The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - age is just a number

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

Going to therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness. Our sponsor BetterHelp makes therapy simple, with 10% off your 1st month to help you get started: https://betterhelp.com/zoeunlimitedA case study on digital marketing, branding, and business growth from a Gen Z perspective. on the brand of Kesha.Join membership for full dives:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmq99a0Q5La7UmP0kYbUeQ/join✍🏻EXTENDED episodes & marketing insights https://tapx.it/stanzoeunlimitedLearn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedig💜 TikTok: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedtiktok🖤 Listen on Apple & Spotify: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedapple https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedspotify🪭 All my outfits https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedltk👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedlinkedin🛒 Amazon Essentials https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimited👉use code ZOEUNLIMITED for 10% off ALL travels on Klook https://t.ly/aA76T📸My gear: (Sony A7Siii) [ZOEUNLIMITED15] https://tapx.it/lensrental 📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail] //🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro4:35 Kesha 1.09:05 Kesha 2.0

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TD Easy Trade taps into that instinct. Because you are made to trade, and TD. Easy Trade is made to help. What if the version of you that everyone loved was never really you? Rami nominated a pop sensation. Keshah. Keshim. Keshim. How did a $50 million branding dream become Keshah's decade-long cage?

Oh! And what happens when the animal you created refuses to die? We want the old Kesha back and it's like, y'all, she's fucking dead. If there was one person loved by the pop god, it must be Kesha. Because she was dealt with everything. Any pop artist could ever ask to be successful. A chart-breaking beautiful face and body. A famous producer at 18, featured in Florida before her first solo, created the ticket.

TikTok before TikTok. Drop debut after debut that hit number one. Created the glitter aesthetic before euphoria. But somehow, there is still a way to mess everything up. So how exactly did Pop's most promising princess mess up a billion dollar future? That is asking her to pay back her lucky girl debt of $50 million. Even worse. What if the entire brand that got you famous is exactly the same cage that is hurting you?

That's exactly the mystery we'll uncover today. But not only that, as your marketing best, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics with a background in marketing, we're going to explore how lucky and hot girl privilege can still fail you if you have a dangerous brand. And how you, yes you, you, can build a successful brand to help you down your career.

Because by brand, I don't just mean slap your name on a t-shirt. Branding is about how your future client, future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And yes, you have one. I'm creating the series to analyze pop culture brands from a marketing perspective because I want all of us to unlock the potential to build businesses and personal brands. Join the free email list below for additional marketing knowledge and let's break down the three branding missteps of Kesha and the three rebrand strategies that will help her regain her throne.

And listen, what happened to Kesha all the abuse and trauma from her producer, Dr. Luke, who both began and almost ruined her name. entire career was extremely unfortunate. But what makes me respect her as an artist is her resilience of her choosing to continue to fight. I could make it through it. Which is why I really hope that this branding deep dive will help her as much as it can help you. And if you, just like Kesha, are going through your arc of ups, downs, and transformation, I get it. Navigating life changes, big or small can be so challenging. And you're not alone. Every comeback story has a turning point. For some, it's an external shift.

For others, it's internal. Something clicks, a realization, a decision to finally ask for help. And the truth is, that kind of clarity doesn't usually happen in isolation. I wouldn't be here making this video. Had my dream offer not been painfully revoked due to a visa complication and at the same time, my family telling me I have no talent and no skills and what it takes to be a creator. And thank God, I was able to see the light out by talking to a therapist. who helped me understand things don't happen to me before me, that my family might love me deeply, but might not see my vision.

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If you want to give it a try, click the link in the description or go to BetterHelp.com slash Zoe Unlimited and get 10% off your first month of therapy. Now, if you're ready for a beautiful transformation story, buckle up. Because first, we need to understand how Kesha had every single chance to create a billion. Empire. Kesha 1.0. The dumber the lyrics got the better the song got. I thought these feelings they were kind of frivolous. They were just a guilty pleasure. Boy, do I have a wild story to tell you about elementary school Zoe? In grade 6 English class, we had Monday poetry. How fun! Where we had to memorize poems and present them to the whole class. Very nerve-wracking. And my butt that just

moved to Canada at the time could barely speak English, decided that the radio hit TikTok is poetry, memorize the whole goddamn lyrics only to be disproved by my English teacher the day of, who told me to pick another poem that is a bit more cutesy and demure. Fair, especially now looking at the lines like, wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. That did not age well. But hey, Kesha was ahead of her time. I just want to like tour and go nuts and like reinvent fun. Kasha Rose-Burt was meant to be a star. Dropping out at 17, she was determined. One day, One day she heard that Dr. Luke, the mega producer behind hits for Katie Perry and Britney Spears, was in town.

