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00:00:00
00:00:01
Katie Durko
35 Plays20 hours ago
Thanks for listening to our episode with Katie Durko.
To keep up with or connect with Katie:
✨Katie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ktdurko/
✨Katie’s Substack: https://katiesedit.substack.com/
✨Katie’s Instagram: @katie
✨Edit Media Group’s Website: https://www.editmediagroup.com/
✨Edit Media Group’s Instagram: @theedit
To stay in touch with Meredith and Medbury:
Follow Meredith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley/
Follow Medbury on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/medbury_agency/
Subscribe to the Medbury newsletter: https://meredithfarley.substack.com/
Email Meredith: Meredith@MedburyAgency.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Agency Founding
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, Katie. Hi. Thank you so much for doing this episode. I'm really interested in the work you're doing and very excited to get to chat with you. Likewise. Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:13
Speaker
So for anyone who doesn't know you, can you describe who you are and what you do? Absolutely. So I am the co-founder of a social first creative agency here in Los Angeles called Edit Media Group or The Edit for short. And my co-founder, Lauren Fortner, and I started the business because we really saw early on that social media was becoming the primary way that people were discovering brands. But most marketing teams were still treating it as a bit of an afterthought.
00:00:43
Speaker
And I do have to asterisk this by saying that this was early days of social media. TikTok didn't exist yet. Instagram was still single image static posts within a grid. There was no video components, no story components, no IG Live components. It was really just bare bones social media.
00:01:02
Speaker
And what I would say we do now is help brands build culturally relevant communities online through social first storytelling. So what does that mean? That means we're doing strategy, we're doing content creation, we're doing influencer partnerships, platform management, you name it. All's built specifically for the way that people actually consume content today.
Platform Diversity and Community Building
00:01:24
Speaker
That's incredible. i have so many questions for you. You're speaking my language, girl. So you do it. if Correct. Let me know what I'm missing because I think that you all do Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. Am I missing any platforms?
00:01:38
Speaker
We do it all. So i there was a portion of time where we were really focused on Snapchat. no she really Yeah, it depends on the client. It depends on the brand, but we can do any and all social platforms. I'd say right now it's a really interesting platform for us that we've been exploring with some different brand clients and celebrity clients is Substack, which I know you're Substack as well too. So again, we can do it all. Reddit is another one that's become more popular in the last year or two.
00:02:08
Speaker
That's interesting. um So Medberry, my agency, focuses just on LinkedIn, but we're dabbling with Substack too for clients. It's such an interesting and cool platform. All right. You say social first, and it's funny. I know you're only talking like five or six years ago, but when you're like, man, TikTok didn't exist. It's like a whole different world. like When did you start and what was the impetus for you starting your agency?
Career Journey and Work-Life Balance
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah. So Lauren and I officially started the agency, gosh, eight years now, eight years ago now. And my background is actually in communication and PR. And I've always been fascinated by how culture moves through the internet and very early in my career. So I went to USC here in in Southern California. for college. And then from there, I moved to New York and I was working in public relations at Burberry. And while I was there, this is when Facebook was hot. Instagram didn't even exist at the time, which I think ages me a little bit. But at the time, Facebook was the it platform and Burberry was the first luxury brand to hit a million followers on Facebook. now and during yeah And during that time there, I really noticed that
00:03:22
Speaker
Most interesting conversations with brands were happening on social platforms long before the brands were figuring out how to participate. So Facebook was number one for me back in my Burberry days.
00:03:35
Speaker
That's amazing. And then... So you like, tell me more, tell me about your career journey and like how you got up to here. So started at Burberry.
00:03:45
Speaker
Yeah. Then from Burberry, I was at Burberry for several years and New York winters, to be honest, were a little too harsh for me. So I made my way back to the West coast where I was born and raised. And when I moved back, I stayed in the PR marketing space and found myself working in-house at Monique Lulier. And I was doing a lot more social forward work there. I was helping build her Instagram, which had just launched a year or two prior. and I helped build Monique's following Instagram.
00:04:18
Speaker
on social to million plus followers on Instagram, which was huge at the time, especially in the bridal space. And while I was at Monique, I realized I have a real knack for this and a passion for social media. And if I can do this for a brand like hers, why can't I do this for other lifestyle, fashion, beauty brands in the space?
00:04:39
Speaker
So after several years with her, I left and went out on my own and took the leap and started freelancing. And through my network and connections that I made at USC and at Burberry and at Monique, et cetera, I built a small client roster and had my own boutique social media agency, if you will.
