YouSaid · the spoken record

Trevor McFedries

lines on the record: 43
first: 2020-09-29
most recent: 2020-09-29
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Kind of saying how I am. That's great. I think one of our dreams has absolutely been to embody a set of principles and a set of beliefs. And a set of really of ideas that our audience sees as being important and will want to see through in their everyday lives. One of them obviously is empathy. We think with these characters, we can embody otherness and people who have been othered or marginalized and showcase that these people are important and that their ideas and their contributions to the world are valid and important. And I hope that when people see Michaela contributing to the world with her music, with her art, with her stories, with her confessionals, or with any of our characters, they say, hey, that's important. I might not have recognized it as such because this virtual robot thing wasn't important to me immediately. And I take it into the workplace or into their schools or into their homes or into their daily lives and say, I'm going to take a moment to listen to people that I might have written off immediately.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Philly Marble, not in comic books. And so we want to have that kind of economic mic that allows us to potentially one day shape policy and shape discourse in a kind of more traditional way.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where it gets really interesting for me is also on kind of the architecture of the entertainment industry and how, in my opinion, how broken it's always been and what this type of talent now allows for. I think there's real opportunities for us to create more equitable futures for artists and creators. And it's really hard to be a public figure. And I think it's also really hard to be someone behind that public figure, whether you're a manager or you're a songwriter or you're a producer. A lot of the value is traditionally accrued at the labels. And so for us, what we're able to do is effectively create talent that can act as almost like a platform or a vehicle where we can say, okay, if you cut out the middleman of that talent, so to speak, the traditional embodied human talent, can we then take those resources and redistribute them and reallocate them such that we can create kind of a more equitable system? You know, we think that we can build a modern Marvel or Disney. And the idea if you were building Disney now, you probably wouldn't start in theaters or.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I think the biggest lessons for us thus far have been the sexy technology stuff doesn't matter as much as the narrative. I remember when we finally developed a new way to do some of our animation to do it better, faster, cheaper. We shipped out some of the first video stuff and I was like, I can't wait for the fans to see this. And their reaction was like, yeah, duh, totally. She can walk to her restaurant hang out with her friends. But like, who are the friends? And what is she wearing and what's going on? And I was like, got it. Of course. Yes, it comes back to this story always. It comes back to this character always. And to not get lost in the stuff that I love getting lost in the tech stack has been a super important lesson for us.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We could have a story unfold across channels, and there are different passion cohorts. If you're deeply passionate, you can go through everything and find everything and build your own fan wikis and timelines. Those fans exist, and we're so thankful for them. And they're the more passive fans that are like, hey, I love these outfits in these locations. And these characters are almost like a magazine for me that can guide me to interesting things happening in the world. That's fine too.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I gotta say, it's probably one of the things that I'm most proud of, of all the things that we've done is that allowing people in these spaces that can feel like pressure cookers to say, hey, thank you for being you. Not the USA in the workplace, but the U that brings your dog to work, or the you that calls me when I'm having a rough one, or the you that takes care of their mother, that's the stuff that I recognize and see in you. And that's the stuff that keeps me going.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've always been a believer in being data informed versus data driven. I am very much a believer, as I know you are, of the human magic. And so for us, it's always about, okay, let's try to understand the ideas and the stories that we'd like to tell. Let's go test these hypotheses out in the wild, see which ones fans respond to, and then try to double down and triple down so we can better serve them. But along the way, if we stumble into something that feels magical, let's do more of that. And so early on, it was, okay, look, we've got some ideas about what we want Mikael to look and feel like. Let's go put them into the ether. And people loved it, which was awesome. It was us saying, okay, we think we understand how to talk to young people at eye level. And so often, I think generationally people are talking down to kids. I think kids are brilliant. You know, they're going to save us all. Yes. And so for me. Yeah, we need kids out there, kids. Yes, please. I'm betting on you. Yes. But it was very much, I think kids aren't super bright, super intelligent. They've been talked down to for a long time. So how do we introduce?”