Transitioning from Athena.Trade to Lula & CO.

Published in

Lula & CO

6 min readFeb 19, 2020

Presentations as an Agile Solution to Engage & Educate

Exciting news! While it is sad that Athena.Trade is closing, I have so greatly enjoyed cultivating the community, consulting with members, and creating content via presentations on Periscope, that I will be transitioning this to my consulting company as I continue coaching and consulting under my own brand named after my daughter, Lula & CO., with the ethos Engagement by design, to ultimately engage, educate, inspire, empower, & connect to drive advocacy. [6]

What I learned at Athena.Trade served as invaluable experience on how to engage and reach a more diverse audience at the intersection of legacy, regulated markets and Blockchain, digital assets and other emerging technologies, all the while furthering the Athena brand recognition. However, at first, I was not precisely sure what that would look like. Of utmost importance, I wanted to address the trends that I had identified throughout the year which centered upon engaging mobile communities while facilitating as seamless of a technology solution as possible.

Nomadic: Portable & Remote

After WeWork’s failed IPO, coworking as an industry overall became less desirable. Despite all of the choices, according to a recent report, 84% of workers primarily work from home.[5] Given the trends surrounding working remotely, coupled with the desire to facilitate a seamless technology solution, I began using Periscope for our presentations. This then morphed into more of a podcast type product. However, what I did not realize at the time was the value and ease of sharing a quick periscope link as a comment to a thread or article. I had always used Twitter as a way to introduce connections quickly on the fly, usually followed up with an email. (I actually have a far better way now, stay tuned for my interview with the Blockchain Czarista, Ms. Andrea Tinianow and connectorstreet entitled, “Networking Like a Boss.”) However, I never fathomed to use these periscopes cued up to the exact point of interest prior. The first time I added this element of engagement was with my friends from DrawBridge Lending, as Mr. Lisle General Counsel of DrawBridge Lending had the perfect answer in our May presentation on regulation. While I may be able to squeeze a lot into 280 characters, there was no way I was squashing that message into same while maintaining coherence.

Light Bulb

This process allowed us more branded content to use to engage with on Twitter! Thereby, raising the visibility of all members of the community. Further, given the purpose was to educate and engage, while elevate the brand, I have created a new format, which leverages Periscope & Medium. Even more exciting, the only technology required by the other party is Skype.(If you have attended my presentations you understand the enormous win this represents, as it was a learning curve of integrations I wrote on this awhile back.)

In Blockchain, the community lives on Twitter, regardless of what I used, I did not want to lose ease of Twitter + Periscope. I was left with the quandary how to mitigate technology issues that may ensue and offer a seamless experience while continuing to create content that educates and engages in a cost efficient manner. After careful analysis this past year, including an extreme amount of trial and error, I am excited to announce that I have found that very solution! What can I say, I am very picky, I knew what I wanted the output to look like, finding the pieces to fit, that was the quite a feat.

This is a sample experiment and it reinterates what I have outlined above.

May I Present, My Solution: Ecamm.live + Periscope + Skype

Using periscope livestreaming and a software called ecamm.live, a Skype call will appear side by side a ‘news interview’ fashion. As an aside, this is not as easy as one would think. As far as video conferencing, I desired a solution that offered the most return on investment with as little friction as possible. I chose Skype for that element alone. The fact that it allows a blurred background easily, was EPIC icing on the privacy cake.

Moving to the next phase, each interviewee will have the following content: a Medium Series article, podcast, periscope link, and Youtu.be video. Each of these elements offer an agile way to re-purpose content seamlessly.

Mobile & Agile Medium Series

Athena.Trade Presents Series: 1st Up: After the Bell [1]

To leverage increasing mobile trends, I chose Medium Series v. Medium. [7] I needed one place to serve as a hub of Athena.Trade Presents. Series are quite fun in that they are geared towards a mobile audience. Disclosure, they are a pain to read on a desktop. This is why I use other channels to complement. Furthermore, users can subscribe easily and the series becomes a central place where you can share branded links across channels as a supplement for a mailing list. I will continue this integration for my Lula & CO. Presents, working title only. These articles can be cross-published on websites, medium publications, LinkedIn articles, & Instagram accounts throughout the month.

Proof of Concept: After the Bell

As an example, here is my After the Bell Behind the Scenes Presentation with Stacey Mankoff. All other Athena.Trade Presents Series, will be added here. [1] Please note, this presentation had a few tech glitches on Periscope, which is how I deducted the ultimate solution was not Zoom, but rather Skype. The Medium series allowed for all the links in one area as a dashboard per se. [2] With a bit more fine tuning I was able to create the final solution moving forward. [3]

Podcast + Series= Re-Purpose with Strategic Agility

Podcasting has served as a great way to re-purpose the same content for maximum growth. I downloaded the audio, enhanced it a great deal, and created a podcast episode on Anchor.[4][8] The article complements the presentation and offers a way to guide further engagement. I use the series as a wrap up of all the topics we spoke thereof footnoted properly. It also doubles as a way to add in additional press about your project/company or service. I look forward to rescheduling many of those who canceled throughout the year due to travel, time, or other logistics. In addition, all of the presentations will use this format, interested in scheduling your interview? Please click here.

The article complements the presentation and offers a way to guide further engagement. I use the series as a wrap up of all the topics we spoke thereof footnoted properly. It also doubles as a way to add in additional press about your project/company or service. I look forward to rescheduling many of those who canceled throughout the year due to travel, time, or other logistics. In addition, all of the presentations will use this format.