B2B Weekly: How to involve your team into companies core values

Speaker A: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of B2B Weekly. Uh, today, on a Tuesday. Because we cannot, uh, make it tomorrow, we still wanted to come in and get to see each other a bit more, um, talk about what's happening this week. We have a few topics prepared for today. Nemania. Uh, thank you for taking the time.

Speaker B: Yeah, man, always. This is the time for us and for the people following us, Right?

Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, this week we have prepared a few things that we want to touch about. Um, one of the main topics, um, that's been top of mind for me lately on this week, and I think we discussed on Twitter as well, was about the importance of core values within B2B companies. Uh, so how important, uh, core values are for a B2B company? Early stage. Right. I think we're at about the same size, uh, four, five, six employees. Um, so early stage B2B companies that have been running for two years, year and a half, um, our company, core values needed. And I think that the answer will be yes, but. But how? And then the question follow up is, how do we make sure that they're tied to a business outcome and they're not meaningless fluff that we put on a piece of paper or on the website? So what are you saying?

Speaker B: Yeah, but let's start from, uh, how did you come up with the topic? I think that's a good start.

Speaker A: Yeah. So the background to the story is, uh, obviously we're growing pretty quickly, so we're hiring people. Um, and one of the things we realized during the hiring process was they would ask us, hey, what are the main values of the company? Or what's the vision? How would you describe the culture? And while those things are in place, we have never documented them, we have never written them into a piece of paper. We've never chatted with the team about what do we want to be as a company? Where are we going as a company? Uh, what are the values? What are the culture of our company? Um, so we didn't really have an answer for them. Right. And obviously we tell them, look, this is what we do. This is who we are. This is the type of people that are inside the company. Um, this is what we expect from you. But right now, we're a young company. We're still figuring out who we are, and we don't have, you know, four or five core values fully defined. Um, so when that happened, obviously, we went through the hiring process. We hired somebody, uh, who's great, and then when she came in, it was time where, uh, my main Employee Andrea, um, who is, like, for me, I consider her part of our, of our leadership team, if you will. Um, is, uh, we tried to work together on like, okay, we have this situation. Let's see if we can define who we are as a company together so that we can guide our hiring decisions in the future. So that's one of the things that we started talking about. Um, she has prepared this weekly exercise over the next three months, we're going to get together every Friday for an hour, and that leads into, um, a bit of self awareness, self examination, audit and core values. Company mission, company, uh, visions. Well, over the next three months, uh, but of course I asked on Twitter, you know, what are companies in the same size more or less doing? How important are they? Is it too early? Is it too late? What are you guys saying? And they inspired a pretty good discussion. I think there were about 40 people that commented, um, oh, nice. Yeah, it was about 10,000 people that read the tweet, about 600, 700 engagements. So it was clear that there was something there that, you know, people are interested about. Um, one of the people that commented was you. And you said one of the reasons why companies don't have them, right, is because they have to put something as they grow in the second year while they're rebranding on the website and they just have to throw something there, but they don't really mean anything. Um, what's been your experience, what have you seen with companies in the B2B space about how do they go about defining core values, um, and how to make sure that they're not just fluffy words that sound good but don't mean anything?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this is the topic. Actually yesterday while we were tweeting, I was just listening to Erin Mayer, uh, and a podcast with her. Um, she actually wrote a book with, um, uh, co founder of the Netflix, uh, and worked with him on creating the values and the culture. Like, the book was actually the guidelines for the company and inspired by how they are doing things and how they change some things. So, uh, it's a topic that I've been thinking about, um, and I've been seeing a lot of things. I even like, ghost written a book which is, uh, one part of it is related to the core values of the companies. But let's go from the worst examples and the worst are the companies that come up with, um, the vision, with the mission, with the culture, with the values. Only when, um, the time m comes that they need to put something on the About Us page, on the Website. And that's bad because by the time that happens, usually there's already some kind of structure in the company. There is. They are working on things, they are growing. There are some people over there. And if you don't have those things before you get people or, um, before you get even, like, say just a few people, you don't need to come up with everything right from the start. Uh, but doing it from the wrong reason, uh, is not a good way to go with it. But instead, this should be something that inspires. The way you communicate, the way you differentiate from the others, the way you craft your messaging, um, the way you hire people. Uh, it affects, uh, a lot of things. Uh, branding as well. The way you fire people. Yeah. Also that it's not something that's irrelevant. Uh, and, um, those are kind of the things that are important. And by working in multiple agencies and companies, I have seen a lot of stuff like, um, back in 2015, I think we work in the agency that has like a sister company, which is, uh, JTN Technologies. Uh, and uh, basically I saw the manual that they have, by the way, how the employees should behave, how everything is structured inside the company. And this is the first time that I, um, was introduced to something like that. And it was great because I had it that I could use it to craft up with something for the agency when I was a gm because like the CEO of, uh, JTM Technology was also the CEO of the company, actually the owner. So, um, uh, coming up with that, what I need to do is kind of see who we have as a team by the time it was 15 of us. So it was not like the perfect situation right from the start. And by implying some of those things, um, we got some people laid off because they didn't fill in, in that. You know, they didn't, uh, they weren't like the best fit for the agency and where we want to go. Uh, also like in, uh, the second agency, it was, I don't know, um, like I was talking about it, talking about it. But the CEO wasn't really someone who is interested in that because the company was structured around him as the one who is decision maker. And then like, that's it. Basically. That's the structure. And when it comes like that, well, uh, you don't actually need much of it, you know. And because we didn't have it, the guy came in and made a really big mess inside the company. Uh, so all the people left, including me at the end. Uh, and I think that's the Reason, because we didn't have those things, uh, in place. We didn't have somebody who is managing the agency and coming up with, this is the story. These are some of the things that we are doing. This is the way we are doing it. And then hire based on that. But we hired based on like, okay, we need somebody to write. Let's get someone. Or we need somebody for that. Let's get someone. But we didn't get into too much details. You know, we were getting. If, okay, we can get somebody. I don't know that we can pay this certain m amount of money, but m, you know, getting over that edge because, you know, we need to grow. We look at the vision, we see where we need to go. We didn't do that. And when I started funky marketing, it was basically, you know, the first thing that I've done, uh, because I knew that this is something that I want to do, not something that I will create to kind of like, uh, get me to the, to the next job position or to get me, I don't know, to something else to sell it or, or whatever. Uh, so I needed to do it right, and I had time, right, because I was jobless, but they also didn't have money. So I was in m. Kind of in a glimp of going here and there, listening to other people doing what I think it's right because I've been part of the so many companies. And I said, okay, I'm going to do it right. I have seen the way it should be done. And then I came up with, like, the four things that we do and, uh, like the story and everything. Because when I came up with the name, we had a story. We talked about it on the podcast already about those kind of things. And basically this is how it went. Then I was adding people to the company, actually. They were, um, going towards the company, uh, attracted by the story, attracted by the way I'm telling the story. And it's still happening this day. Like, I'm getting at least one or two messages from the people that are seeing that the way we work is a little bit different. The way I present myself is a little bit different. And they want to work with us in, um, now or in the future, whenever there is a chance. And I think it's, uh, uh, extremely related to the values and the culture.