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, every single day, I have to say that there's a subset of literature that we were sharing that I thought might be a little dense or like intimidating for really young people like 9, 10, 11 year old kids, but they're really passionate and they really care. And that was very obvious. And so they've gone on and done the homework and reached out with questions and have engaged Michaela and us and myself, especially about what else they can be doing. And I think that kind of stuff is easy to talk a talk or to share an Instagram post or whatever it is, but to go and like read the work and do the homework and get out in your streets and protest. It was really heartwarming and incredible to see.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Large part of what we wanted to do was use our platform to amplify voices that needed it. And so that was daily using the platform to share information about important subjects or themes, books that were important, and also handing it off to different creators and people that they likely had something to say. What's exciting for me is that it's become clear as a generation of young people. Michaela included who recognized this is just a moment. This is a journey that we're going to go on and we're going to need to share and hold each other accountable for a very long time.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I think that was very much intentional. If I'm a student of anything, I'm a student of Daft Punk. And Daft Punk to me has always been an incredible thing because they're effectively these robots exploring humanity in a time where every human musician is chasing pop perfection, it's auto-tuting and pitch correcting themselves. They all sound the same. And so this idea that a robot, this virtual robot, Michaela, could explore human ideas and we could create these allegories that explore these things that are really meaningful was absolutely always the intention.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Week to week conversations is like, where are we in the story? Where are we with the character? What things have changed? And we've really internalized that. And we've tried to say there are some core themes we want to speak to. But how do we like any green entrepreneur listen to your customers and understand what they're looking to go and when you want to take them on a ride or when you want to listen to them more literally and take them where they want to go?”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so one of my great joys, especially early on, was to have some 11-year-olds say, hey, she's not real. And to have a 12-year-old say she's ruler than Kylie Jenner. And then to watch this debate about reality and identity.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so, with Michaela, it was very much about this character into environments that are familiar with people and then try to go engage them and make them take pause. Let's see if we can create a space that very much resembles wrestling. This kind of space we're traditionally non-fiction stories are told, people are sharing their meals and their sunsets and say, hey, this is now a space where fiction can exist.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Idea that you're telling this non fiction story in a space traditionally reserved for fiction. And this mechanic that made me take pause in a world where I'm endlessly scrolling and just channel surfing. And so to me, to see someone get hit with a chair and be like, that's not real, but that looks real and to a space that I know to be real, it's estimated I wanted to explore.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Listeners, Bob, here, if you listen to rapid response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the rapid response feed. The guess and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from the Devilware's Prada. It takes about 10 seconds to find just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And now, when I'm talking to black founders, what I try to do, especially also venture capitalists who might not be black, I try to explain that there's oftentimes skill sets that are obscured by language that might not resonate. And I talk a lot about little NASX who wrote that old town road song. In my opinion, if you know his story, he's like a god-tier growth hacker or growth marketer. He was using Reddit and Tweetbot and finding all these novel ways to kind of like build this audience and grow this community. But if you were to bring him into an office or in an aboriginal room, I wouldn't describe himself as such. And so for me, it's about trying to figure out how to enable black founders to speak a language that will translate. And at the same time, giving venture capitalists the cues or the tools so that they can kind of dig and find those really talented folks that can build big businesses.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was about doing my homework. You can read some fancy tweets or some nice LinkedIn posts, but when you get into the weeds and you figure out who the founders they backed are and what those outcomes were and chasing down those founders and saying, hey, hey, how did that go and getting solid feedback? That's been the biggest thing for me. Because when the goings are good, I'm sure things are rosy all around. When things get tough is when the true colors come out. So doing that homework, I mean, people are usually pretty responsive. LinkedIn message, they'll get back to you and say, hey. This went well. They're great, or yeah, call me. Let's get you on the phone is when you know, okay, maybe I should reconsider the chat.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And in talking to Kara, I basically had kind of given up the shtick. I was like, you know what? This is who I am. This is what I want to do. This is how I see it. I want to blow all this up. I want to destroy this. I didn't really obscure any language. It was really the purest version of myself. And she really responded to that.