Get Niche or Die Trying with Kate Kennedy of Be There in Five

This week we talked with the word razzle-dazzle in human form: Kate Kennedy from the brand and podcast, Be There in Five. Kate is a former market research professional, author of a #1 new release book Twinkle, Twinkle, Social Media Star, seasoned entrepreneur, and pop culture commentator. (A quadruple threat, if you will.) Be There in Five took off with a viral ‘remindoormat’—that was sold in Nordstrom and featured in Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Buzzfeed— and has grown her business among various other categories in the last several years. The Be There in Five podcast is a long-form show that explores all facets of popular culture in a comedic and analytic format. It regularly charts in the category top 200 on Apple Podcasts. No biggie. (Biggie.) We were actually guests last year and it was a blast. We admire Kate’s commitment to her creative direction because, throughout every pivot, her Brand Personality has stayed consistently rooted in humor, thoughtfulness, and the unmatched 90s/00s zeitgeist.  Kate is also our friend, a member of our pop culture song club (yes, that’s a thing), and simply an outstanding, bright, hilarious woman with a ton of insight to share on building a successful brand from scratch. We talked about the importance of creating and sticking with a niche, how to stay in your lane, leveraging criticism to find your audience, teen poetry, why a bigger audience is not necessarily better, not over-editing yourself, maintaining integrity, saying no to shiny deals, and being proud to be an outlier in your industry.  You can find her on Instagram @bethereinfive or at her site www.bethereinfive.com  Minute markers for your skimming pleasure (how dare you): 5:23 Spiller Qs18:30 Branding Qs