Various Gets A Little Clarity

It feels redundant at this point to say that 2020 has been a wild ride. In a move I could not have predicted at the start of this year, I am proud to announce that the Various & Co team has joined Clarity PR. 

I started Various & Co as a creative communications consultancy in June of 2019 with the sole expectation of doing creative and interesting work with creative and interesting people. Over the past 16 months I have had the privilege of doing just that.

Whether it was telling the story of no-code website making with Universe, or building up awareness for another way to measure ads with Adelaide, sharing the importance of estate planning with FreeWill, bringing out the human side of technology with ASML, or giving the world a new way to date with XO there was no shortage of amazing companies to partner with. I am eternally grateful to all of the clients I have worked with for taking a chance and investing in me. Their visions for their businesses and their hopes for the way the world should be continue to inspire me every day. 

It’s also important to note that I didn’t do this alone. Far from it. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes a whole damn universe to build a company and I want to recognize and thank just a few of the people who joined me to launch Various. First and foremost, are Emily McDonough and Adria Smith -- two of the most interesting and creative people I know. 

Adria joined Various as our first full-time employee and rose to every occasion. She injected light into everything we did and she challenged me to think about our work in a more holistic way. Adria joins Clarity PR as a Senior Account Executive to work with startups and emerging brands.

Emily McDonough is someone I knew I wanted to work with before Various even existed. Emily is that rare combination of organized, detailed, and precise while also being thoughtful and inventive and warm. When Emily joined Various, it became a different company overnight. She deftly took on the work of creating a culture (which matters with even 3 people) and building out our systems and processes to make us the most effective we could be. Emily joins Clarity PR as a Vice President in our New York office to continue doing all of that. 

I also had the good fortune to partner with freelancers like Alison Crisci Turner and Brittney Roth Eisenberg and Karlsson Banks -- talented PR professionals who said “Yes, and…” allowing me to stretch my capabilities. I owe them a debt of gratitude that money cannot pay (though I did pay them! hehe). 

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention and send an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who referred us business, answered my persistent phone calls and questions, edited documents, shared insights, collaborated on projects, or designed a logo. I genuinely could not have done this without you and I tip my hat to you. 

And as for me? I am stepping up to become the Managing Director in NY just as Clarity, like many businesses, is staring down a new future. The media industry is evolving and shape-shifting before our eyes creating a new opportunity to define how we practice PR and deliver the impactful business results our clients have come to expect and depend on. Clarity’s East Coast team is a strong group of intelligent and driven communicators, who are making a meaningful difference for the companies we support. I am so excited to come on board and lead this team. 

You can find me over at kara.silverman@clarity.pr and of course this Various address will still work. I hope you come along for this ride and that I see you on the other side! 

Thank you for your support and your friendship! 

Juneteenth 2020 and Beyond

We are a small team at Various. It might seem silly for a team of 3 to be taking a stand on something like this, but the truth is that if we want to make systemic change, it needs to be part of our system from the very beginning.

With that in mind, Various & Co will be honoring Juneteenth as a holiday and closing our office (even remotely). Juneteenth is “the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance." (from hellajuneteenth.com as linked).

But this won’t just be a summer Friday day off. This will be a day of change, a day of learning, a day of self-reflection, a day of becoming better. 

Here’s what our calendar will look like instead:

• 9am: Touring the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Freedom and Slavery Exhibit. (h/t to Lorem Ipsum for the rec)

• 11am: Emailing our representatives across the board to make this day a permanent national holiday. 

• 1pm: Reading session for our 1st Various Book Club (discussion happening next week) for which we are reading So You Want To Talk About Race

• 3pm: Taking a coffee break and buying some sweet treats from the Bakers Against Racism

• 5pm: Going for a walk in the park and listening to any one of these amazing podcasts from Black creators

• 7pm: Participating in the BRIC #BHeard Townhall

We found a lot of these ideas from the amazing people at HellaJuneteenth and you can check it out for additional resources too. 

Whatever you do on Friday June 19th, make sure you take a second to check yourself. Remember the history of this country and how we got to be where we are and do something to support your fellow Black Americans. <3, The Various Team

Various Book Club: So You Want To Talk About Race

There’s never been a better time to be a better person. Various & Co has decided as part of our commitment to creating an anti-racist work environment, culture, and world, we need to be educated. and will be reading “So You Want To Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo as team and also with our clients, journalist peers, friends, and family.

We are buying a copy of the book for anyone who wants to read it along with us and join us in a group discussion on June 23rd. If you’d also like to be part of our book club, leave us a note in the comments with your email address and we’ll send you a digital copy of the book.

