In this episode, Lauren Ipsen hosts Laura Burkhauser, CEO of Descript, to discuss the intricacies of video content creation and distribution. Laura shares her journey from working at Twitter to discovering her passion for content creation, recently becoming the new CEO of Descript, a comprehensive video editing solution. They chat about the pressures of content creation in the digital age, the role of AI in video tools, and strategies for founders to maintain consistent and authentic content. Laura emphasizes the significance of understanding your audience, focusing on long-term engagement over going viral, and leveraging multiple distribution channels for maximum reach. The discussion also covers practical tips like using AI for content ideation and various workflow strategies for busy professionals.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
01:21 Laura’s Journey to CEO of Descript
05:02 The Evolution of Media and Content Creation
07:41 Finding Your Authentic Content Lane
13:00 Effective Content Creation Strategies
15:56 The Importance of Authenticity in Content
20:12 The AI Content Creation Debate
21:48 Finding Your Creative Lane
23:05 Creating Authentic Content
24:30 The Importance of Consistency
28:57 Choosing the Right Distribution Channels
33:47 Final Thoughts and Advice
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Transcript
Lauren Ipsen: What’s up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Never Too Early, a YouTube series focused on unconventional talent insights for founders. I’m Lauren Ipsen, Talent Partner at Decibel, and this is my Founder Therapy series.
In this series, we will cover early learnings, misconceptions, mistakes, and a whole lot more with folks that have recently taken the lead to start their own venture-backed tech companies or take a step into the CEO seat for the first time.
So, with that being said, I am beyond stoked to welcome my guest today, Laura Burkhauser. Laura was formerly running product at X and Rent the Runway before coming over to Descript, where she ultimately just took the step into a CEO seat for the very first time. Okay, Laura, welcome to the show.
Laura Burkhauser: Thanks so much, Lauren. I’m excited to be here.
Lauren Ipsen: I am really excited to have you. I can’t think of anyone better to discuss this topic in particular, so super excited to jump in. I personally love your content. And kind of fun that I’m gonna be editing all of this on the Descript. So there’s so much that goes hand in hand, and I’m excited to just chat with you about it.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah, absolutely. I am also excited to share this on LinkedIn and our other channels.
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah, I know. I love it. Okay, cool.
So, I guess, to get started, first and foremost, I would love to just kind of give the viewers an overview on who you are, where you came from, and then if you could just talk to us a little bit about the recent role that you just took on.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s see. I am the CEO of Descript, which is a video editing solution that makes every kind of video. So we do podcasts, we do—when, you know, you turn your podcast into clips. We do YouTube videos, educational videos. You can edit and publish webinars—all of the different videos that so many of us are feeling incredible pressure to create, whether we’re a marketing team or a founder. And we’ll talk about that.
And I found Descript. I was a customer, actually, before I worked here. So my background is, I was at—I was—before this, I was at Twitter. And that was kind of my first exposure to, you know, seeing the different use cases that people have for social media and, really, how people are using social media to craft and tell their story and to tell the story of what’s happening kind of beyond their role.
And then, when I left Twitter, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next. You know, it was actually, an interesting lull in tech. It was right before ChatGPT came out and was a consumer product. And so, when I left Twitter, I was like, I don’t really know what I wanna do next. Like, is anything exciting even happening in tech anymore? Isn’t it all just about, you know, trying to pump engagement on the various feeds that we’ve created? Maybe I don’t wanna do this.
And when you’re having that kind of an identity crisis in the Bay Area, you know that you are legally required to start a podcast, which I did. And as I was editing that podcast, I found Descript. And the first time that I deleted my filler words, deleted text, and it changed the video, I had this experience that I think a lot of us have had when we find that magical product where I was like, oh, this is why I got into product management. Like, this is why I got into tech. It was to create magical solutions like this.
And not just, you know, the experience of using the product, but also that, you know, great products, they don’t just do a job for you. They kind of transform the way that you see yourself.
