From Fangirl to Forbes 30 Under 30 | Cassie Petrey

Episode Topics:

• Discover how a tween’s fan newsletter evolved into a career managing social media for music’s biggest stars.
• Learn why authenticity trumps algorithm-chasing when building a brand online.
• Get inside knowledge on how celebrity social media accounts actually work.
• Understand the real story behind verification badges and why they matter more than ever.
• Hear powerful advice for women breaking into male-dominated tech and entertainment industries.

 

Rick Jordan  

What’s shakin? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. I have one of the best guests ever for you. Today. This amazing woman is behind some of the most iconic artist social media, marketing, including, like no joke, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, camina, I’ll cut that part out because I can’t. I just didn’t even pronounce the name, right? Camilla cabello, maybe I won’t now, it just sounds funny, all right, but an original fan girl whose tween admiration for the Backstreet Boys led her at age 12 to create a newsletter. That’s where all this started, and I am pleased to welcome a Forbes 30, under 30. Cassie Petri what’s shakin?

 

Cassie Petrey  

Hi. Thank you for having me, and thank you for the nice intro.

 

Rick Jordan  

It’s, uh, you’ve got so much that you’ve done, so much that you’re doing. It’s, it’s incredible. And you know, how do you, how do you do that? Because, I mean, I read maybe, like, a fourth of your bio. You know, as the intro, I get that too. They’re like, I spoke at V con this last week. And they’re like, Hey, can we just, like, say this about you because we like this and not read the whole thing? I’m like, Absolutely, that’s what it’s there for. But how do you even choose what to put in in yours?

 

Cassie Petrey  

Well, I mean, I had a bio writer help me.

 

Rick Jordan  

I didn’t somebody else did.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Seriously. Sometimes when I’m having problems making decisions, it’s just easier to have somebody else do it, yeah?

 

Rick Jordan  

Well, just like this, right? I just read what I read.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Well, exactly, but yeah, just, you know, have somebody else do it, especially when it’s about yourself, it’s really hard. Like, I can help other people all day long figure out, like, what should go in their bio, what should go on their Instagram bio, what they should and shouldn’t put on their website. But when you’re doing it for yourself, it’s, it’s different. It’s you really do need extra perspective. 

 

Rick Jordan  

Is very strange, isn’t it, trying to do that for yourself, because I was on news nation yesterday, and they’re like, What do you want your lower third to say? They’re like, we have, we have founder and CEO of reach out technology. I’m like, What am I talking about? They’re like, well, today we just want you to talk about just anything general in the news, like, like, the the person who wanted the screaming baby off the plane. I’m like, Well, I don’t think reach out technology is going to match that. They’re like, Well, how about, how about host of the All In Podcast? I’m like, I suppose you’re like, it’s like, what do I say about myself? How do I describe myself? I get you totally, yeah.

 

Cassie Petrey  

It’s yeah. Other people’s perspective can really help in those situations. 

 

Rick Jordan  

No doubt. No joke. The funny thing is, when I went on their lower third cybersecurity experts, something I didn’t even tell to put on there, but they just threw that up there anyways. Do you ever had that? Have you ever had somebody just, like, throw something completely irrelevant about you, like, out of context,

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah. I mean, absolutely, especially with, I think, with my clients, to media so quick, so fast, so short form, there’s, you have such little time and so things because you have lack of time and lack of space on screens too. Now, because, you know, we step big TVs and our on phones and have more space, I think there’s more and more misunderstanding, misunderstandings and things taken out of context more than ever before. It’s definitely a challenge that a lot of people are facing right now.

 

Rick Jordan  

No doubt, no doubt, see how we how we make it all work for our conversation and with what you do? I like that? Yeah, absolutely. I’m looking at you right now, obviously. And you’re looking at me the you’re in a hotel. It looks like where are you at? What are you doing today?

 

Cassie Petrey  

So, I’m in a hotel. I’m actually in a hotel in Los Angeles. I, you know, work from home a lot of days with I have a boyfriend. He’s a music producer, but on days where he’s like recording live instruments, I can’t do zooms from home, because even though the you know, the studios you know, closed up and isolated and that sort of thing, I’m still, you would hear drums right now for sure.