00:04:58
Speaker
And during that time, I was looking for part-time help and an intern. to help work across my different client accounts. And I had posted on Facebook that I was looking for this help. And Lauren, my now co-founder, her and I have known each other since middle school.
00:05:14
Speaker
We went to middle school, high school, and college together and lost touch a bit when I moved to New York. But she saw my Facebook post and messaged me and said, how funny. I am too working in social, but on the celebrity side. And on the music side, we should co-work sometime. And so the two of us started co-working, but we had our separate things going on. was very focused on social for brands and she more so that celebrity music realm. But over the course of two and a half years, we like to call it, we were work dating. And during that time, we started sharing an intern and then we shared an employee.
00:05:51
Speaker
And then over that period of time, we thought, wait, we work really well together. Being a freelancer or an entrepreneur is quite lonely. We love this. Why don't we make this official and create an agency that married both of our talents? Hers on the talent side and mine on the brand side.
00:06:10
Speaker
Wow. That is how the edit was formed back in officially 2018. But her and I had been t toying with the idea since I'd say like 2016.
00:06:19
Speaker
That is so cool. I've never heard a co-founder. Okay. I'm always like really interested in co-founder dynamics because I think it can be complex. um But I've never heard a co-founder story like that one. And that sounds, it's like the perfect, most healthy dating approach. It's like you didn't move in together after one conversation. You like slowly saw how the other worked. You collaborated in different ways. I love that. And When you talk about social first content, it feels like you were really intuitively on the bleeding edge of something. i feel like social content is...
00:06:54
Speaker
It is really hard and it's also the best content because it needs to be something that folks understand and respond to and remember and feel something about in a very short amount of time. And it takes a deep understanding of how people work to do it.
00:07:10
Speaker
Do you feel like you are really good at reading people in and and an intuitive person, would you say? I would say over the last eight years, I've become much better at reading people and being intuitive. And I think on the content piece, I would say early days of the edit, Lauren and I were incredibly scrappy. We were shooting most of the content ourselves or with the help of one or two interns or part-time employees. We were rat writing all of our strategy decks, all of our pitch decks, and really just figuring out how to build something that could move with the pace of the internet. The algorithm is a never evolving target. And I think over time that turned into what is now the edit, which has become these long-term partnerships with
00:07:58
Speaker
Fortune 500 brands, beauty brands, fashion brands, wellness, entertainment, you name it. And we're now full service social first creative team. But I think the core idea is still the same. We're helping brands show up online in a way that actually feels culturally relevant.
00:08:14
Speaker
yeah What is the average day in your life like now?
00:08:20
Speaker
Okay. That's a funny question because running a social agency, i don't think there's any two days that really look the same, especially as a founder. There's usually for me, some mix of creative work and then some mix of ops work on the creative side. We just hired a a new creative manager who I'm so excited about. And I'm usually working alongside her to help review any sort of like content concepts or thinking more strategically about upcoming campaigns we might have or brainstorming with the larger creative team about how we might approach a trend or a cultural moment that's coming up.
00:08:59
Speaker
And then on the op side, myself or Lauren are spending a lot of time with our leadership team thinking about the business itself, our client relationships, new partnerships, hiring, how we continue evolving the agency, things like that.
Cultural Fluency and Content Strategy
00:09:14
Speaker
and then outside of work, I'm a mom. i have two very young kids. My son Ryland is about to turn six and my daughter Ruby is about to turn three. So the day is a mix of all things agency and then school drop-offs, school pickups, and trying to carve out time for things for myself like Pilates or writing on my sub stack, but it's very busy and I love the variety of it all.
00:09:39
Speaker
Was it a difficult adjustment from a work perspective to when you first had kids or how is that something that you approached and how has it evolved as they've gotten a little bit older?
00:09:52
Speaker
Totally. So Ryland was born peak COVID. We shut down March 2020 and he was born July of that year. So that was a bit of a blessing, right? Because we were stuck at home anyway and I had this beautiful new newborn that was my new coworker. And so I got a lot of hands-on time with him that I might not have otherwise. Yeah. Had the world not shut down like it did at the time, we had a large office here in Culver City. So prior to that, I was going in every day with our team.
00:10:26
Speaker
So i am grateful for that time that I got to spend with him. And I think now it's more of... an uphill battle of making sure that I'm giving enough time to my business, but also giving enough time to my kids and that changes any given day. i have to be really smart about my scheduling, my time blocking, putting up boundaries when I will take client calls,
00:10:51
Speaker
when I'll do pitches, when I'll do in-person meetings, things like that so I can protect my space, my energy, and make sure that I'm not overextending or burning myself out so that I don't show up 100% work or kids.
