Aug 17, 2017
Lisa Sugar started Popsugar as hobby that was driven by her interest in pop culture. She transformed it, along with her husband, to this expansive media empire hailed as the #1 independent media company for women. On this episode of EO Wonder, Lisa shares her journey from being an employee to an entrepreneur, and how to manage a growing family and a growing company at the same time.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:14 – Lisa’s background
- 00:42 – Lisa shares the beginning of her career and her journey in finding the career she truly wanted
- 01:42 – While juggling a full-time job in an advertising company, she started her own business
- 01:54 – What started as a part-time writing job became the foundation of Popsugar, a blog that featured content on the latest trends and entertainment news, and eventually she quit her full-time job to focus on growing the site
- 02:53 – As the site started to get a bigger audience, Lisa discusses about getting funded
- 03:14 – Lisa on finding her voice, staying authentic, and making readers feel that Popsugar content is just like talking to a friend
- 04:04 – She talks about how Popsugar is catering from the beginners to the experts on almost any particular subject
- 05:12 – Lisa on her biggest challenges – finding their audience from different places led to restructuring almost every year to accommodate the new demands
- 05:50 – The shift to reading on mobile phones was an unprecedented challenge for Lisa and her company.
- 07:15 – Having a 500-employee global company comes with its own day-to-day pressures
- 08:02 – Keeping and finding great talent; while making it profitable at the same time
- 08:20 – Lisa recalls giving birth to her eldest child while in the process of hiring another writer whom she met a day before she gave birth
- 09:24 – Popsugar was just also in its early stages when she also started having her own family
- 09:44 – Lisa’s husband had always been her key support and saw Popsugar’s potential
- 10:49 – To keep up with the trends, Lisa thinks working with brands directly, making use of their own technology, and following interesting people on social media are good strategies
- 11:57 – Currently, she is getting a lot of inspiration from her eldest daughter and learning from the fresh graduates and interns
- 12:29 – Lisa believes on finding the time to do the things you want to improve on and setting small goals
- 13:17 – She shares that moving from a writer role to a management role was quite hard for her as writing meant so much to her, but there is a greater need for her to take charge
- 14:02 – In 2005, writing in the site was the way to break the news before magazines published them
- 15:05 – She recalls how to find breaking news and establishing working relationships with photo agencies
- 15:40 – Lisa envisions Popsugar as a legitimate news source
- 16:22 – What’s next for Lisa?
- 17:35 – The future of Popsugar is to bring it outside of the internet
Key Point/s:
- Inspiration can be found anywhere, you just need to always keep an open mind
- It is important to find time for the people that need you, like your family, as life has its ways to keep you busy and overlook relationships
Resources Mentioned:
- Popsugar – Lisa’s Company
- Power Your Happy – Lisa’s new book