Speaker A: I got, um, a comment, um, on my tweet. Um, basically just to give context on people, I tweeted, we're working on our company values. Uh, how important do you think they are for early stage companies of around five employees. And related to what you're talking about. Like people are attracted to your company because of your values, the way you present them. But on the flip side, people were uh, reluctant of your previous company, uh, where you were the GM and they left just like you did because by reason for the values, uh, this um, product marketer named Melanie, uh, she said, uh, how important air quotes an absolute requirement. As in, I wouldn't even consider joining a startup with more than two employees. Sorry, with more than two people as employee number three if core values were already articulated among the co founders. Um, I answered, I hear you. Not sure if I fully agree to the full extent. Uh, most companies just have articulated meaningless stuff. Um, but I can see how they play a big role in attracting great talent. And then she answered, even fluffy buzzwords are better than nothing. I've seen companies successfully reset values at 50 plus employees, uh, because they have acknowledged that they outgrew them. It's easier to point at bad values and say these aren't good than it is to operate around a void. At one point there's like there were at least three Atlanta based startups using the same value sets because they copied them from a startup in town that did pretty well, I think calmly. Uh, over time company leaders found their voices and made them their own. But what started as a foundation was a shortcut for growth. I answered, and I'll finish this here, uh, 100% agree. Values can be tweaked over time. Only thing I'm not sure of is are buzzwords better than nothing? For us, it's been helpful to approach prospect employees and be radically transparent. Just tell them this is what we do and this is how we do it. This is the type of people who we are and we're a young company still finding who we want to be can help us shape it and have a proactive impact on our core values. Um, that's worked pretty well so far. But I agree it's time to set something on paper. Thanks for imp. So my question was what do you think? Do you think it's better uh, to have some buzzwords and just articulate something while you go at what you think through? Or do you think it's better to just have nothing until you have something that can be set in stone?

Speaker B: Um, you know, it all depends, but it's right, um, from this, I mean if you know what you are building and when you are going to. Yes, but if you're just starting, you just get a first client And I mean right from the start, maybe you, if you just, it's just you or maybe one other guy, maybe you don't have time to do it. You know, maybe you need a person who will come as a third one and help you create all those things, you know, uh, especially now in the software based companies and in other industry when we are like a lot of people who are coming up with founding, uh, the companies and creating the product are actually developers, you know, so, um, are they aware of what they need to do? Maybe they are, but they know that they need somebody else to come in and to help them with that or they will become aware of it. But right from the start they are usually focused on the product and maybe to try to sell it, you know, that's how it goes. But when they get the first customer or they get any kind of, let's say, um, peace in that way or security, they will start doing it. If they don't start doing it, then they can lose big time. But this is where I see kind of the balance.

Speaker A: Yeah, because I really think if you're defining core values before you've made a dollar, you're too early. You don't even know what that looks like. You don't have any validation. So you should focus your time on other stuff. Um, so I think there's a place between three to five employees that I think that's where you should really go down and define those values. Um, maybe it's when you make a full time living of that. I think it depends to each founder. But, um, too early, I think is zero in revenue. Too late, I think is when you pass five or six employees, I think that gets. The last thing I want to discuss regarding core values is how dependent should they be on the founder. So one of the things I realized as I try to set the core values on paper, what I think is important to me, what I ended up putting is what's important to me, not what's important to the company or to the rest of my employees. Um, that said, I am the founder, I am the sole proprietorship. Um, so the employees will come and go, but I'll stay. Uh, so I'm interested to hear your thoughts on, um, how do you involve your team into your core values, your mission, your vision, um, if anything at all, like, do you involve them fully? Do you, um, involve them? Not at all. And I'd also like to share what I'm personally doing, um, to involve my team or not.

Speaker B: Yeah, uh, it's interesting, I would say, uh, when you say people will live and go, I know that you still don't have your values, uh, straight. Because, uh, if you uh, have, you wouldn't say something like that because they are here to um, value starting from the founder. So yeah, the start is from you, from me, from the founders. But then as you add people, they are bringing their values inside of it. So your values are developing as you have other people involved in the team. And okay, you have some core values, but like, and that's how you choose people. So you just develop those values. You're not actually. I mean, you will change them by the time probably as the uh, like the company is growing or something like that. But maybe you want. There are a lot of huge companies that didn't ever change their values. So, uh, it's not like dictatorship, but it's a, uh, start. And the leadership. That's how I see it. Because, uh, if you look at the values they are here to tell, to help you tell your story the right way. And um, as you are telling the story, other people gets involved. As we talked last, uh, two weeks ago with Rent, like they will add their story to your story. And so it will develop. Let's look at the funky marketing. So we were like Serbian company, um, coming to change B2B industry. Then we hired a girl from Spain and possibly we will hire other people who are outside of the Serbia. So that changes a little bit the narrative, you know, so it's not the company from Serbia, it's the company from Europe. And it's a different kind of company with different kind of people, you know, so, uh, different, I don't know, nationalities, different race, different stuff. Uh, so it all changes the story, the values, not really changes, but it gives her another light. And uh, that's, that's how actually how actually I see it. And those like core values are here to help you choose the right people. And so they can choose the company as well. So not you are not just choosing them, they are choosing the company based on those things. So I don't know if you have to be always on time and there's somebody who is always late, just come up with some simple things, you know, like I can ever be on time. Is it the company that I want to work with? I want to work in my own time. And the company, we are working from eight, four every day.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, just, uh, getting it to the basics. It's. It comes down to those things. And if like everybody in the company are, uh, the people that, you know, that Want to do things, uh, together or they have certain, certain, uh, habits. I don't know. We were working with, uh, one big IT company and there's helping them like create whatever post on LinkedIn. And there was an engineer who said, okay, I want to recruit people, good engineers, as I am to come to join my team. And, uh, I was wondering if I can actually. We like to play the board games inside our team and we want somebody who is also passionate about it, because this is what we talk about all day. And if he or she, they're not passionate about it, they will feel like they are not accepted. So just some simple things. It's not like something that we look in the clouds, you know, Some values,

Speaker A: those kinds of things.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: For me, I think, um, like I was saying, I think it's normal that the values are an extension of the founder, especially early on. Uh, but as the founder, I think we need to try to bring the team with us. I think of this as a journey. And the more we can bring the team with us towards our journey, I think can really help. Um, I don't think all the employees need to be involved personally. I think core values should be founder and leadership team. Uh, the rest of the team, they need to live up to those values and maybe bring their own to the company culture. But I don't think they should define the main core values of the company. I think it should be something that's defined between 50% founder, 50% leadership team, and if it's early stage, where it's maybe one person on the leadership team, I think it's my responsibility, 75 to 80% and 20% hard. Uh, so that's what we're doing. We're bringing in, uh, my teammate Andrea, which I think I, uh, hope and you know, I can see her growing with us as a company. Um, and I want her involved. But at the end of the day, I think the core values need to be something that align towards me. And maybe that's a bit of narcissistic and ego thinking. Uh, but the more I can bring my team, the better, while remembering that it's my company. Right. And that I want to build something that I believe in. And hopefully there are enough people out there that believe that as well. I think we.

Speaker B: I totally agree. Just a second. You reminded me of something because, like, um, in the last company when I was director of operations, we were doing like, the strategy, the values, culture, uh, everything before I left and, uh, you know, we all said, um, what are our ideas? How do we see everything. There was like an external person working on that with us, with the CEO, uh, and it was all up to the CEO, if he's going to accept it and change the way the company, uh, should be, or go all the way. And at the end, as you say, it is your word, it's your company, and it's your decision. And it can affect if, uh, employees are gonna work there anymore or they aren't. But you're the one who are like the anchor of it, right?

Speaker A: Yeah. And as a last thought, I think we would all love to have our employees stay with us for 20 years, 30 years. I don't think that's very realistic, especially in the current environment. Um, I want to have the system where, um, they can come, they can do great work, they can grow their careers, and if they want to go, they're able to go. Um, there's some more there that we can talk another day, but I think for that it covers us. Uh, for the rest of the episode. I want to talk to you about something that we chatted last week, uh, via, uh, WhatsApp, uh, which is logical things that we're seeing in B2B companies that we're working with. So I think both of us are in the trenches with a lot of B2B companies from different sizes, from different places in the world. Um, and we see the good and the bad.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: What are some of the. I don't want to call it bad. I think illogical. It's a good way to put it. Uh, what are some of the things that you're seeing with the companies you're working with that you're like, I don't understand why we do it this way or why the thinking is this way. Um, is there something that stands out in your mind?

