Forging Ahead

I first saw Allin present when he was moderating a Startup Week event in 2019. He was super impressive and this episode did not disappoint. This is a man who started in marketing, launched the BDR/SDR program at Intuit, and is now a player coach smashing it selling to the enterprise. Allin is a perfect example of a practitioner. There is real shit in here that you can take into work tomorrow to close more deals or become a better sales leader.

This episode is with my brother, Jeff! Jeff's been grinding away in inside sales for a decade now and shares some thoughts from the front lines. He gives us a framework for how to identify a hypergrowth company to sell for. Jeff just celebrated 3 years at Drift. Enjoy.

This episode features JR Butler. JR is the CRO of Pillir.io. In past conversations, JR has casually talked about W2-ing a million bucks and I wasn't sure if this was hyperbole or actually attainable. So I circled back and asked. Turns out, you can W2 a million bucks as a salesperson. Listen to this episode to learn how.

https://audiencefirst.link/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/arvidkahl

Louis runs Sparkloop.app, a SaaS referral tool for newsletters that is growing 20-30% every month. He runs a course called Sales for Founders, which is why I wanted to chat with him. Louis intends to help founders get good enough at sales to close their first 100 customers. Getting to around 10k MRR allows you to take a breath, regroup, and make a plan for what to do next. This often includes shifting gears to a different customer acquisition strategy or bringing someone else in to run sales. I'd pay special attention to how Louis talks about audience and targeting people to reach out to. His success plan is gold as well. You can find the course at https://salesforfounders.com/

The biggest question you should ask yourself during fundraising? Who's your lead? It's all about a lead investor. They are putting the price on the round of funding. They de-risk the round for fellow investors. "Once you have a lead, that's everything." Blog post that Chris mentions: https://blog.bolt.io/find-a-lead/ Traction can be a substitute for track record. If you've never gotten to the pay window, you can improve your situation with traction. Can you show up to investors meetings with some revenue generated, some customers, some cash raised in scrappy ways? Show progress. Dipjar can be found here: https://www.dipjar.com/

Had a fun chat with Patrick Campbell. https://www.profitwell.com/

Quick 5 minute ramble. Want to get back into the habit of hitting publish!

This one feels like it could be helpful in these scary times. Tara has moved her business online. You can find her at https://www.taraatwood.com/. Her story is incredible. I think you will enjoy this chat.

I was worried about getting over my skis in this discussion. I am definitely not in ProdPerfect's target buyer cohort:) We talk about: - Plans for Covid19 - Making your first sale as a founder*** Erik goes deep here. Super helpful. He has a strong opinion on who should do the early selling. - Presentation chops - Values. Erik goes DEEP here also. - Breaking the rules, being different. Founders must be somewhat crazy. We could have gone for hours and Erik has committed to a part 2. Thanks, Erik! Things we mentioned: Erik's books: https://www.amazon.com/Erik-Fogg/e/B00GC0FE3A?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3&qid=1584551538&sr=8-3 Erik's older blog: http://foggofwar.blogspot.com/ Erik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikfogg/ ProdPerfect: https://prodperfect.com/ GitLab Remote Resources: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/

We talked about the origin story of ScholarJet, having tough discussions with your parents, and the grind of entering and WINNING pitch competitions as a way to get funding. Lot of great stuff in here for early stage founders or people that are thinking about starting a business. Check out ScholarJet here: https://scholarjet.com/ Joe's linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephalim/

Zoe has been at Yesware for 7 years. She started in sales ops before moving over to run people ops. We talk about recruiting, hiring, culture, and more. I wanted to rush to publish this one ASAP because there is timely information for People Ops leaders on how to deal with the current panic over covid19. There is a great message on how to LEAD during this time at the end of the pod. Worth sticking around for it. Zoe's linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-silverman/

Michael and I spend a big chunk of time talking about the most important thing that you should measure if generating more sales is important to you. I'm going to leave it at that as a little teaser... This one has tactical advice that you can start testing immediately.  Find Michael's company at https://www.gotomarketpros.com/

My guest is Emma Brudner, the Dir of People Operations at Lola.com. We talk about how she ended up in People Operations. We talk about recruiting, hiring, and the difference between HR and People Ops. If you are in People Ops and looking for some tips and tricks on how to be successful, it doesn't sound like there are any shortcuts. Emma talks about actually caring, empathy, being human, listening etc. These are not life hacks. Emma shares some thoughts on 1 on 1's. ***Listen closely for her favorite question to start a 1 on 1. There's so much in here and if you give a shit about people, please check this one out.