We all need to put in the work to make change. It starts with us. It starts now.

Various Newsletters

We love a good newsletter. And so, here is a various selection of a bunch that we’re enjoying lately. You can read from your bed, in the bathroom when you’re hiding from whoever, between video chats, during lunch, with wine…in quarantine.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash (also picture is called avoiding social contact and we love)

The Profile is written by Polina Marinova and is just a deep dive into unique and interesting people. Obsessed with the most recent one about Chris Voss. Read and subscribe.

Lorem Ipsum — Written by Margot Boyer Dry, this is hot takes on cool culture. Short, big images. Just our style. Read and subscribe.

Deez Links — written by Delia Cai from Buzzfeed, this newsletter is not from Buzzfeed but is just some thoughts about one link and then a bunch of helpful industry stuff like job listings, etc. My fave this week is about pandemic daddy Gov Cuomo’s excellent power points. Read and subscribe.

PodNews — written by James Cridland this is a top notch podcast industry newsletter. He takes a global perspective and covers everything from industry tech to new shows and of course all the research on listenership. Read and subscribe.

Cooking in Quarantine — written by Sam Koppleman, this newsletter is newish on the scene. As you can tell by the name, it was born in quarantine but we hope it lives beyond. This is a fun voyeuristic look at some really cool folks who cook (and are maybe chefs or maybe not) and how they do it in their homes. Recent newsletter have included Caroline Calloway, the entire Godin clan, Beto O’Rourke and more. Read and subscribe.

Recomendo — TBH, I don’t know who writes this one and I don’t know how I found it. I do know I use the recommendations in here regularly and they are for everything from kitchen appliances and devices to email productivity ideas and bots that can help you book Amazon delivery spots. Read and subscribe.

Various & You???

Various & Co is hiring!

Various & Co is looking for our first full-time team member! The ideal candidate will have a background in or experience working with ad-tech, media, advertising agencies, streaming, publishing, and/or B2B tech companies. Looking for folks with (at least) 3-5 years experience (or more depending on the situation) who are excited about the opportunity to dive into uncharted waters and help with building a company from the ground up. Everyone will do everything, so candidates must be ready to roll up their sleeves and pitch media in addition to strategy and new business work. 

Our team needs creative thinkers, who are resourceful, independent, and proactive. More job details below! If this looks interesting to you, please fill out this form.

 Primary Responsibilities:

• Secure media placements on behalf of clients and maintain and build reporter relationships regularly

• Help to set and support client strategy through creative storytelling and narrative building and proactive ideation for pitches

• Support/help start company driven activities including hosting industry dinners, and panels, attending and organizing networking events, etc.

• Get involved with new business opportunities on a case by case basis.

• Create client-facing and media facing press materials

Some Perks:

• Flexible work situation -- we have an office, but WFH is welcome.

• Competitive salary -- base salary will be very competitive and for our early employees, there is a quarterly rev share after the first 3 months.

• Building a culture from the beginning. The agency has only existed since June 2019 and is just getting started. So much opportunity here to be part of creating the systems and culture and policies for the business from the ground up. 

• Phone bill covered up to $100/month!

• Weekly office lunch! :)

• We give back. We'll be picking a nonprofit cause to support for 2020 (a different cause each year) where we can get involved and offer PR/comms, events planning, and/or other support.

• Support for healthcare. Various & Co will contribute up to $250 dollars/month towards the cost of your healthcare.

Title:

• The title is TBD and based on the level of experience of the candidate. The working title for 3-5 years is Account Executive/Senior Account Executive or Publicist/Senior publicist.

Ways of Working: This is how we work with clients.

• Partnership & Access: We are an extension of the client team and think of ourselves as partners in their business. We align our work with their business objectives and we participate proactively with their team. In exchange, our clients provide us the access we need and help support that partnership by sharing information openly and working with us on the strategies. 

• Transparency & Trust: We are open with our clients and we share pitches, releases, media databases, outreach progress, and journalist feedback. At Various & Co we believe that we are more than an excel file of journalist names. We bring the creative ideation, the thoughtful strategy, the unique perspective to make something work. We share openly with our clients and we trust them to let us be the experts and do our jobs and to rely on our experience and successful track record.

• Honesty & Respect: Our clients don’t hire us to say “YES”. They hire us because we have an eye for great stories. Because we can deliver results. It is our job to provide respectful honest and candid (and tactful and professional) feedback on story ideas, strategies, and goals. By sharing accurate feedback on PR efforts, we ensure everyone has the best chance of success and everyone on the team is required to do this.

