How Kinsey Grant found solo podcast success

"When I left Morning Brew, my audience was like 75% dudes. If I am speaking to an audience that isn't already being spoken to in a million different ways, it's not those guys."

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.

As a person of leaving-a-company-to-go-solo experience… —Kate

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In the bubbling debate about journalists as brands, I land firmly on the yes, they’re content creators side. Practically everyone who works in a creative field has a personal brand, small as it may be, and social media means we all have the opportunity to build our profiles even as we may be growing within a company. The question is, when do you put your personal brand ahead of the corporate? Kinsey Grant answered this question about a year ago, when she was at Morning Brew, where she wrote the daily newsletter and created the Business Casual podcast. She decided to take the leap with her own podcast, Thinking Is Cool. 

“I like to cover big topical kinds of ideas that are on theme with what people are talking about in the general zeitgeist,” she tells me over video chat. “But I specifically attempt to cover issues that I think will continue to be big lessons we should keep in mind for the next six-, 12-, forever-month period. We call it evergray on our team.”

These topics range from the economy (“The stock market may be crashing but you don’t have to”) to onscreen nudity (“How much sex is too much sex?”) to technology (“Let’s settle it: Is your phone actually listening to you?”). The team posts additional content on Instagram and YouTube. 

I was lucky enough to be a guest on Thinking Is Cool a few weeks ago (and Business Casual last year), and so it was high time for me to turn the microphone back on Grant. In this interview for paid subscribers, she and I talk about what it’s like to build something from scratch, the growth advice you don’t need to listen to, and how to know when it’s time to take your passion project solo.