And for me, someone who is, like, much more comfortable in docs and decks, to suddenly be editing video media and publishing it, I was just like, oh my gosh, I’m a creative person. And having that transformative experience made me then knock on the door of Descript. They did not have a job description up. And I said, “Hey, are you hiring product people? I do product stuff.” Like, do you wanna hire me? Yeah.
Lauren Ipsen: And now look at you.
Laura Burkhauser: I’m the CEO. So this is why you’ve always got to shoot your shot, you know?
Lauren Ipsen: A hundred percent. I think that applies to every aspect of life, and I love it. Very, very, very cool. I just think that that context is really helpful for the listeners to get a better understanding of kind of how you stumbled your way into Descript and also. why, you know you’ve found this kind of passion in creating content and amplifying it. So I love it. Super helpful.
You talked a little bit about the pressure that so many people feel in the Bay Area and just more generally around creating content now and feeling like they have to be visible and have a voice. Talk to me about where that stems from, if you have any idea. And also just more generally, as a modern-day CEO, why you feel it’s so important to be having your voice out there?
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. I mean, it’s the same thing that’s happening in media in—in every kind of media, right? Where 40 years ago, there were just a few distribution channels, and there were a lot of gatekeepers to those distribution channels. And so, if you wanted to kind of, create the narrative of what’s happening in the world, you needed to have access to a gatekeeper, or you needed to ingratiate yourself into the people that own those distribution channels.
Now, over the last 40 years, those distribution channels have multiplied, and they’ve become a lot more democratized. And social media obviously has pushed that, you know, as far as it can go, when—you know.
And so, because of that, you see things like maybe in the old days, 20 years ago, you would try to craft the story about your product and try to own the narrative by hiring a PR firm and saying, “Can you go out and just try to get a lot of articles written about how this is happening right now, and try to get people to interview me? And give—and I’m gonna give this quote about why my company is the solution to this problem that’s been happening.”
And you try to, like, create these news stories in official outlets. And now, anyone can create a news story and publish it. But so, it’s less about, like, do you have access to the storytellers, and more like, do you have the juice, right? Do you have the charisma? Do you have what it takes to get out there and craft the story?
Because if you’re a founder, there’s probably, like, this pitch that you’ve given to a million funders and that you try to give on your website that’s like, here is the problem space. Here is the burning platform. Here’s why my product solves that. Right?
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah, right.
Laura Burkhauser: And it’s kind of amazing that you have that opportunity. Technically, you have the opportunity to go out and make that pitch to every person in the world right now. And the question is, do you have what it takes to break through? And do you have the stick-to-it-iveness to, like, keep up the momentum and keep pushing that message?
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah. That’s the hard part, I think, for a lot of people. Like, a lot of people will get started. I mean, I’m guilty of this, right? I came out of the gates with this podcast. I dropped a bunch of episodes. And then it’s life gets crazy, you know? And you’re just like, oh, shoot. I have a lot that I want to put out there, but you also have a day job for you. You’re pushing product. You know, there’s lots of other things that are happening.
So talk to me a little bit about how you continue to stay on it, push out content, and do it in an authentic way, where it doesn’t feel like you’re just doing it for the sake of doing it.
Laura Burkhauser: What you need to do as a founder is sort of , think about yourself, and think about your problem space, and think about your product. And out of those three things, you need to figure out, like, okay, what is my content? What is my channel? And what is my practice gonna be? And, like, a helpful kind of two-by-two. You can think about—sorry, I, like, live, breathe, and will die in a two-by-two one day. And, like, the two-by-two on my mind is the content charisma matrix.
Lauren Ipsen: Perfect.
Laura Burkhauser: So some people who are listening are like, I have a lot of kind of expert content, right, that I can think about. Sometimes this is technical content, so you may be working on a really interesting model. And what you have is, like, technical content about how, you know, to do research in the field today, right?
That’s one kind of content. I’ll say that my best performing LinkedIn video was a different kind of content expertise, and it was how to prepare for an interview. And it was, like, the first video that I did. But I just had been doing hundreds of interviews and was like, okay, I just have three things that I think everyone needs to make sure that they do if they’re gonna be interviewed by me.