So what did she do? She snuck into his building, found his office, and literally crawled under a gate to slip in her CD. He didn't sign her immediately, but he remembered her. A few months later, he called her in to record vocals. That session turned into Right Round by Florida, and eventually led to her solo breakout with TikTok. Why does she blow up? Three marketing success factors. Am I really famous? Woo! Yeah!

First, anti-glam antidote. She was the Recession Pop Star. In 2009 to 2010, the world was broke, burned out, and over-perfection. Enter Kesha. Cheap glitter, waking up drunk, and not caring about what anyone thinks. What's up, Excesso? It's Kesha. She's not trying to be pretty. I made this out of VHS tape inert.

That's definitely the most unique we've seen all night. Thank you. She's fun. A chaotic. Gen Z before Gen Z even existed. It was weird because the dumber. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community.

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Electrop with Dollar Store Swiger. Dr. Luke production gave a top 40 muscle. His sense of malady is just to give from God. Her sound was unrefined on purpose. That felt rebellious in a sea of, a pristine pop princesses. Third, she understood the internet before the industry did. Kesha came up on Myspace, leaned into viral chaos, and didn't beg for approval.

Her vibe wasn't aspirational. It was relatable rebellion, your unhinged best friend. And the songs matched that. TikTok, your love is my drug, we are who we are. Except no one knew. While Kesha was selling rebellion, chaos, and glitter on stage, behind the scenes, she was allegedly drugged and raped by the fairy producer who helped introduce her to fame. Her wild carefree image was marketed by a system

she claims abusive and exploitative. The glitter was a mask. The chaos wasn't empowerment, it was branding over trauma. After a decade-long legal battle, fans were ready to support the fighter, the brave survivor, Kesha. I've gained back legal rights over my own voice. But when she instead came back with tracks like Joyride, which are about freedom but sounded like her old songs about partying and not giving a fuck. Trust me, I saw her live and it felt like a time capsule of Kesha from 10 years ago. Does anybody want to get naked? It feels like a slap in the face to her core fans.

Fans had seen too much, felt too much. We watched her crying court. We heard her reclaim her voice through strip back vocals and spiritual rebirth. All that for TikTok 11.0 and Dejaveu Chaos? Don't don't even try to keep getting me shit up this The brand was back peddling. It felt like repeated trauma instead of moving on. It wasn't just a tonal shift.

It was emotional whiplash. Did Kesha truly peek at her debut? Or how can she overcome this branding crisis and break the glitter mask? Kesha 2.0. I'm a strong . We want the old Kesha back and it's like, y'all, she's fucking dead. Why is Kesha hitting a brandy ending crisis, simple.

The old brand was a lie, but it paid the bills, but times have changed. While seen as a brave survivor of the abusive music industry, continuing with the marketable chaos breaks the emotional trust built by the raw stories. Ketch's audience didn't need another drink. They needed a follow-up to the truth she bravely shared. Hence, sounds like Joyride felt like an overused recycle from 10 years ago. The same brand that was rooted in the abuse from 10 years. years ago. It seems regressive and a bit jarring. Keshah has a new and powerful narrative,

but chose to go back to what she was escaping from. People want transformation, not just TikTok 11.0. Thus, what are the actual rebrand strategies that could help strengthen Keshah 2.0? First, pick a new archetype and own it. Keshah is caught in branding limbo, to evolve for her old audience but not clearly defined enough to find a new new. She outgrew her original brand but never replaced it. The glitter trash party girl made her famous. I wanted to look like iconic trash. But that persona was rooted in pain, industry control, and abuse.

When she shed it in rainbow, she never built a new character strong enough to anchor a brand moving forward. And literally just went back to the chaotic party girl. I get that a lot of her new songs are about freedom and not partying. But a brand is not about how you see yourself, but how you exist in a you exist in other people's mind. Until I began researching for this video, I literally thought Joyride and a lot of her other recent songs are about being a party girl.

Everything from the visuals to the lyrics are screaming, quote, Joyride, Joyride, I'm just looking for a good time tonight. Her healing, powerful, but blurry. She's oscillating between party girl, survivor, and spiritual junkie without fully landing on any. The rebrand move, choose one core archetype and build a universe around it.

These are just some quick thought starters, the Witch Pop Oracle, the Cosmic Sad Girl, the Spiritual Rockstar. Healing doesn't mean becoming a nun. Healing is hot and pain can be pop. And that is of course done with the help of rebrand strategy number two, a cohesive visual and sound identity.

