Your Rally Point Episode 1: The Power of Messaging

In the inaugural episode of Your Rally Point, we talk about why text messaging is so perfect to mobilize people. It’s immediate and in the moment, reaching people where they are. That’s ideal for nonprofits who need to rally people around a cause. Speaking of ‘rally,’ hosts James Martin and Jack Bobbin explain the concept of how to ‘rally,’ both in military and organizational contexts. James explains the origins of the name ‘Rally’ and how they didn’t want to start a text messaging company—but it was far and away the best way to mobilize people. Jack shares his journey in the text messaging industry, including a moment of being in the room where it happened. The episode concludes with a vision for the future of text messaging, and—spoiler alert—it’s all about people.

What You’ll Learn

• Rallying is about coming together for a purpose.
• Why Rally focused their business model on texting.
• We need more human-centered approaches in technology today.
• How text messaging is a medium of the moment.
• We’re going to demystify text messaging.

Quotables

• “The last thing the world needs is another text messaging company.”
• “1994 called and they want their text messaging back. There’s got to be a better way.”
• “People watching us will be getting text messages… you're going to stop this podcast and answer that text.”
• “People are not carrying a laptop into the bathroom.”
• “If people are going to be that addicted to their phone, how do we redeem it? … How do we leverage it because it's already happening?”
• “The staying power of texting is that it’s consistent.”
• “Around 2012, texting became the most widely used form of communication globally every day.”
• “When we listed out all the different channels available to us on the device called mobile to mobilize people, pun intended, we realized that the only one that did not require an account or a login or a download was in fact SMS.”
• “One of the first things I did when I got my iPhone is delete email. I mean, you couldn't delete the Mail app, but I didn't set it up because I did not want email on my phone. … [But] texting is here to stay.”
• "We're going to humanize text messaging."
• “When the books are written 10, 20 years from now about our little company, I want to say that, this little company called Rally Corp launched and it humanized the technology.”

Skip to What You Want to Hear

• 00:00 - Welcome to Your Rally Point Podcast
• 02:57 - Understanding the Concept of Rallying and the Origins of the Name
• 05:56 - The Power of Text Messaging (and That Toilet Comment)
• 08:54 - Jack Bobin's Journey and the Room Where It Happened
• 14:51 - The Evolution of Text Messaging
• 21:04 - The Future of Text Messaging and Its Impact

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