Lauren Ipsen: Wow.
Laura Burkhauser: And I think just because everyone interviews for jobs and is hungry for that content, having someone who is an expert, even though “expert” just means, like, I’ve done a lot of interviews. I’m not a professional interviewer. That’s just part of my job.
Lauren Ipsen: Right. Totally.
Laura Burkhauser: But that was really valuable content. So think about, am I someone who—maybe I don’t think my content is valuable, but, actually, I’ve had a 20-year career. There probably are a lot of people who think that I have valuable content. And what could that be? Right?
And then I think—then there’s charisma, which is just, like, am I the kind of person that can be in front of a camera and shine? Right? Do people lean in—
Lauren Ipsen: Do you have rizz?
Laura Burkhauser: That could make up for a multitude of sins, Lauren.
But if you are, high content and high charisma, right? You can be a thought leader—someone who’s going out and guesting on podcasts and creating content where you’re in the camera—that’s great. And probably, if you know that that’s you already, you’ve already gotten started, right? Your life is on the easier side.
What do you do if you only have one of those things? And I think if you have a lot of charisma, but you’re wondering about content, I actually think podcasting is the perfect—is the perfect thing for you to do. Because, yes, Lauren, your job is to be professionally delightful and to just have people on the pod. I mean, you’re very—
Lauren Ipsen: My job is to have friends.
Laura Burkhauser: In this one part of your job, that is your second job. It’s—you have this very hard other job that you do.
Lauren Ipsen: This is true, but that job also involves just having friends, really, at its core. Yeah. Best job ever.
Laura Burkhauser: And that’s like—yeah, so you can be a podcaster. If you’re someone who has a lot of content and you’re lacking in charisma or, you know, you’re less comfortable in front of the camera, I think educational video is really where you wanna play. That’s where you see a lot of this on LinkedIn, and it gets great engagement.
That’s more like screen-sharing to teach a concrete skill. And people are very hungry for that. That gets great engagement; can turn into MQLs really easily. I think, like, Jacob Bank, who’s the Relay app CEO, has a huge following on LinkedIn right now. And he has this—like, his product, Relay is an agent builder. And he just demos for you. Like, “Hey, I made this Reddit agent. Hey, I made this LinkedIn to email agent.”
And he’s really just showing you his workflow, which is screen-sharing of him, using his product. And that’s so great. Like, what a fantastic kind of lead channel for him now to just teach people how to use this stuff.
And a lot of us who are building AI products—you know, a lot of the education you need to do and the content you need to create is, like, hey, this is the use case. Some of you, like, you know, haven’t even figured out that this exists yet. Like, let me explain what the problem is and why this solves it. And if you can weekly have content where you’re just sharing that educationally, that’s huge.
Lauren Ipsen: So I think it’s something we often consult our founders to do a lot of, and they often come back to us. And it’s exactly what you were just speaking about, where it’s like, where do I start? Maybe I don’t want to be in front of the camera. And there’s been a million Substacks that have been done, or whatever it might be. Or, you know, how do I continue to think about things that come up?
So, I guess, talk to me a little bit about how you find an authentic lane and also how you continue to find time each week. Is it as simple as putting something on the calendar? Is it as simple as recording it all at once or writing it all at once and then kind of boosting it out into the ether when times make sense?
I think these are, kind of the tactical questions that people struggle with, hence the lack of consistency, and then hence why it falls off. And I think you do a really good job of keeping it up.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. So I think there are a few different workflows that work. The great thing about podcasting is, like, yes, I think if you decide to go to the podcasting route, I suggest that you put a block Friday mornings or Friday afternoons, and you just commit to—you know, it’s basically a meeting. You invite interesting people to that meeting. You do a little bit of prep in advance. You promise to make everyone on your podcast look good, so that no one’s expecting an oppo kind of thing. And you—and you just, like, have a great conversation and get into your editing habit and try and time box it. And you say, I’m gonna spend an hour talking, an hour editing, and then I’m gonna publish the podcast and do, like, 10 clips that I’ll post on social.
