Speaker 1: I'm off my game today. No you're not. That's true.
Speaker 1: People are going to have to start making better content.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna be talking about this for a
Speaker 1: long time. When you program for everyone, you program for
Speaker 1: no one. I think it's a word purpose driven platform,
Speaker 1: like we're trying to get to substance? How was that?
Speaker 1: Are you happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now?
Speaker 1: And it really is? What's up on? Laura Crunty and
Speaker 1: I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome back at Landia. We made It's
Speaker 1: got us already hustling. Laura's calling in from Jersey. I'm
Speaker 1: in Connecticut. We're doing our thing. I wish I was
Speaker 1: calling in on my way to the gym, but clearly
Speaker 1: that resolution hasn't taken off yet, so better luck tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I like this new thing that people are saying. It's
Speaker 1: not a resolution, it's an intention. So I talk to
Speaker 1: go to the gym tomorrow. I intend to go, but
Speaker 1: now I'm really excited about I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of promise. I agree. I mean, coming off the Golden
Speaker 1: Globes this weekend, like Oprah speech. I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: noting hope and a new horizon, is ahead of us.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know what you're feeling. Who's your VP?
Speaker 1: Pick I would say, I thought the Natalie Portman thing
Speaker 1: was hilarious, but you mentioned Michelle Obama and I agree,
Speaker 1: so Oprah Michelle twenty I'm in. I'm all yeah, there was.
Speaker 1: There was so much emotion and passion, and it was
Speaker 1: really exciting to see UM the platform of Time's Up
Speaker 1: and the women. You know, on Sundays we wear black,
Speaker 1: all of the actors and actresses wearing black in solidarity
Speaker 1: around equality. And you know, we talked a lot about UM,
Speaker 1: this idea of causes and building these sort of purpose
Speaker 1: driven platforms, which has given way to these collaborations and
Speaker 1: unlikely pairings as you've talked much about two. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, we don't like to do a
Speaker 1: lot of like future casting, but I think that one
Speaker 1: thing that Laura and I are really excited about right
Speaker 1: now is in is like these unlikely partnerships UM. I
Speaker 1: think there's a ton of opportunity for people to not
Speaker 1: just see what is already established, but to establish new.
Speaker 1: And we've talked a lot in we talked a lot
Speaker 1: about creating new I p creating new partnerships creating new brands.
Speaker 1: Um so one that I think is kind of interesting
Speaker 1: and it's a smaller one, but I think it's really
Speaker 1: interesting because a big um, you know, global brand, Duncan
Speaker 1: Donuts partner to celebrate the darkest day of the year
Speaker 1: with warm Town Brewery, which is in um Worcester, Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: I think things like that, this is a signal. Right,
Speaker 1: you say, oh, it's a stunt. It was to celebrate
Speaker 1: the darkest day of the year to talk about their
Speaker 1: dark growth. Yes, but Duncan has been pivoting and really
Speaker 1: talking more about their drink category and now them going
Speaker 1: into alcoholic beverages through partnership that's local with rabid fans.
Speaker 1: Actually is very interesting. So these are the types of
Speaker 1: things that we're talking about. And they were selling out
Speaker 1: in a day. They were selling out of this beer
Speaker 1: in a day. So the it's not just a stunt.
Speaker 1: It's really about how do you start getting into new categories,
Speaker 1: how do you start reaching new customers, how do you
Speaker 1: actually root yourself in kind of the local fabric and
Speaker 1: local zeitgeist, but still do it at a national or
Speaker 1: global brand. And I think that's really interesting. I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because there's a couple of different ways you can sort
Speaker 1: of slice this, right, what you're talking about is creating
Speaker 1: limited edition products, and then there's other ways, like over
Speaker 1: the break, I went to a local spin studio and Hoboken,
Speaker 1: New Jersey called prime Cycle, and I just saw recently
Speaker 1: that they're pairing with Birch Box UM to do certain
Speaker 1: products that are specific to the studio. Right. So again
Speaker 1: this pairing of local with a national entity. And I
Speaker 1: think it's interesting to think about UM that one being
Speaker 1: around community, right Son you talk exclusive products, you're talking
Speaker 1: about like mind of brands, you know, fusing together. I
Speaker 1: think one of the ones Rachel Typograph alluded to in
Speaker 1: seventeen was interesting about how DTC brands are sort of
Speaker 1: galvanizing around community as well and cheering technology that allows
Speaker 1: them to create best practices and learnings to grow their audiences.
