Next Thursday Shabnam Mogharabi, CEO and Executive Producer at SoulPancake, will be in Omaha as one of the featured keynote speakers for the Omaha YP Summit. SPN talked with Mogharabi about what she has learned starting a nationally recognized new media company.
This year Fast Company named SoulPancake one of the “The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Video.” What do you think is the fundamental innovation of SoulPancake?
We were so excited to get ranked in that category this year with so many amazing companies. I think the reason that we got it is that we’re unapologetically positive, unapologetically optimistic, unapologetically human, and joyful, and we just don’t hold back when it comes to our tone. I think that makes us different.
Thanks to our sponsor
And we don’t shy away from the dark stuff. We’ve had series that have profiled homeless people and individuals with terminal illness–but we always do it through this lens of an uplifting and joyful tone. Because at the end of the day everyone craves joy; they crave being uplifted and having an emotional, inspirational response to the content they consume.
You joined SoulPancake in January 2009, just a few months before it launched. What’s the biggest lesson you learned in that first year?
I think there were three things we learned that first year that I still carry with me.
The first is to say yes to everything. Sometimes having focus and having a very clear idea is a good thing, but because we didn’t even know what SoulPancake could evolve into we just said yes to everything. Want to make videos? Sure, let’s try doing that! Want to write content? Sure, let’s try doing that! Want to make a book? Sure, let’s try doing that!
We were saying “yes” to any way we could get our brand and our voice and our mission out there. It helped us figure out what we were really good at, and it helped us figure out the most effective way to get our mission out there to as many people as possible. I don’t usually say yes to everything these days, but it definitely helped in our first year.
The second thing we learned is how important it is to be able to pivot and still retain your mission. Within our first year we were approached about doing a book. And we were like, “That seems backward! We’re a tech company! We’re a web site! We are trying to do new things in video!” But it was a really interesting excercise for us to see what the vision of SoulPancake looked like in the form of a book. And that was a really exciting process because it was about taking our core mission and figuring out what it looked like in a different platform.
To this day, every time we go to a new platform–we launch Snapchat channel or a YouTube channel–anytime we’re looking at a new audience we have to ask, “How does our mission translate to this new platform? What can we do that’s true to that platform while still retaining our core message?”
The third thing is the importance of contracts. Sounds crazy, but contracts are important. Have your ducks in a row, and have your business affairs taken care of.
The common wisdom is that there’s no way to know what will go viral. How do you decide where to focus your energy when you can’t predict the next Kid President?
We have so many people come to us saying, “We want to go viral! Come help us!” And the first thing we tell them is that there’s literally no secret formula to creating viral content. I think what’s more important is content and audience. Those two pillars are so important when you are trying to make content. You have to have great content, but you also have to have a really great audience.
So what we really focus on is creating consistent content and building a really engaged audience. Because what we found is that even if a series only has 50,000, 500,000, 1 million views–and not the 30 million views a Kid President has–if we can regularly put out content that gets a core audience excited, that fan base is really important.
What do you do at SoulPancake to maintain an innovative, creative culture?
We have a lot of dance parties. We eat a lot of cupcakes. We have a lot of fun. We hire people that are of our ilk–they get who we are, they speak our language, they listen to the podcasts we do, they enjoy the same comedians. They have incredible open, giving hearts. They all want to be a service. I think hiring the right people and having dance parties and big brainstorms and cupcakes, that creates an energy where people recognize this is a fun space, a space to experiment.
SoulPancake is “hand-crafted in Los Angeles.” Why is that important to your brand identity, and how has being in Los Angeles affected your company culture?
I don’t think being in LA is important to our brand identity. I think creativity can exist anywhere. But we also recognize that Los Angeles is an amazing, creative community, and we’re proud to be part of that community.
A lot of people might not know that SoulPancake is also a creative services agency. How significant is that part of your company, and do you see that as a model for new media companies in the future?
Creative services are about a third of our business. I think it’s important for new media companies because content is becoming platform agnostic. It doesn’t matter where it lives. People don’t have loyalty to a television channel. They truly just want the best content, and they want it wherever they are. And if that’s on SoulPancake’s YouTube channel or on a t.v. network or on Netflix or on Amazon–it doesn’t matter. They just want great content.
Brands are recognizing this, and they are saying, “Hey, we don’t have to make a 3-minute commericial anymore!. We can get creative!” And for new media companies who want to monetize their business, I think having brand partners is very important to that. This is the Wild West. This is the new frontier of content. There’s no loyalty anymore to any particular channel. Brands want to be able to navigate this space, and if new media companies can help them navigate it, I think that’s good for everyone.
What’s your best advice for entrepreneurs in the new media/content business?
It’s important for entrepreneurs in the new media/content space to have a very clear voice. Have a very clear voice with your content because that’s what people will response to and what people will come back for. I think knowing what is your voice and what isn’t your voice is important.
I think it’s also important to be brave and courageous. This is not the content consumption that I learned when I studied journalism in school. There was broadcast news, print news, radio news, and web news. They were these buckets, and that was it. That’s not the way people get news, information, entertainment today. As a content creator, you have to be willing to try all these new platforms and experiment and innovate. If you stick to only doing one thing in one way, you’re going to miss the boat. Everything changes so quickly that you have to try new platforms when they come out.
For more information about the summit and to buy tickets, visit the Omaha YP Summit web site.