00:11:05
Speaker
Do you have for anyone listening who's I know I need to be better with that kind of boundary, but I really struggle and every time I try to hold it, I feel terrible or I'm really scared that somebody is going be pissed at me. Like what's been your experience in holding strong boundaries and what advice do you have for them around that?
00:11:25
Speaker
So I've been incredibly grateful that I have an amazing co-founder who helps. She's the yin to my yang, right? So if I need to take space to be with my family or go to Pilates meditate or whatever it is, she can jump in and vice versa. And having that co-founder has been such a game changer. to be honest, I don't think that I could run the business we run without her. Hmm.
00:11:54
Speaker
And whether or not, just in terms of advice, whether or not you have a co-founder or not, just having good people in your corner that can help support you and communicate when you need that space or you need that help, I think is incredibly valuable.
00:12:10
Speaker
So it's have a good team around you and ask for the help that you need is really for you. like Don't be shy. Ask for the help. What do you think that you all do better than anybody else?
00:12:23
Speaker
That's a good question. i think the edit, i think our superpower at the edit is cultural fluency, which I talked about at the top a little bit.
00:12:34
Speaker
Like I said, social is moving incredibly fast. The algorithm is changing every day, every hour. And brands that succeed or what we're seeing is succeed are the ones that understand what the tone of the internet is, not just the mechanics of posting. And I would say our team at the edit is really good at translating brand identity into something that feels good. natural and social first.
00:13:00
Speaker
I'd also say though, we're really good at execution. A lot of agencies in our space have great ideas, but social requires volume, speed, and consistency. And here at the edit, we've built systems that allow us to create a high volume of content while still keeping the creative high quality as well.
00:13:23
Speaker
I'm curious for your thoughts on this because I can say for LinkedIn, for example, the algorithm, again, it changes all the time. um And people can get really like alarmist about it. But what we've found in the last couple years is that you need to be mindful of it. Like little technical things can change. Don't do this in the comments anymore. Do it in the body of the post, like technical things. But the algorithm is not necessarily – It is, it's technical knowledge that one needs to apply, but it is a small piece of the overall pie in so far as how a person or brand needs to show up, what the content needs to look like, what the audience wants to hear. And basically like with little tweaks,
00:14:12
Speaker
our approach over the last couple of years has not changed and the results are even better than they were because we're just getting better and better every month at the work we do. And now I know LinkedIn has its own little echo chamber. It's different than the rest of social.
00:14:26
Speaker
sure And so I guess what I'm getting at is for us, people come to us obsessed with the what the algorithm is doing and we it's not that important. Like here, let's talk about the content and the brand and all of this.
00:14:38
Speaker
For the other platforms that you're working in, how important is the algorithm and how much do you all – like how much weight do you give it when putting your strategies together? So I think that there's, I actually just wrote ah an article for a magazine on different tips and tricks to make your brand blow up on social. And I think the algorithm is just one piece to the pie, but it's definitely something that you have to be keeping your finger on the pulse yeah because for Instagram, for example, if they say that they are launching a new feature, whether that be when they launched Instagram live or they launched highlight reels or they launched reels or whatever it may be, it's really important to double tap into those features and play around with them because the algorithm is going to reward you for using those new features. And the head of Instagram, Adam, has said that himself.
00:15:33
Speaker
Try and test every new feature that comes out. One that recently came out that has shown great promise for some of our brands is trial reels. So putting up content consistently, but testing doesn't always have to go directly on feed. Test it on trial to see if it services to non-followers and resonates with those non-followers before it lands on your page to your current follower base. And we've noticed that testing with trial reels has helped further reach of a lot of our content to new audiences.
00:16:03
Speaker
So in that regard, i think it's important to stay up to date on your research, know what the latest and greatest trends and platform updates are. But then in addition to that, i think it's also important to one tip I'll give is Start creating content formats. I think one of the most common mistakes that we see brands making is treating every single post, whether it's on LinkedIn or Instagram, TikTok, et cetera, as a completely new idea.