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, right off the bat, I suppose I look atypical, but my background is probably atypical as well. You know, when I had this idea, it was very clear to me this was a venture-sized business and it's something that I should explore with venture capitalists. And when I went out, I probably heard about 40 no's. I think a lot of that looking back on it now is actually me trying to do my best version of like a Stanford GSB graduate or something and not really being true to who I am.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was exactly the experience. Just going to the smartest friends that I knew and saying, hey, I think I have a vision here for building a kind of modern Marvel or Disney. And I think if we get this right, we can share a lot of really important stories with the world. And I think being in Hollywood and being surrounded by people that have tried to develop successful celebrities or personalities or characters with a lot of this is really freaking hard. Good luck.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I was talking to Pierce and saying, hey, do you think that you would engage with a character who wasn't real but was having a conversation about things that felt very topical or things that were happening in your reality? Got a lot of no's, got a few people who said, yeah, maybe, and you're probably just weird enough to figure it out.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most of the artists or celebrities or characters that dominate my conscious, I'll never touch or interact with. They all kind of exist in this black rectangle that I hold in my hand. And so for me, there was this idea that potentially we could outcompete or better serve fans with a character that was infinitely scalable. And that idea was the one that I had to kind of go battle test.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Growing up as a black kid in a skateboarding and punk rock in Iowa, oftentimes met I didn't fit in anywhere except for the internet, really. And so for me, it was, okay, let's tell a story of otherness. Can we create someone who ethnically can look and feel like anyone? If you're Filipino or Dominican or, you know, from a great state of Missouri, you could see this character and see part of yourself inside of them. And also understand that that experience or their experience is one of being othered.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Uncanny Valley is this idea that when you're taking an object and making it look and feel more human, there's a place where we appreciate it, you know, Hello Kitty is human-esque and we appreciate it. And there's a place where it looks truly like a human. So when I look at a loved one, I feel really strongly. But there's this valley in the middle of that where you're looking at something that feels a little too human, but off where people get freaked out. But the uncanny valley was something that I think kept a lot of people, especially working with kind of low resolution or low polygraphics from approaching these things.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I wanted to go human because I wanted people to see themselves in this character or humanesque. And I also had to consider what they would look like.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“An approach creating stories and characters the way I would have with any other artist I'd worked in the past where try to think, okay, is there a white space in the culture that someone should speak to? Is there an emerging subculture that someone could champion in an honest way? And if so, what would be the personality traits of that person? What shows are they watching, what music are they listening to? Where do they hang out? Start building this kind of persona. And then for me, it was thinking, okay, is there... Or is there a way to communicate these things through a vehicle that could touch a lot of people? Which obviously made me think, okay, is this person going to resemble human, resemble an alien, resemble a squid?”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, if we could create the physical embodiment of some ideologies or things or themes or narratives that we care about and leverage these new channels to touch people at scale with that kind of feel like a modern marvel or a universe of characters and stories, much the same way the Kardashians or the West are this universe of characters telling their stories on these modern platforms”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, the kind of real seedlings of this was man, okay, if you're able to embody yourself in your work and put it on the internet and feel some type of a pain or happiness as a result of what people are saying, could you put yourself in another physical body or being and maybe experience on a small scale what it's like to be someone other than yourself?”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And if there were ways to scale that the way software scales things and think about if Facebook can touch billions of people every day, are there ways to have important stories touch people that efficiently and that effectively? And why hadn't that happened more importantly? And as you start investigating, it becomes clear that talent doesn't scale well traditionally. God bless Jennifer Lawrence, but she doesn't speak Mandarin or Portuguese or maybe she does. And she's kind of cubing it behind close. Subtitling. And to me, it was like, man, I would love to find a way to take all of that appeal and all of that charisma and all of that dynamism and entangle that with this scalable back end such that we could tell stories in real time to people in Guam, to people in the Philippines, to people in China, people in Brazil, and do a lot of good really quickly.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started thinking about the things that I love about that artist fan relationship that I had known, those kind of deep, visceral feelings that kind of connection that would allow someone deeply red sate to listen to rage against the machine and revolt against their parents or the other way around.