Growth Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur, with Melinda Wittstock

Melinda Wittstock is a serial entrepreneur who has built four businesses in media and tech to 7- and 8- figures. She’s now building her fifth business as CEO and founder of Wings Media, the first interactive, social and “gamified” podcast network and audience engagement platform. Launching in Q2 2020 with an initial 50 podcasts with more than 100 million downloads, Melinda’s innovative mobile platform shares revenue with podcasters.

An acknowledged visionary in tech, media, mobile platforms, and social content, Melinda also hosts the fast-growing “Wings Of…Inspired Business” podcast named by Entrepreneur Magazine as #8 of 20 of the top business podcasts for 2020. Melinda also helps business owners and entrepreneurs launch magnetic and profitable podcasts. A passionate advocate for women entrepreneurs, Melinda also hosts the transformational luxury retreat and peer-to-peer mastermind “Wings of The Empowered Women” for successful women entrepreneurs committed to #liftasweclimb.

Formerly an award-winning journalist and TV anchor for the BBC, ABC News, CNBC/Financial Times Television and MSNBC, Melinda created and grew a BBC show to a 20 million audience and also innovated one of the first crowd-sourcing mobile apps, growing unique users to 3 million in 8 months. Steve Jobs told her she “asked the best questions” when she interviewed him as a 24-year-old correspondent of the Times of London.

She was also the CEO and Founder of Verifeed, the social intelligence platform assuring a Return on Authenticity™ from social media engagement. A practitioner of meditation, yoga, visualization, gratitude, and intention-setting, Melinda is passionate about encouraging conscious leadership and evolved entrepreneurship using business as a canvas to solve global challenges. Her travels have taken her to many exotic places including Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island and the Amazon Rainforest.

She’s a loving mom to two teenagers and a golden retriever. She has spoken at Voice 2018, SXSW, Google, Fidelity Investments, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Georgetown University, Relentless MV, Columbia University, Underground Online Seminar, Pinnacle Global Network and many more.

What the podcast will teach you:

• Why only 15% of podcasters earn money from their podcast, despite podcasts being the fastest-growing content medium
• Why knowing your audience is vital to monetization but most tools today are insufficient, and how Melinda has built a “gamified” platform to help engage with listeners
• How Melinda’s broad experience in media has given her a unique perspective on podcasting and the ability to recognize and address pain points for podcasters
• How Podopolo™ was designed to be the best-in-class podcast platform and is the first and only podcast platform to share revenue with podcasters
• Why the biggest challenge Melinda faced after reaching seven-figures in revenue was learning to get out of her own way, and why she views mistakes as learning experiences
• Why maintaining the right level of control without micromanaging and filling the team with the right people has been the secret to Melinda’s business growth
• How relinquishing control and giving your team room to grow and develop new solutions can motivate them, while micromanaging your team is incredibly demotivating
• How Melinda struggled to adjust to “being the boss” when her team got large enough that she didn’t know everyone, and how she overcame her concerns of not being liked
• Why fear of the unknown and clinging to the familiar during periods of growth is a real problem, and how activities like meditation can help you conquer them
• Why a growing company needs a visionary who is free from day-to-day operations and who can be proactive rather than reactive

Resources:

• Website: www.podopolo.com
• Website: www.melindawittstock.com/
• Wings of the Empowered Woman Retreat: https://wings