The old Kesha is glitter vomit, neon chaos, hot mess chic, the new Kesha, currently undefined. The rebrand move, build a recognizable visual signature. across all platforms. Think desert chic, celestial fam, Sunset Core meets As a Trip. I really like.

How Only Love Can Save Us Now was created as a mini-universe. Actually, the entire album of Gagwater is something I think she could double down on. It was a mix of raw emotional storytelling, but still has that avant-garde edginess and Kesha in it, both visually and sonically. It might not be a formulaic trending track, but lays the foundational work for building a brand. than following a formula to go for the streams, that A has no stickiness, B has no signature sound.

Creating a just-safe, outdated pop template, repackaged for a radio audience that had already moved on is just a waste of time. Iconography can also build a visual language. Kesha needs new symbols that tell the story without words. Think Beyonce's B, Gaga's lightning bolt, Doja's morphing hair. Some iconography thought starters for Kesha, a crying eye, a broken halo, a snake and glitter, a vintage locklets. These should appear in album covers, merch, social posts, tattoos to build visual memory. Sonically, Kesha is still missing a cohesive brand of sound. Is it futuristic R&B, Electrop, Urban Trap, Experimental Alt-R&B?

Is it weird, sultry, or in control? Joyride tried to check every box and ended up checking none. Building the brand with distinct sound identity could be helped with the right associations. Not cloud collapse. Future artists who reflect her evolution. Focus on genre fluid, emotionally intelligent, boundary-pushing artists. Tovlo, Grimes, Troy Savon, Doja Cat could be interesting options. The collab with Charlie X-AX was great. Very on brand with a party girl persona and super culturally relevant.

But I don't think it helps much to help Kesheb build forward a new brand and only keeps her in the same frame as her famous TikTok era. But that was 15 years ago. I'm not saying she should start saying church choir. keep what's iconic, then build on that from the additional 10 years of deep experience. Rebrand strategy 3. Ownership. A, own the TikTok that she named. The irony is, Kesha literally named TikTok without dominating it. She was Gen Z before Gen Z became Gen Z.

So create a weird, cult-like TikTok presence. There's still so much that the world wants to see and know about her. Witchy rituals, songwriting process, bizarre wisdom, chaotic, I like to stay in haunted hotels. So after we play like an arena, I'll wrangle up my band and dancers and we'll go to Jeffrey Dahmer's Hotel. Why are we doing this? Whatever makes Kesha, Kesha, the world needs more of it. She doesn't need virality.

She needs iconic digital presence. B. Ownership of Voice. The CEO of my own record label, I produced and I wrote and I sang every song on this album. I have full and complete artistic and creative control. And I've been doing this since I was like eight. So yes, I'm fucking ready. This is a power move.

After nearly a decade of legal battles, creative control issues, and being silenced within a system that profited off her pain, Kesha finally walked away from Dr. Luke and RCA and created her own record label in 2023. The name, Kesha Records. No alter ego, no dollar sign, just her name. That alone is a branding statement. I'm not a product. I'm the producer. Gag order was the first taste of full freedom.

She went from being told what to sing to telling her truth. Sure, it might not be a quote-unquote commercial hit like our animal album, but like I always say, product first, market second. The songs and the album are underrated. And it will only be a matter of time when it gets the attention it deserves. Why? Because word of mouth is the highest form of leverage. What is good cannot be kept a secret.

Just like how I'm telling you right now, gag order is slept on album. From the girl who once crawled into a producer's office at 18 to now running her own office, this is the key to her rebrand, a brand of freedom. Not in the shallow sense, a party alcohol glitter, but an onian voice and speaking it fearlessly. And even if the charts didn't scream, the truth did. Because the rebrand wasn't about going viral again. It was about finally taking her name back. And for any creator, founder artists watching this, let Kesha's story be your reminder. You are not your brand. But if you're brave enough, you can be the one who builds it. And for homework, take out your

notes app. First, ask yourself, what persona did you build just to be accepted? Is it still serving you? Or is it time to let it go? Second, who controls your narrative? Your audience, your investors, or you? Because ownership isn't just about equity. It's about creative freedom. Third, Have you built systems that reflect your future vision? Or are you still running a business built for your 2015 self? Be brutally honest. Hope you enjoy this dive into the rebranding arc of Kesha and learn a thing or two you can apply to your business or personal brand.

If this helped you, send it to someone you love. Give it a five-star rating. Free email list, resources, all links are below. This is your marketing bestie, Zoe Unlimited. Episodes are available on all podcast networks, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. And if you like this episode, make sure to check out these other two I made just for you.