 

Rick Jordan  

Well, that could be fun. I could break out my guitar, yeah.

 

Cassie Petrey  

And a lot of times I work out of we works. But if I’m doing zooms or podcasts, I find that the sound is not very good because the rooms are like glass and bouncy. So I actually use day use.com a lot of times as my office to especially if I’m doing things that are more audio focused, because I feel like that’s a better fix on the go than using an empty office space just because it doesn’t have enough things in the room to in the room to absorb sound, and it gets super echoey. So actually, not traveling anywhere,

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome. I’ve done the same actually, being on like a, like a trip somewhere with family. And, you know, I got a call because it was a big hack. I am a cyber security expert, but I got a, it was a Bloomberg cheddar and news max that I appeared on in one day during this big breach. And I did the same thing. I literally went and just rented a set, because we had a villa, right? And there was nowhere really private in the multi bedroom villa to do these huge nationwide TV appearances. So I went down the street to the JW and just rented a room. That’s it didn’t. Leave there anything just to do the appearances because it was quiet.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, I do that all the time. Days calm is great for that. I use it a lot for those kind of situations. And when I’m on vacation with family or my boyfriend, like, especially, go to Hawaii, for example, sometimes I have calls that are, you know, mainland, they’re 5am Yeah, and I don’t disrupt our villa or house or whatever. So sometimes I go get a separate hotel room just for that purpose. And especially in a place like Hawaii, they don’t have co working spaces, at least not on like the side of like Maui I’m staying in, for example. So a hotel room really is kind of the, the only option if you have to do a call where you don’t want to disturb everybody else.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, right on. That’s, that’s a cool point, you know. And I’m curious as to how this transitions over into media too, like tick tock or whatever. Because there’s, there’s a quality, of course, you know, there’s a quality in having the raw, the real, you know, as in, like, the the r e l, not the R E E L, that we’re used to posting and everything. But nice little pun. But, yeah, the the real, the reality. How about that of that you’re in a hotel room. I’m bed in a hotel room. We can use day use.com or whatever, but at the same time, there’s value in the appearance of things. Still, I mean, if you look at somebody like Gary V, it’s like his stuff is gritty, but it’s intentionally gritty. There’s still intention that goes into the content that he produces, in the way that it looks. What trends are you saying and what can you add to that? 

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, I think Gary B’s a good reference, because it’s interesting. We’re actually probably not seeing what his, most of his day to day life, looks like, because it’s too glamorous, and that doesn’t lend itself to the brand like we’re not seeing. I’m sure he’s on jets. I’m sure he’s in really nice hotel rooms. I’m sure he’s, you know, has a bunch of different luxuries in his life, just by default. I’m not saying he’s like over spinning or anything, but just by default, on being able to do the amount of things that he’s doing, and to be able to stay comfortable, and that stuff’s purposefully being omitted because that doesn’t lend itself to the message that he’s trying to share to people. So, you know, I think that that’s, you know, really interesting. But, yeah, I think, you know it this kind of stuff comes down to branding in general. Branding is really important, and artists, branding is really important for like, individuals and, you know, celebrity executives like Gary B and, you know, podcast hosts like yourself and all different other types of people. And I think we’re just because we’re in a position in the world right now where everything can be captured all the time, because we all have a good quality phone in our hands now. We didn’t have that 10 years ago. Yeah, we actually think even more all the time about where we’re at appearance, how that’s being captured, how we edit it to go and share that with you know, people on Facebook, even if it is only 200 people, what those 100 people see can really matter. So, yeah, something we’re thinking about all the time, that’s

 

Rick Jordan  

interesting. I mean, you’re talking Backstreet Boys, right? Is where you started with a newsletter, and that those were also in the days like MySpace, right? I mean, the early, early days.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Newsletter, I call it like the AOL era, is when I was doing the newsletters. It’s kind of like AOL made the internet widely popular, and then you go into, like, Myspace after that. But yeah, the newsletter days weren’t that like the AOL era. So even pre MySpace,

 

Rick Jordan  

yeah, and you were only 12, and that was going, that’s that’s awesome. That’s crazy.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, it was fun. I had, like, my this big, thick HTML book, and I learned how to, like, design newsletters with it and make like, little mini websites. They were horrible, but I still could, like, get them up to exist, so I was proud of that. Yeah, no doubt. I loved using the Internet to connect with people and to sort of express my adoration for the Backstreet Boys, but then it also turned into adoration for other things, like I remember at Ashton Kutcher fan site. I actually found it recently, and it’s still up, and it’s terrifying, and I would have no idea how to get it down.

