contents
ISSUE 7
25 MICHAEL
MOTHNER Growth Interview
Cover Story
15 JOE PULIZZI
Life Hacking
Lies Your Mind 01 The Tells You to Prevent Life Changes...
Growth Hacking
30 ELIAV LANKRI GH.AGENCY
Personal Growth
09 HOW TO
BEAT THE COMPETITION
Everything Store 23 The Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
39
GROWTHHAKKA. com IN CONVERSATION WITH ZOHE MUSTAFA Growth Interview
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come” - Dwayne Johnson Consistent efforts over time bring exponential results. Like in finance, the power of compounding works when you put in efforts on a daily basis. It really does not matter whether the efforts that you put are big or small. Your goal should be to put consistent efforts. This is evident from the cover story of Joe Pulizzi who is truly the GOD of content marketing. Over last few years, through his consistent content marketing efforts, he has built Content marketing institute into a brand for himself with annual revenues of more than $10 Million. He will share the secrets of building rock-solid content strategy and growth advice for entrepreneurs.
We have also covered the inspiring stories of Eliav Lankri of GH.Agency, Michael Mothner of WPromote, Zoe Mustafa of GrowthHakka who talks about their success and failures and how they grew their business. You will also find tips to find peace, happiness, and success from the likes of Leo Babauta, Steve Pavlina. We also have some great deals on software and tools for your business growth. We hope that you will like the issue as much as we like it while designing and conceptualizing the issue.
The Editor
Editor-in-chief PETE WILLIAMS
Contributors LEO BABAUTA STEVE BLANK ELIAV LANKRI MICHAEL MOTHNER ZOHE MUSTAFA JOE PULIZZI
Image Credits freepik.com, unsplash.com
Design
THE CREATIVE CHIMNEY
(www.thecreativechimney.com)
ART DIRECTOR KANIKA GUPTA
U p Scale Pete Williams
LIFE HACKING
The Lies Your Mind Tells You
to Prevent
Life Changes...
T
he mind is a wonderful thing. It’s also a complete liar that constantly tries to convince us not to take actions we know are good for us, and stops many great changes in our lives.
Scumbag mind. I’ve had to learn to watch these rationalizations and excuses very carefully, in order to make the changes I’ve made in my life: a healthier diet, regular exercise, meditation, minimalism, writing daily, getting out of debt, quitting smoking, and so on. If I hadn’t learned these excuses, and how to counter them, I would never have stuck to these changes. In fact, I failed many times before, because these excuses had complete power over me. Let’s expose the cowardly mind’s excuses and rationalizations once and for all.
LIFE HACKING a marathon a little before I started training for my first marathon, and so I told myself, “If Oprah can do it, so can I!” I was right. • He/she can do it, but that doesn’t apply to me. Just because someone else can do it, doesn’t mean we can, right? We look for reasons they can do it but we can’t — maybe he can be a minimalist because he has no kids, or is a freelancer rather than someone with a real job. Maybe she’s way, way fitter than I am, so she can run a marathon. Maybe she doesn’t have all the obligations I have, or has a supportive spouse, or doesn’t have a crippling health condition. OK, fine, it’s easy to find excuses: but look at all the other people who have worse obstacles than you who’ve done it. I have 6 kids and still managed to change a lot of things in my life. Stories abound of people with disabilities or illnesses who overcame their obstacles to achieve amazing things. Your obstacles can be overcome.
First, the main principle: the mind wants comfort, and is afraid of discomfort and change. The mind is used to its comfort cocoon, and anytime we try to push beyond that comfort zone very far or for very long, the mind tries desperately to get back into the cocoon. At any cost, including our long-term health and happiness.
• I need my . Fill in the blank: I need my coffee, my cheese, my soda, my TV shows, my car, my shoe collection … these are things we convince ourselves we can’t live without, so we can’t make a change like becoming vegan or eating healthier or unschooling our kids or simplifying our lives or going carfree. And I’ve made these excuses myself, but they all turned out to be lies. I didn’t OK, with that in mind, let’s go into the need any of that. The only things you really excuses: • I can’t do it. It seems too hard, so we think we can’t stick to the change. We don’t believe in ourselves. This can be countered from the fact that many other people no more capable than us have done it. For example, Oprah ran
Scumbag
mind!
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LIFE HACKING need are basic food, water, clothing, shelter, a little effort and practice. In fact, if you do and other people for social needs. Everything it now, and learn a little at a time, then you’ll else is not a real need. be able to do away with this pesky excuse. • Life is meant to be enjoyed. Sure, I agree • I can do it later. with this statement (as many of us would) Sure, you can but the problem is this is used to justify all always do it later kinds of crappy behavior. Might as well scarf … but your later down those Doritos and Twinkies, because self will also feel hey, life is meant to be enjoyed, right? No. the same way. You can do without junk food and still enjoy Why should the life. You can exercise and enjoy it. You can later self be more give up pretty much anything and still enjoy disciplined than life, if you learn to see almost any activity your current self? In fact, because you’re as enjoyable. allowing yourself to slide now, you’re building a habit of procrastination and actually • I need comfort. This might also be true, making is less likely that your future self but we can push ourselves into more will be more disciplined. Instead, do it now, discomfort than we let ourselves believe. unless there’s something more important We can be a bit cold, instead of needing to that you need to do … don’t let yourself slide be at the perfect comfortable temperature. just because you don’t feel like it. We can do hard exercise, instead of needing to lay around on the couch. We can write • One time won’t hurt. This is so tempting, that thing we’ve been procrastinating on — because it’s kind of true — one time won’t it might be hard, but we can push through hurt. Assuming, that is, that it’s only one that. When our minds seek comfort, don’t time. One bite of chocolate cake, one missed let them run — push a little bit outside the workout, one time procrastinating instead of comfort zone, and begin to be OK with a bit writing. Unfortunately, it’s never actually just of discomfort. one time. One time means your brain now knows it can get away with this excuse, and • I don’t know how. the next “one time” leads to another, until This is also true, but you you’re not actually sticking to something. can learn. Start with Make a rule: never ever believe the “one a little at a time, and time” excuse. I did this with smoking (“Not learn how to deal with One Puff Ever”) and it worked. If you’re going this new change. Do to allow yourself a bite or two of chocolate some research online. cake, decide beforehand and build it into Watch some videos. your plan (“I will allow myself a fist-sized Ask people online how serving of sweets once every weekend”) and they dealt with it. This stick to that plan, rather than deciding on is easily overcome with the fly, when your resistance is weak. 43 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7 03
