The company I founded, CarEdge, turns five years old in July. This milestone has me feeling sentimental. For posterity’s sake (and to the benefit of other early-stage entrepreneurs), here are a few things I have learned from this journey.
Take the first step
When I reflect on starting CarEdge, I feel so proud that I took the plunge and started building it when I did. The original pitch deck is nearly identical to the one we have today. Taking the first step allowed us to get momentum and continue growing. Just do it!
I remember that it took me about a year to gain the courage and strength to quit my job to pursue CarEdge full-time. I am glad that I took that year to get clarity on the business and gain confidence, however, in retrospect, I think I would have likely ended up in a similar situation as to where I am today if I had started even sooner. This conjecture is pointless, however the principle is valid: take the first step. Stop waiting around for someone or something to give you the signal. If you feel the pull to start your company and pursue the work, do it.
The original slides for CarEdge in 2019, which at that time was called Your Auto Advocate.
My identity is more than my company
This was a fucking big one. Wow. I had the realization that my identity is more than my company during the Summer of 2024. My girlfriend and I had broken up a few months before and I was in California at a founder’s retreat when it happened.
“What do you do to relax, Zach?” I still remember when Rob Go asked me this in 2022 after a board meeting. I replied with something to the effect of, “I don’t, I am addicted to building this business.”
He was visibly put off by my answer. He had genuine concern.
Well, fast forward to 2024, thousands of miles away from home in beautiful and sunny California, and heartbroken Zach had an epiphany.
“My identity is more than my company,” I said to Rob, and about 50 other founders and investors at the end of the retreat. We were in a big circle sharing our takeaways from the retreat. I felt strong, powerful, and confident with the words coming out of my mouth.
Rob came over to me and gave me a hug afterwards.
What I realized during those days at the retreat is that the value I bring to the world is measured by more than the P&L of the business I founded. It always was, and always will be. I did not believe that in the past, and, fortunately, I fully embrace this reality now and into the future.
What allowed me to have this breakthrough was strikingly simple, yet deceptively challenging to do. I was in a very emotional state, still processing the end of my previous relationship, and at the retreat I didn’t work for three straight days. Instead, I played tennis, golf, and went swimming. For the first time in four years, I took a few days entirely off. I didn’t work, I didn’t think about my company, I just played some sports, felt my feelings, and hung out. (Side note: I went on a few vacations during those prior four years. Sadly, I never took a break from working. I feel regret, sadness, and frustration when I reflect on those times. Lesson learned.)
And you know what happened? CarEdge still existed when I came back. My team was shocked I wasn’t there and found ways to push ahead. This allowed me to have my identity epiphany.
This was a huge moment, and one that I continue to cherish. I grew up that day, and my approach to building my company and my personal relationships became more sustainable and thoughtful as a result. I feel more whole and complete today thanks to this experience.
Thank you for your concern, Dan!
It is hard to be happy or satisfied
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive”
This quote, from Andy Grove, makes me sick. Why? Because it so perfectly encapsulates my existence as CEO of CarEdge, and shocker: being paranoid for five years straight is not the most pleasant experience!
Founding and growing CarEdge has reinforced for me something I knew existed within me, yet I never named. I have struggled with happiness. Swap “happiness” in that quote above for “success” and the meaning stays the same.
“Happiness breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive”
This hits on a concept I am actively working on with my coach, the notion of doing versus being. Doing is about action and accomplishment, while being is about presence and mindfulness. Doing is future-oriented and goal-directed, while being is present-oriented and focused in the moment.
For me, I have learned that it is hard for me to “be,” and it is much more comfortable for me to “do.”
I think about the next milestone and struggle to sit in gratitude for what I/we have accomplished.
I feel sad when I acknowledge this affliction, and I also feel excited that I have this disposition, because it is what propels me and motivates me to continue to do hard things. It sucks that having a mental model of “I am not good enough” drives me to push harder, and it also serves as a damn good motivator.
I hope that over the next five years I can find a more peaceful balance between doing versus being and experience more happiness and satisfaction.
There will be a lot of noise
I think there is a correlation between a company’s material success and how many people give you their opinion on how you should be operating it. Seriously, the more our team has accomplished, the more we hear from people who either:
Tell us all the things we are doing wrong and how we should change;
Attack us for reasons that don’t always feel logical or coherent; or
Sabotage our progress by instilling their ego in the process.
Whether it be competitors, the wrong hires, investors … Everyone will have an opinion. Listening, learning, and making decisions amidst this noise is a skill I continue to hone.
Building in public is the way
Founding and growing CarEdge has taught me a crucial lesson: I can only lead with transparency and authenticity. Over the past five years, there have been moments when I felt misaligned with my own values. When those moments arose, I learned to lean into the criticism and use it as a catalyst for change. Every misstep, every tough critique, became an opportunity to realign our mission and build a stronger, more resilient company culture.
It’s all about delivering, nothing else matters
Winning teams deliver shit. Plain and simple.
Making mistakes is the fun part (it’s about the journey, not the destination)
I have fucked up so many things building CarEdge. Easily we’ve lost $1-2m because of wrong decisions I have made. AND you know what? We wouldn’t be where we are today without those lessons learned. Mistakes are the fun part. What a privilege it is to go through tough shit and come out stronger and better off on the other side.
Work with people you like
Gamechanger: work can be FUN and you can surround yourself with people you enjoy spending time with. I am not saying you should hire “yes” people … Far from it. You should hire people you want to actually spend time with. When your company is less fairly small (say less than 100 people) you have the privilege of knowing everyone. Work with people who make showing up at the office fun and engaging!
Looking ahead
Reflecting on CarEdge’s growth from $0 to $10M in annual revenue over these five years fills me with gratitude. Every challenge, every mistake, and every hard-won victory has helped shape who I am as an entrepreneur, a leader, and a person.
For all the early-stage entrepreneurs out there: take that first step, stay true to yourself, and remember that your value goes far beyond what any balance sheet can capture. Embrace the noise, build in public, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes—they are the building blocks of success.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with CarEdge. Here’s to the next five years of growth, learning, and becoming more than we ever imagined.
At that time (the first week of March), it wasn’t clear what effect coronavirus would have in the United States. As the days and weeks unfolded I couldn’t help but get depressed. I’d talk with family or friends, and they’d say, “Boy, don’t you wish you had kept that job just a bit longer?” And I’d think to myself, “maybe?” I was confused, scared, and certainly not making much progress on my new business venture.
Then, amidst all this negative energy, my dad had a great idea; “Why don’t we film YouTube videos via Zoom?” Before working full time on CarEdge I had filmed a handful of videos with my dad. He would talk about the car business, I would post them on our YouTube channel, and we’d get a few hundred views. I had a vision for growing our YouTube channel into something sustainable and scalable for the business, but it never really took off.
Until… We started recording Zoom conversations like Ray had suggested. Here’s the story (and lessons learned) from growing CarEdge’s YouTube channel from 0 to 14,000+ subscribers in three weeks. Below you’ll see I am as transparent as I possibly can be, with screenshots from Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Youtube Analytics. I hope you find this valuable.
What is CarEdge?
To provide clarity on what you are about to read, you need to have a brief understanding of what CarEdge is, and how YouTube (and content marketing in general) play into the company’s overall growth strategy.
Let’s say you’re in the market to buy a new vehicle. Odds are, the thought of going into a dealership (or in our current state, going onto a dealer’s website), makes you queasy. That’s because most people do not trust car salespeople. I can’t blame them. Interacting with car dealerships is far from pleasant, and it’s tough to walk away from buying a new car feeling confident you got a great deal.
No one wants to be the guy or gal that makes the dealership a lot of money.
That’s where CarEdge helps. Instead of going to a dealership, you hire CarEdge. You tell CarEdge what vehicle you’re interested in, and they handle all of the dealer outreach and negotiation. Their only compensation comes from you, the client, so you have confidence they’re working the dealers for the best deal possible without a “kickback” of any sort.
That’s CarEdge in a nutshell. We make car buying simple, easy, and fun.
Now, to gain awareness for this new venture I was adamant that we needed to leverage Ray’s 43+ year career in the car business to teach consumers the ins and outs of how dealerships work. That led us to create videos and write written guides. My thought process was that if we could build trust with our audience early on, and give them the tools they needed to feel more comfortable buying a car on their own, then eventually, we’d find prospective customers that would pay us to simply do it for them.
Before we got traction
It’s important to recognize that CarEdge’s YouTube success did not occur overnight.
Before gaining traction, I fumbled around with a few videos that didn’t get more than a few hundred views. Those videos were shot in 4k, with professional lighting, a microphone, and more. The “new” videos we created from recorded Zoom calls (using our free Zoom accounts of course!), were in 360p, with no microphones, and no editing.
What changed from those original videos, to the recorded Zoom calls that allowed us to get over one million views in a few short weeks? Here’s what I think happened:
People enjoy the back and forth banter and authenticity between Ray and I;
People enjoy the poor quality of the videos, it appears more authentic than well produced content. I think this is really important to understand this point. Here is an email from a customer that sums it up well:
Ray and I began creating videos that were topical and relevant based off of current events, rather than focusing on “general” information on the car business.
These three characteristics are what I think allowed us to find traction on YouTube.
The growth we experienced
As I wrote about a few months ago, finding your first paying customer is not easy. It was on April 19th, nearly 6 weeks after I quit my job, that we had our first paying customer. This is an important date, because it was just four days later that our YouTube videos began to pick up steam.
As you can see in the screenshot of our YouTube analytics, we saw a massive increase in viewership over the past week or so. Before this spike, we were averaging around 100 views per day across all of our videos. On Thursday April 23rd we knew something was happening, because we spiked to 1,852 views.
I sent my dad this message on that day:
Views on Friday the 24th grew to 4,400, then 21,916 on Saturday. This kept going until it reached the top on Saturday, May 2nd at 131,417 views in a single day.
We’ve seen viewership decline since then, and if you asked me “why,” I wouldn’t be able to provide a concrete answer. I don’t know why.
We have a base of 14,000+ subscribers now though, so each of our new videos receives a few thousand views when we upload them. We’ll see if we’re able to grow more rapidly again in the future.
I have a lot to learn when it comes to developing a YouTube channel!
Converting viewers into customers
The goal of content marketing is to generate customers for your business. One of the benefits of YouTube is that you can monetize your content (you may have noticed in the screenshot above it showed nearly $3,000 in revenue from ads on our videos, for example), but the primary goal is to convert readers or viewers into customers.
We saw a huge spike in website traffic in conjunction with our growth on YouTube. People that found CarEdge on YouTube would then google search our name. Here’s the search data for “CarEdge”:
Once traffic reaches your website it’s important to have a clear “flow” for how users can convert into customers. Fortunately for us, the traffic that made it to our website was converting at a high clip! In the screenshot below you can see (to the right) the “goal conversion” for Marketing Qualified Lead. That is anyone that completes our Sign Up form.
The bounce rate has been incredibly low, and the time on site has been incredibly high.
About 2% of traffic has converted into MQL, and over two thirds of that traffic has converted into a Sales Qualified Lead.
Those SQLs have converted into paying customers at a high clip too!
The funnel (as of writing this) is:
67 MQLs, converting into
26 customers
39% of visitors that fill out our sign up form have gone onto become paying customers!
Anecdotally speaking, the other 61% who are not converting into customers right now, have told us they’d like to work with us in the future, when they are ready to buy their next car. That being said, I anticipate more than 70% of our MQLs will convert into paying customers over the next few months. There really has been limited to no negative reaction to our business model, pricing, or value proposition. People really hate going into car dealerships or dealing with car salespeople, and we can take them out of that pain.
As in any service business, the more you can delight your customers, the better your chances are of gaining referrals and word of mouth recommendations. With that in mind, we created a compelling thank you page after paying your final invoice:
And, new reviews have been coming in too!
Where do we go from here?
Well, all this growth has forced CarEdge to mature more quickly than I had previously imagined. Our first employee will be joining us on May 25th to help us expand and meet demand! If you had asked me if this was possible one month ago I would have said “No way!” But look where we are now.
It’s truly incredible that some Zoom recordings with my dad have enabled our business to grow as quickly as it has. Authenticity goes a long way I suppose. Incredible.
There are a few high priority tasks I will be focusing on over the coming days and weeks:
We need to find other marketing channels. YouTube as a marketing channel is great, but being entirely dependent on it as your growth engine is not smart. What if YouTube changes its algorithm and you don’t get as many views? Over the coming weeks I will be exploring and testing new marketing channels such as:
Affiliate marketing;
Referral marketing;
Direct mail marketing;
Social media marketing; and
Partnership development (employee benefits programs).
We need to make service delivery simpler, easier, and more fun. The other area of the business I will be focusing on is developing a product to wrap around the service we are currently providing. I have a vision for how we can make the user experience for both the customer, and the CarEdge representative that is working with them to be efficient, convenient, and seamless. If we do this right we’ll be able to scale the business in a way that is profitable.
I need to create a timeline with goals, financial projections, and expected hiring dates. Since we’ve proven the business model, one of my primary responsibilities is to develop clarity around how quickly we can (and should grow), and what type of investment that will take. I owe it to myself, and all future team members to provide a clear roadmap of where we’re going and how we plan to get there.
I hope you found this interesting and valuable. I’ll post another update once I get a chance, sometime in June I imagine. Thanks for reading.
As the title of this blog post suggests, finding the first paying customer for your new business is not easy. This week (March 8th, 2020) is my first one spent working full-time on CarEdge. Since December, when I began working part-time on the business, to now, we have yet to attain one painstakingly important milestone — getting our first paying customer.
That’s not to say we haven’t tested our service and validated its legitimacy. Since December, CarEdge has assisted four people in their car buying process.
The results have been inspiring, and have proved the effectiveness of our service. We’ve also researched and determined that the market size is sufficiently big to pursue. Where we’ve run into trouble is finding someone to be the first paying customer.
It’s deflating to start a company, know your services help people, and still not have a true customer. These are the joys of entrepreneurship though, and trials and tribulations of starting a company while working another job full-time.
Now that I am working full-time on CarEdge, I anticipate we’ll get our first paying customer sometime soon, but I’d be foolish to suggest I know exactly who it will be or when that will happen.
If you are anything like me, you Google search for answers to your questions. Type into Google, “how to get your first customer in b2c” and you’ll see myriad results. Too many. It’s overwhelming.
After reading through the first page of suggestions you’ll begin to notice a theme, at least I did.
The articles, albeit long, well thought out, and detailed, lack legitimate insight into how startups found their first customers. Instead, most of the results talk about the importance of “building your brand,” or “talking to customers.” Yes, I get it, those are things we should do, but tell me how you did it, was the thought that repeatedly went through my mind.
That was the impetus for today’s blog post. I’d like to share with you the tactics (not strategies or theories) I have employed over the past three months in an attempt to get our first paying customer at CarEdge. This may be less of a “guide to getting your first customer,” and more of a “learn from our struggles” type of post, yet either way I trust you’ll find it interesting and valuable.
I’ve broken out our tactics into two categories; short-term and long-term. Bear in mind that generating sales is nothing more than helping people move through a sales process, commonly referred to as the “funnel.”
Every marketer has a different “funnel” that they prefer. My go to is AIDA; awareness, interest, desire/decision, action.
At the end of the day, every tactic you read below is in an attempt to get someone into the funnel at one of those four stages, and then help them move themselves towards taking action.
Let’s dive in.
Short-term tactics to get your first customer
Some tactics are designed for “quick wins.” In sales and marketing there are (generally speaking) no silver bullets. If someone could flip a switch and generate hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of dollars of revenue, they’d be worth their weight in gold.
Unfortunately, such people don’t exist. Although the thought of a marketing “genius” coming up with a master plan to generate instant revenue is “sexy” and portrayed in the aggrandizement of Silicon Valley super heros, the reality is that getting your first customer comes from “grinding it out,” not finding the elusive silver bullet.
Bear in mind that I have only had the capacity (up until this week) to work on generating leads and sales on a part-time basis. With that in mind, here are the three short-term tactics I have tested since December:
Scouring reddit and other online forums;
Sharing with family and friends;
Offering our services for free to get referrals, press, etc.
Reddit and online forums
Online communities exist to connect like minded individuals. When it comes to online communities, no website is more robust and trafficked than Reddit.
Broken into subreddits that focus on specific themes, Reddit is home to millions of users, and is a prime target to find your first customer. There is a subreddit for anything and everything, and if your business targets consumers, then you should be able to find a community of people who may be interested in your product or service.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Great! I just found the community that should be interested in my product. Let me submit a post about my company!” DON’T!
Similarly to how no one wants to be pitched or sold in the real world, people don’t want to be sold your product on reddit. There is a minuscule chance you’ll have success posting to a subreddit to promote your product. There’s a better chance you’ll end up getting banned.
Instead, what I would suggest, and what I have tested for the past few months, is reaching out to people via direct message. For example, for CarEdge, we help people buy cars. So, every morning I review the latest posts on:
r/whatcarshouldibuy
r/carbuying
r/usedcars
Within each of these subreddits I identify 10-20 people who are looking for help buying their next car. They’re literally posting to reddit to ask for help. Since our service could alleviate the pain that they’re in, I reach out to them, one by one with a personalized message.
Over the months I have tested three different types of messages. Two have been effective, and one has fallen flat.
Asking for general feedback about our new service has worked well. Here is an example from the forums at Edmunds.com.
As you can see, this conversation provided us with a lot of great information. All it took was being proactive!
Offering our services for free in exchange for a Google and Yelp review has worked well. Within a few days of sending this style of message we had helped one customer get their new car. They’re ecstatic, and so were we
Another example of proactive outreach yielding a positive response.
What didn’t work was offering our services for a discount. In retrospect, this makes plenty of sense. For the same reasons I outlined above (no one wants to be “sold”), this message I sent was me “selling,” but at a discount. Not only was I not providing value to the prospective customer (I was selling), I was also undermining the value of the service we provide. I sent out dozens of these messages, and no one responded. I don’t blame them.
Would you respond to this? I don’t think so.
Sharing with family and friends
As far as “no-brainer” short-term tactics go, this one is at the top of the list. Unfortunately, for us, with CarEdge, we need to be talking to people who are considering buying a car sometime in the near future. As I engaged friends and family about my new business there was some interest, but primarily in the future. I can’t force my family and friends to want to buy a car right now, and that’s something you come to accept!
Not now, but in the future…
Just because this has not proved effective for us is not to say that you shouldn’t engage with family and friends and make them aware of your new startup. From posting on LinkedIn, to simply having conversations with my peers, we’ve been able to get a lot of value from our network.
My friend, Ryan, provided some of the most in depth feedback we had received to date. Further evidence to involve your family and friends in the process!
Offering our services for free
This tactic has been painful, but beneficial. Like I mentioned above when discussing reddit, this was the “offer” in one of the messages I’ve been testing. This tactic is painful because it’s hard to justify trading your time for no money, however, it’s incredibly beneficial, because it has already yielded evangelists for our service.
The idea here is to delight your free customers so much that they refer you to other paying customers in the future. Although we have yet to get our first paying customer, this tactic has generated a lot of optimism amongst our team.
For example, one family that we recently helped in Savannah, GA shared this email with us:
It feels good to help people!
By helping this family for free, we’ve created one of our first “evangelists,” and the value of that cannot be understated. However, just like we discussed at the outset of this blog post, what we need are people who are interested in buying a car today. Yes, having an evangelist, and someone who sings our praises is valuable, but no, that doesn’t actually get us any closer to finding more people who are interested in buying a car right now.
You see the predicament, don’t you?
One of the additional tactics we’ve tested in conjunction with offering the service for free, is to be proactive in requesting press outreach from the people we help.
For example, for this family that we assisted in Georgia, I researched all of the local reporters in their area and identified those who I thought would be most interested in running a story about our services. I then drafted an email template for our evangelist and sent the list of reporters and the template to her. My request was simple, if you feel comfortable, please reach out to the reporters and cc me on the email.
This is my attempt at “teeing it up” for the person we helped for free.
At the end of the day, our job is to make it as easy as possible for evangelists to spread the word about the work we are doing. I refer back to the book, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug in situations like these. The book is for web design, however its concepts hold true across a breadth of topics. Your responsibility is to “tee up” the next step after you help someone for free. Don’t make them think, just give them what they need to spread the word.
These are the three short-term tactics we have deployed. The process is a grind. In conjunction with these short-term initiatives, there are long-term tactics we are working on as well.
Long-term tactics to get your first customer
Unlike their short-term counterparts, long-term tactics to generate your first paying customer are less stressful, make more “common sense,” and are worthwhile distractions from the pressure to find someone to pay right now.
When starting a new company there is a lot of pressure to get a paying customer, and with good reason. If you can’t find people to pay you for your product or your service it’s a strong indicator your business won’t have much of a future.
However, when you execute long-term tactics to build your sales and marketing funnel you find yourself (at least I do) having more fun, feeling less stressed, but also not directly affecting your number one priority (getting a customer yesterday).
This is the super “unsexy” side of startups and entrepreneurship. It’s the daily struggle to focus on short-term “quick win” tactics that provide validation that you aren’t crazy for going into business, while wanting to spend your time working on long-term tactics that feel a heck of a lot more “kosher.”
With that preamble out of the way, it’s time I share which long-term tactics we have invested in to generate sales opportunities for CarEdge.
Engaging with people
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that you need to feel comfortable engaging with people to get your first (or second, or third, actually, all of your) customers. Engaging with people in your industry is one of the most foolproof activities you can take to build your sales pipeline. What does that actually look like?
There are two primary resources I draw on to identify potential high-value relationships for CarEdge. The first resource is Help a reporter out.
Help a reporter out (commonly abbreviated to HARO) is a matchmaking service for journalists and their sources. I have had a registered account with HARO for years, and have always wanted to become an active participant. With CarEdge in full swing, I have made a habit of searching each of their three daily emails to see if I could provide value for any of the journalists looking for help.. I search each topic for anything relating to cars, trucks, suvs, or automobiles.
This outreach has yet to lead to anything substantial, however the potential is there.
The second resource I look to is Google Alerts. No matter what industry you’re in, Google Alerts can help you stay on top of relevant news. Currently, for CarEdge I have two alerts set, one for “car buying help” and the other for “how to buy a car.” I receive an email from Google (two actually, one for each keyword) with relevant news associated with the key phrase.
Every morning I review these two emails from Google.
This has proved highly valuable.
By getting the alerts directly to my email inbox at 6am each morning, I am able to connect with journalists that are writing relevant content in my industry. If it weren’t for these resources I otherwise wouldn’t be able to proactively engage as many people.
Content marketing & search engine optimization
If you start a startup in 2020 and you aren’t focusing on “content marketing and SEO,” did you really start a start up at all?
All jokes aside, content marketing is incredibly valuable. Join me in a brief thought experiment…
If you had an infinite advertising budget, and your boss tasked you with “figure out which google search ads make us the most money,” which keywords would you target? Keep in mind you have that infinite budget, so money isn’t a factor — you can simply outbid your competitors for the first spot in the search result every time.
Do you have your keywords in mind? For CarEdge we would target; car buying help, car buying consultant, car buying service, etc.
With your infinite budget, you could easily spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads to rank first for your “best” keywords each month.
This is the value of content marketing and SEO. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads that cost you per click, you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the highest quality content so that Google places you on the first page (preferably the top spot!) for the keywords that are most meaningful for your business (the same ones you would spend your infinite budget on to drive revenues).
There are two primary benefits, and one major drawback of content marketing and SEO when compared to buying search advertisements.
The two benefits are; your cost does not increase on a “per click” basis, and you can position your company as being “customer centric” by teaching your audience what you know. The downside? It takes a long time to reach the first page, let alone the first spot on Google.
With CarEdge we don’t have an infinite budget. Actually, we don’t have much of anything allocated to spend on advertisements. That means we’re investing our time heavily into content marketing and SEO.
So far the results have been promising. For a brand new website it can take anywhere from three to six months to truly get on Google’s radar. At the three month mark, we’re certainly on their radar, and we’re already ranking for quite a few keywords.
You can see back in January there was no organic search traffic. Now in March, we’re getting some traction!
As you can see, organic search traffic has been rising steadily since the website was created. You can even tell when Google first started to recognize that our website was worth indexing.
The increase in organic search traffic is thanks to our consistent publication of guides on the CarEdge blog (each of which is focused on a particular keyword). In addition to the content, we’ve made an effort to optimize each page for the best user experience (and ultimately the best chance to rank higher with Google), thanks to Google Lighthouse page audit.
There are entire blogs, forums, and books on content marketing and SEO, and at the end of the day, you can read, watch, and listen to every voice in the space and still come away with the same realization — you need to give people valuable content that is engaging, useful, and helpful. If users click through on a search result, spend actual time on your website, and occasionally share your content, you’ll rank well on Google. That’s SEO for dummies.
We will get customers from our SEO and content marketing efforts. I envision that this marketing channel will be the primary driver of revenues in the future (12 to 18 months from now). There is no reason we can’t out rank the current #1 results for the keywords we are targeting.
Youtube content marketing
Part of the fun (and struggle) of being an entrepreneur is the constant nag to try something new and to feel challenged. For me, Youtube represents that challenge right now.
Inspired by the hundreds (if not thousands) of videos I have watched over the years, and the appreciation I have for individual Youtube personalities, I convinced my father, Ray, that we need to film him talking about the car business. After some initial reluctance, he was on board.
As a long-term tactic to generate sales opportunities, we see a lot of promise. As of writing this we have 140 subscribers to the channel, and nearly 200 hours of “watch time.” Ray is bewildered (the number of times I’ve heard him say “I don’t know why people watch this shit, but damn is that neat!” has to be more than fifty at this point), and it appears there is a lot of potential growth. I feel confident there is.
Some automotive youtube channels have over one million subscribers, and although our ambitions are not that high, I envision a world where the CarEdge Youtube channel has thousands, if not tens of thousands of subscribers.
Ray represents an “insider” and that persona on Youtube has the potential to be a big hit. There are Youtube channels for airline pilots that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers and their video content is relatively simple — they talk about things only airline pilots know.
We’re doing the same thing with Ray. He is “pulling back the curtain” on the retail car business and giving viewers insight into how car dealerships operate.
It’s exciting to see people comment, like, and subscribe to the channel. Plus (and this is just a hunch, I have no backing for this assumption), I think there are positive SEO implications for having a Youtube channel and embedding our videos on our website’s blog posts.
Youtube is owned by Google, and it’s my presumption that they can figure out that our website is associated with our Youtube channel, and that by having “rich media” (videos) on our website we increase the amount of time someone spends on our site, thus increasing Google’s perception that we should rank higher.
This is all conjecture, but it is part of the long-term sales and marketing strategy.
What we’re going to try next
So there you go, that’s what three months of part-time work on a startup looks like (in terms of sales and marketing). In an effort to get your first paying customer you need to be willing to grind it out, engage with people in a value oriented way, and test some long-term tactics too.
At the end of the day though, we’re still looking for people who are actively interested in buying a car. Where are they? The tactics listed above are all great, but three months in and they have yet to yield our first paying customer. What gives?
Well, no matter how quickly I want something to happen, I have to respect the timelines of other people. I have no doubt that our efforts from the past quarter will yield customers in the future, just not right now. This does bring to mind the need to test other tactics and there are two I plan to introduce into our marketing mix.
One of those short-term tactics is to get business cards and put them at restaurants, golf clubs, etc. I have no clue if this offline marketing will work, but it feels productive and will force me to engage with local business owners, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. CarEdge offers national service, however taking a regional approach to get our first customer is a concept that resonates with me.
The other short-term tactic I’ll be working on is contacting employers, wealth management firms, and professional associations to see if they are interested in underwriting our service as a perk for their employees and clients. There are a lot of unknowns with this tactic, however it feels worthy enough to investigate further.
Remember the sales and marketing funnel
Finding your first customer is arduous, stressful, and fun. Don’t have fear! Remember to trust the funnel!