Speaker 1: So that signal that you just said, Alex, I think
Speaker 1: it is so interesting this idea of national established brands
Speaker 1: partnering with local UM you know, sort of startup, homegrown,
Speaker 1: community driven brands will be one that it's it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a new thing, but I think one we can
Speaker 1: probably expect to see more of one thing that I
Speaker 1: thought was so smart and UM a lot of people
Speaker 1: were talking about was how we work invested in the
Speaker 1: way if that doesn't have like layers of signals and
Speaker 1: the noise, both from kind of a female capital standpoint,
Speaker 1: but also you know, the future of work and how
Speaker 1: we're going to work and working outside of offices and
Speaker 1: collaborating with um, maybe somewhat unlikely partners think is what
Speaker 1: we're really excited about. And we brought a guest on
Speaker 1: to talk to us about kind of all of those things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: andrews Dienthal, co founder of The Infatuation, who, along with
Speaker 1: his co founder Chris Stang, started a food discovery platform
Speaker 1: that was really meant to allow people to learn about
Speaker 1: new restaurants UM within certain cities that is really just
Speaker 1: meant to fulfill the context of your everyday life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so I think that Andrew is going to talk
Speaker 1: a lot about building a brand from the ground up,
Speaker 1: of building a community from the ground up, what it takes,
Speaker 1: how important trust is, and then going out and looking
Speaker 1: at different types of partners and partnerships and being kind
Speaker 1: of relentlessly focused on who they were partnering with because
Speaker 1: they wanted to make sure that their community was there.
Speaker 1: Kind of most valuable asset, and I think that is
Speaker 1: kind of key going into your audience and your community.
Speaker 1: So with that, Andrew Steinshal the Infatuation and kicking it in.
Speaker 1: So we're in the studio having spicy margarita's with not spicy, no,
Speaker 1: but they're they're damn good, Like you don't even need
Speaker 1: there's a hint of spice in here. There's a spice.
Speaker 1: According to Lauren Lauren our bartender, guest bartender, I mean,
Speaker 1: watch out, Andy Cohen. This is like watch what happens
Speaker 1: live at Landia, compliments of our guest Andrew Steinthal, the
Speaker 1: co founder and c r O of The Infatuation Eats.
Speaker 1: You did that really well, Thank you. I did. And
Speaker 1: that's how do you know that Rachel typograph? Do you
Speaker 1: know Rachel? So? She told me about eats like two
Speaker 1: years ago and when it was like there was like
Speaker 1: I don't know sixty people who were like hashtagging eats
Speaker 1: and you guys created it. We didn't. The best thing
Speaker 1: anybody's ever said to us once was oh, you guys
Speaker 1: created eats. I thought that was like internet speak, like
Speaker 1: b RB. So tell our listeners who at home who
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, aren't subscribed to the Infatuation. If you aren't,
Speaker 1: you better go online right now and do it. Um
Speaker 1: what it is, how you built it, and we'll get
Speaker 1: into the backstory loaded question. All right, let's do this. Uh,
Speaker 1: The Infatuation is a restaurant discovery platform. So we help
Speaker 1: you find great places to eat, drink, spicy margarita's, go
Speaker 1: on a date, go out with your friends, you know,
Speaker 1: go somewhere late night, business lunch, situational based dining experiences,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, we we We started because myself and
Speaker 1: my business partner, Chris Stang, we were both in the
Speaker 1: music business, right we were. I was the VP of
Speaker 1: pr at Warner Brothers Records, Chris was a VP of
Speaker 1: Marketing Atlantic Records, And we were these dudes who were
Speaker 1: out all the time, going to shows, eating meals. Because
Speaker 1: going out to shows, you're eating or drinking or whatever
Speaker 1: three times a week and you're out, and like, there
Speaker 1: was no resus out there for us to turn to
Speaker 1: to find situational based recommendations that were, you know, spoken
Speaker 1: in a voice that we could relate to, you know,
Speaker 1: all the all the food and restaurant discovery you know
Speaker 1: platforms out there were you know, more catered towards people
Speaker 1: who really care about celebrity chefs or cooking or you
Speaker 1: know that one percent of people who take this stuff
Speaker 1: really really seriously. The rest of us just want to know,
Speaker 1: is this supposed to have a good burger? Can I
Speaker 1: go here? Before show at Bowery Ballroom? Can I go here?
