The Unexpected Tech Start-Up CEO - Episode 74 Cas McCullough
“I’d had my fair share of challenges and turning points” said Cas McCullough in our wholehearted conversation. “A life threatening ectopic pregnancy, divorce, children with health issues, work demands, business trials… It would be easy to stay in victim mode, but I prefer to be a survivor. And after all, drama and ups and down are all part of the human experience aren’t they?”
And that attitude of acceptance, refocus and determination reflects the true core of Cas. She is a shining example of making the decision to consciously choose to smile. To shrug off stories of doubt and intimidation. To choose not to listen to the mind chatter that can try and defeat you. To keep taking action and moving, staying focused on the impact you want to make, not the fears that want to unmake you.
If you’ve ever had a big vision and felt that the road to your own Next Chapter has more than a few bumps and detours, you’ll find both solace and inspiration in this episode that has led Cas to being the founder and CEO of a innovative tech startup, Writally, that cuts the time it takes to create an original blog post.
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Show Notes
Dial up your self-awareness – you can find the recurring patterns in your business and life that aren’t serving you and change them
You will make mistakes along the way, but don’t use these as an excuse to beat yourself up – practice compassion and learn from them
The quality of your progress will depend on the quality of the questions you ask yourself. The Writally concept came about for Cas after asking herself the question: “What if there was a tool that helped businesses create quality content in half the time?”
Trust your intuition – Cas sat on her idea for months, fearing that it was, well, a silly idea, but every time someone asked her for a copywriting quote, the question surfaced again.
Take a chance and back yourself. Finally, one Saturday morning, Cas made the impulsive decision to leap out of bed at 6am and drive into the city for a 7.30am startup pitching competition. She had never entered a pitch competition before and was surprised to be selected as a finalist in the Little Tokyo 2 SOOOB Pitch event. In April 2015 Cas won third place in the competition as well as support from mentors who saw the potential in her product.
Ask for feedback from your audience – Cas asked a group of business bloggers for feedback and tested a basic questionnaire. What they discovered was that using the blog post recipes cut down the time it took to write a blog post by 40% or more. She knew she was on to something!
Get your idea to MVP – minimum viable product stage and LAUNCH – don’t wait til its perfect.
Allow for evolution, you may think you know what people want, but you really don’t until you get it out there, then you can tweak, change, move and improve.
Stay connected to your purpose – I want to “amplify peoples stories and voices”. That will show up in many ways, but the core is always there
About the speaker
I’ve been a writer, designer and marketer for over 25 years. Over the past five years, I have developed and fine-tuned a proven content marketing system that has resulted in a significant ROI for my clients. As a result, my work has been recognised globally. In 2016, I was a finalist in the Content Marketing Awards for an ad/blog integration strategy I developed.
This year, the organisation we show-cased for the awards improved their blog ROI and increased sales by 10%! Blogging works, if you focus on connection over content.
I am the author of an Amazon bestselling book (in the Women and Business category) Your Brilliant Un-Career: Women, Entrepreneurship and Making the Leap.
I have a strong track record in creating viral content, having contributed to high profile media including Social Media Examiner, Startup Smart, Bluewire News, Australian Businesswomen’s Network, the Content Marketing Institute, and Mark Schaeffer’s blog: Grow.Last year I won the Suncorp #Smallbusinesschallenges Startup
Competition sponsored by BlueChilli Group, Suncorp, Microsoft and CCiQ, attracting $75K pre-seed funding for my new startup, Writally.
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