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was trying to untangle why, and it became clear there were these new channels for media that were sharing ideas and themes that didn't resonate deeply with me. And so in my head, it was like, man, if Will and Grace can leverage television and storytelling to change the way America thinks, to do more for people than most policy, could I explore how to leverage this new form of media and technology to share important themes at scale?”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And while playing catch up, I was Googling, trying to figure out who the creators were, how these stories came from, found all this great data suggesting that Will and Grace is largely responsible for gay marriage in the US.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Myself was feeling a little unfulfilled and looking to figure out how I could really make my mark in the world. I've always loved technology. I've always loved media. And kind of on accident, fell in love with the television program, Will and Grace at that moment in time.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was really exciting. And so to me, there was this idea, you know, would there be a way to develop artists or musicians, young people develop software to kind of make things, put them out in the world, talk to those customers or your fans, understand what they care about, and try to iterate on those things so to better serve them.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that kind of kicked off a conversation that was like, hey, there's all these really talented Swedish engineers and these kind of strange American music industry folks. And they need help bridging that gap. Would you want to come on board and help us think about that? And that was all very exciting at the time.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Remember sitting backstage and other folks were drinking, partying, having a good time. And there were a couple weirdos in the corner sitting reading. And I was like, oh, there's another weirdo. I want to go talk to that guy.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the thing that I figured out early on was that learning how to differentiate yourself is massively important. Like one of the cereal boxes in the serial aisle, if you were to approach them and they all look the same, might not pick that up. If I could figure out a way to stand out, that would be great.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Generation of kids who now had MySpace applying what were, I think, largely corporate tactics to their own identity and defining themselves and then monetizing themselves. This must have been like 2004, 2005. And I remember thinking the books I was reading, the entrepreneurial books that I was reading could apply pretty well to building my own personal brand. The first character I built probably was myself. It was creating a MySpace page. It was getting on friends' computers and kind of stealing their mailing lists and sitting on a mailing blast to them, probably illegally saying, hey, just got off tour of Europe. I'm looking for some local gigs, only a few slots available. Just faking it until you make it. Trying to create this air of importance so that I could hopefully book a thousand dollar bomb mitzvah or something to make it to the next month.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A broke 19 year old, that seemed like a pretty cool opportunity. And I had these infinite crates essentially and could now compete in a different way with all the other DJs in the area. And that began this journey into DJing and kind of digital DJing and from there was able to apply some of those entrepreneurial skills to building a brand for myself.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I saw people in bars playing records for four hours and making $100. I was like, okay, I've got a few records and I got this iPod here. Maybe I could find a way to make this work.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Clothing and apparel got to the ports in Long Beach after it had some orders from some bigger accounts and they were stuck there in customs and I had to eat that cost. I think my MBA was losing 200 grand over a few failed ideas, but that was definitely part of the journey.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I moved to LA, kind of had my eyes blown open that there were other things that you could do. One day I dream of almost building like a birthright for young black kids where it's like, hey, if you're in Gary, Indiana, come to Los Angeles, come hang out with me for a week in the office, see how these things happen, see how deals get done, kind of learn via osmosis. I love Iowa. I didn't want to go anywhere. I knew Iowa Hawkeye football and Friday nights. And for us in Iowa, Friday nights is Friday night lights is football. I moved to LA and I was like, what's Shabbat? I'm sorry. You're not coming to the game. I mean, it was complete culture shock. I ended up going to Beverly Hills High School. They had a really good athletics program. But beyond that, what I thought would be Ferrari's and ATMs actually was me learning to speak Farsi and hang out with the Korean kids and going to K-town. And it was this incredible cultural melting pot that exposed me to so many new ideas and so many ways of thinking.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I was a kid, I remember seeing this cartoon on Saturday morning television where the genie from Aladdin had this moment where he said, great minds don't think alike, great minds think different. And I remember going, okay, I like that idea. It strikes me in some places very viscally and deep. And so as I've gone about my life, this idea that I could do things differently was an important theme.”
2020-09-29 · Masters of Scale · How to build authentic connection at scale, w/Trevor McFedries & Lil Miquela · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT