E374: This is the crazy story of how Bobbi Althoff got Drake on her podcast.
In only four months, TikToker, Bobbi Althoff, went from: - No podcast. - No industry connections. - Mid-level influencer to Moms.
To:
- #1 podcast in the world (now it’s down to #10, but was at #1). - Signed by the most prominent talent agency on the planet (WME). - Doing podcasts with A-listers. - Influencer to everybody, getting recognized everywhere.
I love this story.
Read from: https://edwardsturm.com/articles/how-bobbi-althoff-got-drake-on-her-podcast/
Brett Cohen’s episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGiR2NNpnNo
Bobbi’s story originally told in: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a44762496/bobbi-althoff-tiktok-podcast/
00:00 Introduction 01:42 From Mid-Level Influencer to Podcaster 02:24 Bobbi’s Strategy 04:03 Securing Drake and Going Viral 05:46 Lessons Learned: Playing to Win and Taking Risks 06:47 Similar Success Stories 09:31 Conclusion: Risk-Taking
The Edward Show. Your daily digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
On this episode of the podcast, I'm going to share how Bobby Althof got Drake on her four month old podcast. It's from last year, Bobby Althof got Drake on her four month old podcast, turning it to the number one podcast in the world. This is from 11 months ago to the date, 11 months ago, I heard this story. I was so inspired by it that I turned it into a newsletter. That newsletter got a lot of great feedback. So then I turned that into a LinkedIn post, and that LinkedIn post became my best performing LinkedIn post by far, up until recently when my videos started going viral on LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is now prioritizing video. But this story about Drake is a story about playing to win. The takeaway that I got from this story was that most people think playing to win is about how hard you're willing to work. Playing hard is important, but really playing to win is about the risks you're willing to take. It's about the risks you are willing to take. That is what I got from this story. If you haven't seen the podcast, I don't know if it's still up, but it was super viral. You probably saw it at one point. Bobby Althof, she's super awkward. She interviews Drake in bed. It's really funny. You can probably find a mirror of it on YouTube. People are constantly reposting it on YouTube. There's all this beef between Bobby Althof and Drake. Bobby Althof and her husband divorced a few months after this podcast, Dave Portnoy asked Bobby to her face. If she did, if she did anything under the covers with Drake and she said no. And honestly, if she did, it was probably after this occurred, because I know lots of different stories like this, this is the introduction, the underdog story. In only four months, Tiktoker, Bobby Althof, she went from no podcasts, no industry connections, mid-level influencer to moms. That's crazy. A year ago, very few people knew her and she was a mid-level influencer to moms. And now she's like very famous. Two, number one podcast in the world. Now it's down to number 10. It was at number one in four months, number one podcast in the world, signed by the most prominent talent agency on the planet, William Morris Endeavour, doing podcasts with A-listers, influencer to everybody getting recognized everywhere. And here is exactly how she does it. I love this story. Number one, she wants to start a podcast and get celebrities on it right away. Since she has very little distribution for the podcast, and she's not famous, getting real famous people is not easy. She has some Instagram followers, she has TikTok followers, but she's not really famous and she wants to use A-listers, real famous people. So she puts up a TikTok saying that she will give anybody who successfully connects her with a celebrity $300. So she's willing to give $300 to anybody who connects her with a celebrity. And then she gets connected with comedian Rick Glassman, so the person who connects her with Rick Glassman gets $300. She talks to Rick Glassman and Rick Glassman agrees to do the podcast for free. He thinks the idea is funny, he thinks Bobby Althof is charming, he agrees to do the podcast for free. So Bobby Althof travels to Rick Glassman hoping that he will not flake on the podcast. And he doesn't, and the interview goes super well and it's funny, and in the comments section of it, somebody said she should next interview comedian Funny Marco. So she screens shots this comment of somebody saying that she should interview Funny Marco who's also comedian, screenshots the comment, and then puts it on her Instagram story and tags Funny Marco. And she writes, "At Funny Marco, if you want to make this person $300, the commenter, if you want to make the commenter $300, come onto my podcast." So Funny Marco agrees to do it for free. She gives a person $300, the commenter, $300. And again, she's hoping that Funny Marco is not going to flake and she travels to him. And he doesn't flake, and the interview is very funny. And now here's where it takes a crazy turn. Drake likes the Funny Marco interview and follows Bobby, and Bobby takes her shot. She DMs Drake and she says, "When are you going to come on the podcast?" And to her surprise, Drake responds, he says he's down and sends his tour schedule. I think a lot of people here, they might be nervous to move on such an opportunity, and Bobby is playing to win. She realizes that she needs to strike now before the opportunity evaporates. I think first of all, a lot of people wouldn't believe that they'd be in shock that Drake said yes. And then they'd be a bit nervous capitalizing on it, scared of money, don't make no money. But that's a real thing, people self-sabotage all the time, and I really appreciate that Bobby didn't. She realizes that she needs to strike now before the opportunity evaporates, and she gets her friend to help her film. So two days after sending the DM to Drake, she flies to Memphis, takes a flight, hoping that he's not going to