Podcast Movement 2019: CELEBRITY PODCASTS ROUNDTABLE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Interviewed by Jeremy Helton for Podcast Movement, here’s a story about celebrity podcasting! Read more here: https://podcastmovement.com/celebrity-podcasts-roundtable-challenges-and-opportunities/

With their built-in fan followings, the stars of YouTube, television, cinema, sports and social media have a lot of advantages when it comes to launching their own podcasts. As a companion piece to my article, “Why Advertisers Love Celebrity Podcasts,” I asked producers, advertising sales executives and PR specialists working in the podcast space for additional insights on this growing trend.

What celebrity led podcasts are you working with right now or have you worked with in the past?

Emily Bon, Head of Podcasts & Manager of Development at Main Event Media: Never Thought I’d Say This cohosted by Fuller House star and mother of two Jodie Sweetin and Uncuffed with Derrick Levasseur. It’s hosted by the bestselling author of The Undercover Edge and currently the star of Investigation Discovery’s Breaking Homicide.

Jenni Skaug, President of Sonic Influencer Marketing: We’ve worked with quite a few celebrity podcast hosts, including The Bachelor celebrities, Instagram celebrities, political celebrities, and comedians. Your Favorite Thing hosted by Brandi Cyrus and Wells Adams, Brandi Glanville Unfiltered, The Adam Carolla Show, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and Straight Talk with Ross Mathews are just a few that come to mind.

Kara Silverman, Partner at Various & Co and former Head of Global Marketing & Communications at Acast: David Tennant Does A Podcast With…, Dan Harmon’s Whiting Wongs and Feist’s podcast Pleasure Studies, part of the EARIOS network which also hosts Margaret Cho’s podcast.

Michael Bosstick, CEO of Dear Media: Alli Webb’s Raising the Bar, Lauryn Evarts, The Skinny Confidential Him and Her Podcast, Heather McMahan’s Absolutely Not, Katherine Schwarzenegger and Whitney Port’s With Whit.

Tom Koenig, Head of Content at Somethin’ Else: A number of our original podcasts are hosted by well-known names, such as David Tennant Does A Podcast With…; Out To Lunch With Jay Rayner; The Brights, a reality format podcast about Lydia Bright — one of the stars of The Only Way Is Essex, a hugely popular reality TV show in the UK — and her family; and we recently launched a new podcast with singer-songwriter Frank Turner called Frank Turner’s Tales From No Man’s Land, which accompanies his latest album.

Why do you think celebrities, talent agencies and media companies are investing in podcasting now?

Emily Bon: As a television production company, [Main Event Media] are used to relying on networks to give us the green light to produce projects. We started a podcast division so that we could have full creative control – if there’s a story that we want to tell, we can immediately create the content and put it out ourselves.

Kara Silverman: Podcasting can be a valuable revenue stream for celebrities. Most actors/actresses have gaps between the work they do, and podcasting is a great way to stay connected to fans and also to have more control over making entertainment or a project. It remains to be seen if they will last. I think there are a few groups of podcasting celebs – Hollywood celebs with a built in audience like Anna Faris or Dax Shepard, people who become celebrities through podcasting, like Marc Maron or the hosts of My Favorite Murder, and then this third category of influencers, like the Bachelor podcasters, Girls Gotta Eat and media personalities like Rachel Maddow who are somewhere in between.

Describe some opportunities you see with the increase in celebrity driven podcasts.

Emily Bon: We see an opportunity for our podcast slate to serve as an incubator for projects that can later move to television and film.

Kara Silverman: From a PR point of view, having the name of a celebrity in your pitch makes it easier to be sure it will get read, but it does not guarantee coverage.

Tom Koenig: A well-known name fronting your podcast means you are starting with a large pool of fans from whom you can immediately start to build your audience. Take The Three Questions with Andy Richter, which launched in July. Andy is Conan O’Brien’s sidekick from his TV show. He’s well-known and has other celebrities who will cross-promote his show. That’s why it went straight to number one in the Apple charts. Also, with a celebrity host, booking other big names to appear on your show as a guest becomes a hell of a lot easier.

What advertisers have you paired with celebrity lead podcasts?

Jenni Skaug: Matching celebrities to products boils down to research. If it’s a new celebrity in the space and you don’t have performance data, then you dig into who they are and what the public persona is of that person.

You can typically find out enough about their personal lives and their general beliefs through media coverage to know if they will be a good product fit or not. If the host is a good fit for the product and they are interested and willing to endorse, it is likely that they will engage with their audience in a way that generates response.

At Sonic Influencer Marketing we’ve run campaigns with celeb podcasts for Article, Instacart, Burst, Atoms, Quartz, Branch Basics, Homesick Candles, Beam TLC, Powerdot and TiVo.

Michael Bosstick: Dear Media works with everyone from AmEx, Amazon, Ritual, Thrive, and Four Sigmatic, Casper, Fabletics, Quip, and Skillshare to Elemis, Kopari, Dr. Dennis Gross, Pedigree, Fab Fit Fun, Lola, and LinkedIn.

And what are some challenges that come with celebrity driven podcasts?

Emily Bon: The challenge in podcasting is the same challenge we face in the television industry: How do you stand out in a crowded landscape? There’s no shortage of compelling content in the podcast space, so the goal is to create shows that bring something completely unique to the table – a premise or perspective that the listener can’t get anywhere else.

Jenni Skaug: Podcasts with large audiences and high rates are great for brands that are either large, like Geico, Prudential and Toyota, or for companies that have tested and proven that the medium works for their brand, like ZipRecruiter and Stamps.com. But podcasts with A-list celebrities and large audiences are not the typical testing ground for brands that are trying out the medium for the first time.

Kara Silverman: To really make a podcast interesting to journalists it has to go beyond just having a great name associated with it.

The format has to be interesting, the topic exciting, the guests really strong, and the celeb must be really committed. There are so many podcasts being launched that you can’t just send out a press release anymore, you have to really create the story and showcase the value of the podcast.

Michael Bosstick: Moving audiences off of traditional platforms and letting them know more about podcasting as a medium.

Tom Koenig: No matter how big a name celebrity you have as a host, just as much thought needs to go into what the purpose of the show is and what it’s about as you’d put into it if the presenter was completely unknown. There are also examples of podcasts out there where it seems that someone’s gone, ‘Hey, you’re famous. You should do a podcast,’ And that’s the remit of the show. That’s just a recipe for a very boring podcast.

As with any creative project, time needs to be spent thinking about who the audience is, what they want, and the purpose of the show.

If you’re attending Podcast Movement 2019 you can hear more from Jenni Skaug on August 14th during the Celebrities in Podcasting panel discussion at 9 AM in Gatlin A1/A2 and the How To Use Data To Monetize Your Podcast session at 11:30 AM in Gatlin E.

And to hear more from Kara Silverman check out the Creative Approaches For Podcast Audience Development session, August 15th at 11:30 AM in Gatlin E.

Hello, Various & Co.

When I first moved to New York 15 years ago, the idea of leaving my dream job and striking out on my own would have paralyzed me with fear. Today I’m ready for it and am excited to announce the launch of my new company Various & Co! But before I tell you about that, how did I get here?

I ❤ Podcasts

Me in my natural habitat clutching a phone laughing at a Dad joke and hanging with Rugby.

I love podcasts. That’s not a surprise to anyone. When the opportunity to work in the industry and help build the world’s largest global podcast company came up, I just couldn’t say no — I had landed my dream job.

Me in my natural habitat clutching a phone laughing at a Dad joke and hanging with Rugby.

That was nearly 3 years ago and that little company with a big dream was Acast. Since then the company has grown at an astounding rate. With offices all around the world and more than 7,000 podcasts with hundreds of millions of listens each month, Acast is a truly global organization that’s helping to define the podcasting industry.

All of Acast at last year’s Acamp. ❤

It’s been a wild ride, to say the least, and beyond the above, I have gotten to do so many amazing things from launching David Tennant’s podcast and the EARIOS Network to helping debut bleeding-edge podcast tech like Acast Access and creating audience growth tools for podcasters like Acast Recommends.

Even though it is time for me to say Goodbye to Acast, I am so proud of the work I got to do there and the team I helped build and have every emotion available to feel about leaving the company.

Back in mid-June Acast reorganized and that presented me with the chance to strike out on my own. I’ve been faced with this decision before and have always chosen to join teams rather than starting my own company. The last time this came up I landed at Small Girls PR where I spent 4 amazing years and had some of my most defining professional moments. But now, the timing finally feels right.

Various and…

So, what’s next? Good question. Turns out, it’s gonna be Various Things and that’s the inspiration for me new work home Various & Co.

Think this logo is cool? It’s thanks to Ryan Welch

Various & Co. is the marriage of all my experiences and a blending of my favorite things. One part creative consultancy with a focus on PR/marketing and one part clearinghouse for strange and curious ideas.

I want to work with organizations and people that are doing things differently. Those who reject the status quo, who have a story to tell and a mountain-moving mission.