Speaker 1: After taping an episode of at Landia in Brooklyn? You know, like,
Speaker 1: you know, situational based dining recommendations in a way that's
Speaker 1: fun and interesting and you know, speaks to the way
Speaker 1: that we all live our lives. And you hear it's
Speaker 1: almost like hearing it from a friends, the way you guys,
Speaker 1: your editorial, your tone, everything, even like your social media,
Speaker 1: which I love, we love. We were talking about it earlier. Um,
Speaker 1: it feels like we're sitting down with your friends. Like
Speaker 1: we've always tried to relate to people the way that
Speaker 1: they would relate to their friends. You know, we don't
Speaker 1: hire professional food writers, don't really high professional writers. We've
Speaker 1: hire people to write about restaurants that experienced it the
Speaker 1: same way that your friends experienced it. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what is so relatable about our content and why
Speaker 1: initially it it really reacted with people was because it
Speaker 1: was just me and Chris talking to our friends. You know.
Speaker 1: That's why it started in the first place, was because
Speaker 1: we were like, we need this for ourselves and for
Speaker 1: our friends, and that just started to grow from there.
Speaker 1: So you have you You said that you and Chris
Speaker 1: both got your start um in the music industry, record business. Um,
Speaker 1: when we had first met, you gave me the backstory
Speaker 1: that the Infatuation really just started as a side hustle.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about, um, what that
Speaker 1: was like in terms of growing something on the side
Speaker 1: and at what point you and Chris knew that we've
Speaker 1: arrived at a place where we can walk away from
Speaker 1: our jobs at these labels and actually make the Infatuation
Speaker 1: a full time gig. Yeah. Um, so we we did
Speaker 1: this for five years while we had our full time
Speaker 1: gigs in the music business. Um. It was quite quite
Speaker 1: a journey, um from the beginning. But this was always
Speaker 1: it was never something that we arted that we were like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a side project that we're just doing it
Speaker 1: for the passion, right, Like this was always like we're
Speaker 1: building a business. Yeah, Like we had always we met
Speaker 1: a long time. We actually met on set at TRL
Speaker 1: of all places were amazing when we were both college
Speaker 1: music college music directors at our respective college radio stations.
Speaker 1: When we were I told you that I had a
Speaker 1: guest appearance on the grind. That's that is amazing. Where
Speaker 1: is that of my prom weekend? Is that it? Does
Speaker 1: the tape exist? I hope not? All? Right? Anyway, keeping
Speaker 1: it was cool because we've you know, we we had
Speaker 1: the luxury of working in the music business and our
Speaker 1: bosses approved of what we were doing, which was huge,
Speaker 1: and they were really supportive. And I don't know that
Speaker 1: any other industry would have supported something like this, but
Speaker 1: they got it, and it was a compliment to what
Speaker 1: we were doing. And you know, we were able to
Speaker 1: build slowly, right. We spent so much time just in
Speaker 1: it marketing and guerrilla grassroots marketing our brand the way
Speaker 1: that we knew how to build a band. You know,
Speaker 1: we we basically applied everything we knew about building a
Speaker 1: band to building a brand that happened to be a
Speaker 1: brand that encapsulated restaurant reviews, right, and and we took
Speaker 1: all the tricks that we had learned in terms of
Speaker 1: building audience, building community and really connecting with them and
Speaker 1: taking the time to communicate and make people feel like
Speaker 1: they're part of something. In addition to trying to write
Speaker 1: hit songs right, trying to continue to write stuff that
Speaker 1: people were going to respond to and connect with. So
Speaker 1: it took you know, not building a brand is it
Speaker 1: takes a long time. You know, learning trust is something
Speaker 1: that you cannot as Chris, my business partner, says all
Speaker 1: the time, you can't growth hack trust. There's just no
Speaker 1: way to do it. And you know, we're we've been
Speaker 1: at you know, it took a minute, but you know,
Speaker 1: slowly but surely, you would just see it. Every point
Speaker 1: we would get another hit or something would happen and
Speaker 1: like we move up a notch and it would keep growing,
Speaker 1: slowly but surely, and you you know, I first our
Speaker 1: friends and our friends and friends and then strangers, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden we were d having people
Speaker 1: into restaurants and making a difference and you just could
Speaker 1: see it growing and at you know, one point and
Speaker 1: it was just like, all right, if this is going
Speaker 1: to be fully realized, um to its full potential, it's
Speaker 1: time to jump. And it took us like a year
Speaker 1: to fully unwind from our jobs and like convince people
Speaker 1: that we were actually going to do this time and
Speaker 1: this is gonna be our thing, even though we knew
Speaker 1: deep down that this was what we were going to do.
