46 - The Hard Way Is The Way With Kate Bradley Chernis, Founder and CEO of Lately

This is one of those episodes where I definitely clicked with the guest. I think the feeling is mutual because if you listen to the very end, Kate says "love you."

Kate Bradley Chernis is Founder & CEO of Lately. As a former marketing agency owner, Kate created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years. Now at Lately, they're getting 98% sales conversion using organic marketing.

Lately was founded in 2014, has ~17 people, and is based out of New York. They've raised seed funding ($3.23M). Lately uses AI (e.g. what does my audience want to hear?) to turn blogs, videos, podcasts and more into dozens of social media posts. Customers include SAP, VaynerMedia, DHL, and PWC. Gary Vee is an advisor.

Here's what we hit on:

Prior to Lately and the marketing agency, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. I ask what she loved and hated about that experience;

What were your marketing efforts early stage at Lately (HINT: the best product doesn't win);

Who's on the marketing team;

We talk about AI and that humans are good at the pull, robots are good at the push;

Recently hit $1M ARR - how? What matters most?

What marketing channels are working really well;

Creating marketing content with an "underdog" tilt;

What are your biggest marketing challenges right now (HINT: stress of COVID is part of it).

You can reach Kate on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/katebradley/

Find out more about Lately: www.lately.ai/

Check out Gary V’s Twitter channel to see Lately in action: @GaryVeeTV

View a 60 second sneak peek here: https://youtu.be/RlbRiAwwBiQ

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You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!