What’s great about podcasting and clips is those clips are things that you can share, you know, for two weeks. And if you wanna do a biweekly podcast, or even a monthly, it’s, like, great. Those clips can be the thing that you’re sharing in between each podcast.
Lauren Ipsen: That’s what I do.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah, exactly. So that’s, like, one workflow. Another workflow I see, if you’re not doing the podcasting route, that I do sometimes is, you know, I’m in a studio right now. I haven’t done my hair and stuff like that. But sometimes what I’ll do is I’ll get in the studio because I have—there’s good lighting and a good camera here. And I’ll just like—I’m—so I think, like, either you’re kind of an improvisational person or you’re a scripted person.
I’m often improvisational. And so, I will, like—this is actually a fun hack. You can use ChatGPT voice mode and ask it to interview you on a topic ,and it kind of plays the interviewer kind of character.
Lauren Ipsen: No way.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. And you just talk to it about—like, I can say, like, “Hey, can you, you know, ask me a bunch of questions about how to build great product or how to build a really strong product team.” And it’ll just toss a bunch of questions my way, and I just answer them authentically. And then I can go through and edit it and find the clips, right?
Lauren Ipsen: Wow.
Laura Burkhauser: And it’s like, oh, there’s a clip. There’s a clip. Oh, I sounded like an idiot there. Let’s just delete that and never speak of it again. And so that’s, like—that’s a really great workflow. If you just wanna, like, okay, I’m gonna sit here for 30 minutes. I’m gonna talk to my computer and just kind of, like, riff. Right? And a lot of us are good at riffing.
Lauren Ipsen: And no pressure. And, yeah, I think that also helps with what different ideas can I speak to. And, also, I think naturally, when you’re doing your job, whatever it is, all day, every single day, you start to forget that you’ve got a lot of knowledge, and you know what you’re doing, you know? And there’s a lot that people can learn from whatever your craft is.
And so, yeah, sometimes it’s just taking a second to have someone else ask you questions, and then you realize, oh, I actually do have a system to that. Or, oh, I actually do have pretty strong opinions on some of this stuff. Right?
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah.
Lauren Ipsen: So I think that’s a great hack. I’m for sure going to use it, and I’ll tag you every time. Cite my sources.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. And I think eventually where you’ll get to—and probably, as a founder, you might already be there. But it’s like, okay, you can make kind of content about whatever you care about ,and sometimes I can’t help that. I’ll just make content about whatever’s on my mind. But ideally what you’re doing is, like, when you go into—and you talk to funders, or you go and you talk to, like, potential people that you’ve been trying to hire, you probably know the ways that they misunderstand your space or the ways where, like, they think one thing is true about your space or about kind of the way that things are going, but you think another thing is true.
And out of this, you kind of, like, create your manifesto. Like, this is what I think the space looks like. This is what I think the problems are. And this is why I think my product is an amazing kind of solution. And this is why I think you should work for me, or this is why I think you should fund me, or this is why, you know, I’m really excited to build this as our next road map. Right?
And then, if you start there, with that core set of beliefs, that helps you then understand, like, okay, this is my press story, right? This is what I would brief my PR person with. Like, I wanna make this the story that I read and—you know, in the Times or whatever.
But instead of that, it’s gonna be, like, great, this is my content lane. The four sub-hypotheses of the things that I believe about this space right now are, one, people need to make more video than ever, ever. Great. Like, that’s a content lane that someone in Descript or something should be out there saying, because I think it’s true, and because we need to start having that conversation.
So I’d say that’s, like—you can kind of start to think about what are the sub- bullets of the story that I want out in the world, and how can I create a content lane around those sub-bullets.
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah. I think that’s a great point. My CEO is incredibly high on, you know, we have to be pushing content. We have to be owning distribution lanes. We are only eight people at a VC firm that I think the general public thinks is at least 50 people, simply because of how much content we put out. But it’s all meaningful, it’s all authentic, and it’s all very specific to that individual and what makes sense for them.