 

Rick Jordan  

Haunt you, right? Everything on the internet lives forever.

 

Cassie Petrey  

I know we used to log into like I wouldn’t even know how to get to that. I I also, like, made a website about, like, my favorite, like, tacos in Louisville, Kentucky, so like, they’re, you know, but I liked using it to, like, sort of, like, express my adoration for things that I thought were fun.

 

Rick Jordan  

 that’s awesome, that’s a cool approach to everything, you know, because it’s a and here’s a, here’s something else that I picked up. And I would love for you to speak and give me your insight on this, because I I see so many that will try to go on and produce something, right? But they feel I just had this conversation with somebody the other day. You’re like, I’m trying to do what my audience is going to want. I’m like, Dude, there’s some value in that, but at the same time, like you’re not going to blow up unless you’re literally just being who you are, you know, so, so why would you try to, like, put content out that you think people will want? It’s like, whose head are you in besides your own?

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, and that’s just not a good reason to do content. Because, if you’re making content because you’re because you think other people you. You know, will it’ll resonate with other people like there, you know, there is some good in that, in the sense of, maybe you’re trying to help people, you’re trying to teach people. But at the end of the day, if you’re doing something because you want other people to like you that, you know, take the internet aside, that doesn’t work out well for people. If you’re doing something because you think other people want you to do it. You’re not going to like yourself. You’re at some point, you’re going to make decisions where you prioritize other people over yourself, and you kind of lose who you are. And you know, again, I like to take the internet out of equations A lot, a lot of times, and just kind of compare it to, like, general philosophies and in real life. And if you’re doing stuff for other people all the time, you’re going to lose yourself, and you’re actually probably going to lose the people too that are following you, yeah, like,

 

Rick Jordan  

get bored at some point, because it’s going to be the same thing over and over. Whereas as people, I think that we change constantly. You know, we evolve totally,

 

Cassie Petrey  

absolutely. Evolve all the time, right? I I change non stop. And I think, you know, I used to, like, kind of feel like I didn’t know who I was, or, you know, know myself because of that. But then I realized part of me is that I change and evolve non stop. That’s like, who I am, you know, I sort of struggled with a while, you know, for a second I was reading all these, you know, self help books. And there’s, are a lot of good things in self help books. And, you know, a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of self help type of content to the kind of, you know, you know, on the back of self help books. And feel like that was really my algorithm at some point. And you know, a lot of those things talk about, like, routine and how important that is. And I realized I’m not, I’m like, a I’m a phases person versus a daily routine person. And I think once I accepted that, I stopped chasing all these like habits that didn’t make me happy, and I feel like I feel much more at peace about that, because I’m just not going to be the person that wakes up and meditates every morning. And I know that’s great for some people. That’s just like, not who I am. I might go through a phase where I do that, but that’s not going to be me every day, forever, and I’m, I’m okay with that. 

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, right on. I appreciate that, that authenticity, perspective that you have, because it’s a that’s all it is. I mean, I can even look back at even, let’s just say this show right when I first started this because, I mean, it’s 360 something episodes now, you know, four years old, it’s been, it’s matured, you know. And I take a listen to the to the first episodes, and even though I had a branding agency, it was still like I was being fit into this box, that when I listened, that they wanted me to be, you know. And it wasn’t really until I started not caring about that and just be like, Hey, this is me, you know, this is I’m doing it. Like, well, like, even today, when I said the artist’s name, wrong, right? We’re not going to cut that in post, because it’s just, it’s just funny. I’m human. I freaking make mistakes when we’re on stuff like this, you know. And it’s just how it is. We just roll pass it. It’s like, I’ve taken a company public, and you’ve done amazing things with big artists, but we’re still freaking people. Yeah,

 

Cassie Petrey  

we still make a lot of mistakes, and there’s things that there’s always something that everyone hasn’t done before, right? So we’re always going to be like, trying something new for the first time and not have experience at it, and not be good at it. And that’s okay. It doesn’t matter. You know, how great you are at one thing. It doesn’t mean that you’re that you’re automatically, automatically experienced at everything else. Yeah, right. Totally fine.

 

Rick Jordan  

No joke

 

Cassie Petrey  

I’m really bad at most things, and I think sometimes I, you know, don’t do things that I want to do, because I feel like I’m not going to be good at it, but it’s, you know, something that I’m, you know, currently working on, getting over in a lot of circumstances, because that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. Just because I’m not going to be good at it, I feel like sometimes I get this sort of complex of feeling like I have to be good at everything I’m doing. And that’s just that’s ridiculous, and nobody will ever be able to do that. So just working through the like mental psyche around that is, is hard, I think for me and a lot, I’m sure a lot of other people can relate to that as well, right

 

Rick Jordan  

on, right on. Now, let’s, let’s kind of shove that into the big time artist arena, you know, everything that we’re talking about, because let’s be real. I mean, even every but every human being has an ego. But a lot of the big, the big artists, they’ve got, like, exponential egos. You know, there’s some really, really down to earth ones that exist, but then there’s other ones that are like, I’m the greatest, you know, I mean, I won’t say any names. Beyon say, Sorry, excuse me. I had a bit of a cough there. But how do you balance that exactly what we’re talking about, like the authenticity. Because I could see an artist’s need for performance, you know, in entertainment and let’s be real, sometimes they they really do, like, take on a role when they take the stage, you know, how do they? How do you. Help them become approachable in social and other forms of media, to where people want to follow them and they can actually like them and stick around with them for a long time, not because they’re famous, but because they’re human, like we’re talking about.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah. So something that, you know, I teach this to a lot of my staff, but something that I think is really important when working with artists, is to figure out how to empathize with them, because if we can’t figure out how they got there in certain complex moments, we’re not going to be able to help them. So you know, you kind of have to think about this like going on stage and playing in front of 15,000 people, and then going from that to going to your hotel room and being alone, those are like, so drastically far apart. And that’s such a hard high low to come down from. And I think just acknowledging that, and acknowledging like, you know, even being able to grasp, like, 1% of putting myself in that person’s shoes, I think sometimes it kind of can make me understand celebrities behaviors better and how to help them better, but they just try. You know, I’ll never be in that situation, so I can’t fully empathize with it. But even like trying to and realizing that, like, what they’ve been through is not normal. I think it really helps me and my team members be able to communicate with them in a way to kind of, you know, pull the things that are human out of them, because it’s so their perspective. You know, if you’re doing that, your perspective is going to be warped. You’re not going to view life the same way that other people do, and I think a lot of times they don’t realize some of the things they do are human or are interesting, and we’re there to kind of help point that out and be a sounding board and reassure them that certain things that they do or don’t want to share on social media are good, or maybe they don’t have perspective and they want to share something that they think is really great and have the best intention, but we’re like, no, that’s not going to be received well. And I don’t judge you for not understanding why it would be received well, but trust me, it won’t be received well. But I think it starts with being able to understand that their perspective is going to be completely different than mine. And that doesn’t mean that they’re a bad person, it doesn’t mean that they’re egotistical just means that their life is very different, and I have to figure out a way to sort of see the world through their lens a tiny bit so we can communicate in some productive way.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, I think Donald Trump needs your help.

 

Cassie Petrey  

 Honestly, I would, you know, even three you know, him being in the Oval Office, I think about so many times with somebody like him, or even like an Elon Musk and like, if they just would have talked to me, or somebody like me, they could have changed three things in this post, and it would have, like, it would have been so much more productive. Think about that all the time, to be honest.

