successful online platform that ​​empowers creators to build live courses and deliver an engaging student experience at scale. Wes is an incredibly impressive entrepreneur,  engaging speaker, and pure inspiration for education. Listen to the full episode to find out how Wes found her way into education through tech startups and Udemy, why credentials are not so important anymore and proof of building things is, and genuine takeaways to take forward in both work and life. Looking to level up or enter a new field? Join TOA Klub for cohort-based learning. Four Klubs to chose from, each including Masterclasses, AMA's, and peer-to-peer learning. Apply now: toaklub.comSubscribe to our NL (go.toaklub.com/toaoa-nl), follow us on Instagram (@toaberlin), Twitter (@toaberlin), Linkedin (toa-berlin) and Facebook (TechOpenAir).Support the show (https://paypal.me/TechOpenGmbH?locale.x=en_US)

As co-founder of the altMBA, Wes Kao helped create the modern cohort-based education movement with Seth Godin. She's led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups and is recognized as a leading expert in B2C marketing. Now she's taking the category she helped create to the next level with her new startup Maven, the world's first digital platform for cohort-based courses.   Wes talks about her journey through the online course industry, working with Seth Godin, creating Maven, and much more!

Wes Kao is the Co-Founder of Maven, a platform for cohort-based and community-driven courses. Maven partners with the world's best instructors to deliver a live and online student experience at scale.Prior to Maven, Wes was the co-founder of the altMBA where she helped grow it to thousands of students in over 550 cities globally. She specializes in building cohort-based courses and writes a newsletter on marketing, online courses, & thinking.

Wes Kao is a Co-Founder of Maven, a platform that enables anyone to build a cohort-based course and deliver an incredible student experience at scale. Prior to founding Maven, Wes co-founded the altMBA, where she designed the program's coaching system, grew the community from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries in three years, and built a team of 40 people. Wes is a thought leader in building cohort-based courses and frequently writes about marketing, online courses, and rigorous thinking on her blog. In this episode we spoke with Wes about the following: Choosing to play games you can win by turning features into bugs The mental load created by the narrow range of motion Asian Americans, women, and other minorities are afforded Learning to be comfortable taking up space and embracing productive conflict in the workplace Episode resources: Wes's Twitter: https://twitter.com/wes_kao Wes's website: https://www.weskao.com/ ------------------------------- If you enjoyed today's conversation about the intersection of work and Asian American identity, please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review to spread the word. We'd really appreciate it! Learn more about the show at acrossthelinespodcast.com and follow us @acrossthelinespodcast to get the latest updates.

In this week's episode I want to talk about what I believe to be the future of online education - Cohort Based Learning. This isn't a new concept, but it IS revolutionary. After all, a revolution is simply a return to the beginning. Cohort-Based learning fills in the missing pieces that we sacrifice when we're not in a physical classroom: The interaction, the community, the time constraints, the accountability...those are all invaluable educational tools that are stripped away with traditional digital courses. This Cohort-Based format is why, after over a decade of teaching, I had my first 100% successful completion rate. Not completion as in "people showed up and listened to me lecture them"...Completion as in, they showed up and DID THE WORK they came to learn how to do. Whether you're the teacher or the student, this is the format that will get you the results you're looking for. I'll break down all the why's in this week's episode. Spiritual Foundations "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich." - Proverbs 10:4, EIV Is this God's warning to us that unless we toil our life away we will have nothing? No. This is God's reminder to work diligently - Do the right work, at the right time, in the right way. Tip Of The Week My tip this week is to get your Inbox organized with the help of Sanebox. Sanebox uses advanced AI to organize your email, keeping only the right stuff in your inbox. I know the email client or website you use probably has filters and rules to organize your email, but you likely don't use them and even if you do...Sanebox does it better. Click here to learn how. Feature Presentation This episode was inspired by two things: A course I recently taught, and an amazing article by Wes Kao. Before I get started, let me say that I don't think traditional, prerecorded digital courses are going away. This is still an on-demand world and there will be those who prefer the self-paced, self-study route...especially if it's a subject that they're kind of interested in. However, for most serious students who have made the commitment to learn AND implement the material, I believe the cohort model is supreme. Okay, enough disclaiming...back to my two reasons for choosing this topic. The 100% Success Rate in the title isn't click-bait. It is a fact, and it was a first for me...literally. This was the first time that EVERY student not only learned the material, but also put it to use and produced a quality product that they were satisfied with. Don't get me wrong, I'm accustomed to seeing some success, but not this level...not everyone. Imagine if you owned a gym and on January 2nd, you got that huge wave of new customers who were determined to get in shape. Only, instead of quitting in a matter of weeks (or days), they all put in the work and actually achieved their goals. Buying a digital course is like joining a gym...it's the easy part. Doing the work is a different story. The results achieved in that class made me rethink my entire system of educating. People don't want a gym membership...they want the transformation. The cohort environment forced them to interact, to write, to revise, to be engaged - To do the work. If you're a course creator, you need to become intimately familiar with this format. This is what most of your students will be looking for. If you deliver can deliver what they want, your course completion rate, customer satisfaction rate, reviews, testimonials and revenue will be dramatically amplified. I want to acknowledge the author of the article I quoted extensively in this week's podcast, Wes Kao. I highly recommend you take a few minutes and read it in its entirety. Links From This Episode Write an Email Series That Sells - My free workshop that happens on July 8, 2021. This is a live, cohort-based workshop that will teach you how to create must-open subject lines and how to sell using stories. If you want a sample of how effective this style of learning is, just sign up and show up...no investment required. Sanebox - The most advanced Inbox organizer I've ever used. In Online Ed, Content Is No Longer King—Cohorts Are - Future - Brilliant article by Wes Kao - a MUST READ for anyone who creates digital courses. Be Your Own Copywriter - This is my new Cohort-Based course that will not only teach you how to write engaging copy that transforms your readers, viewers, members and followers into customers - BUT also helps you get the work done, in class - with support from me, my team of coaches, and your fellow cohorts. When you finish this live course, you will have every piece of copy you need to launch or re-launch your product, written, reviewed and ready for launch. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in iTunes and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. We are also on Stitcher.com, so if you prefer Stitcher, please subscribe there. Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook - This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

Why  Future with Marc Andreessen, Margit Wennmachers, and Sonal Chokshi [2:20]The New Creator Economy with Joost van Dreunen, Wes Kao, Cuy Sheffield, Chris Lyons, Lauren Murrow, and Zoran Basich [17:58]Bubbles, Speculation, and Innovation with Byrne Hobart, Jamie Catherwood, and Zoran Basich [35:38]Work Models & Measures for the Information Age with  Rajiv Ayyangar, Nicole Forsgren, and Das Rush [51:20]The Power of Subtracting, Adding, and AI in Bio with Leidy Klotz, Vijay Pande, and Lauren Richardson [1:05:11]***Visit future.a16z.com for additional content on these topics and more. Follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse to join conversations with tech founders, builders, and leaders live and in-full.  

Ep. 79 - Could you use cohort based courses in your current business model for more growth and transformation? In this week's episode, Chris discusses cohort based courses, with special guest Wes Kao, as well as a variety of other important topics for marketers and course creators. Wes is the co-founder of Maven, the first platform for cohort-based courses. This conversation provides a wealth of insight around positioning yourself and standing out in the market.