And it really was something that I think coming into Decibel, for me, was, you know, thinking about what are the things that I’m passionate about? Where do I find comfort and a natural part of my personality that I think will allow me to excel here? And then what are the types of things that I actually think people care about?
And It’s a hard thing to find, but I think once you figure out, oh, these are— these are easy things for me to be able to create, they’re repeatable, and I do think people care, then it’s like you’re kind of set.
One of our investment partners started off by creating a Substack where she was really trying to focus on, you know, what people wanted to hear, and create things that she felt were kind of right down the center of the fairway. Was using ChatGPT a lot, and ultimately was not getting much of a response. And our CEO said, “Throw it all out the window and start talking like you talk to us.” Like, that’s what people want to hear, right?
Laura Burkhauser: Yes.
Lauren Ipsen: So she took that to a completely different extreme. And, I mean, she’ll reference a quote from someone and have it highlighted with a star, and it’s very glamorous and extra and fun and engaging. And there’s memes in it. And it’s—it breaks down so much of the content that people are already seeing all day long into something that’s really fun and the way we communicate about it on the backend in a lighthearted way.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah.
Lauren Ipsen: And it has blown up. Like, people are loving it because she’s being authentic to her. She’s thrown what she thought she was supposed to do out the window and just taken on this lane that she feels is how she communicates to her husband about it or her friends. Right. So, it’s fun.
Laura Burkhauser: That’s great. Yeah. No, totally. I think that there is going to be this deluge of AI slop or people who think, like, oh, I’ve solved it. I can finally be a creator because I can just have AI generate all of the content. And I’ll just like, you know, say that content. And I’ll say, like, I am not bullish on that succeeding.
Now, what I’m not saying is that I’m not bullish on AI-assisted workflows. Hell, yes. AI-assisted workflows are an unlock. But there are things you can replace with AI. And I think I’m,even—someone showed me yesterday, like, an AI influencer that they’re making where they’ve clearly lovingly crafted every detail of this AI influencer’s personality, such that they’re almost real. And I’m like, that’s cool. That’s, like, a real creation, you know, that you’re—that you’re making.
So, but it’s, like, that’s high-effort AI, where someone’s really thought about it. And then I think there’s just ,like, when you are doing, yeah, I’m trying to appeal to everyone. I’m not gonna say anything controversial, and I’m just gonna have AI do all of the writing—it’s like, that’s a great way to be done, but it’s not a great way to build passionate kind of followers who go out and retweet you and say, “You’ve gotta read this person’s perspective.”
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah. It’s more of checking a box, doing it to do it, rather than putting something out there that actually comes with thought and empath and an understanding for what people actually want to read or see. Right?
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah.
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah, I’m right there with you. But I think it’s an interesting
process that we’ve all had to go through.
And maybe I’ll share this in the Substack too, but, basically, we all created a Venn diagram before we joined Decibel. And it’s—the exact pillars, I’ll have to go back and reference, but it comes back to, you know, who you are as a person, your specific passions, and then the craft that you want to continue to master or teach, and where they all intersect is kind of where your lane is, essentially.
And so, I think it’s an interesting thing for people to take a look at and be introspective about. Before, I mean, I initially started, I was going to just create a Substack and have it be kind of like my own monologue on different things that were happening. And I just realized that’s just not who I am. I like to yap.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. Totally.
Lauren Ipsen: I like to talk, and I like to chat through topics. And, you know, I think writing’s fun, but not to the extent where there’s—I mean, there’s other people that I think are better suited to put out great writing content. And I think for me, I really just like engaging with human beings. So why was I trying to do anything other than that?
So, yeah, I just think it takes a bit and a couple course corrections, and then you kind of figure out, oh, this is fun, and this works for me.
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah, there are kind of two parts in there that are really important. And the first part is, like, I think that, you know, we always need to ask when we’re creating content, who is this for? And what is the value to that person? And I think one of the ways that I see people go wrong is when they start to make content, they really know what’s in it for them.
