SPEAK LIKE A CEO

The VC scene is male-dominated, and more diverse investment opportunities are being overlooked. Our podcast guest concluded that there is significant potential for financial returns and making an impact at the same time. In February 2021 Gesa Miczaika set off with her joint angel investor Bettine Schmitz from Auxxo Beteiligungen to initiate Germany’s first VC fund for female founders. In spite of many sceptics forecast that getting investors on board will take at least 1,5 years, the Auxxo Female Catalyst fund launched this week after just nine months of fundraising. Now $15m of equity capital are ready for deployment to achieve the balanced representation of women as founders and investors. Gesa also supports start-ups on the board of the Federal Association of German Start-ups and advises the Ministry of Economics as a member of the Young Digital Economy Advisory Board. Tune in to find out: 🎯 How to device a unique communication strategy to speed up your launch 👩‍👩‍👧‍👦 What the female perspective and mothers' communication style bring to investment opportunities 🚀 Why being in politics really makes a difference if you want to create impact Connect with Oliver Aust and Lena Carlson on LinkedIn.  If you like the episode, please leave a five-star review on Apple podcasts and share with people, who might profit from the insights. Thank you!

Some stories just make you sit up and listen. Today’s episode features Tamaz Georgadze, co-founder and CEO of Raisin, the leading marketplace that links private investors to savings products from all over Europe. Tamaz became a chess master at 4, started university at 15 and held two PhDs before most one of us knew what we wanted to do with our lives. In 2012, the former McKinsey partner launched Raisin with his two co-founders in a Berlin basement. Together they have grown the fintech into a company with hundreds of employees, 650.000+ customers and multiple brands (including Weltsparen) operating in numerous markets. When launching Raisin, Tamaz faced a huge challenge: Why would anyone trust their fledging business in a basement with their money? He overcame this challenge by applying two of the most important lessons in communications: 1) Your personal story can carry you a long way; and 2) the most valuable building block of a successful business is trust, and trust is created by transparent communications. In this episode, Tamaz shares plenty of other insights with us including: What the savings business has to do with uniting Europe When your personal brand matters and when it doesn't What you can learn from sales to communicate better as a leader Why transparency matters most when building a high-performing company culture Connect with Oliver Aust and Lena Carlson on LinkedIn. If you like the episode, please leave a five-star review on Apple podcasts and share with people, who might profit from the insights. Thank you!

What started as a passion project by two economics graduates in 2013 now reaches 30 million users each month on multiple channels. This week’s guest is Mengting Gao, the impressive CEO of Kitchen Stories. She built a global brand in the very crowded online cooking market with her co-founder Verena Hubertz. What a story! First they were rejected by investors; a few years later they exited successfully by finding the right strategic partner. Their business model evolved from vague to acing both B2B and B2C, and now everyone wants a piece of the pie: even Apple chief Tim Cook stopped by to make pancakes with them. Tune in and find out how to ☄️ set yourself apart from your competition in a crowded online market 🧮 use data to build a social media strategy that gets business results 💸 what channels they double down on right now Connect with Lena Carlson & Oliver Aust on LinkedIn. 

Why do nine out of ten startups fail? What differentiates a future unicorn from your run-off-the-mill startup? More often than not, the answer is communications. As Ben Horowitz points out, “As a company grows, its biggest challenge always becomes communications.” Clearly, no raging success has been built on bad communications. Given the magnitude of this challenge, there is little systematic advice out there how startups and scaleups can overcome this challenge and turn communications from threat to massive opportunity. Jag and Oliver have set out to close this gap. In this episode they announce their forthcoming book which aims to help founders turn communications into their biggest asset, covering external, internal and financial stakeholders. But they need your help: If you are a founder who has raised Series A or a heading communications for a scale-up and might be interested in providing feedback on one of the chapters, please do get in touch: Jag Singh: linkedin.com/in/jagsingh85 Oliver Aust: linkedin.com/in/oliver-aust

Psychedelics are back. And thanks to scientific discovery there are high hopes that these substances will treat depression, addiction and help in other categories of mental illness. Science is one thing. Building a business in a this arena is still highly controversial and even illegal in many countries. This is definitely a challenge that requires very sophisticated communication. Anne Philippi is the founder and CEO of The New Health Club, a platform and a community in the field of psychedelic wellness and treatments. Being a trailblazer in this field, she also brings an impressive pedigree as a journalist to her venture, interviewing musicians like Amy Winehouse and Hollywood stars like Gwyneth Paltrow  for Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Tune in and find out 📍 How to navigate public opinion for a highly sensitive offer 🤫 The journalistic secrets to making stories work as an entrepreneur 💰 How to create trust and make an impact with investors when pitching in a controversial field If you enjoyed the episode, share it and give us a review on Apple Podcasts. That would be lovely. Thank you! If you have any questions or feedback, do not hesitate to get in touch with us on LinkedIn. 