Wes Kao is the previous co-founder of altMBA that she built alongside Seth Godin, and has now teamed up with one of the co-founders of Udemy to release the first cohort-based learning platform – Maven. In this episode, Wes shares her framework for embracing a mindset of experimentation to solve problems differently, the future of learning and the power of community and shared stories to create to change. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/Website: https://www.weskao.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/wes_kaoMentioned in this episode: Maven - https://maven.com/AltMBA – https://altmba.com/

Could you use cohort based courses in your current business model for more growth and transformation? In this week’s episode, Chris discusses cohort based courses, with special guest Wes Kao, as well as a variety of other important topics for marketers and course creators. Wes is the co-founder of Maven, the first platform for cohort-based…

In this episode, Wes talks about student outcomes, differentiation in content, and how can anyone offer a premium student experience at scale at Maven.

After this podcast recording, I wrote Technical Community Builder is the Hottest New Job in Tech which went into further detail on my thoughts on Community! Audio source: https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/developer-love/ep-15-learning-in-public-with-shawn-swyx-wangSHOW NOTES Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm /r/ReactJS Taming the Meta Language by Cheng Lou Avis is No. 2. We Try Harder Metcalfe's Law Reed's Law Clubhouse CMX Udemy The Community Fund Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal Hacking Communities by Laís de Oliveira Prettier Transistor.fm Stripe TRANSCRIPTPatrick Woods: Awesome. Swyx, thanks so much for coming on the show today.I'm really excited to have this conversation.I'm sure lots of folks are aware of who you are and probably follow you on Twitter, but for those that don't, would you mind giving us a little bit of an overview about who you are and what you're working on?Shawn "Swyx" Wang: Sure. Thanks for having me on.Been enjoying the podcast, and this is my second Heavybit podcast alongside JAMstack radio.So I'm Shawn, I also go by Swyx, that's my English and Chinese initials.It's a complicated history, but I was at Netlify, passed through AWS and most recently just left AWS to join Temporal.And have been primarily active in the front-end/ serverless space.And I've been very interested in this whole idea of developer experience.I did not know to call it developer love until I came across Orbit.And I think Orbit's model is fascinating and really nails it.But to me, the way I've been breaking down developer experience is developer tooling and developer communities.So kind of straddling both.I was a moderator of r/ReactJS subreddit, going from about 40,000 members to over 200,000.Recently stepped down from that to help run the Svelte society, which is the community organization for the Svelte framework. And I think it's just a magical thing to be able to enable a community around a certain technical topic. Patrick: Yeah. Thanks for the overview.So you mentioned developer experience as a concept and a practice that you're very interested in.What do you think led to that point for you?Swyx: Honestly, it was Netlify branding their developer relations people as developer experience engineers, which I was pretty skeptical about, because if you are devrel, just say your devrel, don't try to put some unique spin on it.But then I think they really envisioned something bigger than traditional devrel, which was building our integrations and also working on community building, which is not like me talking to everyone, but also enabling others to talk to everyone else.And so I think many to many is a really noble goal.It's very challenging obviously, because you have to influence without any formal authority, but it's also a very appealing goal economically, because then you don't have to scale their number of employees linearly with your number of users, which I think makes a lot of sense.Patrick: So you mentioned developer experience for you is really comprised of tooling and communities.Can you talk a little bit about the relationship between those two pillars?Swyx: I don't know if I have a formal relationship in my head.The framework that I come from is actually from Cheng Lou, who used to be on the React Core team.I think he's on the Reason or ReScript core team now. And he gave a talk at Facebook's internal conference called Taming The Meta Language, and the argument of that--And it's a very good talk. I recommend people check it out.The argument on that talk was essentially that every programming language or every framework has a core and a periphery, and the more developed it gets, the core which is kind of like the code that runs, is a smaller and smaller part of it.And really the middle language starts to go around it, which involves tutorials, docs, workshops, community, jobs, third party libraries, yada yada.And so in his original slides, he had a long list of these things that are wrapping around a very popular framework, which for him was reacts, but you can extend this to basically anything.But for me, I think it essentially just breaks down to, okay, the code that is not core but makes all the developer experience much better, so that's the developer tooling, and then developer communities, which is all the people around the code, which isn't core to the code, but makes using that code a lot better.So it's just code and people.Patrick: Yeah. I love that.So as a project or a framework grows the core, maybe it becomes smaller as a percentage of the overall footprint with the periphery, the middle language increasing.What's that tipping point look like, do you think, when it switches from code to community being the bigger part?Swyx: Yeah. This is something you can tie in to Geoffrey Moore's idea of Crossing the Chasm.So for people who haven't heard about this, it's like a five stage adoption process going from 0% of the total population to 100% of the total population.And then it's a bell curve from 0% to a 100%.So the early stage is kind of the hobbyists, like super early adopter types.The only thing that they care about is this is cool.I can hack on this in the weekends, and this is technically better on some basis, right?Like in theory, I really want this thing to exist. I look at all the existing solutions out there and none of them fit me, because I have very specific needs.And they don't need a lot of documentation.They don't look for other people like, is this used in production by some big company that I recognize.They don't think about stuff like that. They're just like, does this fit a very specific need that I have?That's it. If it does, good. That's enough for them.But the majority of people don't work like that. Right?They do want to see documentation. They want to see a thriving job market.They want to see that like whatever, Netflix has used this in production.All that stuff that's not core to the code, but does provide some measure of faith that this is tested at scale, that this is reliable and dependable and a good technical bet. As you go from early adopters, you cross the chasm into the early majority and the late majority. The requirements of the early adopters versus the majority are very different. The earlier adopters require a lot less essentially handholding. I'm not trying to demean the people in the majority.They just have different needs for that specific domain.And the people in the majority are more conservative, probably as a good measure of technological conservatism.You don't bet early on everything because you're going to get burned.So I think it just makes sense to bet early on some things where it really, really counts, and then just be conservative, use boring technology on everything else.But it does make a lot of sense that the crossover is a very challenging thing.Because when you start a framework, when you start a programming language, you're just like one person or like a small team just hacking away, right?You just care about the code and making it run fast or more securely, or have special features that nothing else in the world has.That's great. And then suddenly a community grows around you and then they're asking for things like, "Can you make better docs? Can you integrate with my thing? This doesn't work well with my existing worlds."And you're like, "Okay, sure. I want you to be happy."But that takes you further and further away from just working on the thing itself.So I think as a project grows in importance and adoption by the majority of the community, you start to embrace different parts of the population with different needs.And I think that that's the crossover point. I don't have a number for you, but people typically peg it at--I don't know, 5% or 10% of the population where it really starts just crossing over already.Because there are a lot of people in the middle.Patrick: Thinking about your experience with the React subreddit, what were some of the learnings or observations you had as that community scaled through those different phases?Swyx: It's a challenging one because Reddit is a constraint format.It's essentially a link aggregator with a voting and some comments.So, JavaScript is the largest programming language and React is the largest framework within JavaScript.Arguably there's some other measures.But when you have such a large community like this in a constraint format where basically only one link or one question can be in the top position when you sort by up votes, then there's a matter of what target audience do we want to target?Because there are a lot more beginners than there are advanced people, but people come for engaging events, knowledgeable conversations.So there's always this tension between, there's a lot of beginners who don't know any better and we should be welcoming to them, of course.But at the same time, if we make it too beginner-focus, the events will go away, and it will lose its quality.So there's a very challenging tension.One of the ways in which we solve that is to basically contain the beginning of questions to a dedicated thread.And that's something that I did when I was starting out.Basically the promise you make is that you will answer every single question that goes in there, which is a step up from stack overflow, where you can ask a question and it just gets crickets.Patrick: All right.Swyx: And so that contains the beginner questions and allows other types of contents to come up, which can be more advanced.And you try to make the two extremes happy, even though you can never really do a fantastic job.So there are other ways, for example, you can forge the community and create as specifically beginner focused one.But then you get what you get, which is that there won't be that many experienced people frequenting that subreddit, therefore the answers may not be as good, or you just have a glut of people asking questions and nobody's around to answer them.Patrick: Yeah. In terms of tactics, were you the one answering the questions in the beginner thread or were there other moderators that jumped in or did the community help out?Swyx: I started doing that. So there were some months where it was like 500 pushes and answers, and the vast majority of them were me.Patrick: Wow.Swyx: And it's not so bad, once you find repeats, then you can just copy and paste.But I think when you're leading the community, you do have to lead by example, and then people who see what you're doing in the service of the community, start to jump in and help out.That's where I recruited a couple of my other fellow moderators, because I saw that they took the initiative and joined in with no expectation of any personal benefit.They're just serving the community.I think there is some personal benefit in the sense of, you get to answer all these questions and you strengthen your own knowledge, which is really good.And you also understand the pain points.So you can go write blog posts and articles and even libraries to solve those pain points.So having a very close ear to the ground for what people are facing helps you just be relevant to everyone else.So I think there's a lot of benefits for doing that.But yeah, it's actually a pretty good recruiting ground.Basically, if you want to be a leader of the community, just act like it and people will see what you're doing, and then they'll formally give you that position.Patrick: You mentioned that by being heavily involved with these beginner questions, things like that, it leads to inspiration for blog posts, tutorials code, things like that.We think a lot about the second order of effects of an active community.And one of those is content like that, where if you have a thriving community, one second order effect is you probably have ideas for blog posts, guides, tutorials, things like that.And I'm not sure everyone realizes the sort of power of that type of output.Swyx: Oh yeah. We have people who teach React for a living.They actually go through the Reddit to browse for people's pain points so that they can write articles. It's pretty effective.Patrick: Yeah. That's awesome. So you're working today with Svelte Society.Can you tell us a little bit about what you're working on there, and the nature of the community that's around that?Swyx: Yeah. So, Svelte Society started off as a meetup in New York, because I was friends with Rich Harris, who created Svelte.And I had basically ignored him for a full year because I was so deep into React, that I was just like, I don't need a new framework in my life.And I think we were both speaking at a conference and he gave a really convincing talk where I reached a point where I was just like, "Okay, I got to try this thing out."And of course I was impressed.Of course it solves major pain points that I had with React.And I just ignored him for a year, because I'm one of those not early adopter types.So there was a meetup that was going to happen in London, which is going to be this first Svelte meetup in the world.And I was like, "We can't have that. We're in New York. We have Rich Harris in New York. We need to meet up as well."So I just decided to tweet that. I wanted to launch a meetup. I had no speakers, no guest list, no venue. I just set a date, that was it. And then people got together and within a week we actually organized a met up with 50 people, someone from Microsoft stepped up and offered their location.And we did the very first Svelte meet up just scooping London, and eventually Stockholm also did one.So eventually the three of us got together when COVID hit.The three organizers from New York, London and Stockholm got together, and then we created Svelte Society as a global online community. We've done two conferences, we're about to have our third in April. And a few thousand developers, I think we're at 7,000 and something. And it's a small, tiny community, but it's actually a lot of fun growing something from scratch, rather than taking over something halfway and growing into something already huge. So I'm enjoying that difference in vibe. I think that developer communities where you are not the default, so everyone comes to you as the second framework or the second tooling, is a very nice position to be in because you get people who know what they're coming to you for.For example, when people choose React, they just choose React because they're told to do it, right?They don't actually know the difference between JavaScript and React, or they don't know anything else apart from React.And so some of their questions might be very off topic or just kind of not discerning.They don't actually know what they want.I kind of call this second framework syndrome, which is just actually like a positive.So I need a different word than syndrome.But essentially, once you've picked one tool in some domain, and you've gone onto the second tool, you're much more discerning and you're less likely to identify so strongly with one tool, because if you've left a tool before, you're never going to say like, "Okay, this is the solution for everything."Because you might leave the tool for something else again.Whereas I think people who are first time to a framework or to a tool might be too loyal to it and try to solve everything with it. And that's a recipe for pain.Patrick: It reminds me of the classic advertising campaign from Avis.They were number two in the market.And so this is like 1950s, 1960s mad men era, and their whole campaign was, "Hey, we're number two. So we'll try harder for your business."Swyx: Yeah. This is great. Acknowledge that you don't have the top spot, but there are things that you can still bring that people still really value.And if you just say that, I think people recognize it and respect that.I do a lot of marketing types in my line of work, and I don't like marketing that just denies reality.I think it's way better to just accept it head on, call it out.The other famous example is Domino's, right?They're just like, "Hey everyone, we know our pizza sucks. We revamped it. Come try us out." And it worked.Patrick: Big time. Yeah. Well this reminds me of a tweet you shared recently of talking about the advice, to talk about benefits versus features, but your view is that the opposite is true for developers.Swyx: For developers.Patrick: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about features and benefits when it comes to communicating with developers?Swyx: Yeah.This is one they struggle with back and forth, and specifically the tweet is about me relearning it.So the advice in traditional marketing is to sell benefits over features, right?Sell people on the vision of what they will be with you rather than without you.Instead of, you're specific how you get there.And that's why, I guess when people sell perfume or clothes or whatever they show you someone in a fancy dress or some dude with a fancy watch on a yard or something.It's association and that's how you do marketing in a traditional sense.But I think developers have been lied to too much, where we just stopped believing in people in marketing.So if you tell me your library's blazing fast, I don't know what that means.So tell me why it's fast, show me why it's fast, don't just tell me that it's fast. Because, sure, that's a benefit.Obviously that's an improvement to my workflow.But if I don't know why it's fast, then I'm not going to accept it on faith, because I've been burned too much or I'm not going to be able to explain it to the rest of my team or my boss when I try to adopt it at work.You have to have a logical reason, because there's also going to be a trade-off right?There are some free lunches, but usually there's no free lunch.You have to be able to answer the question of like, "What am I giving up in order to get this benefit?"And usually, marketing you only talk about the benefits, and you don't talk about the sacrifices.And I think that the most concise way to do all of that is to tell you how it works.Show you under hood and give you the logical explanation for, okay, all these alternative solutions that you're used to, they all use this legacy format, and we use a different format that is just way optimized without those legacy assumptions.In exchange for all these benefits, it will not be compatible with some legacy features that you now no longer care about.And you're like, "Ah, okay, that is me and I'm sold."But if you skip all of that and just go like, "This will be faster." I can't get behind that.So I think that's my insight on developer marketing that we want to know how it works.And I think that's which is partially why open source is something that's so appealing as well. We are able to see the code.Patrick: Yeah. Do you think that the continuum from features to benefits, do you think where the messaging lands at the timeline maps to where a potential user is on the chasm?Maybe early adopters care more about how it works and late majority we're about?Swyx: Exactly.Patrick: Yeah.Swyx: Yeah. So I got some pushback on my tweet saying people don't understand how React works, and it's a black box to most people.And that's true, but because React has already crossed the chasm, it doesn't have to.So I definitely am focused more towards early adopters, because I guess I work on earlier stage companies.If you're IBM, nobody knows how Watson fricking-- What is Watson?I don't know, but it does Jeopardy.I don't talk to the type of developers that buy IBM.And no shade on them, it's just really, I think when you're dealing on cutting edge stuff you really have to open the hood.Patrick: Yeah. Agreed. Shifting gears a bit, you champion the idea of learning in public.And you described your writing on this topic as your most impactful essay.So I'm really curious, how did the concept of learning in public become so central for you and your work?Swyx: I think that it was a reflection of when you look back on your work for the past year, for me, it was like the past six months, and try to understand what parts of my work was the most impactful, and what parts of my work didn't matter at all.I realized that it was the stuff that I did in public.And sometimes got wrong in public that contributed most to my learning.And I think this idea, there's a name for it. I actually got from Kelsey Hightower, who is sort of Mr. Kubernetes now.But he's very much someone who learns in public.Something that he just learned, he'll share it because it's was valuable to him from three to six months ago.Therefore it will probably be valuable to a lot of other people. It may not be the most insightful thing in the world.He's not presenting himself as the expert in something, but that's not going to stop him from sharing something fundamental that he learned, which is useful.And if you do that, you'll not only learn faster, because you get feedback from other people.Both from people who know more than you, and also people who are with you in your journey.But also you get to demonstrate your interests, which is very good for your career. It's a two-way street.It turns your network from outbound network, you reach out whenever you need a job, to an inbound network, people understand what you're into and they reach out to you for stuff that you are interested in.And I think that's a fundamentally different way mode of operation that most developers are used to.And they don't even realize that this is possible.They're like, "Oh, you got to be internet famous to do this."And surely you can get internet famous by doing this.But to me, that's not the goal. The goal is to just have a record of what you learned.Because when we do interviews, for example, we try to have this really lossy compression algorithm.We compress all that we are, all that we can do and that we've done, into one piece of paper and hope that the other side has the right decompression algorithm to unpack that.And then we complain about how broken the hiring processes, because we stick to this completely useless thing.It's much better to have a, let's say like a site or a GitHub that just shows that I've been interested in this.I've been hacking on this for three years and here's all the things I've done. It's instantly verifiable.It's like a cryptographic proof of work. And you don't need some massive following for that.All you need to do is actually do good work.Patrick: What's a tangible example of learning in public?What does that look like in practice?Swyx: So one of my talks was about how React Hooks work under the hood, because Hooks were a major feature of React that were launched.And those launched in 2018, and a lot of people were talking about it and not trusting it, because it was a little bit magical.So I thought about this question and then I tried to make a small clone of it.And it was just a very simple, like 29 line proof of concept. And I tweeted it out. This is a career hack as well. Whenever you tweet about a company's products or a framework's features, probably the people who wrote that feature will see it. Especially if there's a company involved, they will have a Slack channel hooked up to their company's Twitter account. That's how it works, right? And so, Dan Abramov and the React core team actually saw it.And it was like almost there. There's some flaws.So he actually gave me suggestions to correct it, and I just went and did it.And then that actually got a lot of traction.So that actually led to a blog post, then actually led to a workshop that was conducted with egghead.io.And then eventually a conference talk at GS conf, that was my biggest talk to date.And all that just because I tweeted out a tiny thing that I was trying to work on myself.And I could not have got there without help, without feedback from other people.And the other thing is I would never have thought that this was something that I could do, like do a completely live coded presentation on stage without all this validation and support and help.And it's one of those things where you don't know what you have until people sometimes pull it out of you when you share it.It just wouldn't have happened if I didn't share it.Patrick: Have you seen this concept work for non-technical people as well?Swyx: I think so. So I used to be in finance and I still follow a lot of investing people in the investing sphere.So, Patrick O'Shaughnessy is, I guess, a well-known investor by now.His approach is very much in the learning public phrase as well.So he also uses that term. But he uses it to just talk about the industries that he invest in, right?He can be much more in-depth in, let's say, minerals or energy, but let's say if he wants to learn about tech or consumer retail or shipping, he can just invite a guest to go on his podcast and he'll talk about it.And that's a form of learning in public as well.You're putting a beacon out there and having real conversations.You're never presenting yourself as an expert, but you become an expert if you do it this enough.And the rate of learning is way faster than if you just did everything in private.So the argument is very much like you're not putting everything in public, but if you put it just a little bit, you actually get a lot of benefits, because there's such a great network effect to learning in public.Patrick: Yeah. It's interesting to think about the gradient of self editing that has to happen when you're deciding what to put in public versus what not to share.Swyx: Yeah. And some people, especially women, have to do more editing, just because they get attacked more.And that's really unfortunate, but it happens.And I think you have to have a thick skin, actually my preferred way of saying that you should have a thick skin is that you should divorce your identity from your work. When people criticize your work, they're not criticizing you, they're criticizing the work that was produced by some past version of you. And if you're growing at all, you should look back on your work like a year from now, and just say, that was totally horrible.So you should agree with the people who are criticizing you.And in fact, if you build a reputation of someone who takes criticism well, then they'll criticize you more and you'll learn more.And if you just don't take it personally, and as long as they don't make personal attacks at you, of course that's not acceptable, but if you don't take it personally, then yeah, you're totally fine. So the way I phrased it is that you can learn so much on the internet for the low, low price of your ego, and just get you out of the way. Are you here to be good or are you here to feel good?Patrick: That's a pretty fundamental distinction that not many people may draw.So you've mentioned before the idea of learning in public and the phrase you use is building a habit of critical learning exhaust, which I think is very poetic.What do you think the relationship is between learning in public and the communities you're a part of?How do those two aspects interplay for you, do you think?Swyx: So there's a selfish reason. And then there's a selfless reason.The selfless reason is that I think we need to make it easier for people to learn in public, to create receptive and welcoming communities that recognize that you're just trying to improve yourself just like everyone else is improving themselves.And sometimes we don't have a space for that. And when we don't have a space for that we just clam up and just not try.So if we just foster a community of people who are all improving and working on things, I think that's just a better net positive for the world and net positive for everyone in that community.The selfish reason for that is that there's a scaling law that scales beyond me.So the way I think about this is that, there are few scaling laws.Some people are very familiar with Metcalfe's law in tech, which is that, the value of a network scales according to a square of its number of nodes.And that's analogous to me having a very big "Rolodex" which is like, my friend's list is very long, then I can call upon these as experts or friends or mentors whenever I want.That's really good. But it could be better, which is what's better than Metcalfe's law?Metcalfe's law is great. But what's really explosive is Reed's law.So Reed's law is sort of an exponential growth of the number of nodes.Because each of the number of nodes can form subgroups independently of the central node, which is the reason why Facebook, when it grows, the value of Facebook grows not as number of the members, it also grows by the number of interest groups within Facebook, right?That's why Facebook groups is so powerful as a value added to Facebook, to the point where most people would just use Facebook today for Facebook groups.And Facebook just doesn't care. Doesn't have to know.And you can be in a thousand different groups and it doesn't matter.But they're all valuable to you. Okay. How does that tie back to the community?A community is a many to many ongoing sustaining relationship between all of them, and me being able to grow them.I grow at that accelerated pace faster than Metcalfe's law, because Metcalfe's law is limited by Dunbar's number like--Sorry, I'm pulling in so many concepts, but there's a limit to the number of people that I could possibly know.But if I enable each of them to talk to each other and collaborate with each other, then I benefit as well, partially because I help to be a central member of that community.But then also when I find them, they will be innovating without me there.And that's a benefit to me as well, whether I've realized it or not.Patrick: Yeah. The distinction between Reed's and Metcalfe's law is really quite fascinating.Swyx: That's community. It really is, Metcalfe's law scales, but it's so much effort to add each node, because you have this central dependency, right?Which is, let's say the company or the core team of a framework, but once you have a community, then they're just all interacting on their own basis.And you don't really have a say, which is a little bit worrying, because it's out of your control.It's adding value to your network, whether you've realized it or not.Patrick: So a lot of Orbit's customers and folks in our own community have this question where they're early on their journey.Many of their early community members are just users of their product--t he early adopters, we would call that, or the Orbit one.And they're starting to ask this question of, what's the tipping point when a community goes from mostly people talking to the company about the product or the project to talking to each other about the project, about ideas and their job and broader concepts.Can you talk a little bit about when you've seen that occur, and if there are any tools or tactics or frameworks that the project maintainers or the company founders can implement to accelerate that tipping point.Swyx: Yeah. I think I definitely am not the authority on this, because I haven't seen this occur too much.I've seen instances of it. And I just don't know if I have the authoritative story.If said like, this is the general theory of how to make networks, I think I'd be a millionaire.That's a very valuable information. But I'm actively researching this.So with all that said, I think that what can be very helpful is that you make the identities and the interest graphs of your members of your network discoverable to each other.So a lot of the times when you hire a community manager, their job is to know the community members very well, and they typically store it in their heads.But if you have a listing of them, where people can actually independently search and discover, then you really find that independent connections start taking shape.But you as someone who manages that community needs to make that happen.Because that's not going to happen in any organized fashion on its own.So one of the ways in which I do see it happening very effectively for a company or a framework is sort of an official partner designation.So you do have the ability to bless some people as the recognized experts.So at AWS, we have AWS Heroes, like we'll anoint like external parties as serverless heroes or data heroes or machine learning heroes.These will be recognized experts. I just saw that Webflow actually, and Vercel have Webflow experts or like a Vercel partners program, where these are sort of the key system integrators, I think they're called, or like agencies or whatever you call it, that are very keen on working with Webflow.So then they get a lot of benefit from associating themselves with you as experts, or just as long as they derive significant value from hiring or finding business off of you, then they're a very engaged community members, and they're very incentivized to contribute to the value of your community.And it's just like a reinforcing loop, because as you build that then more people know to come to your community to find these people.And because more people come to find these people then more people on the supply side sign up and it's like a demand and supply side marketplace type of thing. So I do think that a marketplace is like the ultimate business model. I am a huge fan of marketplaces, but it can be hard to start. And sometimes you have to bootstrap one side versus the other. But essentially what you're doing is a marketplace, where you set the rules, you make it easy for people to transact and you establish reputation systems, you establish trust, you establish like this conflict or dispute resolution mechanisms.These are all traditional forms of a marketplace, but you can actually bring all those lessons, all of it, to communities.Patrick: I love marketplace as a metaphor for community.Swyx: The other thing that you can do as well is to organize events.Because I think we as humans, we like-- Okay, most of the time we like async, we like to do things on our own.We like to build our own networks independently, but every few months we love special occasions to announce some things and to gather to celebrate something you, like a woodstock, or I don't know, basically a conference.But the definition of a conference is changing in the COVID world.And another thing that you can do is definitely organize events where people would just get together.And sometimes it can just be a small dinner, let's say we can all meet up again in person.You can just have a day when everyone just gets together and just talks, and you as a community organizer, that's a minimum viable market place, which is just like, "Hey everyone, we're all going to get to get together in this room at this time and day."Which is what I did for my meetup, right?There's no economic transaction, you're not taking a fee or anything, but you're just making it possible for people to find each other.That's a marketplace.Patrick: Thinking more broadly about communities in general.What are some trends that you've been seeing in the way communities are being built or platforms are using or methods you're seeing as we go into 2021, and what are some of the community building concepts that you're excited about?Swyx: Oh, I'm so into this. Yeah.To a point where I do have an ongoing research collection about dev communities and people who are innovating in community space.I always thought that things were sort of going online, things are going asynchronous, and then Clubhouse changed everything for me.I realized that people actually like real-time connection and the ability to ask questions and participate in chat, and sometimes video and anti-feature, which is another interesting concept, right?Because Zoom was the darling, and now Clubhouse is. A nd Clubhouse is like Zoom, but worse.So yeah. I think people are realizing that connection is real.Having events like a clear before and after is a real thing, which I think is a reversal of some of the trends that we were seeing.We were moving towards more async online chat-based communities.And I think now we're seeing some revival in live events and live ongoing discussions in spontaneity and imperfection.Beyond that, I'm not really sure I have-- Okay, so the other thing that's also happening is cohorts, right?Which Wes Kao and Gagan Biyani from Udemy are championing.Which is basically communities gated by when people join. So most communities they're just open at all times.So you just come on in whenever, and whenever someone says hi, they're just like, "Okay, it's another person it's not something special."But when you make something into a cohort, suddenly groups have identities like, Oh, I'm sort of class of spring 2019.That's Y Combinator, right? But that's also college, and that's also a cohort of communities.And those cohorts are prebuilt, it's an event.Everyone is new and everyone knows that there's a group that's going through the same experience as they are.But then there's also broader group with more experience than they are. And they can access that as well.I think cohorts are an interesting twist on how people run communities.None of this is new, right? But we're just taking lessons from maybe other domains and applying it to online communities that may not have been applied before.And I wish I could go back in time and tell myself from three years ago all this stuff, because I didn't know any of this, but now it's obvious.It's obvious to me because I watch all these people closely, maybe people who are listening, if it's not obvious to you sit up and listen, because this is real.This is very valuable. And this is happening at a very, very fast pace.Patrick: Where would you suggest people tune in or the resources or people that you follow that are particularly insightful when it comes to these topics?Swyx: Yeah. Wes Kao is pretty much leading the core based course league.Rosie Sherry, from Indie Hackers is definitely collating a lot of community news.There's also Greg Eisenberg, he runs a consultancy that starts communities for people.The only problem I have with him is that he thinks of himself very highly.So he rubs people the wrong way, I think. But he does have valuable insights, which is very frustrating.Sometimes arrogant people are worth it.Patrick: Yeah. I think it's complete opposite of someone like Rosie, who is such an intellectual heavy hitter, but also so humble.Swyx: Yeah. I got more resources for you.So by the way I collect all this in my circle community.So, codingcareer.circle.so is where I collect all this information.So there's Get Together, which is a book and podcast for people who form communities.There is CMX Hub, which is, David Spinks, who has been doing this awhile as well.There's a bunch of people in this community space.Oh, Lolita Taub is a VC who just launched the community fund.So they're specifically a venture capital firm that is focused on companies building communities and companies building tools for companies building communities there's a whole circle of that.Patrick: Yeah.Swyx: There's a lot of stuff. And then there's also a couple of books that people really like.So Nadia Eghbal, Working in Public has some sense of community building in her stadiums and whatever and village metaphors.And Laís de Oliveira, has a book on hacking communities, which I haven't read, but I've definitely singled that out for reading up.Anyway that's just my resource dump.And I'm keeping this list because I think it's a growing knowledge base of what it means to run a community, and what are all the different ideas that people are bringing to their communities.Patrick: Awesome. Thanks for sharing that.So zooming out a bit to a question that I ask pretty much every guest on the show, what do you think is the secret to building things developers love?Swyx: So in that tweet about development marketing, I actually also mentioned another concept, which is a wow moment, right?And I actually expanded upon that by saying a wow moment should be something that inspires you to talk to your friends, tell your friends about it.It makes your jaw literally dropped. And it makes you never want to go back to the old way of doing things again.It creates a clear before and after. There was you before seeing this demo or seeing this tool, and then there's you after. And it creates a gap, because it makes everything that you used to do before the old way, you didn't even use to call it the old way. It just became the old way once you saw this new thing. And I think developers love something that takes away some pain that they might feel at their core, but maybe sometimes they don't even know that they have it.So I'll give you one example, which is Prettier in the JavaScript ecosystem.Anyone could have built Prettier in any of JavaScript's 25 years of existence, but nobody did.Until it was some-- It's Christopher Chedeau, but someone just went like, "Hey, Go has this really nice formatting tool. What if we just had that in JavaScript? And what if it was just standard."And he built it, and now it is standard in the span of two to three years in JavaScript, which is massive.And people love Prettier for what it does. Which is pretty funny.The thing is you'll never make everyone happy.There's a very strong band of people in JavaScript who don't like Prettier for their own reasons.But you make a lot of people happy and they do say that they love Prettier.So I think that's one of those examples where, there was an old way, which is you manually formatted your code and you had code review stand up meetings, where you argued over the spacing.I've been in those meetings, okay?And then there's an after, with this tool, where you no longer spend any time on that, because you just have a standardized tool that just does all that for you.So I like that. And I think that's one example of making things that developers love.Patrick: Aside from beautiful code.I always ask people, what's one thing you're loving right now?Swyx: I'm loving Transistor.fm for hosting my podcasts.I do run a couple of small podcasts, nothing like yours.But it makes it very easy to host stuff and generates a website for you.And it just takes away all the pain for me that I don't want to do.So I will pick Transistor.I guess I also pick Stripe, because it's such an easy--I wrote a book and I run the entire fulfillment from beginning to end, and Stripe checkout was so such an easy thing to integrate that I happily paid them their 3% or whatever it is.Patrick: Yeah.Swyx: Not a very non-consensus pick. I have to pick Stripe. But I do have to give them credit.Patrick: Well, you've been super generous with your time today.We've covered a lot of really fascinating topics.If people want to learn more about you and what you're working on, where online would you send them to go do that?Swyx: Yeah. Thanks for having me. My Twitter is where I'm most active.So twitter.com/swyx. And you can find my blog at swyx.io to get all my talks and book and whatever else you want to find out about these ideas.Patrick: Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show.Swyx: Thanks for having me.