They’re like, I want people to know my brand name. I want people to buy my product. But they aren’t really asking, like, what’s in it for the person that’s listening to this for 40 minutes or whatever.
And so one of the things that I sometimes have to kind of coach people to do is, like, you know, you don’t need to mention the name of our product, Descript, over and over again. You—
Lauren Ipsen: This isn’t an ad.
Laura Burkhauser: We need to create content that’s helpful no matter what tool people are using to, like—to make video, for example. And I—and so it can’t just be like, here’s why we’re better than all of our competitors, right? It has to try to make content that’s authentically useful to an audience, not just an advertisement. And that’s the stuff that people—that people will watch.
The other thing that you said that I think is so important is, like, you’re gonna get it wrong, and you’re gonna have to—you’re talking about the other person at your work. You’re talking about yourself. The first thing that you think is your thing and how you’re gonna, like, crack in is definitely gonna be wrong. So before you buy that $3,000 camera or before you get that like Shure microphone or before you whatever, tell everyone, “I have a Substack, and thou shalt”—you know, maybe just try it out for six weeks and see if it’s feeling like this is something that I can do.
Meanwhile, you can start to build up. Like ,if you’re doing a podcast, maybe you wanna film the first three or four and have them in the can and feel like “I like this,” before you publish them and promote them and stuff like that. Otherwise, you know, when you quit a couple weeks later, it’s gonna be a little—you’re gonna be a little sheepish.
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah, and you get—you get some inbound when they haven’t heard from you in a little bit. People are like, “Where you been? You still doing it?” Yeah. I’m like, yes, yes. I have six weddings in a row. Yes, I’m doing it.
Laura Burkhauser: My gosh.
Lauren Ipsen: Okay, cool. I think that’s all super, super helpful.
Talk to me a little bit about where you found success and specifically, I think a lot of people look for some moment where something goes viral, or they feel like they get a return on the investment.
Do you feel like there’s more of an importance on the viral thing or more of an importance on just continuing to do it and be real and you?
Laura Burkhauser: This is a great question. I think that going viral is not important, especially, I mean—so maybe if you have a product where, you know, you’re start—like, you’re just starting out, and it’s like a consumer product. You really need to go viral or something.
But a lot of us are—you know, have some kind of an enterprise or B2B component to the work that we’re doing. And in that world, going viral is not important. And that’s also like—you know, I said you need to pick your channel. Think about the channel that you actually need to succeed on. Because I think a lot of us watching the AI conversation think, like, oh, if it’s not on Twitter, it’s not—I’m not part of the AI conversation.
But it’s like, it takes a very specific kind of voice to break through on Twitter. But I’m telling you, the people that are buying your product are maybe not on Twitter. They’re maybe on LinkedIn or on the internet searching for things and being referred to a YouTube video.
And so, I think it’s much more important to think strategically about your channel and then just, like, put in—be consistent in your content creation. And I guarantee everyone, if you’re like, yeah, but how will I know about the ROI? Here’s, like—here’s a guarantee I give everyone. If you start making video content, and you keep it up for, let’s say, four months, I usually say six, but, really, I think four months, where you put out a video at least once a week for four months, if you use Descript to do it, and in four months, you’re like, this has not been positive ROI for me, I will refund a hundred percent of your subscription.
That’s how confident I am that you will have the leading indicators in just a few months that this is helping you get in front of the eyeballs of people who matter. Maybe not going viral, but I’ll tell you, after I started doing a couple of these videos, the first few videos, I think, like, I got a lot of engagement from people. Like I said, they were interview videos. That actually was super helpful for recruiting.
One of my—like, this is my job recommendation. I wrote kind of an interesting job recommendation, then did a couple of videos about interviewing. And we got a lot of really qualified candidates applying, so that was really helpful there. That’s what I was trying to make happen at that point.
But since I’ve sort of shifted into this role, and I’ve been doing more talking about the space in general, I have gotten inbounds for sales. And I have gotten, you know, people just telling me like, “Hey, I’ve seen your videos. You’re at Descript, right?” And that’s how they discovered that we’re in the set of people that they might wanna be considering.
