E104 | Lucy Blakiston
Episode summary | Lucy Blakiston
Lucy Blakiston has a story that is quite incredible.
In 2018, she was sitting in a uni lecture, getting increasingly frustrated with how disconnected she felt from the information she was being delivered. So, along with her two hometown best friends, she started a blog called Shit You Should Care About. Four years later, it’s turned into a mini-media empire. Her daily newsletter reaches 60,000 subscribers every morning, she hosts two podcasts and runs an Instagram page which has 3.6 million followers.
We talk about the ginormous presence Shit You Should Care About has on Instagram, and what it's like being followed by Billie Eilish, Joe Rogan and Ariana Grande. We chart how they went from 200,000 followers to a million in one month – and why it made her too scared to post, the decision to go ‘full time’, how they make their money, Harry Styles, and what the future holds.
This was such an enlightening, fun chat with someone who seems to understand social media better than anyone we’ve met. Lucy IS a media genius, her journey is only just starting and it's exciting to think where it might lead.
Show notes | Lucy Blakiston
3.00: Two weeks in a campervan on a roadshow
8:35: “A media genius on a world level”
10:15: The origin story of Shit You Should Care About
23:10: Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Joe Rogan get on board
24:44: From 200,000 to 1 million followers in a month
28:54: Learning on the rise from 1 million to 3 million
34:06: A Harry Styles interlude
34:41: Going pro: the decision to fulltime
38:18: The Neon deal and setting up Culture Vulture
44:01: Diversifying the audience through newsletters
48:55: Connection fatigue, self-pressure and low-stakes errors
54:09: The power of community
58:23: The importance of Ruby and Liv
61:35: Mundane Polls
1:04:57: Paying the bills (and turning down an approach from The White House)
1:09:29: Quick thoughts on TikTok
1:11:37: Does writing a daily newsletter feel like a job?
1:13:03: Future gazing
1:14:08: Keeping harmony within the Shit You Should Care About universe
1:16:31: Web3, NFTs, blockchain, and the Discord experience
1:19:20: Educating the world about New Zealand and vice-versa
1:21:41: Some bits and pieces from a Shit You Should Care About insider
1:24:53 Last words from Steven, Seamus, and Lucy