Wes Kao is a co-founder of a new cohort-based course (CBC) platform. We talk about all things CBCs, her insights and best practices from launching several programs, her own educational experiences, & more. Follow Spencer Kier on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SP1NS1R.

To become a strong marketer, you must develop a skillset that extends beyond just “marketing.” This could include a knowledge of human psychology, design aesthetics, analyzing data, how to create & publish content, or an assortment of other skills. This empowers you to be able to bring your vision to life because you are able to execute it every step of the way. This week’s guest, Wes Kao, has coined a term to perfectly describe this marketer. She calls this an ‘End-to-end marketer.’ Wes explains that an end-to-end marketer can “have a vision, can develop a strategy, and can execute to bring their idea to life.” During our interview together, Wes offers key insight into how being an end-to-end marketer is becoming a necessary skillset in today’s marketplace. Wes Kao has the hands-on experience to back up her insights. Wes Kao is a marketer who helps B2C brands launch new products and create new categories. Previously, she was the co-creator and Executive Director @ Seth Godin's altMBA where she helped thousands of change agents level up. In the past fifteen years, she has launched 150+ products, features, and campaigns @ Flite (acq Snapchat), BareMinerals, L’Oreal, and Gap

Gagan is the co-founder & former President of Udemy, an online education company that's worth more than $2bil. He later co-founded Sprig, a food delivery startup & went on to become the interim head of growth marketing at Lyft. Gagan recently announced a new education startup with Wes Kao. They've raised $4.3mil from investors like First Round Capital, Naval Ravikant & Li Jin. Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi @gaganbiyani Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IifuGSaEkkU In this conversation, we discuss: lessons in building Udemy + Sprig, from high-highs to low-lows why cohort-based courses will play a major role in the future of online education what it was like being fired by a co-founder the impact of financial struggles & the unique pressure of being the child of immigrants perspective gained from traveling to all 7 continents Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:47 Who is Gagan Biyani? 00:05:20 Udemy Origin Story 00:10:54 Starting Up a Business When You Have A Work Visa 00:12:57 Setting A Timeline 00:16:54 Parental Pressure + Traditional Careers 00:20:53 Struggles 00:26:54 How Do You React To Financial Troubles? 00:29:27 Living Within Your Means 00:30:34 Being Content 00:33:27 Getting Fired By A Co-Founder 00:42:20 The Rise & Fall of Sprig 00:44:05 Chamath: "You're Going to Fail" 00:50:07 Failure + Cognitive Dissonance 00:52:40 3 Years of Travel 00:57:20 Finding Hidden Gems 00:59:24 Figuring Out What's Next 01:00:59 Naval's Advice 01:04:51 Evaluating Business Ideas 01:07:28 Gagan's New Startup: Cohort-Based Courses 01:13:37 Opportunities In Online Education 01:17:29 Formats That Work Best 01:21:19 Wrap-Up

Is it possible to go an outreach message to a new client? This bonus episode including 6 clips from prior episodes to help you do so. You will hear from Wes Kao, Jay Clouse, Tony Bacigalupo, Samantha Clarke, Tom Critchlow, and Julia Lipton! Tune to Build and Grow your Portfolio Career! As always, this episode  with notes is available on my website.

In this episode, a chat with Wes Kao, Marketing Strategy, and Product Launch expert. We discuss pains such as lacking discipline, over-questioning yourself creatively, communicating the value Brand Marketing to management, and setting the right expectations.

Wes Kao is a marketer and was previously the co-creator of altMBA. In this interview, Nate and Wes discuss insecure vibes, mentoring yourself, and spiky points of view. This is our LONGEST interview to date, but well worth the time to listen all the way through! Follow Wes: Twitter WesKao.com Background music: Drifting Korners - Joseph McDade --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Wes has a decorated background as an end-to-end marketer. She co-created the altMBA with Seth Godin and launched products at Flite, BareMinerals, L'Oreal, and Gap. Now, she's working with CEOs at companies like Poo~Pourri, Outlier.org, Shaftesbury, Professor Scott Galloway, Tandem Diabetes, and Morning Brew.In the interview she shares some of the wisdom she has acquired through her successful career as a "rigorous" thinker.If you want to learn more about Wes and her work, please do so on her website.Follow Wes on Twitter for tweets about marketing, strategy, and rigorous thinking.If you would like to reach out to us, the best way to do so is on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe!Last, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show.Thanks for listening!