Speaker B: Yeah, there are actually a lot of things. And um, I've been thinking about that topic because we are working with different companies who are like, uh, from um, one employee to the companies that have seven, um, hundred and fifty plus employees. So, uh, I'm seeing a lot of things. Uh, and you know what's interesting to me, like all those companies, none of them are like the ones that are on a global scale dominating the category or, um, you know, the industry or whatever. They are all challengers. So they are all the ones that are, that are challenging the industry and as they grow, they are behaving like they are dominating everything, you know, like the people getting there. And I think, uh, a lot of them are getting to the enterprise level mindset too early. And it stops them from being flexible, for being fast and for being innovative. And I think it's something that will end a lot of them, uh, earlier than they think because they are doing those things. On the other hand, uh, yeah, let me explain. What do I mean by that? I, um, mean that you have people who are not like decision makers, uh, who goes like, I don't think this is our standard m. I don't think this is. I, um, think this is like vanilla content. Um, I think they are not here to actually give any feedback on that when it comes to that. No, they hire somebody who is an expert on that and that's it. Uh, so overprotective people in that way, uh, and getting, uh, you know, they want to prove themselves because they have like this, all of them have this growth mindset and they go into the extremes. And because they go in, they go into the extremes, nothing gets done. And on the other hand they have the structure which is more like enterprise. So, uh, there are at least five pair of eyes on each piece of content, on everything. So you imagine what's happening, chasing perfection that never comes. And then again, nothing gets done. And like you ended, you end up working two months without actually, you know, something publicly shown. Because, because of those things. Uh, and then I mean some, let's connect it to some unexpected things in pandemic times and it gets even worse. So that's on one end. On the other end, what I'm seeing is a lot of companies, um, get CB investment, CDA investment and it changes the way they're thinking about business because they think of satisfying the investor. And if they get into too early or they don't know how to make that balance, uh, because it is the weight that is bringing you down when you have the investor, I mean, uh, ah, they are giving the pressure of like showing certain things, showing the growth, you know. And you are, on the other hand, you are trying to build something for long term and then you are like in between. And if you go to this side, you will lose in the long term if you go to this side, um, you don't have the investors money. So it's not an easy situation, but it affects a lot the way you see marketing, the way you see growth, the way you go with alignment, especially if you don't have the previous experience of doing it. And uh, there are just two situations that I'm looking at right now.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think, um, we work with a bit different clients. So our clients are usually a bit smaller. Uh, they're usually between 20 to 30 employees, 20 to 50 employees. That's where we're seeing, uh, um, so it's a different challenge, right? Because usually they might have one or two people in the marketing department that we work together with, uh, which is pretty smooth. But it's a challenge still, right? Because the, the lack of speed is incredible, I think, across many different B2B companies. And I agree 100% with you. We've been working for a month and a half. We haven't published anything because we're looking for the smallest revisions, right? Um, we're working with a big, big fintech company and we're seeing that like we're seeing it's the smallest M that it's like this word for this word. It's not going to change anything. What's going to stop us is the lack of speed and the lack of execution. Um, so that's where we're seeing that companies need to get faster. Like, I'm a client of my own agency, right? So when my team sends me content for review, I skim through it. It takes me 10 minutes to review a month worth. Ah. And it's the same content that we might send a client. And the client takes three weeks, four weeks. The difference is I understand the importance of speed. Like, if it's a video, I'm not even gonna watch it. I'm just gonna tell you. Are there, uh, spelling and grammar mistakes on the subtitles? No. Okay, then go the publish. Just publish it today. Like, if it's a text, I'm just gonna scream through it. Does it sound like me? Sure. That's publish Next. What's content we can create Next.

Speaker B: Next.

Speaker A: Next. Because otherwise we're going to be here talking about this fucking video. And if this blue is blue too dark or too light, motherfucker, just post. Who cares? Um, so I think once you get the mindset of like execution and speed allows you to get feedback from market and allows you to understand what's working, what's not working. That allows you to see results. Otherwise we're gonna be here talking forever about this post when if we post it, we would have known if it worked or not because we might change it and then it's gonna work less. Um, but founders that understand that and that they're willing to let go of control. And marketing departments that are willing to let go of that control too. There's not many of them because it also makes their job look easy. If I go to a founder or to a marketing team and I'm like, here's the content. Just publish it today and then they don't review and then they don't find something wrong. Then they realize that they're not needed, they're unnecessary. And if they're unnecessary, they get fired. So I think it's important to remember, are our alignments aligned with them, like with their personal selfish needs. Right. As a founder, if he doesn't review and make sure that everything is 100% perfect, does that ah, look bad on him? Ah, he thinks it does, but it doesn't. Um, so we trying to focus on speed with companies is important. I think that's why it helps to have a very systemized process of delivery. And I agree that we're going to do two revisions. It's not because we don't want to review more. It's because after two revisions there's nothing here that we can change, uh, other than waste time. Right. Like I'm just making it up, but like figuring out what that looks like for you or we're gonna charge you whether we publish or we don't. And if we don't publish, we'll still charge you. So it's up to you. How quick do you want to do this? Like figuring out ways to align incentives for speed I think is important, but not an easy thing to do. For sure.

Speaker B: Yeah. And um, like sometimes it happens that we lose even motivation to work with the company because it takes too long. You know, Like I think you are like us producing like content really fast. And if you produce it in like two or three days, uh, like we are then waiting, you know. And it's not what I found out. It doesn't depend on, on the size of the company. It depends on whom you're talking with and the way they see their role in that, uh, process of approving the content, you know, or getting things done.

Speaker A: Yeah, 100% and uh, underrated challenge that happens with that is financials because it will really fuck up your cash flow because you be ready to create new content. But you'll still have had to review the next previous batch of content. So you can now go ahead to the next month. So now one month takes two months and then you're fucked because now you're charging half the price. But your account manager is doing the same work and you still have to pay them because they're full time. So like that's one of the challenges that we faced. Ah, we're somewhat still facing but we're getting better at it of like, yo, we can. No wait, like you're gonna fuck up our cash flow too. Obviously we don't say like that, but, um, there's an immediate need for speed, for things to work alone. And at some point there's some clients that were like, look, if we cannot get you on the phone or we cannot get you on Slack answering messages or reviewing or whatever that looks like just not a part. It's not just not important enough to you because if it was important then you'd review. Um, and then you take care and you publish. But if it's not important, then what are we doing? We don't want to get.

Speaker B: It comes down to if that's important enough. Yeah, I 100% agree.

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Like if it's important, you'll take care of it. Like I call my mom every day for 20 minutes every day. Like, do I have 20 minutes for her? I do. Because she's important. Right. So I will somehow always find a way to call her. Like right now I'll uh, ask you if we can finish the episode 10 minutes early because I want to give her a quick call. Like I'll find a way to do these things because she's important. If something's not important to me, it will go on my asana and I'll never take care of it. So as a marketer I think and as a business, we need to make it so important for them that they cancel meetings to review because they know that this is actually going to help their business. So if it's not important, it's a messaging problem or a client fit problem, um, sometimes it's not even a process problem. It's. It's that it's just not important enough in their mind.

Speaker B: Agree, agree. I mean, uh, there are so many things that we need to work, uh, on and uh, to be able to get there. Because a lot of companies actually need a change of the system.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: You know, that's when it comes to come down to. And if they aren't aware of it, I mean we can try to influence some things, but if they aren't aware that it needs to happen, it won't happen.

Speaker A: 100%. 100%. But I mean this is the challenge with service businesses. Right? Like it's not. Everything's not rainbow, everything is not ideal. And building an agency comes with certain challenges. It comes with great benefits. Right. You can build a six figure business like that, four clients or three clients and then you're there. Um, but it also comes with some other stuff that you're working with people you have to interact with. Um, so it's something we need to work with from a messaging standpoint, from a process standpoint. And then some clients are just not a good fit. Right. Like some clients, no matter what you do, they want deploy the time needed or they won't be interested enough. And then you just have to fire them I think because otherwise they're just, they're carrying, they're bringing you down and you cannot push forward.

Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Let's see who we uh, we have people cheering us, a lot of them. And we have Stuart Winter tear saying finally someone has said it. So. Because LinkedIn is a uh, little. Yeah, yeah. So we said a lot of things.

Speaker A: We said a lot of things. I don't know Stuart, which one you're talking about.

Speaker B: But uh, yeah, so uh, if you can write in the comment, if you're still watching and can write in the comment, but what we have said that made uh, you write the comment, I would really appreciate it.

Speaker A: Yeah. But either way, someone did say it. So good for us, I guess. Uh, I think we have a couple more topics to cover. I don't know if we're gonna have time today, if we can save them for another day. Um, as a final question, we just moved into Q2, um, few weeks back. How are things, uh, looking forward for Q2? What are you looking at? Then we have four or five more minutes for us to talk about this and then we can have the rest for another episode.

Speaker B: Yeah, let's go through it. Uh, I mean for us we failed at growing the traffic on the website. We um, actually failed really badly. I think we increase it a little bit. Um, but I still can figure out like why did we increase it? So it's not something that we have done good. Uh, but also some things that we have done in the past. Uh, and when it comes to the good things, I mean we increased the revenue three, uh, times. Uh, we got some long term clients, some really good references for getting to the next level. We got into some really good partnership. We were able to uh, and we're still doing like testing the LinkedIn accelerator that we talked a little bit about and I think we're gonna launch it in this quarter. Uh, and um, also when it comes to that, so I decided, okay, let's go with a bigger goal for the Q2 so 10x the traffic on the website. And by doing that I know that we need to hire somebody who will write content for us. And we are utilizing the Jarvis like the virtual employee a lot because like they launched Some new products. Uh, yeah. And in the first night, while just, uh, having fun, I was able to write 70% of the three articles on some really heavy topics related to the SEO. So, uh, I think by the end of the this week we'll have a process for that as well and we'll be able to come up with, uh, multiple articles per day by not hiring that many content writers. So I think that will help us in a way. Uh, but overall we want to continue like, um, to increase the revenue two and a half times. That was the goal for the first quarter as well.

Speaker A: How many times? Two and a half?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's the goal for the whole four quarters because at the end I want to have 10x growth, uh, in a year. So, um, we'll see how it goes. But, uh, so far, um, it's going good and we are slowly thinking about directions we can go with the team, like probably creating a video production, uh, department inside the company besides content writing. I think those are the things where we can extend, but also like being LinkedIn accelerator and a new product, uh, which will carry with itself a lot of smaller products. So, yeah, basically that's it. What about you guys?

Speaker A: I love it. Um, I mean, it seems that overall it was a great quarter for you guys. Uh, for us, we basically have um, three yearly goals that we're going after. Uh, one is 70K MRR of ideal revenue. Uh, we're currently at about to close at 30, so in that sense we're doing great. Um, we're on our way together. I'm not sure if we're going to get to 70, but, you know, like, it's one of those things where, like, if you fall a bit short, it's fine, you know, like, I, uh, won't be too mad.

Speaker B: You'll know why and you'll know what are some things that you need to do together.

Speaker A: Yeah, and it was a pretty ambitious goal. Like 70k is almost a million in revenue. So, like, um, I think we're on our path and it's more important to focus on ideal revenue than just straight revenue. Uh, one of the things that we're trying to do is to not be so reliant on myself. Uh, so we, I think one of the things we've done well was to um, improve our processes. We've worked with an agency that has helped us, you know, um, take Asana to the next level, create processes and systems for the company. One of the goals for the quarter was to define the core values. Obviously we haven't done that, uh, we'll have moved that goal to Q2. Um, so we've hired a couple of people. I think we're building a good team now. It's just a matter of like, making sure we're delivering great work for our clients, that they're happy, and then slowly continue to revamp our marketing and sales so that we can keep growing. Uh, one of the things I'm happy about was we're taking a step forward in terms of my personal brand and our marketing for the company. Um, from Twitter, the podcast is back alive. Um, LinkedIn. We're publishing more consistently there. Uh, so I'm seeing slow, slow things taking shape. You know, um, there's things that we haven't done great. I think, like our onboarding for new hires has to be better. Um, I think there's certain things our finances need to be better, like tracking finances and managing cash flow. I hate doing that shit. Like, I'm not good at it. So I need to, I need to figure it out.

Speaker B: Uh, same here. Same here.

Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, I think that's what happens when you're a marketer. Like when you're a solo founder and it is a topic for another day. But like, if you're a solo founder, it's impossible to be good at everything. Like, not everything can be come natural to you. You cannot be a good marketer, a good leader, a good hire, a good HR person, a good COO and a good cfo. Like, there has to be something that you're not good at.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, so I think we'll, we'll get help with that and we'll slowly, um, get better at it. But yeah, I think being nice to, uh, ourselves is important. Like just having self compassion of like, look, you cannot be good at everything. It just is not possible.

Speaker B: M. Yeah, I agree too. I mean, I usually go back, just go back to the, to the vision that uh, I have set up. And uh, it makes the decisions a lot easier.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: You know, the amount of investment, the risk and everything, it makes it worth it, you know, because like, if we're gonna do this, we. If this step that we are taking is gonna benefit us in that way, let's go and do it. You know, and we often forget that things are really like, not that complicated in this way. You know, like to get to the next level, do I need somebody to take over the finances? Yes, let's go ahead and do it. No matter if I'm not really secured of how it will go, you know, and it happened. It happens every week with some. Some of the decisions we are making.

Speaker A: Exactly. I think that's a good way, a good mental decision making model, uh, to make choices. Right. Um, Amaya, I have to run out. Uh, this is a great episode. I think we talked about it before. Very interesting stuff. Uh, we have a couple topics for next week too so we can have this ready. Um, yeah, let's go on.

Speaker B: Interesting how you guys are doing it and looking forward to getting more into what you are doing specifically for the next session.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Happy to share that. And ah, next week we'll go Back to Wednesdays, 12:00pm Eastern, 6:00pm Europe time. Um, thank you so much for everybody listening. Thank you again for your attention. We value your attention a lot. Uh, hopefully this was valuable. In exchange. Uh, until next time.

Speaker B: Yeah, thanks guys. Write us in comments if you find this insightful and if you have any questions we can answer next time.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Bye.

Speaker B: Bye. So long.