We start off the show with a look back on the first 50 episodes.

Greg’s Update:

Fails:

  • 1) Start content map for System.ly – Started yes, am I happy with it no (need feedback on a few things)
  • 2) Map out options for pricing plans (considering other automation apps like convertkit)  – )I have some ideas but need feedback)
  • 3) Export my GH.me contacts and upload to ConverKit (never got around to this)
  • 4) Send out two roadmaps to customers with new template (FAIL – although each are about 60% done and need to be reviewed by lisa)
  • 5)Put together list of contacts I want to reach out to as prospects (Started)

Results:  

  • Revenue:
    • MME $3488
    • Systemly: : +$1500 one time Revenue this month and $4190 MRR.
    • Combined this month earnings are $9,178 w/ the MRR of that being $7,678
  • Strategic call with 2 system.ly customers mapping out some upcoming projects
  • Started putting together list of contacts to reach out to for second wave of customers
  • Started to sketch out wireframes for the website and identify key things I want to include. Part of it is a testimonial section of videos which we have 3-4 customers turning their awesome testimonials into a video.
  • Getting closer to identifying pricing plans that feel right as I sketch out the site.
  • Started implementing a handful of Zapier connections that will help our business.
    • Trello to Slack
    • Recurring tasks in Trello
    • Infusionsoft to Trello
    • Trello to Toggl
  • Starting to think about the next stages of building out the team
    • Bigger picture complex campaigns vs smaller tasks and the best way to support that
    • Thinking of bringing on another “junior” infusionsoft person for some of the smaller tasks.
  • We’re gonna be losing an MME customer but they also might be a customer in another capacity from a strategic coaching perspective.

Plans:

  • I’m going to be featured on a Blab that is trying to break a record next week
  • Have a strategic partnership call
  • Send audits to the the three customers that are getting them
  • Reach out and re-interview two of the candidates I spoke with
  • Export my GH.me contacts and upload to Converkit (never got around to this)
    • While this seems easy there is a lot to this as it’s not just a list but other existing automation and order forms from that site
  • Engage 10 people from my prospect list
  • Share wireframe sketches and pricing with my mastermind groups for review and feedback
  • Map out my 3-4 customer personas and identify and connect my work in progress content map to that.
  • Build out one of the funnels for a strategic partnership

Justin’s Update:

Fails:

  • Did not get an employee handbook done. Really decided not to even start. I may get this in place, but with the work agreements I have a lot of the details listed there and just felt I was stressing myself out so I put it off.

Results:

  • $25.4k MRR to $26.3k
  • I had three new hires start this week – all on Tuesday. This made for a rough onboarding process since they were all three in different roles. However, it wasn’t too bad. I expected a lot of issues and stress from this, but the troubles actually stemmed from other reasons.
  • The person I brought on for the Customer Success Manager role I knew immediately was not going to be a good fit. His skillsets were better used for sales and so we decided to make the move. This was actually a really big deal. This person is a friend and someone I’ve known for a long time in the local business community. He left a high paying job to take on this role. It was a very uncomfortable situation, but one of the things I’ve learned from my agency days was to fire fast. I didn’t want this to linger and have it causing major problems for us.
  • Good news is, we had an amazing candidate come through with CRM experience and lots of SaaS experience. This happened the day I made the decision to move our original CSM over. He will be starting the 22nd of September.
  • With our junior developer, she’s working directly with Dominic. Our sales rep I was able to just hand over our sales playbook and he got right to work. So those were actually pretty straight forward. When we do get our Customer Success Manager in place, they will be training with Michael – so this is shaping up nicely from direct report standpoint. However, I will still serve as the direct point of contact for sales people and then I’m spearheading product management, and working with Michael on marketing.
  • We still have not pinpointed a big bug that is causing some users major issues with adding prospects to their lists. I have been fielding support tickets all week for this and I am just burned out on it to be honest. I think Dominic, my CTO, is as well. This started last Thursday.
    • Good news is, we think we have at least zoned in on the issue and I think we might have this resolved shortly.   
    • I suppose it is a good sign when people are upset about not being able to use your product.

Plans:

  • Remove myself from support tickets and use my junior developer for this. It will be a huge burden and stressor off my plate.
  • Work on a couple of things for onboarding new users. I have been waiting for bugs to get ironed out. This includes coming up with a “cheat sheet” type post on how to best leverage boolean search strings to find target prospects and creating a series of onboarding emails (we have zero onboarding right now aside from a demo when you first log in).
  • Complete a guest blog for a soon-to-be semi competitor. I was up front about this after he approached me about doing one, but he was cool with it.

Resources Mentioned:

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