flake, hoping that this is going to happen, takes a flight with her friend. Drake doesn't flake, they shoot this hilarious podcast from Drake's bed. She releases a trailer for the podcast, it goes viral on TikTok, it's 30 million views. At this point, William Morris Endeavour reaches out when this happens and then signs Bobby. So Bobby gets signed to William Morris Endeavour before the podcast is put up. Then Bobby puts up the Drake podcast on YouTube, it goes very viral, quickly gets 10 million views, briefly boosts Bobby's podcast to the number one podcast in the world, four months after it was started. Then she goes on to get Mark Cuban, Lil Yachty, Tyga, and with each of these people, she acts with urgency, she never knows if they're going to flake or not, and again my take away is most people think playing to win is about how hard you're willing to work, it's not playing to win is actually about the risks you're willing to take. Working hard is super important, but oftentimes you need to work hard for a prolonged period, and that's also a risk. I actually think it's pretty easy to be successful if you're just willing to stick with something for years, but that is a risk because you are turning down lots of other opportunities. You were saying no to lots of other opportunities. The most surefire way, just make a podcast about this, the most surefire way to get what you want to hit your goals is just be willing to stick with something for years. I believe that in my heart, that is why when I was plateauing last year, and I thought every day about giving up on social media, this was summer last year of 2023, I thought every day about giving up on social media, and I didn't, I said I'm going to figure it out. It always takes longer than you think, this happens with lots of other people, I'm going to figure it out, and I stuck with it. But that was a risk, or at least it felt like a risk at the time. A lot of people don't believe this story with Bobby Althof and Drake. One of my very close friends, named Brett Cohen, he's head of events of Forbes, executive director of events and partnerships at Forbes. Very close friend, I met him, I think in 2011 or 2010, we were both interning at WABC New York City's local ABC station, and at the time, I think, you know, he was how old it was he at the time, he was 17 at the time, he had no industry connections, he had a podcast on Blog Talk radio, he didn't realize that podcasts were going to be huge and he didn't stick with it. It's hilarious. So actually, I had him on my podcast on episode 62 of this show, Forbes, executive director reveals how he got Kim Kardashian on his podcast at 16 years old, so 16, he was getting Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, huge A-listers on his podcast when he was between being 16 years old and 17 years old, and he would do all these tricks to get them on. He would try to book famous guests when they were actively this so smart, he would look for famous guests who are actively promoting something, like a book or a new product, and they're more likely to do press during these periods, so he would reach out to them. Or he would reach out to publicists for their side hustles because these A-listers are doing like so many different things, so he would reach out to publicists for like one of their less important things, so the publicist isn't as big, so he wouldn't contact the main agency. He always made his podcast seem like an opportunity for them, and since it was harder to get stats on podcasts back then, a lot of people would say yes, and he was very confident about how the show was huge, and it wasn't. He would use Twitter when Twitter was new, so he actually got Jimmy Fallon through Twitter, and he just kept on messaging Jimmy Fallon saying, "Come on my podcast, come on my podcast." Brett tells the story so well on the episode, episode 62 of this show. Number one though, when big people are trying to promote their own projects, they're so much more likely to do press with you if you have maybe a video channel, or a podcast yourself, or a newsletter, like he got Kim Kardashian because Kim Kardashian had a workout DVD promotion, and so she needed to do a certain amount of press to fulfill her obligations for the DVD promo, but it's like, it's stories like these, and I know so many different stories like these, I have stories like these myself, and that's why I believe that Bobby Althof's story is true. That's why I believe that stuff like this actually happens, because I see it from my friends, I see it from myself, and I know these things are possible, crazier things have happened. This story is very in line from what I have personally seen in terms of how the media works. So I really believe this Bobby Althof's story, as a reminder to myself, played a win. So one caveat with playing to win, and like taking big risks is you don't want to take a risk that's going to make it so you can't keep on going. Ultimately, you want to be able to keep trying and trying and trying and trying, because I just believe anybody, nobody's so dumb that they won't eventually figure it out. So you want to be able to keep going and going and going, so you don't want to take a risk that's going to completely eff you. You don't want to bet at all. You don't want to bet the farm on something. Bobby Althof didn't bet the farm on this, but she did take risks that probably made her uncomfortable and that would make lots of other people uncomfortable. So I'm going to end this with the lesson that I got. Most people think playing to win is about how hard you're willing to work. Playing to win is actually about the risks you're willing to take. I love this story. I shared it before, and I'm so happy to be able to share it again. It's episode 374 of my daily show. I do this thing every day, seven days a week. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. Tomorrow, I will have more digital marketing stories and hacks for you and I will talk to you again then. I will talk to you again tomorrow.