Michael Wax is the co-founder & CEO of Forto, a Berlin based unicorn that is driving digitalisation and decarbonisation in a sector that is the backbone of the global economy - freight forwarding. Not only is the fast-growing company, formerly known as FreightHub, a top-ranked employer. Michael is also an outspoken CEO who is on a mission to shipping sustainable while further democratising the access globally. Tune in and find out 🎯 Why sometimes every word counts and rebranding allowed Michael to set the sails for an ambitious communication strategy ⛑ What responsibilities Michael sees as a CEO toward his team and society, how he communicates and aligns these with the purpose of Forto 📣 How to stay in contact with the team in a fast growing Unicorn as CEO and the communication principles Michael follows If you find the episode helpful, please share it with your colleagues and friends and give us a review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions, or if you are a CEO with communications advice and would like to be featured on the podcast, please connect with Oliver Aust or Lena Carlson on LinkedIn. Thank you for listening!

Are you as relaxed as the Dalai-Lama in front of a camera? Pulitzer Prize Finalist Piotr Pilat knows how you can achieve that state. Having interviewed personalities such as the Tibetan spiritual leader and Richard Branson as well as reporting from conflict areas worldwide for Reuters, he is now on a mission with HeyViz to empower you to create quick and painless videos to grow your brand and sales. Working together with Konstanty Sliwowski (#leadershiphiring #expert) and Oliver Aust (#CEO #communications #bestsellingauthor), the first HeyViz.com walk-in studio is now up-and-running, offering simple done-for-you video creation in central Berlin. Tune in to this episode to find out 🎥 How Piotr’s images from Libya became part of history 🎬 The atmosphere Piotr creates to help CEOs be their best in front of a camera 🚀 How you too can get best video content possible today. At HeyViz you not only get the right lightning, crisp sound and professional post-production, but also the combined expertise of Piotr, Oliver and their teams to maximise your impact. Without the cost and the hassle. If you find the episode helpful, please share it with your colleagues and friends and give us a review on Apple Podcasts.  If you have questions, or if you are a CEO with communications advice and would like to be featured on the podcast, please connect with Oliver Aust or Lena Carlson on LinkedIn. Thank you for listening!

Change is hard. Getting someone else to change is even harder. So how can you convince someone to become your customer when it really matters? Jan Rabe, co-founder and CEO of of three companies - Wechselpilot, RABOT Energy & RABOT Charge - knows how to persuade us to do the right thing. Most notably, Wechselpilot is a thriving German start-up that makes switching electricity and gas contracts easy for private households. All three of his start-ups share a mission: to convince us consumers to switch to renewable energy sources. Jan’s personal mission: Make Change Possible. Jan also knows how to keep customers happy, with Wechselpilot winning the German Service Award in 2020. Tune in and find out all about 🎯 What trigger points you need to focus on to position yourself as the premium service provider (and get more customers) 💙 How to create trust to win customers 💱 How to finance and manage three companies at the same time If you liked the episode, feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends. We would be delighted, if give us a written review on Apple Podcasts. If you have questions, or if you are a CEO with communications advice and would like to be featured on the podcast, please connect with Oliver Aust and Lena Carlson on LinkedIn. Thank you for listening!

How can I create an irresistible brand? Every founder is looking for an answer to this question. With a strong brand, it becomes easier to attract top talent and the right kind of customer. You can charge more for your product or service, generate higher margins and grow your company faster. As a founder, you want to take your brand seriously from the start and create a minimum viable brand (MVB) that has the potential to become irresistible. In this episode Jag Singh, accomplished entrepreneur, investor and former Techstars Berlin MD speaks with Oliver about creating a Minimum Viable Brand that fast-tracks your growth. Tune in to this episode to 🧪 Get the formula to create your irresistible brand  ❌  Understand founders’ most common mistakes 🚀 Find out how to enhance a brand even when the company is already established If you liked the episode, feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends to listen.  We would be delighted, if give us a written review on Apple Podcasts.If you have questions, or if you are a CEO with communications advice and would like to be featured on the podcast, please connect with Oliver Aust on LinkedIn.

Videos have become a cornerstone of CEO communications: for media interviews, brand building, pitches, social media content and internal communications. Videos create awareness, build trust and boost sales. Yet, many CEOs still shy away from stepping in front of the camera. With the experience of over 1000 media interviews and having coached professionals in over 100 countries between them, top international executive coach Bettina Hausmann and Oliver talk about CEOs on camera. Specifically: 🤩 How to appear natural and connect with the audience on camera 🧨 The most common mistake and how to avoid it 🤳🏾Creating a controlled environment that make you look great ⏰ How to minimise the time needed for filming Producing videos can be a time-consuming nuisance. That’s why we want to show you how to create quick and painless videos to grow your brand and sales. Come to our studio at Mindspace Friedrichstrasse in Berlin on 15-17 September where we will produce a professional video with you completely for free. Simply book your slot here: https://calendly.com/vizibl/30min?month=2021-09.