 

Rick Jordan  

For sure, I bet you do. You see, you see the vomit of words writing. You’re like, oh, you cringe. And it’s like, that’s like, the rise and the fall of a lot of these big figures that are out there, especially when they start tweeting, they’re on their own. They don’t have something like, you

 

Cassie Petrey  

like, you know, for example, I saw Elon Musk tweet something. He’s like, you know, more celebrities should tweet for themselves. You know, all of them have, you know, teams or something like that. And I’m like, that’s not exactly true. Like, just because somebody has a team doesn’t mean they don’t tweet for themselves. And at this point, most celebrities are, like, on log down to Twitter and posting themselves. I would say 15 years ago definitely not the case. I was like, you know, or 10 years ago, I was begging them please, you know, get on Twitter and if you won’t do it, like, can I? Can I post for you and run it by you? You know, that’s where it started. But that’s not where it really is at this point. But if he would have talked to a me before he posted that somebody could have been like, Hey, I know why you think that, but it’s actually not true. Or let’s verify that. Like, I like to be that person to think about I totally understand why you want to say that, but let’s think about it for a second. Or let’s get a second opinion, or let’s verify that fact. Like, I like to be that person. A lot of times, people don’t listen, and they say, I don’t care. I don’t take the consequences. I want to do it. But I do see moments like that with you know, people, you know, powerful people that are, you know, tweeting very strong opinions. And I’m like, oh, like, your opinion would have been received. The same opinion would have been received so much better if you changed, like, one little thing about how you conveyed it. So I think everyone should have, like, especially if you, if you’re, if you’re in a position where your tweets can affect the stock market, no by other people before they go out, in my opinion.

 

Rick Jordan  

for sure, absolutely. Yeah. That kind of that kind of Sway is limited to very few. And I know I mentioned two names that actually have that kind of sway. I mean, not even the President of the United States has that kind of sway right now on Twitter, it’s pretty incredible seeing the dichotomy between that.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, absolutely!

 

Rick Jordan  

Where are things going from here? You know, I’m going to pick your brain just for a little bit, because we’ve got the potential ban on Tiktok. I think Montana was the first state right that completely banned it. We’re looking at some of the I’ve done media appearances on this, you know. And I look at it from a security perspective, but I also see it from it’d be cool if maybe we went back to the original plan in the previous administration. This is nothing about Trump itself. It just makes sense from a security perspective that that company is owned us owned because of this, the International dynamics with security. But where is all this stuff going? I mean, with Instagram, with the verification, from your perspective, you know the meta verified Twitter, blue, tick tock, all of that. What do you see?

 

Cassie Petrey  

So I’ll talk about verification first, because I’m very fascinated by what’s happening me too, right now. Yeah, yeah. So there. So if you think about, if you go back to the origin of like verification, verification existed to show that that account was not an imposter. It was not like it was not meant to be a notoriety badge, but that’s what it kind of became over time. But you know, fast forward, a decade later, we’re kind of in a position now in social media where normal people, everyday people that aren’t celebrities, are getting, you know, getting their content stolen and being repositioned as fake people. It’s you being used for scam and that sort of thing. So in that perspective, I do like verification kind of going back to what it was actually originally meant to do, which was to be a badge that shows, hey, this person is who they say they are. It’s actually Cassie, yeah, yes, yeah, it’s actually, it’s actually whoever. Because before only celebrities really had to worry about that issue, but now everyone has to worry about that issue. It’s kind of like, I know on dating sites, you can get verified. So I kind of view it like that. I know there’s a lot of flaws in the verification system. I remember a friend of mine, Matthew coma pretended he made his Twitter profile to be Gwyneth Paltrow verified. I think it was just kind of one, it was hilarious with when he was tweeting, but two, he I think it was to sort of prove to a point that maybe the tech isn’t caught up with the idea. Yeah, you know, he can Gwyneth Paltrow. There’s clearly issues, but I think the idea of it is good. I just think we’re going to go through a lot of little battles before we get there. I don’t know if I agree with the idea of having to subscribe to it on an ongoing basis. I think verifying who you are should be like, I get that there’s a cost affiliated with like technology to build that and, you know, maintaining that from a staffing standpoint, I get that. So maybe it’s a one time fee to get verified. And I like, and again, I like the idea of subscription for different tools that you can use, but I think that should be more of like, a marketing subscription versus like. I don’t think you should have to pay ongoing to prove that you are who you are on the internet. I think one time, small fee, cool. I’m cool with the idea of ongoing, subscription based services, but I think that it should be separate from the verification badge. Is my two cents. 