Speaker 1: Let's go into the community, because Alex and I kind
Speaker 1: of about what it takes, because I don't think a
Speaker 1: lot of people understand, especially in the fact that you
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this off Mike, that you didn't
Speaker 1: put paid investment behind, that you haven't taken money from
Speaker 1: vcs to investigate. Everything was very grassroots in the same
Speaker 1: way as you you um referenced, in the same way
Speaker 1: you would build a band or a following up a band.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about what community building look like at
Speaker 1: the Infatuation early days and how that plan has evolved
Speaker 1: like early early days. I mean, look, we we we
Speaker 1: launched the Infatuation in April two nine, right, and the
Speaker 1: iPhone was like two years old. Twitter was brand new,
Speaker 1: and we knew that this was going to be a
Speaker 1: business and a you know, brand that was built on
Speaker 1: the back of social media. And we spent hours on
Speaker 1: Twitter building community. I mean, like we would go in
Speaker 1: there and just start responding to anybody talking about Momofuku
Speaker 1: or shake Shack or any of the restaurants that were
Speaker 1: popular and cool and people were talking about on social
Speaker 1: Media's hop into conversations like posts, follow people and hope
Speaker 1: they would follow us back. And I would sit there
Speaker 1: for three hours literally a day, just doing stuff. And
Speaker 1: at that point it was like I'll go on chow
Speaker 1: Hound and start like jumping into conversations because it was
Speaker 1: like a message board back then that like people actually
Speaker 1: kind of used to get recommendations, and I would. I
Speaker 1: had no business, I've never been on it before in
Speaker 1: my life, but like I started going in there and
Speaker 1: posting part of our reviews to relevant things, and you know,
Speaker 1: hoping that people would click on our links and we'd
Speaker 1: go on Yelp. We got kicked off Yelp like three
Speaker 1: times because because I'd basically go on all the restaurant
Speaker 1: pages and then be like, here's two or three lines
Speaker 1: from our review, go check out the whole thing. At
Speaker 1: that point, it was a maculate infatuation dot com and
Speaker 1: they kicked me off because they like, see you later.
Speaker 1: What are you're doing? Stop? Stop using this to self promote.
Speaker 1: But it's all about trying to find audience that might
Speaker 1: be interested in what you're doing and spending the time
Speaker 1: to go connect with people in those worlds. And like
Speaker 1: that's what we did for literally five years. And how
Speaker 1: big is the community today. It's tough to I mean,
Speaker 1: like across all platforms, we probably reach about three million
Speaker 1: people a month. But you know we have like Instagram
Speaker 1: is also a huge piece of our community, puzzle right,
Speaker 1: And and so we're events, Like we started doing events
Speaker 1: one year in as a company. We put tickets on
Speaker 1: sale though an event that we called Turkey Leg Ball
Speaker 1: and it was like a fun just like ridiculous party
Speaker 1: where we got a couple of brands to come in
Speaker 1: McCallan being one of them, and come poor drinks and
Speaker 1: serve food and have a good time. And you know,
Speaker 1: we had remember going into a meeting at work we
Speaker 1: had put tickets on sale, went into a meeting, came
Speaker 1: out an hour later and we were sold out three
Speaker 1: tickets and we were like are they before we could
Speaker 1: even go to friends and family and we were like
Speaker 1: who are these people? But like the reality is that
Speaker 1: people want to come and hang, they want they want
Speaker 1: to meet like minded people, create something, you know, a
Speaker 1: community around an idea that people want to share on
Speaker 1: and it's it's similar, like what you guys are doing
Speaker 1: right now. I think people who listened to this show
Speaker 1: want more. Like I started listening to the show and
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is amazing because I'm really interested in
Speaker 1: this world, and I think you guys know what you know?