As we navigate this process with CarEdge I am reminded of how challenging starting a company is. The last time I did this I was a freshman in college, and my naivety guided me. This time, I feel a bit more confident, yet that confidence brings an added layer of pressure.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for how you think we could possibly find our first customer, or you want to be our first customer (more power to you!), please don’t hesitate to contact me.
“Go to the gym, get the energy out, it’ll be better tomorrow,” Ray would say with routine delivery.
We both knew it wasn’t going to magically “be better tomorrow,” yet with exercise and a good night’s sleep, my anger and frustration would dissipate. Ray was seemingly always right. For months he begrudgingly took on the role of “part-time” therapist. My once a week rants became twice a week, then three times, then seemingly everyday.
“Okay Zach, I get it. I think you’re right, now’s as good a time as ever to move on.”
“Validation!” I remember thinking to myself.
Upon receiving Ray’s buy-in, I immediately drafted an email to send to my mentors to get their input. Their responses were all eerily similar, and each began with, “Yes.”
What I thought about before quitting my job
Well, it took me 10 seconds to quit, but it took me over a year of contemplation before I felt confident and comfortable “doing it.” During that year I endured many frustrations, downplayed their significance, convinced myself that things would “get better,” and pursued multiple avenues to transition out of my role and into a new one.
That year was a confusing time for me. I was earning more money than I ever had in my career, I took my girlfriend on a trip to Iceland that involved staying at the most luxurious resort in the country. I had a fancy car, a big house, a lofty title. “Wasn’t this what I wanted?” I remember thinking to myself.
Back in 2008, when I was 12 years old, I created my first website. It was called MoneyMakinGuru.com. I wrote articles about my entrepreneurial endeavors. I had always been attracted to making money.
If you go to school, or if you have ever gone to school, you know about strict rules. None of the rules are stricter than the no gum rule. Well, if your bad ass like me, you would find away to break this rule, and make some money.
Not all kids have access to food stores to buy gum. So why not become the school supplier of gum. I thought of this idea when I was sitting at lunch and my friends were trading me food for gum. I said if you give me $.25 per piece they are yours. So one of my friends, sorry no names, bought 4 pieces of gum. Then I went into English and re-sold the candy I was traded for the gum. a win win situation. I ended the day with $1.75. $1.75 for the least amount of work I have ever done. My mom had paid a measly $3.50 for 16 pieces of 5 gum. I could have resold the whole pack for $4.00. I would have made $.50. Even though that may sound small, multiply that by all the days in the school year. You would make $95. Now that does sound like some nice money. Considering you would be doing minimal work.
It is just an idea, but maybe it could work for you. Subscribe to my feed if you like this post.
Your friend,
Zach
Now that I had money, I realized I wasn’t fulfilled. Cliche, eh? It’s the truth. Yes, money facilitated all sorts of incredible experiences, but it didn’t make me feel complete or whole. If anything, it made me feel disconnected from my peers.
Did I quit my job because of some altruistic, “Eat Pray Love,” go out in the world and “find myself” desire? Partly, yes. The other driving factor? My entrepreneurial spirit to create something of my own.
At MarketSmart I disagreed with the CEO on how to grow the business. I had dedicated nearly one fourth of my life to MarketSmart, and although I carried a lofty title and a lot of sway, I couldn’t persuade the owner of the business to commit to the strategic decisions that seemed necessary to me.
My aspirations to make money, although now muted by having access to pretty much anything I wanted, couldn’t hold me back from vocally bringing to light seemingly obvious ways to grow the business. My primary responsibility as Chief Operating Officer was to be the CEO’s right hand man — to help him navigate operating the business. Hundreds of hours over the course of many years were spent talking with the CEO about business growth. Presentations were made, essays were written, competitive analysis was done… I brought any number of valid ideas to the table for how we could grow and where we needed to invest.
Towards the end of my tenure at MarketSmart, my ideas and aspirations for how to grow the company were vetoed. This misalignment, and the realization that my entrepreneurial spirit could not be fulfilled at MarketSmart, was the primary driver for my decision to move on.
As a strong willed person, you have a limited threshold for being told “no.” While contemplating my resignation from MarketSmart, I recognized that I wasn’t the right fit for the business.
Rather than “clock-in” and receive a paycheck, I decided to quit. This could be youth and naivety, but I simply don’t have it in me to “show up” and get paid. I’m 24. I have too much energy. I want to do something meaningful with the hours I am awake each day. I don’t want to take advantage of a company that has given so much to me.
Getting a nice paycheck and not feeling compelled by what I did that day doesn’t equate to me.
Bootstrapping a new business, from scratch, with my dad
Many business gurus profess you shouldn’t start a company with family members. Fortunately for me (as my first website name made clear), I’ve thought of myself as a “guru,” and with that in mind, I decided not to follow their advice.
I’ve gone into business with my dad, Ray.
This is my second attempt at starting my own company. The first, a subscription service for protein supplements, was a relatively inexpensive learning experience during my freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh.
This business, CarEdge, feels a touch more informed, legitimate, and well thought out.
What is CarEdge
Is it fun buying a car? Think back to the last time you purchased a vehicle. Would you describe the experience as confidence-inspiring, transparent, efficient or pleasant?
For many, buying a car is the second largest purchase they’ll make in their lifetime. However, unlike the largest purchase (typically a home), there is no “agent” there to guide you through the process. Google searching for information, reading tips on how to negotiate, and then going into a dealership to talk to a salesperson appears to be an adequate “status quo” for approaching car sales.
Ray, my father, has 42 years of experience in the retail car business. He’s managed and operated dealerships across the United States representing myriad brands. During his career he’s sold well over $100 million in inventory to consumers. He knows a thing or two about the car business.
CarEdge makes car buying less painful, more convenient, and fun. Instead of walking into a dealership, you have CarEdge do the work for you. We research, locate, and negotiate on your behalf.
You get 42 years of experience on your side, and the comfort of knowing that you’re not getting the runaround by a salesperson. All from the comfort of your home!
Information economy & content marketing
“Yes, that is correct, he is 8 years old and made $26 million last year.” Ray looked at me in disbelief.
“Shit! We should have started when I was younger,” Ray replied with his typical sense of humor.
Ryan’s World, a Youtube channel featuring 8 year old Ryan Kaji, grossed $26 million dollars in 2019. In explaining to my father how this 8 year old out-earned professional athletes, hedge fund managers, and 99.99% of humanity, the lightbulb began to go off.
“Dad, I don’t think we can make that kind of money from Youtube, but there’s a chance. People love information, they like learning, being entertained, etc. Why do you think there are 3 million Wikipedia articles? Because people love information.”
My speech was resonating, and Ray could see where I was going.
“You’re going to want me to make videos, aren’t you?”
Fast forward to today, and 130 people subscribe to Ray’s Youtube channel, with nearly 150 hours of “watch time” in just three short months.
Our desire to teach individuals about the car business, and a commitment to “peel back the curtain” on how it works, are primary drivers of the CarEdge business model.
Content marketing is all about providing valuable and free resources to people. For example, in a recent Youtube video and written guide, Ray explains what credit score car dealers use. The content, which I then posted on reddit went viral (5k upvotes). This is a great example of how hungry individuals are for this type of information.
The reason it is called content marketing, and not content production, is because it serves a business purpose. The free and valuable content is used as a way to educate and inform individuals, who then, on their own volition, will explore your website and online presence. From there, as a business, we have the responsibility (and obligation) to make it clear to a prospective customer what product or services we provide. In the case of CarEdge, it’s the car buying service.
Our strategy is to share as much about the car business as we can. If we do a good job and provide relevant and valuable information to consumers, we feel confident we’ll convert some visitors into customers. And, even if we don’t, Ray feels like he is leaving his legacy for his grandkids to see someday (how sweet is that?).
Be a part of the journey
If you’re interested in following me along this journey, subscribe to my family and friends newsletter. Each month you’ll receive an update on how business is going with CarEdge. If you’re compelled to learn more about the trials and tribulations of bootstrapping a company, you’ll want to subscribe.
She looked at me with a blank stare. My comment wasn’t what she was expecting.
“Meth, mom. Cooking meth. Like Walter White in Breaking Bad.”
After those words left my mouth, I started balling and fell into her arms.
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we’re all dying. If you’re an optimist, you might say we’re all living (and you’d be right!) however, with each breath we take we’re one step closer to the end.
When you’re diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer the reality of death becomes much more tangible. When you’re healthy, happy, and in your routine, you rarely think about your own demise. Who would? Why would you?
When an oncologist tells you that a six month timer just started counting down, you have no choice but to face the gravity (and unmistakable reality) of your situation.
On December 22nd 2014, at nearly 2pm in the afternoon, my mom, Suzanne Shefska, shared with me her diagnosis. Her life had forever been changed (and shortened), and against her wishes, mine had too (she desperately didn’t want her diagnosis to affect the lives of her children — my sister and I).
“Stay in school, Zach. You know I want you to get your degree. Please, continue your studies.” I remember her words so vividly. My mom was a teacher after all, so higher education meant a lot to her.
“The community college is really well respected, mom. I promise, I’ll continue taking classes there. I can’t go back to Pitt though, it’s just too far away. I’d rather be here with you.”
A few weeks later I left my “studies” at The University of Pittsburgh and enrolled at Anne Arundel Community College. Pitt was a plane ride away from home. AACC was a five minute drive. My stint at community college lasted a few months. Calculus 2 was dropped from my schedule before the semester was over. I was done with higher education.
Four years ago I shared an update of sorts. One year after I resigned from the University of Pittsburgh I drafted up notes about where I was, what I was doing, and who I had become. Now, as I’ve experienced the five year anniversary of my mom’s diagnosis, and my decision to postpone my academic studies, I’m back with another “here’s what has happened since quitting college,” blog post.
If you know me personally, I trust you’ll find this update interesting and informative. If you know me from afar, maybe you’ll think I’m really strange (sidenote: I am). Or, if you’ve stumbled across this from somewhere on the internet, my hope is that you can learn how being resourceful, self-starting, and entrepreneurial can “pay off” in terms of starting your career (ie you don’t need a college degree to make money, be happy, learn, and live your life.)
I’ve organized my update into two categories; personal and professional. Feel free to click on any of the links below to jump to a specific section.
Personal
Family
I bought a house. My purchase happened six months after my mom passed away, nearly two years ago. My dad, sister, and dog (Cinnamon) moved in with me. Then my sister moved out, we put the dog down, and my dad decided to live at his condo at the Jersey shore year round. Woo! Something tells me I’ll be selling the house sometime in the near future. There’s no logical reason for a 24 year old bachelor to have a five bedroom home in the suburbs. If nothing else, going through the purchasing process was an incredible learning experience. In retrospect, I can hardly believe how naive I was going into the process. Knowledge for next time!
Me, my house, and my dad’s fingers.
My dad retired shortly after my mom passed away. Ironic, isn’t it? He had worked in the car business for 42 years, consistently pulling 60-70+ hour work weeks. As of today, he’s happy, healthy (for the most part), and relaxed. It’s nice to see, although I do get nervous about cognitive decline in retirement. Fortunately he works remotely and part-time for his old employer. He enjoys what he does. I have a few ideas for some projects I want to work on with my dad as well. Neither him or I have a compelling business background (he went bankrupt operating a retail golf store in the ‘90s, and I’ve never gotten my own business off the ground), but something about working together with him is top of mind for me.
My sister has been excelling in her role at the National Academy of Sciences. She recently received a promotion, and she is coming up on her own five year milestone with the organization. In parallel with her full-time work, she has also been pursuing her masters in public policy, although we’ll see if she finishes the program or not (it’s not particularly challenging or interesting to her which is unfortunate and frustrating). It’s a good thing she decided to enroll though. She met her boyfriend, Zack (with a “k”), and they’re the happiest couple I’ve ever seen. Win-win.
Health
After years of being too stubborn (and embarrassed), I started seeing a psychologist. Dr. Cohl has been instrumental in my capacity to grow personally and professionally.
I had been embarrassed at the idea of seeing a professional therapist. In retrospect, I don’t understand why. A therapist or psychologist is similar to a coach on a sports team. You don’t see any professional basketball teams without a coach, do you? Why not enlist the same support in your personal life too?
To be fair, facing your insecurities is not trivial or easy. Having Dr. Cohl on my ‘team’ has been highly beneficial in developing strategies to combat my unhealthy habits and make progress in areas of utmost importance to me. Mental health for the win.
There is a crazy gym, called SoliderFit, that I started going to, and I’m hooked! After years of lifting the heaviest weights I could get my hands on (and my body not always feeling great as a result), I have my sister to thank for getting me to try something different (and seemingly healthier). SoldierFit, a small collection of gyms whose workouts are in the same vein as their name (military-themed with instructors yelling out commands and instructions), has drastically changed the way I approach fitness.
The workouts are circuit-based, and I still recall the first “trial” class I went to. My sister invited me, and I was so cocky… Boy was that class a wake-up call! The five minute warm-up (consisting of running and dynamic stretching) had me more out of breath than I’d like to admit. The next 45 minutes didn’t fare much better. After that, I was hooked. When it comes to fitness, I love a good challenge, and SoldierFit delivered.
Since joining in early March of 2019 I’ve attended over 200 classes. That’s a class every 1.8 days or so. I’m so glad I trusted Dara and went to that first trial class.
Beyond the fitness benefits, of which there are many, there is also the sense of community you gain from being a part of the SoldierFit gym. I never understood the “community” aspect that could exist at a gym. In the past when others would say something akin to “I’ve made so many friends at my gym,” I would be confused. “Don’t you go there to exercise,” I’d think to myself. I’m no longer confused, it’s clear as day to me how important community can be in a fitness setting.
I’ve developed a healthier relationship with food and body image, however more work needs to be done.
In conjunction with seeing Dr. Cohl, I’ve been able to make great strides in developing a healthier relationship with food and my own body image. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with binge eating. Initial conversations with family and friends about my disordered behavior in 2016 helped me accept the fact that it was something I struggled with. Over the years, I’ve been able to suppress most all of my binge eating behavior, and candidly, it is not something I think about anymore (day-to-day).
Body image is a different story, although one where progress has been made as well. During the past few years, there was serious consideration to get surgery for my gynecomastia (something only I notice), and there is the continued pressure I place on myself to maintain a certain “aesthetic” or appearance. I don’t love it, and I don’t hate it (the pressure I put on myself), however, what I’ve come to realize is that I don’t have to let these thoughts dictate my life. For example, if I want to buy a shirt that may have in the past given me anxiety (“it makes me look fat”), I’ll acknowledge that thought, recognize that I can still feel confident in my own skin, and purchase the shirt (maybe this is more an indicator that I enjoy shopping, but I think it speaks to an improved appreciation for myself).
The process of developing a healthier relationship with myself and my physical appearance is ongoing, and I anticipate years of hard work will be required to continue to make strides here. There have been setbacks over the years as well. I can vividly remember instances of binge eating and self-hate. It’s not fun, it’s not healthy, but it’s part of my life. I’m glad I’ve acknowledged it and started to take steps to be healthier.
I still struggle with social media.
Decreasing my “screen time” is nearly always top of mind for me, however I haven’t taken much of any action to affect it over the past five years. There was the week where I didn’t check Instagram. Or, the fact that I don’t have the Facebook or Twitter app on my phone, and instead have to log in through the web browser. And (fortunately), the fact that I don’t have a Snapchat, TikTok, or whatever the next cool app is (ps, at 24 years old, I officially feel old). Yet, with all the being said, I still feel as if I have an unhealthy relationship with my phone and social media.
During recent travels out of the country, where I had no cell phone data, I found myself being less attached to my phone (who knew). This was good, a positive sign — that I can spend less time on my phone if service isn’t available — but still concerning, because when I was connected to WiFi I was glued to my phone. I’m not sure what steps I am going to take here. Something tells me I’m not the only one that struggles with this. While in Seoul, South Korea it became incredibly obvious to me how endemic and international the “glued to your phone” issue is. On the metro I witnessed a full car of people all staring down at their devices. Phones are taking all of our attention, regardless of if you’re in San Francisco, Seoul, or anywhere in between. It can’t be healthy.
Education
Learning ReactJS
I spent a few weeks getting my hands dirty programming in reactjs. It’s been over two years since I built an app from scratch (in angularjs back then), and it was equal parts exciting and nerve racking to dive into react.
I don’t think I’ll be getting into the weeds of programming much more though. Web development is fun and I enjoy having enough skills to “get by,” and maybe even more importantly, to have informed conversations with professional developers, however I don’t see myself ever working as a professional developer, and with that in mind, I don’t see myself allocating time to really “level up” my programming skills.
I was accepted into the University of Maryland’s undergraduate business program and declined to attend.
My career felt like it was going in the right direction; and
The classes really didn’t look compelling at all.
Four years later, I’m glad I didn’t re-enroll in higher education.
Hobbies
Books
I’ve read a lot over the past five years (with a particular emphasis on the past 12 months). Here are a few standout books I’ve enjoyed.
Man’s Search for Meaning
Do you ever feel sorry for yourself? I know I sure do. Do you want a reminder that life isn’t so bad, and that actually, you have it pretty good? I’d suggest reading Viktor Frankl’s memoir, Man’s Search for Meaning. You’ll probably cry, and with good reason. Frankl, a psychiatrist, documents his three year experience (1942 to 1945) detained in Nazi concentration camps. The book, broken up into two distinct sections, first provides riveting first-hand accounts of Frankl’s experiences within Nazi concentration camps. Death, torture, the most inhumane experiences you’ll ever encounter, they’re all documented by Frankl in vivid clarity. The second section of the book is dedicated to Logotherapy, Frankl’s psychotherapeutic approach that is founded on the premise that human beings are most motivated by a search for meaning in their lives. Frankl identifies key moments from his experiences in Nazi concentration camps and guides the reader through the realization that Logotherapy (the search for meaning in his life) was what allowed him to maintain strength and survive.
Clinical studies on Logotherapy show compelling results. I look to my mom’s continued professional work after her diagnosis (teaching elementary school special education) as evidence that the search for meaning in one’s life can provide the strength to continue pushing forward. I think my mom lived as long as she did because of this search for meaning. Research appears to back this theory up.
Flowers for Algernon
Funny story here. I went on a father-son trip to Las Vegas. The highlight of the trip? Reading this book. The lowlight of this trip? Realizing I could have saved thousands of dollars by reading it at home instead of in Las Vegas!
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Nine months before my mom passed away she suffered a stroke. Blood clots from her feet traveled through her body, passing through her stomach and heart, ultimately causing a stroke in her brain. Before the stroke occurred my family assumed that her pains where associated with her cancer and chemotherapy. We were wrong. My mom was in miserable condition because of the blood clots traveling through her body. As a result of the stroke, my mom lost all function on the left side of her body. In a true testament to how strong willed my mom was, she worked diligently to regain most of her mobility leading up to her death. Relearning how to swallow, stand, walk… all for the promise of getting to another chemotherapy session… if you want a “growing up” experience, supporting your parent through something like this is it. You’re a different person afterwards.
What does this have to do with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly? I read Jean-Dominique Bauby’s book, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly about a year after my mom passed away. Bauby, the former editor in chief at Elle magazine in France experienced a similar fate to my mom, except worse. At 43 he suffered a stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome. Bauby, like my mom, was cognitively aware of what had happened (the stroke), and was still aware of his surroundings, however he couldn’t move his body at all. The only exception were his eyes. Bauby was nearly entirely paralyzed, and even worse, his right eye was sewn shut due to an irrigation problem, but he still wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly from his hospital bed by blinking his left eye.
The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, which took ten months (four hours a day). Using partner assisted scanning, a transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet (E, S, A, R, I, N, T, U, L, etc.), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and an average word took approximately two minutes. The book also chronicles everyday events for a person with locked-in syndrome. These events include playing at the beach with his family, getting a bath, and meeting visitors while in hospital at Berck-sur-Mer. On March 9, 1997, two days after the book was published, Bauby died of pneumonia.
Buddhism Without Beliefs
After breaking up with a long-time girlfriend I thought maybe Buddhism would help me relax and find peace. I don’t know if it did or didn’t, however I feel a stronger spiritual connection than I did before, and I like that.
The Challenger Customer
B2B sales isn’t easy. You’ve got competitors left and right, closing deals can sometimes drag on for years, and the worst part is you’re actually competing against the status quo (ie an organization’s willingness to “just keep doing what their doing” rather than invest in change). In their multi-part series, The Corporate Executive Board Company (whose members authored The Challenger Customer), provide great insight into the biggest “deal breaker” in B2B sales. This is a must read if you are attempting to resegmented an existing market (an insight that comes from my favorite business mentor, Steve Blank.)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
This is the most influential business book I’ve read in the past five years. Trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results, these are the five building blocks of great teams. Patrick Lencioni may take one hundred too many pages to make his point (his writing is entertaining though), however the key takeaways (what are the dysfunctions that inhibit teams from achieving “success”) is well received. After reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I requested that each member of our team at MarketSmart to read it as well. I have a great mentor to thank for sharing The Five Dysfunctions of a Team!
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
For nearly a year I have started, stopped, and started again to read this book. If I finish it in my lifetime I will be pleased. Not even because I want to understand it all, more-so to prove to myself that I can focus long enough to read it. Ha!
Art
Another post-break up decision that worked out really well! Signing up for pottery classes. Throwing ceramics has become my therapy and escape from the world.
Really proud of how these two pieces came out!
Sitting at the wheel, making a giant mess, and taking a ball of clay and transforming it into something functional (a vase, a mug, a bowl, etc), was (and still is), one of the most invigorating and inspiring activities I’ve ever done. Very recently, at the beginning of 2020, I was fortunate enough to throw some bowls at an open-air studio in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. The experience (being in a foreign country, in the forest, amongst locals, etc.) was very powerful and exciting for me. I feel so fortunate to enjoy this hobby and engage in it globally.
A very angular pot that was challenging, fun, and rewarding to create!
Before ceramics I had a lukewarm appreciation for art. I couldn’t draw, I couldn’t paint, I certainly couldn’t make a bowl or a mug. Exploring ceramics has proved valuable in many ways. Not only do I now have mugs, bowls, and vases that I use each and every day, I also have a deeper connection to myself. It might sound corny to those who haven’t had the experience, but tapping into this side of yourself is pretty revolutionary and valuable. It’s funny, I read Buddhism Without Beliefs while starting this hobby, and although the book didn’t resonate with me greatly, there are many passages that talk about being “like the clay on the wheel.” The parallels between Buddhism and ceramics is certainly compelling!
My new found connection to the arts inspired my pursuit of collecting art… on my body :-). Over the past year, I’ve been fortunate to work with talented artists to capture some of the most important and meaningful moments of my life on my body through their work. Tattoos, and self-expression through them, is something I would have never taken an interest in a year ago. With an open mind, and a willingness to learn and grow, anything can happen.
Airplanes
The pursuit of a private pilot license is not easy, and with good reason, once you’ve attained your PPL you can legally fly an airplane (with passengers in tow too) at your discretion (there are rules, in particular with regards to weather, but you get the idea). After conducting a “discovery flight” during the summer of 2018, I knew I was hooked, however it was only more recently that I began to take lessons with an instructor. To date I have only ten hours of flight time in my logbook, most spent in a Piper PA-28 single engine aircraft. The minimum requirement for your PPL is 40. Much to my father’s dismay, that means I am only 30 hours, a written and verbal exam, and a “check-ride” away from being able to fly a plane on my own. Get excited, dad!
Flying is fun!
I aspire to be able to fly to destinations in the future. With different tiers of licenses, a PPL doesn’t guarantee I’d be able to fly whenever I’d like (only under certain weather conditions), however it does represent the first step towards this long-term (and lifelong) goal.
Travel
When my mom was sick I rarely travelled. It simply didn’t feel right to leave her, and morbidly, I wasn’t sure if she would be alive when I came back. After she passed I travelled more than I ever had before. I think she would be proud of me for that.
My big trip of 2019 was Iceland. That experience actually led to the creation of a separate blog, I’d Rather Be Traveling. Man was that an incredible trip.
I’ve also been fortunate to dot the country over the past two years as well, with time spent in:
San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Atlanta, St. Louis, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and probably a few more that I am forgetting. Denver was a stand out for me. I greatly enjoyed my time there and want to visit again sometime soon.
Very recently I returned from another major trip. New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and South Korea, were all visited at the end of 2019 and the beginning of this year. My adventures (with three of my best friends) will be documented on my other blog, however as a whole, I hope I am able to travel more in the future. Experiencing other cultures is exciting to me. I am happy, engaged, and excited when I am in new places.
Professional
Career
I was given the title Chief Operating Officer at MarketSmart in July of 2018. This January however, I was asked to transition into the “Director of Sales & Marketing” role.
I started my career at MarketSmart as a web designer in February of 2015. The company, then only with a handful of employees, has grown substantially each year that I’ve been there. It’s fun to be a part of an organization that has a compelling mission, is growing, and is financially rewarding. I don’t know how long I’ll stay at MarketSmart (I desperately want to work for myself), however I am forever grateful for the opportunity to learn, grow, and make an impact at the organization.
My day-to-day responsibilities are myriad and varied. No two days are ever the same, and for the most part, I enjoy that. Very recently I have been asked to head up the growth of our sales and marketing departments. This has been a fun challenge, and I have learned a lot in the process (while also growing revenues).
While in my COO role I was responsible for:
Legal and Regulatory responsibilities
Developing organizational initiatives. Aligning the organization’s goals with department level initiatives. Establishing key metrics to measure outcomes and identify areas of growth for the company. Etc.
Set budgets for Marketing and Sales
Hiring really talented people
Firing really talented people 🙁
The “best” thing I think I’ve done at MarketSmart was develop a Strategy and Support Team (ie a leadership team). When the CEO and Founder gave me the title COO, the org structure was incredibly flat. There was the CEO at the top, and then everyone else. When I became COO the structure was still incredibly flat, but now with two people at the top. Over the next year I worked with the CEO to restructure the organization to have three more “Directors” join the leadership team. By developing a leadership team we have been able to execute more effectively as an organization and set the stage for growth beyond the scale we are currently at. Building this structure took a long time, and progress was not always obvious (frequently I was concerned if what I was doing was actually worthwhile), however in due time (literally over a year), it has finally become clear how powerful and important this decision was for the business. I feel good knowing I’ve done a good job at MarketSmart.
Working hard with Rhonda!
Also during the past few years I was tasked with developing a new business unit at MarketSmart. I lead the growth of Fundraising Report Card to $250K in revenue before making the strategic decision to make it free for the nonprofit sector. Over $60B in donations have been analyzed on the platform, and users include some of the largest nonprofits in the world, as well as the temple where I went to Jewish private day school as a toddler. Talk about a cool moment, seeing something you made being used at an organization you benefited from as a youth. Rewarding!
Recently I’ve had the privilege of representing MarketSmart at The Giving Institute, an industry leading organization tasked with advancing philanthropy. I sit on multiple committees and enjoy collaborating with influential members in the sector.
Over the years I have honed my sales skills. I’ve really learned how to sell in the B2B setting, closing hundreds of thousands of dollars in deals with multi five figure deal sizes. This is a skill I’ll be forever grateful to have learned.
The next five years
What do the next five years have in store for me?
I’m determined to work for myself rather than for someone else. This is undoubtedly my number one objective over the next five years. I cannot pass up on the incredible learning experience I am getting at MarketSmart working for my mentor, Greg Warner, however within the next five years I envision myself doing something different.
One of the challenges I acknowledge in working for someone else is that you can find yourself having thoughts along the lines of “I have to split my time between working on me, and working on them.” What I mean by that is that you end up negotiating with yourself on doing something for you, and doing something for them (them being defined as the organization). Yes, organizations are capable of more impact (simply as a result of scale), however I would prefer to be an owner in the organization, rather than simply be a cog in the wheel of it.
I see more tattoos in my future… It’s an expensive way to express yourself, but one that I think is worthwhile!
I envision myself selling pottery at a crafts fair… I honestly don’t even want to sell anything… I just want to have a table at the event and talk to people about pots. Ha!
I want to buy an airplane… They’re not that expensive. To which my dad says, “is that really the purchase you want to be frugal about?” Point well taken dad. We’ll see if this is achievable in five years. It might not be, but maybe within the next five years I’ll at least have my PPL.
I plan to travel more. I have the rest of my life to live in a house in the suburbs. I hope to hike more as well. You don’t need to travel far to find incredible sites. I feel a sense of guilt that I haven’t explored more of the National Parks here in the United States. That will certainly change over the coming years.
That’s my update. If you’ve made it this far, then thank you. Thank you for caring about me, my family, my life, etc. If you’re a distant friend, consider reaching out. Odds are, I’d probably be really happy to hear from you. Unless you’re… Nevermind 🙂
If there was ever a day to not check your email, slack, or even your phone in general, Thanksgiving would be the day. To many in the United States, Thanksgiving represents a day of rest, relaxation, and reflection. It’s a secular holiday that nearly every American celebrates.
As a Jew, I’ve always found some interesting parallels between Thanksgiving, and my religion. In Hebrew the word for giving thanks is“l’hodot,” or “hodu.” In the imperative form “hodu” is found in Psalms, “Hodu l’Adonai ki tov,” translating to “Give thanks to God who is good.” As a noun, however, “hodu” represents the Hebrew word for turkey. Coincidence? I tend to think not, but who knows.
This Thanksgiving I am especially grateful for one thing in particular; learning to play the long game. Nearly a year ago I came across this article from Farnham Street. This passage from their writing provides a clear overview of the long game concept:
There is an old saying that I think of often, but I’m not sure where it comes from: If you do what everyone else is doing, you shouldn’t be surprised to get the same results everyone else is getting.
Ignoring the effect of luck on outcomes — the proverbial lottery ticket —doing what everyone else is doing pretty much ensures that you’re going to be average. Not average in the world, but average to people in similar circumstances. There are a lot of ways not to be average, but one of them is the tradeoff between the long game and the short game.
What starts small compounds into something more. The longer you play the long game, the easier it is to play and the greater the rewards. The longer you play the short game the harder it becomes to change and the bigger the bill facing you when you do want to change.
Putting off something that is hard, uncomfortable, or challenging — that represents the short game.
Paying the price today for something that will make tomorrow better? You guessed it, that’s the long game.
Should I put money into my retirement account or go buy clothes? The retirement account represents the long game, Nordstrom represents the short game. It’s easy to grasp, and we all know what the “right” thing to do is, correct?
Understanding the theory of the long and short game is not challenging. Executing the long game in practice is. Everyday we are surrounded by short term and immediate rewards (twitter retweets, Instagram likes, the list goes on and on). Playing the long game means putting those to the side and instead working towards something greater that exists in the future.
This Thanksgiving I am grateful for committing further to the long game. The first step towards playing the long game is the hardest. It’s visibly negative. You have to give something up today to receive benefit tomorrow. This is why the long game is hard to play. That’s okay, I am up for the challenge.
Regardless of what you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving, consider learning more about the long game. It’s a worthy concept, and one that I am deeply committed to.
“I’d say it’s three to four hours per day, maximum.”
I was surprised, but not taken aback. In my own head I had always thought, I was somewhere between three and four hours per day too.
“Why do you think that is?” One of my colleagues asked.
“Well, if you count the time I’m actually head down, getting things done, and being most productive, I can’t see how it could possibly be anymore than that in any given day.”
Not a quantitative argument by any stretch, but compelling nonetheless. Over the years, I’ve learned that when our CEO speaks, as a staff member, we should listen, and this Friday afternoon lunch conversation was turning especially compelling.
“Did any of you see the article in the Wall Street Journal about the German firm that implemented a five hour work day? They saw productivity increases.” I chimed in.
When it comes to “work,” which at MarketSmart, Greg Warner, our Founder and CEO, prefers to refer to as “making progress,” (and I agree with him, “making progress” sounds considerably better, and is more indicative of what we do than “work”), it’s compelling to question how much of it actually gets done in any given day.
It doesn’t take too much investigative work to build a case for why organizations should be questioning the traditional work schedule. Over the past two weeks I’ve come across this article on Rheingans Digital Enabler and their five hour work day, a report from Microsoft Japan which found a 40% increase in productivity from implementing a four day work week, and this gem of a piece from the BBC whose title reads, “Pointless work meetings ‘really a form of therapy’.” The case for support to challenge the traditional approach to “work” is right in front of us.
Where did I turn next in my journey to better understand what is happening? Myself.
For years I’ve prided myself on getting more done than others. I think back to this blog post I published in 2016 sharing my morning routine. I’ll spare you all the details, however the beginning of my day used to look like:
Wake up at 4:15am
Eat a similar high protein breakfast at 4:20am
Bathroom break…
Leave for the gym at 4:50am
Arrive at the gym by 5:05am
Do my weight or aerobic training (I even have a routine for this)
Leave the gym at 6:15am
The routine goes on and on. Four years later, and I can assure you this routine is no longer in effect (I wake up at 4:45am now instead!), however it is indicative of a culture that many of us subscribe to: always being productive, always getting things done, always “working.”
When I think of this culture I recall a friend of mine who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and went to work for JP Morgan in New York City. Steve joined their investment banking team. One day (a few months into his job), Steve and I were talking about hours spent in the office:
“Yeah, during the busy weeks I’d be pulling 80 or 90 hours at the office,” he said matter of factly. “It comes with the territory though, and plus we get breakfast, lunch, and dinner expensed, so it’s not that bad.”
I was dumbstruck (for those wondering, Steve has since moved on to a smaller boutique firm where he works fewer hours and secured a raise — way to go Steve!). “How could any organization expect you to be productive for 80 or 90 hours in the span of seven days?” I remember thinking to myself.
Steve’s reality at JP Morgan was “productivity culture” to the max. Many of us (especially those in big cities) are surrounded by it, and it may be doing more harm than good.
Recalling Steve’s experience, paired with the articles I had recently read on “work,” I felt inspired to self-assess my own productivity. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed, or concerned that sharing my in-the-office productivity on the internet will yield some sort of repercussion. I’m honest, forthright, and cutting through the BS. To suggest you can consistently work 10+ hour productive days, seven days a week, without lapsing in focus or judgement (even if you do “biohack” yourself) is unrealistic.
I logged what I did for a week and categorized my actions. The outcome? The chart below:
Writing – 15%
Reading – 10%
Talking – 15%
In a meeting – 15%
Thinking – 10%
Execution – 25%
Taking a break – 5%
Preparing – 5%
Which led me to question, “which of these activities is ‘productive,’ versus ‘unproductive’?” This could be the basis of a PHD student’s thesis paper, and rather than stymie my progress, I decided to simply ask myself “were the last 60 minutes productive?” at the end of each hour for one work week. The outcome, 56% of the time, I said, “yes,” meaning 44% of the time, I said, “no.”
Was I surprised? Yes. Based off of my self-assessment I was averaging 6.2 hours of productivity per day. I immediately questioned this (which may just be my inherit nature). Why? Because my assessment technique (asking myself, “were the last 60 minutes productive”) didn’t take into consideration each minute in that hour, rather how the hour as a whole “felt” in terms of productivity. That is to say, if within one 60 minute time block I felt that 31 minutes had been productive, I most likely would have said, “Yes, this has been a productive hour,” misrepresenting the entire hour as being productive. Or, if I ended the hour being highly productive I may have been more likely to label it a “yes,” when in reality it may not have been. The opposite is of course true too.
I think a more realistic value would be one-half, or two-thirds of 6.2 hours, somewhere between 3.1 and 4.1 hours of productivity per work day. Does this mean I’m not “carrying my weight” at my organization? I don’t think so. Untracked went the myriad hours thinking about work outside of work (which could be its own PHD thesis paper), the weekend log-ins to email, Slack, and other apps to stay connected with our internal and external teams, and more.
But what does this mean for the future of “work?” I turned to my father, who spent 40+ years in the retail car business managing dealerships for most of that time. I asked him, “When you were in the car business, how many productive hours do you think you were able to ‘give’ on any given day?”
His response was both enlightening and thought provoking:
“What I have found in all my years, is that productivity is predominantly dependent on the inner motivation of each individual salesperson and manager. If someone wants to be successful they must put forth the effort (going to work to work) to reach their personal goals. If someone wants to be average (going to work because they have to), their work efforts are somewhat less than the successful people, and those who are below average, tend to have little to no self motivation (going to work to hang out, drink coffee and search the web) and are wasting their time, my time and most importantly the customer’s time. In my opinion, productivity is a personal choice that is made on a daily basis. The choice is often dependent on many outside influences on people’s lives. Health issues (both personal and with loved ones), relationship issues, their commute, the weather, and the like all influence an individual’s productivity. One final influencer on productivity is the employee’s happiness with their work. Are they happy doing what they do? Do they feel like they are being utilized fully and is their input taken seriously? Hell do they even like what it is that they do? If any of those areas are a negative in the employees mind than their productivity will be less than you would want it to be.“
The workday as we know it is shifting, and I think my dad makes a great point. Whether it’s a four day work week, a five hour work day, or some other variant to the traditional 9 to 5, what truly drives “work” getting done at an organization isn’t your schedule, but rather your personal interest in what you do. Will the work day evolve and shift? I think so. Does the traditional 9 to 5 provide the most optimal schedule for productivity? Certainly not for everyone. Are there other drivers of productivity and workplace effectiveness that should be addressed first? Absolutely.
So you tell me… How much work do you actually get done at work?
Stress stinks. I know because of the recent comments I’ve received from staff, family, and friends.
“Zach, you should take a break, you don’t look so hot.” “Zach, you’ve got bags under your eyes and they’re red.” “Zach…”
We’ve all been there. It’s not fun.
Operating a small business requires a few key ingredients; something to sell, people to buy “it,” and cash. If you are missing even one of the three, your small business will end up in the “small business graveyard” with millions of others.
Getting all three in place (something to sell, people to buy it, and cash) is no small feat. Google search “how to sell,” and you’ll find hundreds of millions of results. Research how to develop products/services/solutions that people (or businesses) want, and you’ll find entire “courses,” that will teach you.
Google search “what to do when you don’t have cash,” and you’re SOL (shit out of luck). In small business (and truly in any business), cash is king.
Not having money has its perks (stick with me here…). When you don’t have money you behave differently. Your organization can evolve more rapidly and the iterative process of company development can occur more quickly. Why? Because when there is pressure (and associated stress) to pay staff, bills, and your landlord, you’re forced to think outside of the box.
Status quo in business doesn’t work. What got you to where you are won’t get you to where you hope to go. Developing a stable, secure, and successful organization requires both iterative and innovative evolution.
When money gets tight and you face the stress of not making payroll, you begin to think innovatively. “Okay, what can we do as an organization to spur sales?” That question can be asked when bank accounts are flush, however it seemingly carries more weight when paychecks are on the line.
Of course as a business operator (and financer) you can’t scare staff into looking for another job. You can (and should, if you’re a small team) be transparent with your team. Saying things along the lines of, “It’s going to be all hands on deck for the next few months while we look to weather our cashflow storm,” is a direct, albeit only somewhat nuanced way to inform your team. Heading to an all staff meeting and saying, “We may not make payroll this week,” is a sure fire way to instill fear (and flight syndrome) in your team. Don’t do it.
Cash flow problems come with downsides too. First, when you don’t have money, you begin to think more short-term. “What can I do today to save money today?” May seem like the right train of thought, but you need to manage short-term and long-term objectives. Financing and running a businesses means you make an investment in people, and you don’t want cash flow problems to inspire short sighted layoffs that undercut longer term needs. Of course, you’ll never get to those long-term needs if you don’t make it through the short term challenges you face.
Second, cash flow problems can ruin your books. Accepting subpar financing terms because you’re in a pinch can greatly impair an organization’s future growth. Whenever taking on financing, be diligent, and don’t move too quickly.
All in all, not having money is a good thing. In my experience, cash flow problems have served as the catalyst for dynamic and innovative changes. Where taking potentially risky action would have previously been dismissed, not having money suddenly justified giving them a shot. The result? Meaningful and impactful changes in our company’s growth.
If you’re reading this and you’re strapped for cash, don’t fret. Leverage the situation. Pull out all the stops. Figure out what your customers will pay for and work tirelessly to deliver it. That’s what I’m doing, and even if my eyes do go red, and there are bags below them, it’s some of the most fun, rewarding, and inspiring work I have ever been a part of.
“It’s a game changer, Jed. It’s already been a transformative experience.”
“That’s fantastic to hear Zach!” He said, as a resounding smile appeared.
In between rounds of Dominion (wow that’s a really fun game), and chit-chatting with family members, I found myself repeating the same sentences over and over again:
“She’s helped me hone in on what’s most important. She’s been an incredible sounding board. Her experience is like a guiding light. The past few weeks have truly been fantastic!”
No, no, I wasn’t talking about my girlfriend (although she is also a great sounding board, guiding light, etc.), I was preaching the gospel about my mentor. Only two weeks prior had I met her, began our working relationship together, and started learning as much as I could from her.
Why mentorship
When I was 15 years old I read How Breakthroughs Happen by professor Andrew Hardigon. I have absolutely no clue why. In the world of entrepreneurship literature there are too many reading options (books, blogs, etc.). I’ve never seen How Breakthroughs Happen on any online “top ten lists,” but, it made it into my lap.
Its premise is really quite simple; breakthroughs happen when groups of people share ideas, one person internalizes them, and then ultimately that person makes a decision. Hardigon bats down the notion of a lone entrepreneur sitting by themselves in a dark room, concocting the “next best thing.” Instead, his research suggests that innovation stems from idea sharing, internalization, and then decisive action.
I am forever grateful that I read this book.
Now, in a position of authority at MarketSmart, it’s my responsibility to grow our business and build a great company. Mentorship, and surrounding myself with advisors, is the only way I will be able to accomplish that effectively.
It’s not too far of a stretch to suggest that innovation and business growth are similar, and I have subscribed to Hardigon’s premise; if I surround myself with people that share ideas, and then I internalize them, and then I make a decision, our business will succeed. If I do not, my likelihood of independently (and unilaterally) making the right decisions decreases.
Two reasons to get a mentor
Marnie, the woman I have recently begun working with is not my first mentor. She is mentor number three on my list of trusted advisors. Each brings a different perspective, skillset, and experience to our conversations, which is great and necessary. However, regardless of previous experience, skills, etc., every mentor provides two areas of distinct value:
Sounding board — you have a peer you can discuss high stakes decisions with. As we all know, you need to get opinions from a variety of sources, internalize them, and then make a decision. Mentors and advisors will be your sounding board.
More decisive — after conversing with your coach, mentor, or advisor, you’ll feel more confident in decision making. Why? Because you’ve had honest and open discussion about it with them, and they’ve challenged you. After this has happened you’ll have a stronger sense of commitment.
In both cases, outside mentors play a crucial role because they are not as entrenched in the day-to-day of your business. This may sound counterintuitive, but try and have an in depth conversation with someone in the office and then with your advisor. They’ll both bring a unique (and necessary) perspective to your situation.
Where to find a mentor
Elizabeth, our rockstar Product Manager at MarketSmart, found her mentor from a podcast. Greg, our Founder and CEO found is through the Score Foundation. I recently found Marnie by striking up a conversation with our copywriting agency.
Finding mentors, and being a mentor isn’t too challenging. Talk to your board members or current advisors about expanding your network and building relationships with more people that can help with key issues. Talk to your investors and funders. See if they know anyone in their network that may be able to help you address specific problems or talk through scenarios.
No matter what, commit to surrounding yourself with people that challenge you, force you to think, and propel you forward. Mentorship has been transformative in my career, and it will be in yours as well.
“If you just market to them differently at the top of the funnel, they’ll be more qualified when they get to the salesperson!” I said emphatically.
Greg chimed in, “Yes! Exactly, just get the email series set up and provide value at every step of the process, and before you know it, they’re ready for a demo!”
We were both going back and forth, a million miles an hour. Tim, our poor marketing manager, could hardly keep up, furiously taking notes on his iPad.
“And then, make sure the emails are broken out by sector so that the value they receive is even more relevant,” I couldn’t help but throw out there.
Ah, talking, it’s so damn easy. Everything sounds good in the abstract. Poor Tim, he never stood a chance.
All these ideas we were throwing at him…he couldn’t execute on them. Why? Because they weren’t real, they were simply thought bubbles emanating from our heads. There was nothing tangible too them, and even if there was, it’s not like they were measured or refined. Talking is easy. Thinking is hard. Writing is the happy (and necessary) medium in between.
How writing empowers others
Written instructions go a long way. Don’t take my word for it, academic researchers have studied it. A 2004 paper discusses how written and verbal communication increases knowledge and satisfaction over just verbal instruction.
Empirically this can be confirmed too. When was the last time you were excited that your boss told you what to do something without any written requirement or expectations? Yeah… How about when those requirements and expectations were written down? Did you get more satisfaction out of that experience?
Writing is a tool you can use to support others. If you’re in a leadership role, it is imperative you take the time to write down what you want rather than just shout it at someone. The anecdote from above (poor Tim), is a tragic reminder of how lost, dazed, and confused people can get when everything occurs in the abstract. If I had taken the time to write down what we were looking for, then paired that with our conversation, I would have set Tim up for success. Instead, I babbled at him and left the room. Writing isn’t that hard, it’s just a bit of work.
Why writing more and talking less is important
I want to get more done in less time. It’s pretty plain and simple. 50-60 hour work weeks at my age can be fun, but man-oh-man, they can be exhausting. If written communication forces me to present only my best thoughts and ideas, than that is something I am willing to subscribe to.
I want the teams I work with to be “on the same page.” In the absence of written communication, I’ve seen many teams get discombobulated and confused. When written expectations and requirements are in place however, I’ve seen teams execute in ways that no individual could ever do on their own.
Think about it, writing takes time, editing takes time, even the act of sharing what you’ve written takes time. If you have an idea that you aren’t fully committed to, it’s likely you won’t do the due diligence necessary to move it forward (write, edit, review, share). However, in instances where you know you are on to something, you’ll take the time to thoughtfully write about it.
Look at Jeff Bezos at Amazon. He too has come to this conclusion (or at least something similar). Why else would Amazon require multi-page memos be written in advance of company meetings? If you’ve ever been to a workplace meeting you know exactly why — because they’re generally a waste of precious time!
Is writing easy? No, not at all. Is writing worthwhile? Absolutely, yes.
At MarketSmart, I’m working diligently to write more and talk less in 2019. My hope is that I’ll be able to instill that in our culture.
What is your take? Do you find writing to be more productive, or are you one of the rare few that finds abstract conversation the most efficient way to convey information?
