As a part of the Morning Lazziness series about empowering women who are encouraging and doing incredible things with their ideas in society, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Whiting.
Liz is the former Head of Marketing and Creative at Daily High Club and a former equity holder. The company was acquired for 10M, in part for their audience, subscribers, and digital reach that was built.
Liz has worked in content, marketing, and media for emerging market brands for the last 10 years. She has experience growing her own Instagram page to 29.5k followers as well brands she’s worked with from 20k to over 700k followers on various platforms. She currently is the Head of Social Media at Coinbound, the leading Web3 Marketing Agency! I believe she could give incredible insight into Web3 Marketing as well as being a woman in the blockchain space.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My experience encompasses all things marketing and media. Liz got her start during the blogging era. After working on a fashion blog with a friend, she founded and operated a successful local DC music and events blog. That helped her launch her own micro-agency helping local businesses navigate the fast-growing world of social media. She worked with legendary local DC businesses like El Tamarindo to help run their digital and branding. Her work can still be seen today in Adam’s Morgan and National Pupusa Day is a staple event every November in the District.
I went full-time with one of her clients Daily High Club and moved with the company to LA. As with many experiences in start-up life, I led marketing efforts on top of wearing many other hats. Major wins include the massive subscriber growth, fostering a tight-knit community, developing her own product, leading influencer + celebrity partnerships, launching a profitable advertising program, securing Instagram verification, creating an AR bong, and more.
The company was recently acquired for 10M, in part for their audience, subscribers, and digital reach that was built.
Simultaneously, I continued building my personal brand, using my platform to publicly speak about my battle with endometriosis and the use of cannabis over other medication. I was able to blend my love for writing and have been published in SELF, BuzzFeed, Gentleman Toker, and more.
What do you specialize in, and why should someone choose you over your competitors in your field?
I specialize in storytelling, elevating brands, and establishing authority and trust. How I do this has shifted in the ever-changing digital and media landscape we now live in. Like Liam Neeson says, I too have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for competitors.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Always ask for more and never sell yourself short.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Affordable and accessible healthcare.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Go to therapy, deal with your greed, kill your ego and bring your best self to any and every interaction. Nothing else matters until people fix the relationships they have with themselves.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Everyone needs and desires representation. It’s hard to ask for things at a table that isn’t set for us. I’ve had to have painful and embarrassing conversations with male leaders about health issues, needs for time off due to medical needs, and period health. I’ve had to fight for healthcare at work for needs outside of what a male would typically need. We need more empathy and understanding in workplaces for male and female or binary or other gender needs. We’re all different. If the table can’t recognize that, then yes, we need to build our own. It’s not male vs female – it’s how can we work together to have an environment that can be safe and sustainable for all. If it’s a woman founder, the same goes – how are you supporting your male worker’s needs as well?
What’s your piece of advice for people who want to quit their 9-5 job and start a business?
Just do it. Plan but have a stopping point or else you’ll stay in “planning” mode forever.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? What would you tell yourself ten to twenty years ago that you wish you knew then?
Trust yourself. Everything around you is made up by someone else just like you. Build it. Write it. Draw it. Whatever the thing is to go do it.
What is the biggest sacrifice you’ve made in starting or running your business?
Relationships and health. No joke. Start-up life is a time and energy succubus. Set boundaries early unless you want to be out of shape and married to your job.
What do you think could be the future of NFT? How useful can they be for everyone?
Autonomous wealth and ownership. They could be the future for anything if you get creative enough. So many people put work out that gets stolen, and resold. None of that goes back to the original creator. This will become less clunky and could replace copyrights, patents, etc down the road.
What is your no-fail go-to when you need inspiration or to get out of a creative rut?
Take a walk. Go somewhere new. Journal. Talk to strangers. Get out of your bubble and change your perspective.
Lastly, what do you think this world needs the most?
Weed.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