00:16:34
Speaker
and for us, the accounts that grow the fastest aren't just creating content. They're creating recognizable content formats. So these like repeatable structures, right? That your audience becomes recognized. It's easy for your audience to recognize. And it's almost like a reoccurring segment on a TV show. with I feel as though even myself I'll catch myself at night I'm scrolling TikTok for an hour and a half instead of watching a TV show anymore so formats create that film familiarity and that familiarity in turn builds loyalty yes for us we have like 12 different main post types we'll work with what are those
00:17:13
Speaker
on linkedin Yeah. so it's it's from the milestone post where it's pretty basic it's hey you're announcing something to throwback personal storytelling posts for clients where it's like an old school photo of them that's more of personal storytelling community update posts are really big and helpful on linkedin Those are for a lot of our clients will do those once a month, especially like in the VC space where like community nurture and portfolio company support is a big part of what they do. So I definitely feel like figuring out the content types that an audience responds to and that a platform responds to and like staying within the lanes are –
00:17:54
Speaker
I agree. I think it's so important. Yeah. What we tell our clients is we're going to go do an analytic deep dive and look back at your last 15 to 20 posts. And then from there, we'll identify the top performers and then analyze the patterns and create those formats from there. That's generally, if we're onboarding a client, that's step one for us.
00:18:19
Speaker
And that's across the board for all platforms. Like you take that approach? Correct.
Expansion Plans and Client Success
00:18:23
Speaker
Correct. You never have a client that has no social presence on a particular platform and you're starting from scratch with them.
00:18:30
Speaker
Absolutely. And ah oftentimes those are more fun decks to create because we have a blank canvas to work with and can do whatever we want a little bit. Obviously we'll take nods of, let's say they don't have a LinkedIn presence yet. We'll look across the other socials, whether that's YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, et cetera, take note of top performers, but ultimately get to start the strategy from scratch instead of build upon it.
00:18:57
Speaker
What are some of the things you guys are focused on getting better at right now or like really honing your skills around for the next for the rest of the year? So are we have three different departments within the edit. We have our social department, our creative department, and our influencer department. And I would say as we're looking towards the rest of 26 and into 27, we're looking to expand our creative division pretty rapidly. Content is king, period.
00:19:26
Speaker
across all platforms. And we want to have the infrastructure in-house where we can service and create as much content as possible for our clients. So within our creative arm, we have a full-time team of content creators that are shooting hi-fi and lo-fi video content day in day out across all our client accounts. We also have in-house full-time team of graphic designers that help with everything from emails to web design to Instagram story templates. to AI functionalities, you name it. And then we have a full service production team that helps handle shoots of all sizes. So just continuing to double down on content and build out that team this year.
00:20:09
Speaker
And who are the clients that you all love to work with? If someone's listening, they're like, oh my gosh, Katie's great. i really want to work with her. What are the businesses that that you guys really love? Yeah. So when we first started, like I mentioned, Lauren's background was in celebrity and mine more so in the brand space.
00:20:26
Speaker
And so naturally, our first few clients were celebrity owned brands. I'm sure that some of your listeners will be familiar with some of these, but our first client was Shay Mitchell and her brand base. And following like directly after that, we started working with Millie Bobby Brown and her beauty line, Florence by Mills. And from there, the portfolio really opened up. We've worked with several of the Kardashians across their different brands.
00:20:52
Speaker
For five and a half years, we worked with Kourtney Kardashian and her lifestyle website, Poosh. We've also worked with her mom on Safely. We've worked with her sister, Kendall, on her oral beauty company, Moon. We've worked with Blake Lively on her hair brand, Blake Brown Beauty, David Beckham on his kid's snack brand, Be Up, Treacy Ellis Ross on her hair care brand, Pattern, and the list goes on. So a lot of concentration in the celebrity-owned space.
00:21:22
Speaker
And then outside of that, we have one of my dream clients that we've signed on I'd say five years ago and have been consistently working with them across different verticals is Disney. And we do a lot of work with Disney specifically in content production and content creation strategy, content strategy as well, too.
00:21:43
Speaker
around like promotion for their, like the channel, the parks, content. Yes, more their consumer good products. We work with Star Wars, Marvel, Disney style, Disney family, Disney baby.
00:21:57
Speaker
And on a monthly cadence, we're putting together strategy and photo shoots for social first content that will live on their Instagram, their TikTok, YouTube,
Advice and Personal Expression
00:22:09
Speaker
et cetera. Yeah.
00:22:11
Speaker
Man, it's incredible. Like you guys are doing such amazing work with such amazing brands. Does it ever feel surreal or are you like, yep, this is how I expected it to go and just how I drew it up?
00:22:21
Speaker
I think that Lauren and I are both very big manifestors and we knew that this was our path, but it's always a pinch me moment when we take a moment to step back and look what we've felt over the last eight years, truly.