So, to me, I think it was very obvious very early that, like, I’m getting in front of people in a way that I would never have access to them, trying to find their email or something like that. And I’m pretty confident that I’m not extraordinary at this. Like, I’m pretty confident that would be most people’s experience.
Lauren Ipsen: I disagree, but yes.
So one thing you talked to a little bit was distribution lanes. And I wanna chat about that a little bit because I think it’s important. This podcast in particular, we have it out on Substack, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. And I think that helps because there’s—and then LinkedIn, of course.
But there’s moments where one catches fire and the other doesn’t. And it’s just continuing to have visibility amongst lots of different channels. Can can you talk about that a little bit and why you feel there’s an importance to putting content out there across a multitude of different distribution lanes?
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah. I think that different distribution channels hit different people. So, typically, what I would advise is—so, YouTube, for example, and things like Spotify, these are really good for long-form content where the transcript is not only available to people, but to machines that crawl the internet and try to find good content to refer to people.
And a lot of it is long-lived. So some of our most popular YouTube videos didn’t get a lot of views and likes in the first few weeks that we kind of published them. But now that they’ve been on YouTube for years, cumulatively, they’re a pretty powerful referral channel.
And it’s the same with, like, if you’re a marketer, you know that this is how blog articles work, where it’s like, you know, you publish a blog article, and it can refer traffic to your website for years, if it’s a well-written article that is useful to people, that tends to show up when people ask a question like, how do I pick out a nice camera”
And it’s like, Descript, that’s one where it’s like—there’s like, what camera should I be using? And we wrote an article a couple of years ago that people just find because it’s a very good article about what camera you should start using when you’re getting into this stuff.
And that’s an example of just generally helpful content. So, you know, we kind of know this from the SEO game, but video is a really important part of SEO and AEO too. And it’s also just a really important part of how humans access information for months and years after you publish it.
And then I think social is often the funnel into YouTube or to your longer form stuff. And so that’s why clipping is so important. And that stuff is very ephemeral. Anyone who clicks on it is gonna click on it within, like,just a few hours of you posting it, usually. You know if it’s gonna be good or not.
And so that’s why, with social, you just want to have a ton of at-bats, and you wanna try it across a bunch of different channels and just try to get people to go from your short form stuff—not to your website, not to a sale page. Especially if—I mean, unless you’re in e-commerce, really like the—you wanna go from social to long form; from long form, whether it’s long-form like reading or long- form video or audio, to just being in the consideration set.
And then it takes time for that to—you know, if I’m listening to Decibel, I may listen to one of your podcasts. And then it’s only relevant that I know who you are 18 months later. But I’m like, hey, actually, I think Lauren is just someone in this space who knows so much about this. I’m gonna refer her to someone because I know this. That’s kind of the game you’re playing.
So if you’re focused too much on going viral, you’re really thinking short-term instead of thinking about, like, the long-term fruit that’s born from this. And then being in multiple distribution channels helps you have that full funnel experience, from tiny droplet of rain in TikTok to the expanding concentric circles of forming a relationship that that creates.
Lauren Ipsen: Yeah. I mean, I completely agree. And then I think, so often, people feel like if they put content out there that doesn’t have a million views or whatever it might be, that it’s—they failed. Right? And that’s just not the case. You know, I have been putting out this content now for over a year. And it’ll be as simple as, you know, one or two new founders reaching out and saying that they found it helpful and then that being a potential investment deal, or, you know, something that we take a deeper look at. And that in itself makes it worth it.
And, also, God, I learned so much from these conversations. So if, selfishly, I’m learning, someone else has to be, right? But I think it’s just as simple as that. But I think, so often, people are measuring it based on the amount of clicks or—and then feel the need to try and do something different or have a hot take. And sometimes it doesn’t have to be that, right?
Laura Burkhauser: Yeah.
Lauren Ipsen: Any other just pieces of advice, words of wisdom for people to just get started on doing this?
