Wes Kao - Marketing Executive, Entrepreneur, and Advisor | Persuasive Communication

➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstory ➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com ➡️ About The GuestWes Kao is a marketing executive, entrepreneur, and advisor who writes a newsletter at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, a platform that empowers the world’s experts to offer live courses directly to their audience. Maven raised $25M from First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, and has served more than 20,000 students. In 2022, Maven was named by Fast Company as the #1 most innovative company in education.Previously, Wes co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. The altMBA was the first mainstream cohort-based course and created the category. She grew the altMBA from zero to thousands of students in 550 cities in 45 countries in three years.Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, Inc, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and The Information. In 2021, she was selected by Entrepreneur magazine on the 100 Women of Impact list. She has spoken at SXSW and guest lectures at UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School. ➡️ Show Linkshttps://twitter.com/wes_kao/https://www.linkedin.com/in/weskao/https://www.weskao.com/ ➡️ Podcast SponsorsCollective - https://collective.com/successHubspot - https://hubspot.com/  Kajabi - https://kajabi.com/success (Code: success)ButcherBox - https://butcherbox.com/success (Code: success)Justin Wine - https://justinwine.com/ (Code: success)Green Light - https://greenlight.com/successIndeed - https://indeed.com/claryThe Product Boss Podcast - https://www.theproductboss.com/podcastNetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/Factor — https://factormeals.com/successpod50 (Code: successpod50)HelloFresh — https://hellofresh.com/50successpod (Code: 50succespod)ZBiotics — https://zbiotics.com/success (Code: success) ➡️ Talking Points00:00 - Introduction01:05 - Wes Kao’s Origin Story05:28 - Founder Mindset Sans Title12:22 - Unlocking Employee Creativity21:43 - Maven's Inception29:33 - Sponsor: The Product Boss30:23 - Cohort-Based Learning Explained38:05 - Accountability in Maven Courses39:53 - Launching Maven: Lessons Learned46:07 - The Thought Process Behind Scaling Maven 51:44 - Closing Thoughts from Wes52:55 - Connect with Wes Online53:08 - Overcoming Career Challenges53:53 - The Most Impactful Person in Wes Kao’s Life54:46 - Book and Podcast Recommendations55:18 - Advice to 20-Year-Old Self55:27 - Defining Success