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, I’m with you. There’s a lot that I agree with you on that, especially on, you know, the added features part of it, you know, because, let’s be real, because, I mean, Facebook or Instagram, whatever meta they they did not allow just general creators to be able to access support when they needed, even if they were running ads, right? They really didn’t have much support whatsoever, even though they were trying to build a business, right? I mean, even if they were only going to do $100,000 a year, you know, or they’re making 50k a year just trying to sell an online course or something, it’s them, it’s actually that person that they’re interacting with, but they didn’t have support, you know, and they couldn’t get verified because they didn’t have the actual notoriety that existed. But in addition to that, they had nobody to call or even email or chat to say, help me. I don’t understand why my ad isn’t running, you know. Or help me, my account got locked out for some reason. Or help me, like me at one point, I’m like, I’ve got like 18 fake accounts out there. Can you please do something? Because every time I have my team report them, and every random person report it, I get this thing that says that we don’t see that they’re violating community standards. I’m like, they’re using all my shit. It’s my photos. That’s all it was, was this automated thing. And I’m like, come on now. So the added support, I am with you on that, you know, that we could have direct access, rather than having like, like, as in as individuals, rather than needing an agency that was a meta media partner that to submit that kind of stuff for you.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, and a lot of times, you know, so my agency is a partner, so we have access to the portal, and can, you know, help with a lot of these things, and a lot of times I would, you know, if somebody had a small one off request, like imposter, somebody hacked their account, we would just help, or help for a small rate, because I knew that they didn’t have another option. Yeah, but I just don’t necessarily want, that’s not necessarily my wheelhouse, in terms of clients that I want, and like, I don’t want to bill, like, you know, billing 200 Dollars. And by the, you know, it’s a, my business is just not set up to like, do like, those kind of transactions. But I would help people, because I knew that it was kind of that or nothing. So I do like that there’s being an, you know, an in between. And I do understand that that is a cost for meta, or for Twitter, for any company to be able to have staff to do that, so I understand why that should cost money. So I, you know, I hope that that’s in the direction it goes, because if people are using it for business, I think that’s a really great feature, to actually be able to have, like, a support line to call, or to be able to actually get an imposter account down, like that. That’s really, really powerful. So I’m, you know, I hope, you know, I think there’s a lot more to sort of hash out in terms of the logistics on that, but I hope that’s where it goes. And it turns out, well, for a lot of people.

 

Rick Jordan  

I’m with you, and I’ll get off the tech stuff in a bit, because, I mean, security is kind of my thing. And I like, I like seeing people actually verifying who they really are, that, you know, you’re interacting with them. You know, there’s two things I’m saying, like, with you were talking about the scams, you know, now Twitter has the gold check, right, which is for organizations. And what shifted my mind? Because original is like, what the blue tick means nothing anymore. That was like my original reaction with everybody else. But then I’m starting to see that somebody like Verizon has the gold tick, and then all of their 20 something accounts underneath Verizon. Like, Verizon business on Twitter, Verizon customer care on Twitter, Verizon sales. You know, Verizon all this other stuff, all of their individual accounts that are now also having this blue tick because they’re officially part of the organization as a whole. So if you get a message from like Verizon, underscore deals with a Z or something, and says, Hey, I’ve got a special promo for you and iPhone 14 pro max for 50 bucks, just Venmo me the money. Yeah, that’s it, and I’ll send you the phone. It’s clearly a scam. But now you can tell, just because they have that that gold tick, that it’s an actual Verizon account. If they don’t have it, then you know, it can be a scam, because it’s not actually Verizon that you’re interacting with. That’s one of the beautiful things that I see about this. It’s going to protect people.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, it will long term, and I understand that, like the growing pains with it, but I do see long term. I see a lot of upsides to it. I really do.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, we’re gonna see now too, because Gmail, uh, Gmail released a verification system just recently for their email for organizations. So when you sit, when you interact with somebody, there’s a there’s a cost associated we’re doing it. You know, my company is a public cyber security company. It costs somewhere around $3,000 a year to do this, because you have to install all this digital certificates, verify your organization, all of those things. But now you’ll see, because of the scams that come across an email, even way more than social media, you’ll see, if you have a Gmail account, you will see a verified organization or an email, somebody that has an email with a verified organization have that blue check mark on their profile pic when you receive the email.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Yeah, I really, really like that too, because one time, a staff member of mine fell for one of those scams with, you know, they get one of the the emails that says, Hi, it’s Cassie, and I need you to go buy the gift cards. And, you know, and they did it. They went, like, spent $3,000 and bought $3,000 worth of Spotify gift cards. And there’s and there’s nothing I can do. Yeah, it’s a horrible situation. I’m sure that happens all the time to people, and, you know, we have a whole company policy kind of like, you know, deal with that and make sure we always check the email stuff. But a tool like that can save a lot of automatic like intuition and thinking and time right on,