Laura Burkhauser: I love—I’m obsessed with, um, Bay Area billboards. I don’t know if you like them too, but they’re just—they’re so funny to me. I wish—honestly, like, I kind of wish I would put together a TikTok channel of just me reviewing Bay Area billboards.
But, in any case, they’re always just, like, so incredible. They’re just-
Lauren Ipsen: The best.
Laura Burkhauser: I love to drive my parents home from the airport and just be like, “Guess what that company does? Guess what that company does?” So anyways, but—
Lauren Ipsen: Did you see the most—this one woman? Did you see that she put up a billboard that’s like, “Marry Lisa,” with her contact information. And it’s literally, she just is asking someone to marry her, and it’s all an advertisement around why she’s great. So it’s, like, you’re driving from the airport, and it’s like, Vanta and E2B, and all these, like—you’ve got all of these AI agents, and then it’s like, Mary Lisa.
Laura Burkhauser: Lisa, I hope it works out for you, girl. That’s incredible.
Well, I went by one—I remember Intercom had one last year, and it was supposedly written by the Intercom CEO. And it was just like, I just need you to know three things. I need them—I need people driving by to know three things.
One, we have the best chat assistant. Two, it’s powered by AI.
I forget what the three things were, but you could tell—I mean, unless it was totally artificial, my sense was that the Intercom CEO was marching around, and he’s like, going—one of my mentors told me, the more senior you get, the more your job is to just go into different rooms and say the same three things over and over again. Right?
Lauren Ipsen: Honestly, yes.
Laura Burkhauser: So my guess is if you’re a founder, you’re a CEO, you’re listening to this, what are those three things, the three things that you would put on the Intercom billboard of, like, just put these things on the billboard?
And then, there you go. That is make a video that is just you saying those three things. Make it at 90 seconds long. Or make it four minutes and use Descript to cut it down to 90 seconds. Put it on LinkedIn, and see what happens. I think that is your assignment. And if no one engages, that’s fine. Don’t delete it. Right?
Some people tell me, like, “Well, I did all of this, and I posted it, and no one liked it, so I deleted it.” And I’m like, oh my gosh. Play the long game.
Lauren Ipsen: And even if people aren’t liking it—I just saw the other day on my own Instagram, now they can show who’s viewed your profile, or the number of people that have viewed your profile. It was somewhat terrifying. It was over a hundred thousand people had viewed my profile. But, you know, I’m definitely not getting that many likes or comments on things.
So people are still seeing your content when you put it out into the ether, right?
Laura Burkhauser: Exactly. Exactly. And I promise to retweet you, you know.
Lauren Ipsen: Thank you.
Laura Burkhauser: Let me know. Gimme a little DM, and I’ll be, like— retweet this person’s stuff.
Lauren Ipsen: God bless you. What are the three things that you have been putting out over and over and over into the world as a CEO?
Laura Burkhauser: Great question. I think that they are video is eating the world, right? Video is the dominant form of communication, and all of us— CEOs, teams, companies—need to be creating a lot more video if we want to be part of the story of what’s happening in the world.
The second thing is that I think that AI—that video generation is extremely important and is going to change the way that video is created, but don’t sleep on the orchestration and application layers, right? I don’t think that video generation is going to replace recorded media.
I think, instead, we need apps where we can put all of these different models together with recorded media and with other kind of traditional forms of editing media to create a truly horizontal video solution that can be used by everyone on your team because it is both easy and because it covers every single use case, and that’s what we aspire to be.
So I’d say that is—that’s—those are my—that’s my billboard. Now, if we could just condense that into about three words.
Lauren Ipsen: I love it. And that’s where ChatGPT comes in.
Laura Burkhauser: Yes. Thank you.
Lauren Ipsen: Okay. Laura, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show. I can’t thank you enough. I think this was super insightful for our listeners, for founders getting started on this. So appreciate you taking the time to talk through content. I know it’s gonna be incredibly valuable to them.
Laura Burkhauser: Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. It’s always a pleasure to chat.
Lauren Ipsen: So much fun. And thank you all for listening to Never Too Early. More to come soon.