Speaker 1: You you connect on a real level. How did you
Speaker 1: find it? I was tipped off by a girl we
Speaker 1: were interviewing, who was like, do you listen to this podcast?
Speaker 1: And I was like, what did you hire? I tried
Speaker 1: to started binging all but and then immediately I hopped
Speaker 1: on Twitter and it was like, what are you guys doing?
Speaker 1: Because it's something that I think is necessary and interesting,
Speaker 1: and I think there's a there's a big need for
Speaker 1: a fresh voice in the whole advertising stings. There is,
Speaker 1: and I think it's the same the same. It was
Speaker 1: the same thing for food, right, like the same want
Speaker 1: to say, the same voices had been around for so
Speaker 1: long it was you know they all do who are
Speaker 1: those voices? So it's like New York Times and New
Speaker 1: York Meg and Food and Wine and the Food Network
Speaker 1: and like those those are all great publications, right like
Speaker 1: they all serve a specific audience and they do it
Speaker 1: really really well. But like for a community that is
Speaker 1: being you know, connected to each other via social and
Speaker 1: the Internet, it's it's a different thing. I think what
Speaker 1: Alex and I are after marketing is the very same
Speaker 1: thing you know you're talking about in the food business.
Speaker 1: It's it's access. It's sort of that underground niche we've
Speaker 1: been talking about this rat pack community that we're creating
Speaker 1: that um really speaks to the author that, like you
Speaker 1: talked about, I just want to get a review about
Speaker 1: where to get a burger with my buddy, and we
Speaker 1: want to talk about the conversations over spicy margarita that
Speaker 1: people don't hear and they're not having these kind of
Speaker 1: provocative conversations that they need to have and bring it
Speaker 1: mainstream and stereo sound, you know, totally. And it's also
Speaker 1: about empowering people with knowledge, right, I think I think
Speaker 1: it's like the one of the best things that people
Speaker 1: have always said to us is that, like you make
Speaker 1: me look so good because you give us all this
Speaker 1: information and we pass it on as our own and
Speaker 1: like we look like a million bucks. And that's the
Speaker 1: whole point for us at least. Right, It's like this
Speaker 1: discovery platform where we want people to know all the
Speaker 1: great spots and like, if we're helping you pack a
Speaker 1: great restaurant for a first date and that works out,
Speaker 1: you're gonna So what are brands when they are coming
Speaker 1: to you? Because I assume a lot of them, I
Speaker 1: know are coming to you. Yeah, I mean they come,
Speaker 1: we go to them. That's been our like, we we
Speaker 1: were really pretty you say I want to work with
Speaker 1: you because we we we I mean, our whole world
Speaker 1: is curation, right, So like we've been really specific about
Speaker 1: the brands that we work with from the beginning, and
Speaker 1: we knew that coming from the music business, brands underwriting
Speaker 1: a lot of the music because like music business is
Speaker 1: great because you've got to learn how to market with
Speaker 1: no money, right, So that is always a challenge that
Speaker 1: we you know, we had underwrite videos or you know,
Speaker 1: back then it was like Diesel was a big brand
Speaker 1: and like you they have a community people you could
Speaker 1: get a song on their seeing Yeah, well sure, um,
Speaker 1: but you know they would create you can they could
Speaker 1: bring in money, they could create new audience to market
Speaker 1: yourself towards. So you know, we we when we started
Speaker 1: the company, we made a list of brands that were
Speaker 1: on our hit list from the beginning, from day one
Speaker 1: that we're like American Express and Nike and Whole Foods
Speaker 1: and at that time like Seamless and Delta, and you know,
Speaker 1: we just started hacking away, you know, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to make relationships with these people. And it
Speaker 1: took a lot of time. Like I was knocking on
Speaker 1: the m X door for literally five years before I
Speaker 1: finally cracked it open to get in there. And now
Speaker 1: there are longest tenured and biggest partner and we do
Speaker 1: all kinds of interesting stuff with them. So what are
Speaker 1: you focusing on? Because you told me, like, I'm not
Speaker 1: from this industry. I didn't grow up in media. I'm
Speaker 1: not beholden to legacy. What is that experience? Right? It's
Speaker 1: like this, So what is your social experience? Where do
Speaker 1: consumers and real human beings spend their time? Right, they
Speaker 1: spend their time on their phones. They are scrolling through Instagram,
Speaker 1: they are on Twitter, They're on whatever platforms they are
Speaker 1: choosing right there, messaging with their friends, like texting back
Speaker 1: and forth, and they're going to do ship do cool things. Right.