LIFE HACKING • I don’t feel like it. Well, true. You don’t feel like working hard. Who does? Letting the rule of “I’ll do it when feel like it” dictate your life means you’ll never write that book, never build that business, never create anything great, never have healthy habits. Create a plan that’s doable, and execute it. When the rationalizations like this come up, don’t believe them. Everyone is capable of doing a hard workout even when they’re not in the mood. Everyone can overcome their internal resistance. • I’m tired. Yep, me too. I still did my heavy squat workout today. There is truth to needing rest, and resting when you need it (listen to your body) but this is usually the mind trying to weasel out of something uncomfortable. There’s a difference between being exhausted and needing some rest, and being the little tired we all feel every afternoon. Push through the latter. • I deserve a reward/break. We all deserve that tasty treat, or a day off. I’m not saying you shouldn’t give yourself a reward or break. But if you make this rationalization your rule, you’ll always be on a break. You’ll always be giving yourself rewards, and never
sticking to the original plan. Here’s what I do instead: I see sticking to my plan as the reward itself. Going on a run isn’t the thing I have to get through to get a reward — the run is the reward. • Wouldn’t it be nice to stop? This again is our mind wanting to run from discomfort, and of course it’s true — it would be nice to stop if you’re pushing into a discomfort zone for too long. The thing is, the implication is that it would be better to stop, because it would be nice … but that’s a lie. It would be easier to stop, but often it’s better to continue pushing. This excuse almost beat me when I tried to run my 50mile ultramarathon last December, because honestly it would have been much nicer to stop and not finish the race, especially in the last 10 miles or so. I pushed through, and found out I was tougher than I thought. • The result you’re going for isn’t important. If you’re trying to run a marathon, this is phrased like, “It’s not that important that I finish this”. I’ve used this excuse for learning languages (it doesn’t matter if I learn this) or programming or ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 04 44
LIFE HACKING any number of things I wanted to learn. I’ve used it for writing and exercise and eating healthy food. And while the result might not be that important, the truth is that the process is very important. If you stick with a process that will be better for you in the long run, then you will be better off. But if you let yourself go just because you are uncomfortable and at this moment care more for your comfort than the goal you set out for, you’ll have lots of problems. The goal isn’t important, but learning to stick to things when you’re uncomfortable is extremely important. • I’m afraid. Now, this is the most honest excuse there is — most of us don’t want to admit we’re afraid to pursue something difficult. But it’s also a weaselly way out of discomfort — just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean you can’t do something. You can. I’ve done tons of things I’m afraid of — mostly creating things that I was worried I’d fail at. And while the fear sometimes came true — I didn’t do too well sometimes — the act of pushing through the fear was incredibly important and I learned a lot each time. I’ve used all of these excuses hundreds of times each, so don’t think I’ve overcome them all. And you can use them in the future too. There’s nothing wrong with giving in sometimes.
The key is to learn whether they’re true, and see your pattern. Here’s what I’ve done:
Notice the excuse. It has way more power if it works on you in the background.
ANTICIPATE IT. Try to have an answer for the excuse beforehand.
IF YOU GIVE IN, THAT’s ‘ok’. But recognize that you’re giving in to a lame excuse. Be aware of what you’re doing.
After giving in, see what the results are. Are you happier? Is your life better? Was it worth it giving in to discomfort?
Learn from those results. Are you happier? Is your life better? Was it worth it giving in to discomfort?
If you consciously practice this process, you’ll get better at recognizing and not believing these lies. And then, bam, you’ve got your mind working for you instead of against you. - Leo Babauta
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PERSONAL GROWTH
W
hat is the best way to handle competition. How do you ensure that your efforts will pay off instead of merely jumping into a giant pool with everyone else and being unable to stand out? My strategy for dealing with competition is the same no matter what field I work in. I’m sure you can apply it to your particular field as well, although there’s a good chance you won’t want to, since it isn’t easy. In fact, avoiding what’s easy is precisely the solution. If you want to carve out a place in a crowded field, one of the best ways to do that is to tackle the hard problems within that particular field, the kinds of problems that quickly discourage other people and force them to give up. Hard problems attract few competitors because everyone flocks to the easy problems first. But if you can solve a hard problem, you can create something uniquely valuable that’s difficult to duplicate. In fact, just being willing to go after the hard problems can set you apart from the crowd. I’ll give you three personal examples.
Games Business Example The first few computer games I released were very basic in design. They had some unique elements, but most were pretty generic looking. Lots of other people could have developed them. Those games never sold well, generating just a trickle of income. Then I took a different approach. I set a goal to create a game that would be truly original, something that would have a very 43 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7 09
PERSONAL GROWTH
How to Beat the Competition elegant, unique design. I spent four solid months designing this game, and the end product of all that work was a design doc that was only 5 pages long. Programming the game, making the levels, and doing the art, sound fx, and music only took two additional months. Many people could have programmed that game, but not many would have been able to come up
with a design anything like it. The game’s unique design and gameplay became a strong selling point, and it quickly carved out a niche for itself in the crowded puzzle game market. The game sold well and won some awards too. I discontinued it in 2006, but I still get email from fans of the game today.
Those four months of design work were very tough. I had to pursue many blind alleys and consider a vast field of possible options. There was no guarantee of even finding the type of solution I was looking for. After 3 months it seemed like I’d made very little progress. But eventually everything converged to a very elegant design. Once the design was complete, even before any of the levels or other game assets were created, I knew I had something great. I chose to compete in the area of design because I didn’t have the resources to compete in other areas. I couldn’t code 3D graphics like John Carmack, and I didn’t have the resources to compete with teams of professional artists, sound engineers, and musicians. My budget was pretty close to zero. I had to compete on the basis of creativity. As it turns out, coming up with a truly creative, elegant design is the “hard problem” of game development. You can throw tons of resources at art, music, and sound, and you’ll get good results, but you cannot guarantee a positive result no matter how much money and how many resources you devote to design. You’d be amazed that games that seem very simple on the surface may have taken months or even years of hard design work.
The wheel may seem like a simple invention, but for some early human it was probably the solution to a particularly vexing problem. ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 44 10
PERSONAL GROWTH
PERSONAL GROWTH
Blogging Example
that option because lots of people can write such a book (and already have). There’s a For this website I decided to tackle the hard centuries-old glut of such books. I see no problems of personal development, namely point in adding to the pre-existing clutter. trying to identify the hidden order beneath This just isn’t a hard enough problem. the surface chaos in our lives. Although the results may often look simple, the thought So I decided to write a book that would and effort that goes into this work is be very, very challenging, something I’ve never seen done before. I set out to find extremely challenging. the common pattern behind all successful You may notice that I rarely write about the personal growth efforts, to identify a easy problems of personal development, complete set of core principles that would like how to get your computer to run faster, be universally applicable. Other people have where you can download free ebooks, or tried to write such books, but they provide how to save money on your mortgage. only partial solutions filled with gaping You’ll find zillions of websites discussing holes. those topics. Instead I focus most of my energy on the high-level, timeless concepts. To define what the set of principles would This is much harder work, but the upside need to look like, I outlined several criteria, is that it gives me an opportunity to make all of which would have to be satisfied. a unique contribution. Most people who try These principles have to be true for anyone to do this kind of work for a while soon give anywhere. They must be timeless, meaning up in frustration. It may look easy on the that they can still be expected to work surface, but I assure you it is not. This is one 1,000 years from now, and they’ll still have reason my website continues to thrive in an worked 1,000 years ago. They have to make logical and intuitive sense. They must work increasingly crowded field. Just because this work is hard doesn’t mean it’s painful. Tackling hard problems can be extremely rewarding, especially when the solution benefits others.
Book Writing Example When I started writing my book, Personal Development for Smart People, I decided there was no way I’d write a generic “me too” book. For me the easy problem would be to create a book that was just a collection of advice about how to make improvements in different areas of your life. I quickly dismissed 43 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7 11
You’ll find zillions of websites discussing those topics. Instead I focus most of my energy on the high-level, timeless concepts. This is much harder work, but the upside is that it gives me an opportunity to make a unique contribution.
both individually and collectively, so they’re effective for any group of any size. They must work on the Moon as well as Earth. If I found myself alone on an alien world, I’d still use them. They must be culturally independent. They must work equally well for all areas of life — health, relationships, career, money, etc. They must be collectively complete, so no critical element is missing. And they must be simple, elegant, and beautiful. So basically my goal was to define the hidden mathematics of personal development, the underlying structure beneath the surface chaos. I wanted to discover the personal development equivalent of prime numbers. This is extremely difficult because it means the solution has to be fairly general and abstract, but it must also have abundant practical applications. I researched many different concepts and frameworks that took a stab in this direction but which always fell short of these criteria, everything from Stephen
a mystery. The task seemed nearly impossible, and I had no guarantee there even was a solution. I ended up rejecting an almost endless progression of partial solutions. It was frustrating to find a solution that looked good at first, only to discover that it was full of holes. It took me almost 2-1/2 years, but I eventually found the solution I was looking for, and it’s reducible to a mere 7 words, which inspired the first 7 chapters of the book. The other 80,000 words of the book are explanation, illustration, and application. Virtually all the book’s value lies in understanding those 7 core principles and how they interact with each other. Once I had the principles figured out, writing the book was still challenging but fairly straightforward. The principles themselves are simple and will appear almost obvious when you read them. It’s only when they’re assembled in a certain way that the value becomes clear.
?!? Covey’s 7 Habits to the Noble Truths of Buddhism. I wracked my brain again and again, asking repeatedly, “What is the underlying pattern?” There were tiny clues everywhere, but the full picture remained
Once I figured out these principles, I started seeing them everywhere. Without exception I can look at anyone’s personal problems and describe them as a violation of one or more of these
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PERSONAL GROWTH principles, and the principles automatically suggest a solution that is both logically and intuitively sensible. I can derive any other sound personal development concepts directly from these principles, including all of Covey’s 7 Habits and the core elements of the world’s major religions. These principles are the prime numbers of personal growth.
PERSONAL GROWTH the ones I’m suited for because we probably have different strengths and experiences.
You can apply this “tackle the hard problems” idea to any area of your life, not just business. Look around you for tough problems that other people can’t seem to solve but which you think you have a decent shot at solving. If you really put in a serious Because I picked the right problem to tackle, effort, what problems could you solve in I’ve no doubt the book will have a significant your workplace, your family, your social impact on those who read it, and I expect it circle, your community, etc? will endure for a very long time. In my mind that success has already occurred, even You may not like the words “beat” and though the book is still many months from “competition,” and that’s OK because you release. This was by far the most difficult don’t need to look at it that way. In truth project I’ve ever attempted. Once the book you aren’t really beating anyone. Everyone is comes out, I can basically keel over and die free to tackle hard problems, but relatively happy. few will exercise that choice. So instead of beating the competition, you’re really It’s hard to think of anything more satisfying just leaving the competitive pool behind than coming up with an elegant solution to and blazing your own trail. You’re actually a really difficult problem. 2-1/2 years of hard choosing not to compete at all. work was a fair price to pay for this result. When it comes to competition, if you’re doing work that lots of other people could do just How do you beat the as well, you’re making a strategic blunder. Try to figure out what you’re capable of competition? doing that makes other people quit, even You do the things that others if you still find it challenging. When other people start accusing you of becoming don’t, won’t, or can’t. obsessed with an impossible problem, you Basically you need to find a way to apply know you’re getting warm. your particular strengths to solve problems that are nearly impossible for most people to solve but which are easier (though still What’s good about challenging) for you to solve. This requires competition? developing an awareness of your strengths (see Discover Your Strengths for details). The benefit of competition is that it The hard problems that you’re best suited to motivates us to identify our strengths and tackle will probably look very different than put them to good use. Even the cells in 43 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7 13
your body compete for resources when necessary, and those that prove their value get preferential treatment. This is a fair system because it increases the whole body’s fitness for survival. Similarly, our economy tends to divert extra resources to those who prove they can provide significant value for the benefit of all. Some see this as a reward for hard work. I see it as a way to encourage continued value production from those who are already productive. Of course an added benefit of tackling hard problems is that they help you grow. There’s little to be gained from doing what’s easy, and it’s a safe bet someone else will handle the easy stuff anyway. The real value lies in pursuing the thorny path, the one that scares away the timid adventurers.