My first clients include Adelaide, an ad tech company that is upending the way we think about and measure digital ads; Acast, my former employer and the world’s largest podcast company as they champion underserved voices; Matt Wallaert, author of Start At The End and Chief Behavioral Officer of Clover Health whose book is a literal blueprint for building products differently; and Small Girls PR, another former employer and company that continues to shift the paradigm for the PR industry.

I am eternally grateful for everything and everyone that has gotten me to this point and to all the initial clients who have helped me get Various & Co. off the ground. If you’re interested in working together I’d love to chat, so please send me a note to kara@variousand.com

My side hustle now is writing custom out of office haikus. If you want one, LMK. :)

Yours, Kara

P.S. I’m on the lookout for a great accountant. If there’s someone you love working with or you’ve heard about, I’d appreciate a referral!

Authority Magazine Interview

Yours truly was interviewed by Authority Magazine for a cool column on Rockstar Publicists. The best quote? “Don’t hide behind email.”

Read more!

https://medium.com/authority-magazine/publicist-rockstars-dont-hide-behind-email-or-the-internet-with-kara-silverman-of-acast-f567e95a3db5

Bad With Names

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, what did you say your name was? I’m terrible with names.” We’ve all heard this before. At a party, or Meetup, or just running into someone you’ve met before on the street. Every time someone says this to me, it sucks. I feel somehow “less than”, or not important, or some combination of the above.

At some point, I made the purposeful decision to be the exact opposite. To be good with names. And every time I encounter someone and I say their name “Hi Libby, great to see you!” or “Hey Frank, a pleasure running into you.”, they are stunned. As in knocked-over-with-a-feather-be-my-best-friend-forever-holy-shit-this-has-never-happened-to-me-before stunned.

Because the thing is, names are important. Names are unique, they are personal, they are the first layer of getting to know someone. A name is a specific fact about a person and remembering someone’s name shows you care.

“A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” — Dale Carnegie.

It isn’t cute to preface a conversation or first encounter with someone by saying “Sorry if I don’t remember you, I’m really bad with names”. It’s rude and insulting and you shouldn’t do it. I know that’s not a popular opinion. I know that remember someone’s name is stressful and that we meet a lot of people in our lives. I know all this, and still, I say it is important to remember people’s names.

I googled the phrase “How to remember names” and got more than 333 million results like these 3 articles from Forbes, Wikihow, and Business Insider. Clearly, this is an issue many people care about.

Need to be further convinced that names matter? This story from the Washingon Post might help. Or maybe this one from the BBC. Or honestly, just think of any time someone has gotten your name right. Has remembered you. Has made clear they paid attention and remember how it made you feel.

So, if you forget names you are not alone. But it also shouldn’t be an excuse anymore. Say my name. :)

I waited in line for 30 minutes to meet an Instagram celebrity dog and I am not even ashamed!

This weekend I did something I have never in my life done before. I waited in line to meet a celebrity and take a picture. Not just any celebrity, but an Instagram celebrity. Not just any Instagram celebrity, but a dog Instagram celebrity. And I am not the least bit ashamed or embarrassed about it!

The dog is named Tuna and he is a “3 year-old Chiweenie with an exaggerated overbite, recessed jawline and a magnificent wrinkly neck.” He was at Barkbox HQ this weekend to raise awareness and money for local shelters as part of #thetunatour.

People react pretty strongly to this dog, one way or the other. I have loved Tuna from the minute I saw him — I have a soft spot for dogs that are a little different in some way. Over the years, Tuna’s fame has grown and there are now 780K+ people following along with Tuna on Instagram.

I got to spend about 5-7minutes with Tuna and his mom Courtney and it was everything. His mom is patient, kind, understanding, and very very smart. Tuna is funny. He’s a dog, just like mine. He scampers around barks and wants treats and is totally cool being handled by hundreds of adoring fans.

When I posted the picture that had been taken of me and Tuna on my Instagram feed, I thought I might get maybe double the likes I usually get — bringing my highest number of likes for any one picture up to about 60-65. What actually happened pretty much blew me away. One picture with me and Tuna earned 123 likes! That’s an insane number! Tuna’s pictures average likes in the tens of thousands, but for me this was a game changer. It brought in new followers and catapulted my picture to a new level.

I also recently started an Instagram feed for my awesome dog Rugby. I posted a collage of pictures from the Tuna meet’n’greet there and we doubled the total number of followers and hit triple the number of likes on a picture in less than 24 hours. Amazing how one brand can boost another.

Meeting Tuna was cool. Waiting in line with the hundreds of other people to meet Tuna made me feel part of a community. And if he ever comes back to town, I would do it again, because #tunameltsmyheart.

Actual footage of me meeting Tuna in April of 2014.