For the last almost 3 years, Wes Kao has run her own marketing and strategy firm. She is an end-to-end marketer helping B2C brands launch new products and create new categories. Before that, she was co-creator and Executive Director at Seth Godin's altMBA. In the past fifteen years, she has launched 150+ products, features, and campaigns at Flite, BareMinerals, L’Oreal, and Gap. You will learn how to rigorously determine a plan to market products and also yourself, if you are unclear about your path.You will learn:- The Importance of Increasing Your Box and Opportunity Set- Why End-To-Marketing Is An Important Skill Set- How To Reframe an Outcome- The Importance of Understanding Incentives When Engaging With PeopleAs always, this episode with time-stamp notes is available on my website

In this episode, we have a conversation with our insightful guest, go-getter Wes Kao, as she shares more on her journey to greatness. Wes was the co-creator and founding Executive Director of Seth Godin's altMBA, where she helped thousands of change agents level up.  She explores the concept of the “rigorous thinker” while providing her … Continue reading "S2 Episode 10: Does Success Always Equate to Being Profitable?" The post S2 Episode 10: Does Success Always Equate to Being Profitable? appeared first on The MECE Muse Unplugged Podcast.

Hello, listeners! Welcome back to Tech Forward. For this week’s rebroadcast, we're featuring my conversation with Wes Kao, a marketing strategy and product launch expert who works as a consultant and advisor to multiple consumer brands and tech startups. She serves as a mentor to entrepreneurs through her roles with WeWork Labs and Backstage Capital. Previously, Wes was the founding Executive Director of Seth Godin's altMBA. Today on the show, we’ll be talking about the leadership lessons she’s learned during her career, and her advice to other managers on how to adequately encourage and support women in the workplace. After years of working in the corporate retail space, Wes found herself drawn to the rigorous thinking and problem solving aspect of the tech sector. She worked with Seth Godin to launch altMBA, an online leadership and management workshop which under her leadership grew from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries over a three year period of high-growth. She brings her wealth of experience to the table when mentoring entrepreneurs through Backstage Capital and WeWork Labs, advising founders and CEOs on effective leadership and avoiding the pitfalls of bias. One key piece of advice Wes has for other managers is to conduct regular self-checks for bias. “The minute we think we’re above bias, or prejudice, or discrimination, that’s when we get into a dangerous spot.” Often, workplace culture permits pushback from white male employees — but punishes women or people of color for the same resistance, marking them as selfish or uncooperative. Though managerial roles often require split-second calculations in order to optimize the workday, Wes encourages managers to ask this question: “Would I react the same way to a white/male employee in this situation?” She also encourages similar self-checks when it comes to using language that reflects equitable treatment of employees. “Our automatic reaction might be to criticize, but those criticisms add up to a place where employees might not feel safe to lead, to challenge authority, and to ask questions.” Wes also emphasizes that it’s not solely the responsibility of leadership to effect change: “We can always positively influence the lives of our coworkers.” She cites moments from her own  career journey when her allies have taken seemingly small, but powerful actions to support her. When clients assumed her male colleagues were in charge, those men redirected the conversation both verbally and physically — asserting that Wes was at the helm, and turning to face her. In situations where you suspect bias or discrimination, Wes advises, “Go to your allies in the company first. They probably notice it too. When you do talk to the person, bring it up in a respectful way. Above all, don’t suffer in silence! If you don’t feel comfortable and confident to do your best work, nobody is winning.” Wes, I’ve really enjoyed hearing your insights and your stories, and I know that our listeners will too. Thank you again for coming onto the show this week. Thank you also to all of you out there listening, subscribing, and sharing the show. See you next week! Connect with us Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Wes Kao is a marketing strategy expert who helps challenger brands maximise their product launches. When working with her clients, she often finds that the biggest challenges for a lot of companies lie at the intersection of brand identity, marketing and culture. Wes strongly believes that the culture people experience inside their organisation has a major influence on how the company is perceived externally and how successful it can be in the marketplace. In this interview, Wes shares her experiences as a marketing strategist who's helped companies evolve their culture to achieve success and growth. 

Hello, listeners! Welcome back to Tech Forward. On this week’s episode, I’m speaking with Wes Kao, a marketing strategy and product launch expert who works as a consultant and advisor to multiple consumer brands and tech startups. She serves as a mentor to entrepreneurs through her roles with WeWork Labs and Backstage Capital. Previously, Wes was the founding Executive Director of Seth Godin's altMBA. Today on the show, we’ll be talking about the leadership lessons she’s learned during her career, and her advice to other managers on how to adequately encourage and support women in the workplace. After years of working in the corporate retail space, Wes found herself drawn to the rigorous thinking and problem solving aspect of the tech sector. She worked with Seth Godin to launch altMBA, an online leadership and management workshop which under her leadership grew from zero to 550 cities in 45 countries over a three year period of high-growth. She brings her wealth of experience to the table when mentoring entrepreneurs through Backstage Capital and WeWork Labs, advising founders and CEOs on effective leadership and avoiding the pitfalls of bias. One key piece of advice Wes has for other managers is to conduct regular self-checks for bias. “The minute we think we’re above bias, or prejudice, or discrimination, that’s when we get into a dangerous spot.” Often, workplace culture permits pushback from white male employees — but punishes women or people of color for the same resistance, marking them as selfish or uncooperative. Though managerial roles often require split-second calculations in order to optimize the workday, Wes encourages managers to ask this question: “Would I react the same way to a white/male employee in this situation?” She also encourages similar self-checks when it comes to using language that reflects equitable treatment of employees. “Our automatic reaction might be to criticize, but those criticisms add up to a place where employees might not feel safe to lead, to challenge authority, and to ask questions.” Wes also emphasizes that it’s not solely the responsibility of leadership to effect change: “We can always positively influence the lives of our coworkers.” She cites moments from her own  career journey when her allies have taken seemingly small, but powerful actions to support her. When clients assumed her male colleagues were in charge, those men redirected the conversation both verbally and physically — asserting that Wes was at the helm, and turning to face her. In situations where you suspect bias or discrimination, Wes advises, “Go to your allies in the company first. They probably notice it too. When you do talk to the person, bring it up in a respectful way. Above all, don’t suffer in silence! If you don’t feel comfortable and confident to do your best work, nobody is winning.” Wes, I’ve really enjoyed hearing your insights and your stories, and I know that our listeners will too. Thank you again for coming onto the show this week. Thank you also to all of you out there listening, subscribing, and sharing the show. See you next week! Connect with us Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Hiiii! Welcome back. This week we have Wes Kao on the mic; she’s a marketing strategist who has led over 150 launches for Fortune 500 brands and startups, including L’Oreal, Gap, Bare Escentuals, and Flite, an ad-tech startup acquired by Snapchat. She was also the founding executive director (employee #0) for Seth Godin’s AltMBA program, […] The post Wes Kao Ep. 0202 appeared first on permissionLESS.