- Steve Pavlina
About the Author
Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers in the world, with his work attracting more than 100 million visits to StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 1300 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality.
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COVER STORY
THE CONTENT EVANGELIST About Joe Pulizzi
J
JOE PULIZZI
oe Pulizzi is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcaster. He’s the founder of multiple startups, including the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), the leading content marketing educational resource for enterprise brands, recognized as the fastest growing business media company by Inc. magazine in 2014 and 2015. CMI is responsible for producing Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing event in the world (held every September in Cleveland, Ohio), as well as the leading content marketing magazine, Chief Content Officer. He began using the term “content marketing” back in 2001, now the fastest growing internet marketing industry. CMI also offers advisory services for innovative organizations such as HP, AT&T, Petco, LinkedIn, SAP, the Gates Foundation and many others. Content Marketing Institute was sold in June, 2016 to UBM, a multi-billion dollar events and media company out of London. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council. Joe’s third book, Epic Content Marketing was named one of “Five Must Read Business Books of the Year” by Fortune Magazine. His newest book, Killing Marketing is coming out September 2017. His fourth book, Content Inc., has been a top direct marketing best-seller since September of 2015. Joe has also co-authored two other books, Get Content Get Customers and Managing Content Marketing. Joe has spoken at more than 400 locations in 16 countries advancing the practice of content marketing. He’s delivered keynote speeches for events and organizations including SXSW, NAMM, Fortune Magazine’s Leadership Summit, Nestle, General Motors, Oracle, DuPont, SAP, HP and Dell. Joe not only writes one of the most influential content marketing blogs in the world, he writes a column for Entrepreneur.com and is a LinkedIn Influencer. You can also hear Joe on his podcasts, “This Old Marketing” and “Content Inc.” . If you ever meet him in person, he’ll be wearing orange. You can find Joe on Twitter @JoePulizzi.
1. Pulizzi started using the term “content marketing” back in 2001 when he was working at Penton Media, a large B2B media company. However, as Pulizzi points out, what we call Content Marketing actually can be traced back to at least 1732, when Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard’s Almanack. 15 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
10 facts about Joe Pulizzi
COVER STORY
2. Pulizzi and his wife, Pam Kozelka, co-founded what is now known as Content Marketing Institute (CMI) in 2007. 3. CMI was originally called Junta42, which he has described as “a matching service for brands who needed to find content marketing agencies to execute their projects.” 4. In 2010, they pivoted to focus on training and officially became known as Content Marketing Institute. 5. CMI’s headquarters are located in Cleveland, Ohio, because that’s Pulizzi’s hometown. 6. Content Marketing World, a conference for content marketers held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, debuted in 2011. Featuring more than 50 expert speakers, more than 600 marketers attended the inaugural event. 7. On Twitter, he became known as the “Godfather of Content Marketing.” Fun fact: His team actually introduced him with that moniker at the first Content Marketing World event.
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(beyond product features and benefits) to understand the audience so well that content opportunities become easily apparent. All companies have loads of content, but few have content in the form and context that customers actually want. The more people “90% of enterprise content is about the in the organization that are 100% focused products or services” on audience needs, the better. Finally, the content most companies create is not irreplaceable. It doesn’t feel a true customer need. Enterprises need to focus What makes a content good? on becoming the best of breed with their content instead of just telling stories like all There are all kinds of definitions of great content. However, if we think about it from their competitors do. an engagement standpoint, great content is information that makes people take an How to determine right content action. In the social media context, we like platform? to think about great content that people are willing to share with their networks through Where do you feel the most comfortable? Is outlets like Twitter, Facebook or other social it writing? Is it video or audio? Is it images? communities. If, as a business, you develop What’s the best way to tell the story? Some content that is good enough for people to stories are better told with writing and share with those that matter most to them, others with video or something else. Don’t you’ve created great content”. feel like you have to do it all—especially in the beginning. Some enterprises don’t even have an idea of how much content they are creating and where it’s coming from. They have a difficult time not inserting sales messaging in the content.
8. He believes in a 4-1-1 rule on Twitter, which states, “For every one self-serving tweet, you should retweet one relevant tweet and most importantly share four pieces of relevant content written by others.” 9. Pulizzi has written five books: “Get Content Get Customers” (with Newt Barrett, 2009); “Managing Content Marketing” (2011); “Epic Content Marketing” (2013); “Content Inc.” (2015); “Killing Marketing” (with Robert Rose, coming in September of this year). 10. He hosts two popular podcasts that are approaching the 200-episode mark: “This Old Marketing” and “Content Inc.”
Challenges content marketers face The biggest challenge is to produce consistent content. Another challenge is to target a niche audience and not multiple personas at the same time. Being authentic and sounding like human beings in their content is another pain point. Marketers have a tough time integrating their content marketing with the rest of their marketing.
What traits and skills companies look while hiring for content marketing roles? You must have a flair for the story and willing to learn
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COVER STORY Why content marketing is so important? As we are seeing more and
more, content is the essence of marketing today. Buyers can ignore you in just about every marketing tactic you try. So in order to get attention and build relationships with customers, you better say something that is compelling or helpful, or customers will certainly ignore it. A content marketing strategy works when customers stop ignoring you, start paying attention to you, and decide to give you business because you are the trusted advisor to the industry (because of all your great content).
COVER STORY How to succeed in content marketing? 1. Understanding the informational needs of your customers.
Content marketing limitations for businesses
2.Knowing how those informational needs mix with your marketing goals and objectives.
The only limitations are time and focus. You need to focus on your specific audience and the specific content niche and become the leading information provider in that niche. Consistency is key.
3. Developing a content program around those needs.
Tools for content marketing
4. Being consistent (content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint). 5. Listening and continually evolving the program.
Why content marketing efforts fail? 1. Selling, rather than informing. 2. Not being consistent with your content promise. 3. Not listening, thus not evolving the content program. 4. Waiting for perfection to come before you send out the content.
Many tools are available for content marketing like editorial and project management tools e.g. Divvy HQ, Kapost, and AtTask. Marketing automation tools like Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, ActOn, Salesforce Pardot. Email marketing is more important than ever before. Analytics is critical. Social media management tools. Joe likes LittleBird to help organize influencers. Outside of this, he is a big fan of LinkedIn’s new publisher platform - it opened up the influencer program to all members.
Tell us about your book Epic content marketing “Epic Content Marketing” takes you step by step through the process of developing stories that inform and entertain and compel customers to act--without actually telling them to. Epic content, distributed to the right person at the right time, is how to truly capture the hearts and minds of customers. It’s how to position your business as a trusted expert in its industry. It’s what customers share and talk about. Once we hook customers in with epic content, they reward us by sending our sales through the roof.
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Epic Content Marketing provides everything you need to : • Determine what your content niche should be to attract and retain customers • Discover and develop your content marketing mission statement • Set up a process for creating and curating epic content • Learn how to leverage social and email channels to create and grow your audience • Measure the performance of your content and increase your content marketing budget With in-depth case studies of how John Deere, LEGO, Coca-Cola, and other leading corporations are using content to drive epic sales, this groundbreaking guide gives you all the tools to start creating and disseminating content that leads directly to greater profits and growth. Whether you’re the CMO of a Fortune 500, a digital marketer, or entrepreneur, “Epic Content Marketing” gives you the tools you need to vanquish the competition.
Advice for entrepreneurs: You need to have patience and vision. As an entrepreneur you m ust have the the patience to stick through the early years. It takes time to build a growing business and many people just can’t wait long enough for the tide to turn. In addition, you must think big to get big returns. You must create a grand vision for yourself. ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 20
The Everything Store
Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
A
mazon.com’s visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, wasn’t content with being a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become the everything store, offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To do so, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that’s never been cracked. Until now. Brad Stone enjoyed unprecedented access to current and former Amazon employees and Bezos family members, and his book is the first in-depth, flyon-the-wall account of life at Amazon. The Everything Store is the book that the business world can’t stop talking about, the revealing, definitive biography of the company that placed one of the first and largest bets on the Internet and forever changed the way we shop and read 23 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
The Author
B
rad Stone is senior executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News and the author of The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World (Little, Brown, January 2017.) He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, which won the 2013 Business Book of the Year Award from the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs and has been translated into 26 languages. He is a twin, and the father of twins, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
GROWTH INTERVIEW • Tell us about your professional full of failures and learnings along the way. I think of it as a ship sailing to a journey so far? My professional journey has pretty much been one ride my entire adult life. I was coding computer games in high school, building websites while in college and founded Wpromote “to help businesses succeed online” out of a Dartmouth dorm room in 2001 when I was 20, and basically have been at it every since. This year we crossed 340 employees in eight offices nationwide and are the single largest independent digital agency in the country.
• Tell us about your company. What challenges you faced while growing your company and what you did to fix them. Oh gosh we faced it all. What we always knew was the internet was this amazingly powerful medium to help businesses find customers (and vica versa) and that if we helped facilitate this, we would be hugely successful. What we didn’t know is everything else: how to hire and retain employees, how to do accounting, finance, manage cashflow and budget, how to build culture, how to acquire companies, the list goes on. Pretty much at every turn we were faced with new challenges and experiences, and the one thing we had was the confidence to figure things out, to try and fail and iterate, to test and rinse and repeat.
• Your I don’t failures journey
great destination, but with lots of minor course corrections along the way. By getting a lot of little things wrong, you are likely to get the big stuff right.
• What choices you made in your life which made a significant difference in your life?
Always pursuing things that I found interesting, fascinating or inspiring, and not what others thought I should pursue, has made a huge impact in my life. My parents were both teachers, and from a young age I just loved business, so I just did what felt right and for me, that was constantly doing entrepreneurial things. The single biggest ‘fork in the road’ example of this was my senior year of college when I had Wpromote as this little dorm room hobby business, and ultimately walked away from a job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs to do “that internet thing.” Needless to say, not a lot in my life would be the same had I chosen the other path at that moment.
• Walk us through your work day?
My “work day” doesn’t have clear delineation from my “non work day” because of my flexibility in where and when I work, and also because I really enjoy the significant majority of the work I do. That said, my work efforts are roughly split in thirds: about a third of my time on the client side, both Successes/failures in life. developing new business and working really think of successes and with existing, a third of my time goes into in a binary sense. Overall the our marketing, speaking and thought has been a successful one, but leadership, and a third of my time goes ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 26
GROWTH INTERVIEW into strategic planning and execution I really haven’t been blessed with (internal meetings and planning, M&A, personal mentors from a business budgeting/forecasting). perspective, but my parents have been a supportive force in all of my crazy ideas • How do you keep yourself and schemes since childhood, and I love productive and motivated? aspiring to be like the great business people of the modern era: Elon Musk, Bill I am lucky to wake up every day Gates, Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs, Mark motivated to create, grow and move Zuckerberg, etc. the ball forward. It gives me so much intrinsic satisfaction and that is what • How do you hire your team? keeps me productive. My frustrations What traits you look for while generally come from things moving slower than I want, and of course when hiring? we suffer setbacks that are just a part We hire across a lot of different disciplines of doing business. (marketing, sales, engineering, data science, copywriters, designers) but • What do you do to keep the common traits across all of them yourself on growth path? is a passion to learn, an ability to work We have always been growth oriented; independently and also collaborate well we have clear revenue and profit growth in teams, being great communicators, goals, which feeds down to departmental and an excitement to grow both in goals, which feeds into individual goals, knowledge and as people. so that everybody is rowing in sync in the same direction.
• What advice did you get which changed your life?
• What tools/apps do you use “If you’re not making lots of mistakes, for managing work and life? you’re not trying enough things.” The day to day tools that keep everything running are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Slack, Asana, Highfive and TinyPulse.
• Your favorite books?
Some favorite books: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Good to Great by Jim Collins, and everything by Malcom Gladwell.
• People who have inspired you and made a difference in your life. 27 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
• What advice would you give to people looking for success and growth in personal and professional life?
Trust your gut, and just get out there and do it. Whether that is somebody that wants to start a new business, move on from a relationship, take up a hobby… I think that deep down our guts and intuition are much better than we are trained to give them credit for. Trust it, and trust in yourself, stop talking about it, and get out there and it.
GROWTH INTERVIEW
Journey of GH.Agency
WITH THE FOUNDER ELIAV LANKRI and be up to date regarding anything that had to do with me or my portal. During that time I had the great opportunity to work for one of Israel biggest news sites, which only motivated me even further to get more traffic to my site and increase its visibility. At the age of sixteen, I have put my accumulated knowledge in website building into good use and decided to open up my own business. I’ve built the website • Tell us about your professional for small local businesses which were also journey so far? interested in being marketed through SEO I’ve begun my professional journey at the and PPC. that was an incredible and eyeage of 13, that was about when I realized opening experience. school was great- that is if you weren’t Not long after I turned seventeen years old aiming to be too practical. I realized all my small business got some attention which too quickly that the course of study was earned me a job at a proper agency, where predetermined and set for me, without I got to learn straight from experienced anyone asking me what I wanted to do at and seasoned pros. I finally hit it big the time. I took it upon myself to decide with an agency that provided marketing what’s best for me- I’d still go to school services to big-name corporations in the every now and then, but what really got United States of America. That was about my attention was learning everything I a year before I was enlisted for obligatory could about the internet back at home. army service, so I didn’t waste any time When I was fourteen years old I already ran an internet portal for kids and teenagers, which had great success. It was one of the most viewed sites in Israel due to its content variety. It had everything from jokes, funny pictures, video clips, computer games and much more. I knew right away that as a site owner I had to find ways to market my product, be it forums or Google’s search engine- I was on it. I always made sure to stay on top
getting everything I could from that experience. I learned so much about tools and marketing strategies I was oblivious to beforehand and was overwhelmed by the arsenal I got to acquire. I instantly wanted to experience my new talents by implementing them on the sites I ran personally with my own clients. After I’ve fulfilled my term of service I got to work as an SEO specialist and Growth Hacker for some major international ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 30
GROWTH INTERVIEW agencies and kept growing personally and professionally in the field. I’ve decided that by October of 2016 I would open my own agency, and provide marketing services for companies and start-ups on a worldwide scale- and the rest is history (I’ve always wanted to say that). These days I am the owner of GH.Agency.
• Tell us about your company. What challenges you faced while growing your company and what you did to fix them.
GROWTH INTERVIEW When I approached to hiring my first employee I knew exactly what I wanted- I was looking for someone who specialized in SEO and PPC as well. I understood the division between the fields, and that the person I was about to recruit had to get his full focus on the world he was about to enter, and so I acted accordingly. I’ve put on a notice I was searching for a pro and got approached by some wonderful people. After going through all the responses I realized everyone was more or less equally qualified, so I’ve put together a little test to help me sort out who was the right man for the job. I’ve sent the preferred candidates a technical proficiency test via email and gave them three days to complete it. The goal was to test their way of thinking and how good they were on dealing with deadlines.
As you might have gathered, I’ve named my agency GH.A for Growth Hacking Agency, a digital marketing agency which offers every possible solution to businesses and start-ups. I aim to help start-up owners and marketing managers by providing my agency’s wealth of information and experience and save precious time and And that was that this process left me resources. with one contender for the job, with We provide SEO, PPC, and CRO for whom I work for to this day. My little start-up companies in competitive test proved itself by every measure. markets all around the world. One of my main challenges was enlisting new working force for my business, which is something one must never take lightly. An employee with a smile on his face is my gain, without that- my business stand to lose on a very short term.
• What choices did you make in your life which made a significant difference in your life? That little decision I’ve made for myself, the one from when I was thirteen years old- that was the most crucial decision I’ve ever made. Without it, I would never have accumulated the knowledge I’ve got at that relatively young age. It was that decision that gave me the edge over my contemporaries at the time. Another choice I’ve made which had a great impact on my career was taking a course in personal and commercial coaching, for myself and my business. Those eight months of training gave me the tools which help me best communicate with other people and my clients. I’ve noticed the positive change even throughout the course. Today I make sure to speak with the person I’m speaking too in mind, and I’m more attentive to my surrounding. I see this quality being too easily overlooked by other people, and that’s a shame in my opinion.
• Walk us through your workday?
I like starting my day early, the sooner the better. I wake up not long after 6:30 am, drink my coffee and take a train to my office in Tel Aviv (which is about a fifteen minutes drive). I read the daily newspaper during that time to keep myself sane. Once I’m in my office I make another cup coffee for my morning routines, and as I drink that second cup I clear those schedules (in about an hour). This is when I go over the daily reports I receive from different sources for clients and measure the success performances of my campaigns. After taking care of those tasks I go
through my emails from the last twentyfour hours. Those I can reply to quickly and easily I treat right away, the rest are kept for later during the day. As I go about my day I make sure to stay in touch with my clients with phone calls to keep being up to date. Sometimes I get my best ideas in those calls, new and innovative approaches which lead my clients to open up about how they run their businesses- I take all that and blow it up straight into the digital sphere. At this point, my day is taking constant shifts and turns which lead to new adventures. Its this dynamic nature of my job which always keeps it fun and exciting.
• What keeps you productive?
It really is hard to keep up productivity with all the noise all around us constantly, but with the years of working experience I’ve learned to identify distracting factors at work and how to filter them out. For example, smartphone notifications from news and social media apps kept pulling me out of work all the time, so I simply switched them all off. If I wish to check up on the news or take a look if there’s anything new or interesting on Facebook, I’ll do it when it pleases me thank you. Every day I get to work I face a task list I keep up next to my computer monitor. Following this list helps me ease into my day without getting too far into one subject as to getting distracted by it. This approach helps me stay productive with all the workrelated things that call for my attention. I make sure to take a break of about five to ten minutes once an hour and let my eyes rest from staring at the screen all day. This is an important factor for health which shouldn’t be ignored. ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 32
GROWTH INTERVIEW To stay motivated I schedule an out of eBook. office meeting at least once a week. Once I noticed getting this breath of fresh air • What tools/apps do you use for recharges my batteries like nothing else managing work and life? I kept on doing exactly that. I don’t know Great question! as someone who’s having how that works, and I don’t care- it simply a hard time keeping focus, one of the first does so I keep on doing it. thing I used to do when I was an employee I also get to work from a coffee shop once was buying notebooks and make my own a week for a change of scenery. It’s quite to-do list, which made everything much nice but can get counterproductive if the more convenient place gets to be distracting. Luckily I’ve When I became self-employed I tried found two quiet little coffee shops nearby keeping that method, but it quickly I frequent regularly. became impossible. For example, I’d get • What do you do to keep yourself a new task in an email, and I had to log it into the notebook, only to be deleted on the growth path? not soon after. Keeping up a notebook I use Feedly to keep track on news sites became obsolete. in the field of marketing, and I collect I’ve looked for alternatives. I tried working interesting blogs to follow (I follow about with Trello and Asana, but those tools didn’t fifty different blogs and websites). I take provide the solution I was looking for as at least one hour a day to read and get well. At the end of the day, I realized I was caught up on the latest changes in the looking for something that was notebookworld of marketing. This is a very dynamic like, but online and can be reached from and fast-paced field, so every day can anywhere. After a week of looking for this bring on something crucial. magic tool to exhaustion, I came across I try to get around different Facebook groups to get news from there, but also to spread some help around. This forces me to look for creative solutions. Though it can be draining, it is certainly worth it. Also, and this might sound a little weird, I like reading eBooks. Throughout the week I get to come across interesting in-depth research that I can’t find the time to read thoroughly. Eventually, I’ve found a way to get around that- after I download the eBook to my computer I print it out and file it into a large folder, just like you would with normal books, and every weekend I read at least one
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GROWTH INTERVIEW ToDoist, which is simply magnificent. It just does exactly what I need. I’ve set up a project for every client, that’s where I organize everything that’s required. In case I get an incoming task that can be scheduled for next week, I simply use an excellent Gmail extension which allows me to log incoming emails as to-do list tasks. This made organizing tasks from my email much simpler. Right now ToDoist meet every expectation I had and more, and I’m happy to praise it for it.
zone and go out for an adventure that keeps me surprised daily. This decision clearly changed my life and my way of thinking.
• What advice would you give
to people looking for success and growth in personal and professional life?
There are four important principles I believe everyone who wishes to be self-employed has to follow. These are • What advice did you get which determination, not being afraid to get changed your life? dirty, and of course- focus and listening. Exactly one year ago I’ve decided to follow A determination is being decisive about my own path and march into a solo career. achieving your goal no matter what. This meant leaving my comfort Whatever obstacle may come your way, it doesn’t matter- only your target does. Don’t be afraid to get dirty- it means to put your ego aside and take actions which will affect you and your business. If you’re a baker and you’ve set up shopgo around town and hand out samples for everyone you meet. If you’re someone dealing marketing with marketing share your knowledge publicly in a blog, join Facebook groups and visit meetups. Listening, the way I see it is being open to other people’s opinions. making a choice doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only right one. Sometimes hearing other people outlets us clear our heads for new and better ideas. Focus- when we are by ourselves we tend to get all over the place. Focus your energies on things that matter. The more you pay attention to a specific thing the more you specialize in it.
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roblems in life can be understood • The author uses different better with the help of Mindset: examples throughout the book to The New Psychology of Success. back up her theory. This popular self-help book written by Carol Dweck leads to a better The Author comprehension of the importance that a person’s mindset has in life. The arol Dweck author has furnished her psychological is an theory with note-worthy historical and academician contemporary individuals as examples. and a psychology According to the theory postulated by researcher who the author, the attitude of an individual has worked towards life matters a lot. People with at a number a fixed mindset do no look at life as of illustrious an opportunity to learn and constantly educational struggle to recover from failures. On the institutions. She holds a PhD from other hand, there are the people with the Yale University and has a number growth mindset who take their failures of publications to her credit. Some as challenges to be overcome. They look of them are Mindset: How You Can at nature as something to be discovered Fulfil Your Potential, Self-theories: continuously, one part after another. Their Role In Motivation, Personality The growth mindset, which is the premise and Development and Handbook of of the author’s theory, challenges the Competence and Motivation.
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conventional way of looking at certain notions. As stated by this book, talents and brains often get in the way of an individual’s development. Being one of the most ignored aspects, a person’s mindset is an important factor that affects personal development.
Key Features
• Challenges the conventional
causes that are usually attributed to an individual’s success. • Talks in detail on the necessity to inculcate a growth-enhancing mindset. 37 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
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GROWTH INTERVIEW
GROWTH INTERVIEW
GROWTHHAKKA.com IN CONVERSATION WITH ZOHE MUSTAFA
• Tell us about your professional journey so far?
Academically I did both a Computer Science Degree and Business Management Degree straight after. I was unsure what I wanted to be when I grew up, plus I wanted more time before going for jobs. After my 2nd degree, instead of going for a graduate job I started my first business. My first startup was a “Freesheets” publication, before the Internet had really taken off in the days of dial up connection. The idea was to give it out for free in London [London has quite a few freesheets these days] and to make money from advertising. I did everything myself. Design, copy, photography, editorial, ad sales, relationships with PR managers and even distribution.
Having failed my first start up and with pressure from my parents I was unable to stave off employment and working for someone else. I got a job in the Information Technology team at what was then Cable and Wireless. But even that job did not come easily! I made over 300 job applications in about 8 months. With each rejection and my mother’s taunts about how incompetent I was ringing in my ears, I kept going until I got a breakthrough. Various Information Technology skills I had learned at University and in my start up eventually paid off! I worked for about 3 years earning very good money for my age at the time and eventually got to a point whereby I could not cope with maddening corporate culture and politics. I quit and founded another startup which was an ecommerce start up.
Ecommerce Startup went a bit better than the 1st one. I 0worked on it for 7 years and achieved hockey stick growth. Then however I made the classic mistake of growing too fast and most importantly growing and diversifying product range too fast. This resulted in me not having enough cash to stock hero products that had provided the hockey stick growth in the first place! Next thing I knew debts When it came to the distribution I came were growing and the diversified stock to the awful realization that I was too was not shifting fast enough! embarrassed to stand on the street and give out my free magazine. I was literally mortified. Doh! The startup failed miserably… 39 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
Before the debt for the Ecommerce startup really got to a level which I could not control I decided to shut down the business and tail between my legs I returned to the corporate world of being an employee! I ended up workig for large corporations like QVC, Virgin Media, Nokia and Accenture on large digital and marketing programs with HUGE marketing budgets in the millions. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. For my ecommerce startup I had to apply multiple hacks with limited budget. For the corporates I was spending millions on Search, Display, Affiliates, Social, Partnerships and more. The hacker in me couldn’t help applying many hacks I had learnt in my start up to the corporate world.
of Growth Hacking agencies. Whilst it was challenging with people not really knowing what growth hacking was it was not impossible to generate awareness. I did all the standard things, build website, optimize for SEO, share on social, some paid ads, useful links and comments on high PR sites, a growth hacking group on LinkedIn etc. As business came in and we were running growth campaigns for clients it became even harder with the resource I had to run campaigns for Growth Hakka.
Time is always a challenge and there is never enough time in the day. New competitor agencies have also provided a strong challenge as awareness grows about Growth Hacking. The awareness of Growth Hacking also presents a challenge in that every client no matter what the In 2011 I could not take much more at the product is thinks growth hacking is the most soulless job of all at Accenture and holy grail to viral growth. Poor products cannot be growth hacked and we are started Growth Hakka. Since the earliest days of my career to now great believers in Product as Marketing. in 2017 I have worked for or consulted for If your product is flawed no fancy over 40 companies both enterprise and marketing or clever growth hacks will startups. I have built up a wealth of cross bring exponential growth. Growth Hacking industry experience that I now apply to for a SAAS is a lot easier than for Matcha Tea for example. Most of the big growth new clients. The aim has been to Bring enterprise level hacking case studies online are for SAAS marketing skills to entrepreneur level and tech companies and every prospect comes to us with dreams of achieving firms and making them successful similar growth. In that case we really need to manage expectations. Hiring and • Tell us about your company. finding good people is a HUGE challenge What challenges you faced while especially at an affordable price.
growing your company and what • Your Successes/failures in life. you did to fix them. With Growth Hakka when I started it in 2012 the biggest challenge was that most people had no idea what “Growth Hacking” was. Now in 2017 there are literally 100s
My first startup was a disaster as mentioned above. My 2nd startup whilst doing well for 7 years, so it was both a success and when I decided to ramp down ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 40
GROWTH INTERVIEW operations I suppose it was because I failed with my stock purchase decisions. I have run many successful campaigns. 5 million app downloads in one campaign was my biggest success. In another role I generated £50M in pre-credit approved sales. Post-credit revenue value was £26M.
GROWTH INTERVIEW Chrome app extension. I will look for any spikes or anomalies and have a deeper dive if anything stands out. As we get more clients it’s getting more difficult for me to be hands on in campaigns but still at this stage I still have a major input into all client work.
• What keeps you productive & • What choices did you make in motivated ? your life which made a significant That’s not hard. I’m working for myself difference in your life? on cool projects and campaigns with Don’t do things the conventional way. Trust your instinct. It will always work out. I have applied a hacker’s mindset to everything I do since the age of 15, from choosing which subjects I wanted to do for GCSEs and A-Levels to my career path and even to whom I wanted to marry! Point being I refused to conform to expected norms.
a diverse set of clients from multiple industry verticals. No day is the same. No challenge is the same. Intellectually nothing is cooler than being presented a growth challenge and finding ways to grow that business.
• What do you do to keep yourself
Don’t just accept the rules. Change them, on growth path? break them, challenge them. I have constantly made choices that most people Constantly look at your data. Affect would think were not normal and maybe a change as fast as possible to counter negative trends and metrics i.e work in little crazy. Take calculated risks but think before you real time. Don’t be afraid to admit if you do. I’m always calm, never get stressed have done something that is not working. especially in work related situations. Cool heads always prevail.
• What tools/apps do you use for • Walk us through your workday? managing work and life? I work with both corporate and startup clients at the moment. First thing in the morning will be to check my notifications on my S6. If there are no major overnight crises then I won’t actually go into anything until get to work. Once at work I will go through emails, Slack messages and updates. At the same time on a separate screen we have all our clients dashboards rotating using the Revolver 41 | SCALEUP | ISSUE 7
Slack, Gmail, Evernote, Analytics suites, Excel, Buffer, WordPress, Sumo Me, MailChimp, Whats App, Skype, IFTTT, NordVPN, ChromeCast, Revolver, Hubspot Sales, Snag-It, Clearbit, Built With, Awesome New Tab Page, Eyedropper, SEO Quake, SEMRUSH, SimilarWeb, The Great Suspender, Canva and so many more depending on the client. The image below is my desktop!
Your favorite books?
Lean Startup, Hooked, Fingerprints of the Gods, Magicians of the Gods.
• People who have inspired you and made a difference in your life. I’m not going to give you a typical cliché response like my dad or Richard Branson. I can’t say I have been inspired by anyone in particular in life that is famous or who has made lots of money. I am inspired by those who struggle and who have little in life in terms of amenities and money.
Those who face daily challenges to feed their families and keep them safe. Those who work in the service of others. If I had to pick people who are famous then it would be Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Ray Kurzweil are definitely interesting folks.
• How do you hire your team? What traits you look for while hiring?
We use both onshore and offshore resource. For Onshore I get personally involved. I have a large network and tend to approach people of interest directly on LinkedIn. I am part of various Slack Think tanks etc that also come in handy. For offshore resource I rely on my local managers to make the right decision. I look for people who have a similar background to me i.e. multi industry, multi channel, multi – geo, multi skilled. I look for growth hackers and ideally they should be growth hackers who can code or at least understand code. These people are rare by the way. I look for tenacity
and doggedness, determination and imagination. I prefer creative people who can think out of the box. I look for signs of calmness under pressure as I don’t get along with people who panic! I also look for humble people. I don’t hire experts because there is no such thing and if you position yourself as one then I will have doubts. I like practioners who like to and are still learning like me. We occasionally dip into freelance sites like UpWork, Fiverr etc for bespoke tasks that we don’t have time for ourselves.
• What advice did you get which changed your life?
I work with both corporate and startup clients at the moment. First thing in the morning will be to check my notifications on my S6. If there are no major overnight crises then I won’t actually go into anything until get to work. Once at work I will go through emails, Slack messages and updates. At the same time on a separate screen we have all our clients dashboards rotating using the Revolver Chrome app extension. I will look for any spikes or anomalies and have a deeper dive if anything stands out. As we get more clients it’s getting more difficult for me to be hands on in campaigns but still at this stage I still have a major input into all client work.
• What advice would you give to people looking for success and growth in personal and professional life?
Standard stuff really. Believe in yourself, never give up. Anything you do or create put yourself in the shoes of the end user or consumer. Nothing is impossible, there is a solution to every problem. Keep Calm. ISSUE 7 | SCALEUP | 42
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