00:22:36
Speaker
I know a lot of folks listening are entrepreneurs. They're creative folks. if And they might be like, oh my gosh, Katie's done exactly what I want to do. Do you have any, I know it's always hard to give generic advice. i guess it's like, what's the advice that you'd give yourself, if any, when you were just starting out? Okay. So to answer that question, I'm going to say this first, I think specifically, if you are planning to work in social media, people underestimate how much discipline social media requires. I think there's a large perception that it's chaotic or unpredictable, but the brands that succeed online are usually the most consistent. They're showing up every day. They're listening to their community. and they keep refining what's working and what's not. And another misconception is that virality is always the goal. And of course, a viral moment can be great for a client, but what actually builds brands is sustaining that engagement and community over time.
00:23:33
Speaker
And for Lauren, and I think people often assume that social media is this fun part of marketing and it's just posting pretty pictures or chasing trends. And so We've been, especially during dinners or holidays with family, they're like, wait, what do you do again? You're just posting photos on Instagram. And so we're really having to explain to them how incredibly strategic social is and how every piece of content that they see posted online is tied to some sort of audience behavior or platform dynamic and larger brand positioning. So back to your original question of advice I would give.
00:24:09
Speaker
Gosh, give me a second because there's so much I would say. I would say that you need to, as any sort of up and um entrepreneur, i would say trust your gut and figure it out as you go.
00:24:24
Speaker
Lauren and I did not know everything about social when we entered it. We only knew what we did and we figured it out along the way, whether that was Googling something or tapping into an advisor or whatever.
00:24:36
Speaker
More often than not, now using AI to help us answer the questions. But if you trust your gut and you have a passion for something, follow it. And you can figure it out along the way. we At the edit, we have a joke that everyone on the team has a fit foe mentality. And every year at our company retreat, that keeps that fit foe mentality, keep that language keeps being brought up.
00:25:00
Speaker
What's a fit foe mentality? Figure it the fuck out. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, important and imperative. um I do think that's – I feel like often when people – I think folks will see people trying things and they might be like, oh, I'd really like to try that, but I might encounter things I don't know how to do. And it's like never – everyone who's doing anything is encountering stuff they don't know how to do. Yeah. I would also say don't be afraid.
00:25:31
Speaker
to be the dumbest person in the room because that's how you're going to learn and grow. Just need to take that first leap of faith forward and learn from your surroundings. Appreciate it. All right. I know we don't have much time left. Final question.
00:25:45
Speaker
Tell me what you're thinking about Substack. It's an interesting place, right? There's interesting stuff happening there. How are you guys playing with it for your clients and what's your take on the platform?
00:25:57
Speaker
Yes. So Substack on a personal level, I love it because it's one of the few places on the internet right now where people are actually rewarded for being in depth again. So much of social right now has trained us to think in 10 second bursts, especially platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels. But what Substack brings is us back to that idea of someone who will sit down with your thoughts and read for five or 10 minutes. It almost reminds me of like very early Tumblr days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember a Tumblr?
00:26:30
Speaker
and so I think as someone who's working in social all day, every day, it's really refreshing. I think it's a space that you can expand on ideas that would likely get flattened on Instagram or TikTok. And You can build more of a community and a relationship with the readers that feels thoughtful and direct. So whether that's for me personally, i use it as a creative outlet where I talk about motherhood, leadership. i talk about fashion, beauty. i share things I'm loving. i engage with the community. i have a fun...
00:27:01
Speaker
a collaborative series called currently Burke bookmarking. Let me say that again, since I butchered it, I have a fun collaborative series right now called currently but bookmarking on my subset called Katie's edit.
00:27:13
Speaker
And I highlight different subset creators that I'm loving and interview them in different formats, whether it's a, an, a video interview, whether it's an audio interview, or sometimes it could just be text format. And it's really nice to meet different members of the community there. And on a business level, we've seen it as a great way to lean into the communities more and give the communities more of a behind the scene look of what's going on behind the brand, behind the scenes, behind the creative strategy, the creative direction. There are a couple of brands I think do a really great job on Substack. And one of them is Say Beauty.
00:27:54
Speaker
They really take you behind the curtain of the business, both from a founder lens and then just from a general business lens. And you get to see what's going on there. I haven't looked at SES. will definitely check them out. Thank you. And so if folks want to subscribe to yours, can you, what are the details? And we'll throw it in the show notes.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yes. So sub-stock is called Katie's Edit. And if they want to find me on Instagram, it's at Katie.
00:28:21
Speaker
We'll throw everything in the show notes. Katie, you're so fun to talk to. i love the work you guys are doing. And thank you so much for taking this time. i appreciate it thank much. Oh gosh. Thank you so much. That was so fun.