 

Rick Jordan  

I got, I got a rapid fire question for you ready for this favorite artist you’ve ever worked with, the Backstreet Boys? Yeah, I was curious, all right.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Like, you know, favorite client now, but you know, favorite when I was a kid, forever and always.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome. Now I could say it nicely and say least favorite artist, but I’ll just say it worst artist you’ve ever worked with.

 

Cassie Petrey  

It’s interesting. I mean, I don’t know if I have like, a worst artist I’ve worked with, and I don’t know if I would want to publicly name anybody, but it’s interesting. I feel like a lot of times the people you would think the worst are actually really great, and some of the people you think are great are actually really horrible human beings. 

 

Rick Jordan  

Well, that’s to that. How about somebody that the public might have thought was really horrible and but yet they turned out to be really great.

 

Cassie Petrey  

Ooh, let’s see what the public think is really horrible. I mean, you know, we’re with a lot of comedians, and I think sometimes people will maybe think they’re tough, but they can actually be really fun, like we did some work with, you know, like Burt Chrysler for a little bit. And, you know, I think that puts a lot of people that could seem kind of like a tough client on the front end, but he actually was really smart. And. And, you know, has a lot of input and a lot of really great ideas and really fast to respond. And actually, I think probably would have, you know, maybe been better to work with than a lot of people got. 

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome. Next rapid fire for you, somebody who has zero connections, what’s the first step for them to get involved in the music business?

 

Cassie Petrey  

Always go local. That’s how I got involved. I’m from Louisville, Kentucky, not exactly a music industry Mecca, but I found local bands that I could help them get experience with, whether it was selling merchandise at their shows or I was helping them run their peer volume pages at the time, helping them post flyers about their show. But there’s always a local band who is lacking resources that you can help and start building your resume that way.

 

Rick Jordan  

 That’s awesome. Last question, this one’s a little more open ended for you, because this one, I’m really interested in what you have to say. I love, I love employing women in tech, because it’s a very lopsided industry from a gender perspective, you know. And I think women just bring an absolute brilliance to a lot of things that they do. But what advice would you have for women who are looking to start their entrepreneurial business, especially in social media?

 

Cassie Petrey  

I would just say there’s no way you’re going to not feel like the odd one out. Sometimes you’re going to go to meetings or conferences or even sit in first class and be the only woman sometimes, but and that can make you feel really isolated and make you feel really down on yourself, but it’s really important to keep going and to stay in it, because that’s the only way that you’re not going to go sit in first class one day and it not be 5050, you just, even though you feel alone, it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen a lot. Just it’s really important to stick it out, because that’s sticking it out is what is going to make it change for people in the future. 

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s brilliant. Thank you for sharing from your heart today, for real. That was amazing. I appreciate you being on I would love to stay connected, because you’re awesome. And for everyone else, where can they connect with you the best.

 

Cassie Petrey  

I’m also on Instagram and LinkedIn, just my name, Cassie, C, A, S, S, I, E, P, T, E, P, E, T, R, E, y, and I don’t post all that frequently, surprisingly, even though I run a social media agency, but I am actually spend a lot of time DMing people. So if you want to chat or have a question or comment, I’m I check my DMs every day and happy to have a conversation.

 

Rick Jordan  

Cassie Petrie, everyone. She’s amazing. Connect with her followers. I love her, and you should too. All right. Thanks, Cassie.