Marketing strategy expert Wes Kao stops by the People Stack to talk about the myriad ways in which failing to market your ideas, work, and value effectively prevent you from being heard. She also covers the importance of psychological safety in communication, making difficult conversations easier and more. Intro music is "I'm Going for a Coffee" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Music_For_Podcasts_3/02_Im_Going_for_a_Coffee) by Lee Rosevere, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Whether you're trying to build a high performing team or transform your organization's culture, you need to be a change agent. When it comes to changing culture, thinking like a marketer can help. In episode 018 I speak with Wes Kao, an expert in marketing, product, and growth, and former Executive Director of Seth Godin’s altMBA. We talk about generating buy-in for bigger culture change work as well as creating a high performing team culture in which people take ownership. Key Takeaways: Culture is simply 'how we do things around here.' It subconsciously impacts how we engage at work - are we proactive, do we take ownership, etc. Changing culture is, in part, marketing. We're selling ideas to our team members, supervisors, and colleagues. If your values are out of line with those of your organization, (1) move to a different organization or (2) frame your idea in ways where people who are attached to the status quo don't feel threatened. You want your idea to be new and interesting, not new and scary. Culture change happens person by person. It needs to be continually reinforced. Create a foundation of psychological safety so people are able to share their ideas without feeling foolish. Combine psychological safety with rigor. This means you encourage people to share out-of-the-box ideas knowing that they will be met with a rigorous discussion. That response is not because the ideas are bad or the person was wrong to share them, but because we have a culture of rigor when it comes to debating ideas.  In a high performing team, everyone thinks like an owner and is proactive, people care about each other, and people ask question and think critically.  Read the article based on this episode: How Rockstar Managers Tackle Changing Culture Join the Modern Manager community to listen to the recoding of the bonus Q&A call with Wes. Get additional resources to support your learning journey when you join. Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and mini-guides delivered to your inbox. KEEP UP WITH WES website: https://www.weskao.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/ Seth Godin's AltMBA: https://altmba.com/ Email: wes@weskao.com Twitter: @wes_kao

Whether you're trying to build a high performing team or transform your organization's culture, you need to be a change agent. When it comes to changing culture, thinking like a marketer can help. In episode 018 I speak with Wes Kao, an expert in marketing, product, and growth, and former Executive Director of Seth Godin’s altMBA. We talk about generating buy-in for bigger culture change work as well as creating a high performing team culture in which people take ownership. Key Takeaways: Culture is simply 'how we do things around here.' It subconsciously impacts how we engage at work - are we proactive, do we take ownership, etc. Changing culture is, in part, marketing. We're selling ideas to our team members, supervisors, and colleagues. If your values are out of line with those of your organization, (1) move to a different organization or (2) frame your idea in ways where people who are attached to the status quo don't feel threatened. You want your idea to be new and interesting, not new and scary. Culture change happens person by person. It needs to be continually reinforced. Create a foundation of psychological safety so people are able to share their ideas without feeling foolish. Combine psychological safety with rigor. This means you encourage people to share out-of-the-box ideas knowing that they will be met with a rigorous discussion. That response is not because the ideas are bad or the person was wrong to share them, but because we have a culture of rigor when it comes to debating ideas.  In a high performing team, everyone thinks like an owner and is proactive, people care about each other, and people ask question and think critically.  Read the article based on this episode: How Rockstar Managers Tackle Changing Culture Join the Modern Manager community to listen to the recoding of the bonus Q&A call with Wes. Get additional resources to support your learning journey when you join. Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and mini-guides delivered to your inbox. KEEP UP WITH WES website: https://www.weskao.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/ Seth Godin's AltMBA: https://altmba.com/ Email: wes@weskao.com Twitter: @wes_kao

As much as we'd all love a simple and easy to follow plan for career success, the reality is that we're all mostly making things up as we go. However, that doesn't stop many people from slipping into comfort mode instead of pushing for creative growth and personal challenge.  On this episode, marketing consultant Wes Kao shares how to embrace map-making as your core mode of operation, why it's important to have a "spiky" point of view, and how to present your ideas so that others can receive them. == Today's episode is brought to you by Skillshare. To get 2 months of access for just 99 cents, visit Skillshare.com/creative. The intro music for the AC podcast is by Joshua Seurkamp. End remix is by DJ Z-Trip.

Grant and Vince are welcome their first guest of season 4, the ever-motivating Wes Kao. Wes is a denizen of the tech start-up world, and currently serves as director for Seth Godin’s altMBA program. She joins the show to talk about the result of our creative pursuits: impact, and the way our projects can spread influence in unexpected ways.

➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com➡️ About The GuestWes Kao is a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and advisor who writes a newsletter at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, a platform that empowers the world's experts to offer live courses directly to their audience. Maven raised $25M from First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, and has served more than 20,000 students. In 2022, Maven was named by Fast Company as the #1 most innovative company in education.Previously, Wes co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. The altMBA was the first mainstream cohort-based course and created the category. She grew the altMBA from zero to thousands of students in 550 cities in 45 countries in three years.Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, Inc, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and The Information. In 2021, she was selected by Entrepreneur magazine on the 100 Women of Impact list. She has spoken at SXSW and guest lectures at UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School.➡️ Show Linkshttps://twitter.com/wes_kao/https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://www.weskao.com/ ➡️ Podcast SponsorsCollective - https://collective.com/successHubspot - https://hubspot.com/  Kajabi - https://kajabi.com/success (Code: success)ButcherBox - https://butcherbox.com/success (Code: success)Justin Wine - https://justinwine.com/ (Code: success)Green Light - https://greenlight.com/successIndeed - https://indeed.com/claryThe Product Boss Podcast - https://www.theproductboss.com/podcast NetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/ Factor — https://factormeals.com/successpod50 (Code: successpod50)HelloFresh — https://hellofresh.com/50successpod (Code: 50succespod)ZBiotics — https://zbiotics.com/success (Code: success)➡️ Talking Points00:00 - Introduction01:05 - Wes Kao's Origin Story05:28 - Founder Mindset Sans Title12:22 - Unlocking Employee Creativity21:43 - Maven's Inception29:33 - Sponsor: The Product Boss30:23 - Cohort-Based Learning Explained38:05 - Accountability in Maven Courses39:53 - Launching Maven: Lessons Learned46:07 - The Thought Process Behind Scaling Maven 51:44 - Closing Thoughts from Wes52:55 - Connect with Wes Online53:08 - Overcoming Career Challenges53:53 - The Most Impactful Person in Wes Kao's Life54:46 - Book and Podcast Recommendations55:18 - Advice to 20-Year-Old Self55:27 - Defining SuccessOur Sponsors:* Check out Miro: https://miro.com/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory  In this "Lessons" episode, Wes Kao, a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and advisor, discusses why most online courses fail to deliver real value and how cohort-based learning offers a powerful alternative. Explore how this interactive, accountability-driven model transforms learning into a hands-on, practical experience that drives meaningful outcomes.The Power of Cohort-Based Learning: Wes explains how cohort-based courses go beyond passive consumption by combining interactive, hands-on practice with expert-led instruction. This model fosters accountability and real-time feedback, helping learners build practical skills and apply them immediately.Upskilling with Industry Experts: Unlike traditional academic courses, cohort-based learning connects learners with industry practitioners who bring real-world experience. Wes highlights how learning directly from experts—like top VCs or product managers—provides actionable insights and relevant skills that are hard to replicate in traditional settings.Learning Through Proof of Work: Wes discusses the shift from relying solely on credentials to showcasing tangible proof of work, like projects, blogs, or social media campaigns. Cohort-based learning empowers learners to create and share real-world results, making them more attractive to employers and collaborators.➡️ Show Linkshttps://successstorypodcast.com  YouTube: https://youtu.be/DY4r-GqZzlk Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wes-kao-marketing-executive-entrepreneur-and-advisor/id1484783544 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5hRuTuIOzZaInOuDmZ5DZ0?si=6fa0d3339e7b42c3 ➡️ Watch the Podcast On Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/c/scottdclary Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy