Category : Entrepreneurship
Let’s kick off with a random fact: Did you know that I studied Online Persuasion for my M.A.? It’s true! I spent 3 years studying the power of persuasion, dialogue, and communication as it relates to online relationships and interactions. Back then it was a subset of interpersonal communication but I like to think I was smart for convincing them to let me get an M.A. for spending years of my life online.
I even did a thesis on the way women communicate in the workplace online. How do we help each other? How do we hurt each other? Specifically I did a Bakhtinian Analysis of a Predominately Female Workplace…which is a fancy way of saying – I studied the way we dialog online. It was a fascinating three years. I almost convinced myself to spend my life in academia, applying to PhD programs and everything. But then…I got my first job at a start up. Fast forward a decade and you know what I do with my day?
I spend it trying to communicate more effectively with people online. Full circle friends. Full circle.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about communication in the workplace. I’ve seen some really successful relationships, and some really sad-looking ones. I’ve sat in on some meetings that left me feeling like I’ve changed the world, and I’ve left rooms where I am wondering, “what the hell just happen to the last 60 minutes of my life?” While I could go on and on about the many little things I’ve learned to help facilitate successful communication…one thing really stands out – objectivity.
I know what you’re thinking — isn’t that the same as “not standing for something?” Uhm no. Def of Objectivity: “judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.” It might seem strange seeing me preach objectivity, since so many of my posts are about passion, but trust me when I say that objectivity in business is gold, pure gold.
Lately at work, we’ve been brainstorming some messaging. It’s been exhausting, as the 11 of us marketers try to get in a room and tackle this challenge. So many different approaches, and different backgrounds, and different ideas. Back and forth, and round and round we go. Many teams would have thrown in the towel long ago. You know what has kept us going? Objectivity. It’s a powerful tool. No idea is one person’s idea. No direction is one person’s direction. That is a recipe for disaster, yet it happens time and time again.
Dare I say…it’s the easy way out? If you stand by something simply because you have always stood by it…I believe that is the easy way out. You must be willing to be talked out of your stance. You must be willing to meet your colleague in the middle with the understanding you may, in the end, crossover.
In business you see this time and time again — with landing pages, with company logos, with product ideas, with company futures. It is hard, when you are so passionate about succeeding, to acknowledge your way may not be the best… but it may not. I have literally spent weeks pushing for something, only to finally realize, it’s not the best. I’ve spent months working on a funnel to find out it doesn’t improve our conversion rates. Hell, I spent two years on an idea that I swore would succeed, only to have the company fail. You must remain objective or you will lose yourself in the passion and never get anywhere better. You know what I mean?
Here is a test for you – if someone you know is falling prey to self-interest simply ask them why they love the idea so much. If they say “The idea is good because I believe…” then its about them. If they say “I believe the idea is good because…” then they are trying to stay objective. The conversation at work should always be about the idea, not about the person behind the idea. That was a tough one for me to learn, but a valuable one.
Too many people mistake objectivity with indifference… lack of compassion, lack of empathy, or lack of interest. It is, in my experience, none of those things. In fact, it is usually with a less partial view that one can most successfully steer their passion. When you stay objective you more often arrive at the ideal solution.
These are just my experiences though, and I’m still learning of course. Then again, I did spend three years in a library studying this stuff…and a decade screwing it up, so that has to count for something.
P.s. next time we are at a conference and having a few cocktails ask me my thoughts on Mikhail Bakhtin‘s dialogical theory…I’ve got some great rambles for you.
The other day I suggested to my boyfriend that we embark on a joint blog together where we would cover the craziness we are going through as two entrepreneurial types, working for startups and falling in love.
Peter & I at DomainFest earlier this year.
To be honest he really loved the idea. We joked about the pictures we could snap of late night brainstorms (aka our hot dates) at his office, our conference travels together (aka our pretend vacations), etc. We were super excited until we realized that the blog would likely become a public forum where we would both vocalize just how much this chaos freaks us out at times. We agreed against the blog (for now) but I still thought a post was worth embarking on.
Love is crazy. Like seriously crazy. There are all sorts of things that you don’t expect – compromise for one. Compassion for another. Sacrifice of course. Then there is self-discovery and confusion. There are inevitably moments of doubt. There is also (hopefully) laughter, and silliness. All of this for a common goal – to make it last. The two of you want to build something together that is greater than each of you.
Funny enough… a startup is all those things and more. Read the paragraph again but think about a start up – compromise, sacrifice, doubt, laughter, silliness—and all for a common goal of building something bigger than yourself.
My boyfriend is a Partner and CMO of a Seattle-based start-up. You can go check him out here. He is a brilliant marketer and businessman. He is a knowledge-seeker, an information consumer, and (I believe) he is one of the biggest “thinkers” I’ve ever met.
He is also my boyfriend. I’ve dated for the last decade in hopes of finding a man like him. He is a Texas cowboy at heart, a family man, a singer, an artist, a film nut, a photography junkie. He is sarcastic yet respectful. He is gorgeous. Dimplessss for days.
We’ve been together a year and a half now. Which for me is quite some time. While things are fantastic at the core, we both admit that as our start-ups grow, our love feels the growing pains.
I’m not saying we have it harder than other couples, but I certainly do think some of our challenges are unique. Lets cover a few of the things that keep us cracking up (half seriously and half awkwardly) as we maneuver this challenge:
First off. We aren’t first. We can’t be. Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you when all is said and done there are ties in the priority tree. There has to be. While we promise to be there for each other whenever we need each other, more than not we give each other passes on not being there when we need each other. Maybe we are out of state, maybe our sites went down, maybe it’s a trip to the valley that has us occupied. Whatever the reason…we both agree that –right now—for us there are ties for who is first. For me it’s him and my work. For him it’s me and his.
Peter & I at the WTIA Awards. His company won that night!
Secondly, our start-up worlds connect. Our industries (although separate) connect. We’ve spoken at three of the same conferences at this point. We have been invited to the same meetings, and the same events…separately. We have similar business friends, and super-connectors between us. This can certainly be an advantage…we can leverage knowledge, experience, trust. It can also be a scary fucking thing. What if we don’t make it? What then? How the hell does that break up work? Human nature reminds us we can only control so much and those unknowns are scary when so much overlaps.
Lastly, we’re freaking moving fast…like whoa hustle, crazy, bam, moving fast. This is the start-up way. You all know what I mean. This week isn’t ever just “a week.” It’s the week, before the month, of the big thing that has to happen, before we talk to investors, before we can get the money, to reinvent the (fill in blank) so we can help the world…do what they love and we love…better. Phew.
When life moves so fast, it’s easy to forget how wonderful the people next to you are. All of a sudden you look to your right and either you left them behind or they jumped ship a few “sorry I couldn’t make it” or “I’m just too busy” excuses ago.
Those are just a few of the crazy things we deal with daily but maybe you get where I am going. Him and I, for the most part, talk about how lucky we are. We both love our companies. We both love this fast-paced industry. We both love the days we get to live.
But sometimes… occasionally… we look around at people sitting in cafes all day playing Battleship, instead of on their computers, and we daydream of what a life like this is like. What does love look like for them?
Funny enough, the second I start thinking about that… I realize it is so NOT us. We tried to take a vacation last year and after a few days of laying out in the sun we were seriously stress balls. We never fought so much as we did when we tried to slow down. We just aren’t those people, at least not now.
Right now we are the couple that meets up mid-day to brainstorm over coffee. We sneak a kiss or two, and we exchange what hour we think our days will end. It works for us right now, with a little shaky here and a little shaky there. I think that’s pretty common though.
For others it’s late night TV time that brings you together, for my parents it was the morning time when us kids were still asleep and for him and I – its two iced americanos and some big ideas. Like I said, we are pretty lucky.
Whenever I start to think about how crazy it is that us two workaholic, start-up junkies fell in love at this point in our lives, I can’t help but think…it wouldn’t have worked any other way. It all comes down to one really important thing — he gets my crazy. And I get his. What more could two people ask for?
This is us out on Orcas Island...where the wi-fi doesn't reach. win.
Today I got done speaking at DOMAINfest, where I was on a panel about Advanced PPC Management Best Practices and Tools. It was a great time but since we really wanted this to be a round table experience for the audience the panelists only had ten minutes to talk. Luckily, as those that have seen me speak know, I talk pretty fast and was able to run through the top 3 mistakes and the top 3 wins I see PPC marketers implementing these days.
Since I only had ten minutes I was forced to really ask myself what separates successful PPC marketers and really successful PPC marketers. I came up with three things — The ability to distribute your time effectively, embracing risk in your testing and management, and the last one which is connecting your paid efforts to inbound marketing. The second two will have to be covered in another post, today I really want to talk about that first piece — the ability to distribute your time effectively.
Why that one? Because its freaking hard. Like really hard. Like “whoa I need a glass of wine every night” hard.
Over the years I’ve really tried to focus on how I can be my most effective at paid search management (returning the highest margins) and my most efficient (staying sane, sleeping, not snapping at family and friends). This can be a challenge because paid search marketing is a data game. Data piles up and it can drive you mad if you let it. So how do you get the control back? I think the key is to rethink how you are dividing up your time.
Originally I was trying to isolate out a plan for paid search marketing management. I came up with this:
What I didn’t expect is how finding something like this to guide me would motivate me to re-evaluate my overall time distribution. After all…why would I want to be my most effective and efficient at just PPC? There is so much more on my plate. How can I best manage those projects and the time I put into them?
I started asking myself – how do I prioritize what gets my time? I freaked out when I realized that my approach to project management had become insanely reactive. As things pop up I handle them. Eeeek. Bad bad bad. I could probably write a whole post as to why things have become this way, but ultimately I think as marketers take on more and embrace the holistic landscape this issue will become increasingly more of a challenge facing all of us.
I came across this amazing video and it was like a really beautiful bitch slap right when I needed it. In Bing Gordon’s keynote address he talks about how the time we spend on things in our life should be both (a) prioritized by importance and then (b) given time relationally as they compare to each other. EUREKA!
For example if you have three things that matter to you but the first thing is twice as important as number two or three, then you would spend 50% of your time on item #1, and 25% on each of the other two items. Make sense?
I think we all have grasped the importance of knocking out our to-do list by order of importance, but this idea of weighting our priorities by how they compare is an interesting one for me. Below you can see the rough guideline I use for my own day…
I have five main goals at SEOmoz:
- Grow the SEOmoz Customer Base
- Grow the Retention Program
- Be an Indispensable Employee
- Continue to Learn from the Industry & Grow in It
- Be a Great Colleague & Help Others Reach Their Goals
I mean there are always other goals that come up, and projects that don’t fit into one of these, but for the most part everything I do during my hours each day at Moz fit into one of these five. With that said there is a clear hierarchy among these. I was hired for #1, and my position has expanded to include #2. Then #3, #4, and #5 are things I’ve chosen to add to the list for my personal and professional growth. So #1 is twice as important as the rest, and #2 is more important than #3, #4, and #5, but those last three all need sufficient time comparatively. So the challenge is for me to break up my available hours according to this distribution.
I’m only about a month deep on it at this point but it really does help. If I find myself freaking out in the afternoon because I am not sure which project to start next I just revisit my list and see which of these I haven’t touched. Have I put too much time into one of them when it should have spent on another based on my distribution hierarchy? Each week I make sure that I have given all five of these the time they deserve.
I might have lost you a bit on those last few paragraphs but I think the point I am stressing is – when was the last time you revisited your approach to time distribution? Have you fallen into a groove that doesn’t actually match up to your professional and personal goals? Have you adopted a model that was there before you were? I anticipate I will have to revisit my current model a hundred times or so but I think that is exactly how it should be.
As months roll by my hopes for my job and my career do too…this should be reflected in your day-to-day activities. No more “where did 2011 go?” I’m over the “time passing blackout” that happens to super busy Type As (aka all of us). Instead I am embracing a more conscious approach to time management and time distribution. Won’t you join me? Trust me, things are way simpler over here. I even get to sleep once and a while…crazy I know.
“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”
- D.H. Lawrence (I checked and apparently he was some sort of famous novelist, so he has to be smart and stuff…plus he has a beard, which is cool).
Passion. This word really pisses me off sometimes. People abuse it. They use it as an excuse for stupidity. They make up stories of false passion when they should be using the word greedy. People get competitive about passion…which is fucking hilarious given the fact that passion is an internal thing. Yours is yours. Mine is mine. Yes the overlaps happen in life, but the passion itself starts inside of you. That is where it grows or {sadly} fades.
I want more of this in my life.
I can be aggressive sometimes. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told…in meetings, in relationships, in reviews, etc. The other day a colleague told me “he has never met a woman like me in business.” I wanted to take it as a compliment but I don’t think he meant it that way, or maybe he kind of did. I tried to explain I’m just passionate about all this. I want to give opinions when I think they need to be given. I want to tear down other opinions if I think they will hurt us. I’m passionate about going fast, and hard, and succeeding.
Then I realized…was my passion becoming an excuse? Was it becoming a competition between me and the other team members? I’m not so sure. Given the fact I’ve lived my life (like many of my start-up friends…likely you…whoever is reading this) telling myself that “passion” is what I need above else. I’ve been told by mentors and industry leaders that “passion” is what separates those that succeed and those that fail.
That one word is so big. So over the years I’ve worked on it. How can I give more? How can I try harder? How can I be more for this team? It’s the fuel. The hustle. The Eye of the Tiger playing in your head late night, after late night, after late night, after…
I came across this quote today. “Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.”
I fell in love. That’s what I’ve been trying to say but never said it very well. I think it’s what I try to do, but maybe not very well. For me passion is something that moves you. And for the love of god when you are moved you are hot, and feisty, and aggressive, and real, and honest. Passion is not supposed to be whispered or second guessed.
I made a goal for the second half of 2011 that I would try to be less loud and more quiet. The only problem with that is…it’s not very me. Then all of a sudden blog posts like this jump out of you. Things get all sorts of crazy when you try to be less passionate for the sake of others. I do think there are better ways than others to be passionate. I think you can be passionate as a listener, as a team player, as a sounding board.
My goal for 2012 is to continue figuring out how to be my most passionate self…only for the right reasons. It’s an easy thing to let run away with you. When you love a company or an idea…it owns you. The tricky part is finding the balance in it all. Be quiet when you have nothing to say and be hot when you are passionate about something. I plan to reconsider how I’m handling it all because there are only two things that freak me out {like scare the bejesus out of me}…
1. I end up where I want to go but don’t recognize myself.
2. That I keep myself but end up some place I never intended to go.
I know resolutions rub some people the wrong way, but in this crazy tech world we all love, I think knowing what passion means to you and letting it lead you…is something worth resolving to do. And that’s exactly what I plan to work on this year.
I have been trying to wrap my head around this post for a while now. Every other night for the past two weeks I’ve sat down and tried to tackle it like any other post…outlining key points, considering conclusion paragraphs, and shaping potential titles, only to realize I am so overwhelmed that I usually just walk away. Frustrating to say the least.
The truth is a year and half into venturing into the world of entrepreneurship I find myself at a crossroads. I find myself tired quite often, and overwhelmed by the never ending to-do list. The excitement for the project at times feels more like a burden I am wearing…since it is literally impossible to shut off…impossible to qualify in the eyes of friends & family.
Being an entrepreneur has quickly made itself one of my defining characteristics—oftentimes not by my own accord. It works its way into your intros, into your bios, and before you know it your RSS is full of fellow entrepreneurial blogs, your lunch hour consists of Skype chats with other startup founders, and your weekends are spent wandering new sites, new tools, etc. You consume stories of trial and error like it’s the bible, you find yourself seeking out other entrepreneurs if only to exchange a glance of exhaustion laced with extreme ambition.
I have grown to realize that entrepreneurship is a double-edged sword of awesomeness and it comes with expectations you’ve never considered before.
I am in no way saying that being an entrepreneur brings with it this impossible struggle unmatched by other professions. I’m not writing this with a chip on my shoulder, but instead I am trying to wrap my head around what makes entrepreneurship such a journey of personal growth. I think it’s worth noting that when you embark on an adventure tied to your name, defined by your actions, born from your thoughts…it is easy to lose sight of reasonable expectations.
All of a sudden success is no longer defined by the simple words it once was, for example: winning, profitability, influencing, or helping. Instead an entrepreneur lives with a hodgepodge of expectations that seem to snowball on each other. We must build something, expand, create, innovate, share, influence, teach, produce, return a profit…not to mention all the while sustaining a lifestyle bred on obsessive creativity.
There are so many pieces to succeed at, so many supporters hoping to see you win, so many skeptics to prove wrong, and so many personal goals you have set since that first day you bought the domain for your soon to be baby. Before you know it, you are unable to justify shutting off your computer or spending time on anything other than the project at hand.
Time flies too. You lose all sense of reasonable time lines, and instead phrases like “as soon as possible” and “now or never” become your stopwatch. Statements like “get it done” and “make it happen” become mantras that you can’t escape…not that you really even want to.
Entrepreneurship brings a level of expectation I have never experienced, and one I am still struggling to wrap my head around. I normally try to conclude my posts with some pretty little point wrapped up in some fancy smancy red bow (yes I just made up the word smancy), but I’m not sure I really had one when I started this post.
Instead it seems enough to have admitted that although it is the best decision I have ever made, this journey of “being an entrepreneur” has certainly changed me. Whereas before I looked at launching your own venture as the defining characteristic to someone being an entrepreneur I have realized since, that it is a long road. The word has very little to do with the initial action and everything to do with how you handle the expectations that come with the lifestyle.
I have no idea where that leaves me now, but somehow just admitting how hard it is seems to help. Huh, who knew? Another lesson learned.
What a year. There was a whole lot of learning that went on this year that is for sure. I was thinking last night that out of my past 5 years in this space this year really was different. It was a year of huge announcements in our industry, great growth, conflicts, and amazing conversations. For me personally this year’s end concludes my first full year as an entrepreneur.
Now don’t go clapping or anything, I have after all been contracting out PPC for longer than that, but last year was the year my business partner and I left our old jobs and pushed forward with YourJobStop.com full steam ahead. We took an idea over a cup of coffee we had two years ago and finally saw it through in 2009. We created a solid site with strong functionality and a real purpose for today’s job seekers. Whew…I don’t know about you guys but seriously…this year flew by.
So what did I learn? I thought I would compile a quick list of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Lessons 2009 Taught Me, if only because I think a lot of the lessons I’ve learned in business this year are some of the most important ones I’ve learned my entire life. So here we go (and yes these are in order of awesomeness)…
5. Great Ideas Aren’t Static
Growing up I was always pretty good with change. I’ve picked up and moved across the country, backpacked unknown countries, jumped from college to grad school to the real world to entrepreneurship, and so on and so forth. I’ve always loved change. Then I started a business, and this business had a very pretty concise business plan. Little did I know that business plan would change. As this year passed, truths that were evident when we launched our company have evolved, and my partner & I have had to push forward with completely different initiatives.
I panicked like no other. I chugged some coffee (a.k.a. wine) and realized that “great ideas aren’t static.” If your business idea is the same it was three years ago, and you have failed to push into new audiences, areas, and opportunities…well you are not just failing your customers, but your business as a whole is suffering. Movement is a crucial component of momentum…and momentum is key for success.
4. You Can’t Control Other People’s Work Ethics
I tweeted this out not too long ago and—whoa—did you guys agree. It appears I was one of the last to learn this lesson. I blame too many years in academia where you are forced to work in teams and groups and committees. I took this classroom-project approach and thought business would be similar. Nope. I was so wrong, my friends. I spent the first half of this year trying to compensate for others not “quite on my time line” and losing my mind in the interim.
Then one day I just realized…I can’t make people move faster, and I can’t make them work harder BUT as an entrepreneur I choose who I work with. I can fire people. That’s a hard lesson to learn after a year of being told I am supposed to “play nice” with everyone else. So my fellow business owners just remember—if you are continuously bitching about the people you “work with” you have no one to blame but yourself. Suck it up, make some changes, and get on with it.
3. Asking For Help Isn’t A Sign of Weakness, It’s a Sign of Strength
I love challenging myself with new goals. This year I ended up learning so many new aspects of our industry. I dabbled in biz dev, client relationships, billing, editing, and affiliate partnerships. NONE of which was on my resume before starting YourJobStop. The first half of the year was rough as I tried to consume every word out there on these different skill sets, and teach myself the ins and outs. Then a friend of mine in the industry and I were chatting it up and they were like “you know you could just ask one of the 20 people you know that do that for a living.” {big gulp}.
Asking for help before seemed like a great way to announce my inferiority in something. Well guess what…here is a little secret for you…I don’t know everything. Neither do you. So start asking for help, start reaching out to the experts you have met along the road, and be thankful for the advice they have to give you. Trust me…there will be a day you will get to pay them back. It’s the cycle of entrepreneurship.
2. Get to Know Yourself, Others Expect It
I love to dabble. Hell I even love the word “dabble.” I’ve always been the girl that was just above average at a lot of things, but never really AMAZING at one certain thing. I think this trend lends itself to researching lots of new things, but never quite taking a stance on a particular angle. In sports, politics, and conversation this makes you a fair-weathered person. You tend to like what is likable right now, and you talk about it, and get excited…knowing you will move on when everyone does. Well there is no such thing as a fair-weathered entrepreneur.
You need to have opinions, you need to stand strong on certain initiatives and goals and fight for them. Others expect this from you. The more you waiver, the more faith that is loss in you. Not the company, but in you. This year has taught me that all though I may not know everything, I am certainly more willing to stand up for what I believe in. My voice is louder, my stance is stronger, and I’m not afraid to be wrong. That’s a place you have to be if you want to succeed.
1. It’s Just a Job
I just felt all of your eyes roll at once. It’s okay. There is this notion that if you start your own company you have to LIVE THE COMPANY. You have to breathe it in, and breathe it out, everyday, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You all know me well enough to know I love the craziness that comes with getting excited about an idea. I love coffee, I hate sleep, I love talking with you guys and getting all crazy at 2 in the morning on Skype, IM, Twitter, etc. But this year has taught me that all of this…is just a job. Contradictory, I know.
I watched a lot of you this year tweet out pictures of new homes, of your weddings, of your new baby girls and boys. I read your blogs on the travels you took, and the awesome weekend adventures you tackled. 2009 has taught me that perhaps I want more of that in my life, and a little less of being an entrepreneur. It’s a strange place to find when you are one year deep into a new company, but I also believe that if you work hard enough and smart enough, you can find the balance in life. Todd Mintz once reminded me that not sleeping is actually a bad thing. I’m not 100% sold on this idea, but 2010 is certainly going to be my year to explore that idea 
This year I am going to go after my goals, but remembering…that I am more than my job.
Okay that was a lot of writing for a top 5 list, but hey I’m a rambler. I hope you all found a little something in there you could relate with. I also hope you all had an amazing 2009. So many of you changed jobs, changed locations…it was crazy! I loved it. You are all such an inspiration to keep pushing forward until we are all loving our days and nights, and sharing it with each other. I think there will be a whole lot of that in 2010 my friends, I really do. Happy Holidays.