Speaker 1: They want to go and experience things and meet new
Speaker 1: people and post stuff on their social media about how
Speaker 1: cool their lives are. Right like, and so that's what
Speaker 1: we do. We create experiences online and off and like
Speaker 1: in a great brand into our world. So right like,
Speaker 1: we're a restaurant discovery platform. All the guides and content
Speaker 1: that we do on the web, it's all based around
Speaker 1: you know, food dining restaurants. You know, we don't do
Speaker 1: news or anything like that, but we are able to
Speaker 1: underwrite a lot of that stuff around a narrative or
Speaker 1: a theme that we would do anyway that we can
Speaker 1: fit a brand into. And you have a very editorial,
Speaker 1: right perspective. It is absolutely editorial, and it's a very
Speaker 1: specific voice and p O V and and we'll do
Speaker 1: like a package of content like our Summer Guide, for example,
Speaker 1: which we've now done for six straight years. We've sold
Speaker 1: it for five straight years that we sell for a
Speaker 1: ton of money. That's a big content package that a
Speaker 1: brand underwrites the stellar artois and what does that look like?
Speaker 1: What does that incorporate Here incorporates a big launch of content.
Speaker 1: They own a couple of the guides inside of it.
Speaker 1: We do a ton of social content tent where we'll
Speaker 1: go to a bunch of accounts that they have UM
Speaker 1: that they serve at and create social first content that
Speaker 1: live across our twenty four instagrams. I mean like we
Speaker 1: you know, we have a main infatuation account, we have
Speaker 1: localized accounts and markets. You have like at burger, at pasta,
Speaker 1: at tacos. The fact that you actually have those at
Speaker 1: ice cream at wild and that helps us fill the
Speaker 1: spreadsheet with impression. It's like that Internet so and then
Speaker 1: and then we go and we create cool experiences, will
Speaker 1: go to a bar restaurant, take it over and invite
Speaker 1: either consumers or you know people like land listeners, correct,
Speaker 1: like cool you know, tastemakers, cool people, people with big
Speaker 1: social followings, the bad eye word that nobody wants to say,
Speaker 1: but that every brand is interested in all the influencers.
Speaker 1: So talk to us a little bit about how the
Speaker 1: infatuation over the course of five years has been able
Speaker 1: to get the three million plus. You were talking a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier about how UM you've been able to
Speaker 1: stick to the script, You've been able to follow what
Speaker 1: I would say is probably a finely tuned UM algorithm
Speaker 1: formula in a formula yourself. How you've been able to
Speaker 1: stay the course, continue to grow last episode, Alex and
Speaker 1: I were talking a lot about how many of these
Speaker 1: digital first platforms, some of which you know, we use
Speaker 1: social in the same capacity that you were that Chase scale,
Speaker 1: So three million in their world would seem very small thing. Um,
Speaker 1: why do you think what the approach you're doing has
Speaker 1: been able to and will presumably outlast some of these
Speaker 1: others that are either having to sell or Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's just because it's real, you know, I
Speaker 1: think that. Yeah, And it's also like there's value, right,
Speaker 1: and I think that you know, Chris and our editorial
Speaker 1: editor in chief Hillary Reinsburg like there it's all about
Speaker 1: value to the consumer. Like every single piece of content
Speaker 1: that we do on the web and on social, it's
Speaker 1: all based around discovery and about value. And like if
Speaker 1: it's if it's just throw away content garbage, like we're
Speaker 1: not going to do it, you know. So it all
Speaker 1: comes down to that, are you a part of people's
Speaker 1: lives in the day to day? Like that? That's that's
Speaker 1: what we strive to be, and that's what we've kind
Speaker 1: of become for a lot of people. There's also a
Speaker 1: ton of you know, there's passion behind our brand and
Speaker 1: what we're doing. People really connect with it. So if
Speaker 1: you can, if you can figure out how to become
Speaker 1: a part of people's lives, then that's massive, right, People
Speaker 1: that that that there's so much more power in that.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's it's also a challenge for us
Speaker 1: because we're small. Right. That's three that three million people
Speaker 1: a month, right, that's spread across web, Instagram, our messaging
Speaker 1: platform text Rex, which you text us and you can
Speaker 1: get you know, real time restaurant recommendations back from humans,
Speaker 1: you know, and our newsletter and whatever. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of different platforms. Um our app that we have. You
Speaker 1: talk about your appy and can you talk about text
Speaker 1: backs humanizational and I think is really interesting. Ye app
Speaker 1: is kind of uh, you know, as as our product
Speaker 1: team says, a diet version of the website so that
Speaker 1: it's it's really about like nearby and when you're out
Speaker 1: running around you can pull up our app and then
Speaker 1: our our messaging services it's called text rex and it's
Speaker 1: we're live in New York and l A now. And
Speaker 1: you know, we heard for a long time that people
Speaker 1: will come to us and be like, I know you
Speaker 1: have website and I have an app, but just tell
Speaker 1: me where to go. Because it's two thousand, two fifteen
Speaker 1: we launched it. But like people don't, I don't have
Speaker 1: the attention span. They don't want to spend so much
Speaker 1: time looking for something. They just want you to tell
Speaker 1: them what to do. So like this was human versus
Speaker 1: because because because automation, it's not correct. Someday a I
Speaker 1: will be there and and we'll be able to combine
Speaker 1: what we've got with all the conversation data that we've
Speaker 1: got over the last uh, you know, the last couple
Speaker 1: of years running the service. But right now, like you can't.
Speaker 1: There is no robot that can tell you that when
Speaker 1: you're a party of six and you have a couple
Speaker 1: of vegetarian friends and you want to eat on the
Speaker 1: lorry side, that like, you know, this restaurant is the
Speaker 1: answer for although I will say, like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: all excited about the future of AI and the ability
Speaker 1: to program these things, but I over people talking about
Speaker 1: I have to say every any person that I've talked
Speaker 1: to that is obsessed, and I feel like you're platform
Speaker 1: is one that you're either you're either all in or
Speaker 1: you don't know about it. Like that's like literally the
Speaker 1: different um. When they talk about that feature, the first
Speaker 1: thing they say is that they're talking to a human.
Speaker 1: The value that we get outside of like from the
Speaker 1: messaging platform is invaluable, Like it's crazy. It basically drives
Speaker 1: like the trends that we see inside, right, Like we're
Speaker 1: doing a lot of conversations every day, we have stuff
Speaker 1: coming in all the all this so like so so
Speaker 1: the data inside of text rex informs our editorial, right,
Speaker 1: Like we see trends, We're like, oh, people are having
Speaker 1: trouble finding this, let's do this right, Like, some people
Speaker 1: in the platform are using the word casual, like that's
Speaker 1: one of the most popular terms in the in text
Speaker 1: rects outside of high and by and like you see
Speaker 1: it over and over again, and we never thought casual,
Speaker 1: what does casual actually mean? People use the word right,
Speaker 1: so they want and they want content based around the
Speaker 1: words that they use. So we started doing casual this
Speaker 1: and casual that, casual, Italian, casual sushi and it does
Speaker 1: really well. Or like the super cute you know guy
Speaker 1: to go in and hanging out with your friends. I
Speaker 1: just want to super cute restaurant. That's what are you really?
Speaker 1: And yes, are you're redefining the food and travel category
Speaker 1: based on these sort of what I wouldn't call demographics.
Speaker 1: I think there are new types of psychographics that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to get based on traditional media insights. Right,
Speaker 1: Like people are telling you, they're giving you the vernacular,
Speaker 1: I think. I think it's definitely a different audience. And
Speaker 1: before we came around a really hard audience, especially in
Speaker 1: food to reach, I don't know where you would go
Speaker 1: to reach our audience of you know, twenty something and
Speaker 1: thirty somethings that are maybe really into food, but like
Speaker 1: or passively into food. Right, It's it's you know, for
Speaker 1: a lot of the other publications, they've focused on the
Speaker 1: one percent, right, like of people that are like that's
Speaker 1: really into it. And for us, our audience, we look
Speaker 1: at it and it's like it's everybody, because you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of social capital in knowing where to go,
Speaker 1: I mean look and get to get back to the
Speaker 1: tex UXs thing. One last point is like there's just
Speaker 1: there's so much data inside of that. We we are
Speaker 1: sitting on a treasure trove of like real time eight
Speaker 1: as it pertains to like millennial drinking, dining, you know,
Speaker 1: trends right that that we're going to start hacking up,
Speaker 1: putting a Dice data scientist on and like serving as
Speaker 1: our offering as part of the packages that we offer
Speaker 1: to brands. What's your most valuable asset? Trust? I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's what the audience so people pay for us,
Speaker 1: that our audience trusts us, and you know, that's what
Speaker 1: the brands kind of come in for. And that's why
Speaker 1: people while while while users come back is because they
Speaker 1: you know, they're never going to agree with us every
Speaker 1: single time. You're not gonna be right about every single restaurant,
Speaker 1: but at least they know where we stand. So it's time, Lauren,
Speaker 1: we could probably use one more shake before we go.
Speaker 1: Um killed by d I y. He's slamming his margarite
Speaker 1: and they prepare for this. I'm nervous somebody who's not
Speaker 1: for me to this should be easy. You answer pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: you've got it all, okay? Can we kill you? Help?
Speaker 1: I mean, aren't you? Isn't Yelp already dead? Is it?
Speaker 1: I think it's it's so it's so terrible and no
Speaker 1: one uses it. You said it, not me, it is.
Speaker 1: It is terrible. Even the Bard's under agrees, what are
Speaker 1: you buying? I'm gonna buy anchor, of course we do,
Speaker 1: and and tell people what you're going to do with
Speaker 1: anchor when you buy it. I'm gonna put I'm gonna
Speaker 1: move everything into that platform. That's that's it. But it'd
Speaker 1: be interesting to be in your car and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: what what's near me right now? Using voice and then
Speaker 1: it comes back to you with like these are this
Speaker 1: is the Infatuation recommended burger. That's right, And we talked
Speaker 1: about what's the audio cue for that will be tell
Speaker 1: everyone eats and what are you killing or what are
Speaker 1: you doing yourself? How about rebuilding like food TV, but
Speaker 1: not on TV. If people want to find you, where
Speaker 1: they're gonna find you, They're going to find us at
Speaker 1: the Infatuation dot com, at infatuation on all social platforms.
Speaker 1: You can find my email on the Infatuation website, but
Speaker 1: it's Steinthalt the Infatuation dot Com. Hit me up or
Speaker 1: schmooey on all social platforms, and I love SCHMILLI Well, Andrews,
Speaker 1: thank you for bringing Lauren, and thank you for bringing
Speaker 1: done Julia for having me guys, thank you. So that's
Speaker 1: our first episode, totally interesting that we decided to start
Speaker 1: the year with a conversation around food and intentions to
Speaker 1: go to the gym, but attentions be better. But like
Speaker 1: the new sol cycle campaign, screw resolutions. We are here
Speaker 1: for healthy living in and really really good conversations with
Speaker 1: our community. And with that, thank you, Cameron Drews. You're
Speaker 1: stuck with us for another year. Matt Turk, Andy Bowers,
Speaker 1: all our friends and family up Panoply and Atlantia. Let's
Speaker 1: do this. We'll talk to you in two weeks. Full disclosure,
Speaker 1: our opinions, our own I told you that I had
Speaker 1: a guest appearance on the grind is that it does
Speaker 1: the tape exist? I hope not promos at media? Actually
Speaker 1: should well, I know people, we know people of viatcom.
Speaker 1: Just give him a call. Let's keep moving. That's so
Speaker 1: really good. So so we brought it up. By the way,
Speaker 1: I just want to be clear that you brought it
Speaker 1: up because you wanted it brought up. Anyway, it's moving.
Speaker 1: It was cool because we you know, we we had