Steve O’Dell: The King of Linkedin and Matcha

 Steve O’Dell: The King of Linkedin and Matcha

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Steve O’Dell is the founder of Tenzo Tea. In this interview we chat with him about some of his Linkedin secrets to virality.

Social accounts: Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram

Niche: Food & Beverage, Ecommerce 

How did you grow your account in the early days?

Steve O’Dell: To give some necessary background, Tenzo sells a ceremonial matcha green tea. It’s a powdered form of green tea that provides long-lasting energy without the crash or jitters. When we were first getting started it wasn’t clear whether or not we had product-market fit, so a lot of our early sales came in-person demos. We used this time to learn about our customers and test different products. We then took the offline learnings to formulate our online messaging and marketing.

Did you stumble upon any useful tricks or flows that got your content viral on Linkedin?

Steve O’Dell: A few, but none of these things generate any tangible long term value. What’s most important is consistent, high-quality content. Consistency is the secret sauce. 

What are some secrets to virality in your most successful platform?

Steve O’Dell: Seek out content deficient social networks as opposed to content sufficient social networks. Instead of being one of a million other creators on Instagram or Facebook (content sufficient networks),  focus on TikTok and LinkedIn which are content deficient. 

What’s a common misconception your followers have about you?

Steve O’Dell: I’m not sure at the moment. I keep it real and so do they, so we usually come to an agreement pretty quickly on issues. 

What do you think you do better than most people? How are you able to do it?

Steve O’Dell: I am very consistent and disciplined. This means I post at least daily, but usually multiple times per day. And all of these posts, while they may look one way or another, are really just a bunch of independent tests. I am trying so many types of content in an effort to learn as much as possible about how to create the best possible content. And over time, the disciplined part really starts to add up. I have a massive archive with hundreds of posts stored with their metrics. And over time this only gets stronger and stronger. 

No matter if you’re starting with hundreds of followers already or zero, if you focus on the cycle of creating -> reviewing -> iterating -> creating, you will be successful over time. 

 

What are some of the best blogs you’ve ever read?

Steve O’Dell: Paul Graham’s blog is my favorite one on the internet. Second to PG is Shane Parrish & the Farnam street crew. After that, it splits into a million random sites that I read for one reason or another. The only sites I find myself going back to often are PG and Farnam Street. 

Any favorite influencers you follow?

Steve O’Dell: Elon Muck, Nassim Taleb, Yes Theory, Lebron James, and maybe a few more, but it’s a short list. 

Any last thoughts? 

Steve O’Dell: Focus on great content, everything else is secondary until you have discovered this.

You can read a previous interview I did of him when he was starting out.