Michelle and I talked about the "right" way to start a business. My words, not hers. I think they did it right. Pay attention to how she transitioned from her full time job to full time entrepreneur. Michelle's family story is amazing. Michelle talks about letting the customer show you what your business is. She truly embraces a customer first mindset. Thanks, Michelle!

Hadn't done a solo ep in quite some time and wanted to sneak in an update mixed with a little promotion for Blacksmith dot work.

Chris and I spent 30 minutes together. This is a bit shorter than our usual format. Chris and I talked about his experience leading startups. We hit: go to market strategy, course corrections, partnerships, and why everyone should have a list of 5 companies that they want to buy and 5 companies that they'd like to be bought by. Thank you, Chris!

A fun chat with Bryce. We talked about: - Bryce's path - What is Customer Success? - What's going on in Boston? - We talked about Bryce's role at Underscore VC - Being a Dad in today's startup world.

Matt and I chatted about: - The path he took to start his CBD wellness company, Beam! - Matt have me the 101 on how to think about CBD. Oil for your engine! - The importance of branding. - Influencer marketing - How to approach partnerships in business. - The early days of lugging around tables to different fitness facilities in Boston. Selling hand to hand. - Visit beamtlc.com for more info!

What a fun chat! We talked about: - Dave's professional poker days - How he ended up in commercial real estate - We get into some detail about how he started his team in Toronto. From 2 people to 8! - Dave is incredibly thoughtful about prospecting and partnerships. I think there is a lot of value for brokers in this section. #cbreforward. - Dave provides actionable tactics around opening your first office. - Find David Cairns on LinkedIn. He is great at it. https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-cairns-5644a233/

Had a chance to spend just under an hour with my friend Morgan. -We talk about the "Future of Work". - Morgan gives real actionable advice on how to set up your work-space for your people. She has a cool way of thinking about design (worker personas!). It's about the individual! - How to be thoughtful about remote work. - How to approach internal communications. - Helping people use data to make the right real estate decisions. - AND if you fast forward through the whole thing, PLEASE listen to the last section. Morgan shares a really powerful story about starting Camp Kita, a place that she and her siblings started to help kids cope with suicide loss. This section rocked me a bit and I hope you listen. It's hard to give a shit about office design after hearing Morgan's story. - Check out campkita.com if you want to learn more about it.

Lydia started our chat by ripping my face off with a tremendous intro. From there we covered how to build "exemplary people practices." She talked about how critical it is to build strong foundations early, compensation philosophy, organizational structure, and the problem with the phrase "culture fit". We covered a lot. Enjoy!

What a fun chat with Allison! We talked about the importance of supporting new managers, finding mentors, connecting with a strong peer community, recruiting, and hiring. Allison gave live examples of giving and receiving feedback and also some sample interview questions and what to listen for in the answers. Thanks, Allison!

This is my 4th recorded episode with Colin Greenhalgh. Greens has been a real peach in helping me test new audio tools to try and get this thing right. I think there are a few more swear words than normal in this one. Love ya Greens!

Had an hour with Matt. What a treat! We talked about the path he took to where he is today and how to target the right investors for your company, among lots of other things. I think you will really enjoy our chat.

Riffing on a new website design and refining the answer to..."why would anyone use Blacksmith to buy furniture?"

Dan is our first customer! We love Dan. We get into some detail about the project, some mistakes that we (BSW) made, and where to find 10 more Dans. Couple spotty sections of audio, but tough it out for Dan.

It was great to catch up with Steele. We talk about Tenant advisory work, showing up to be of service, and investing time and energy into your community. I think there are some real gems in here for other brokers and sales reps with really long sales cycles. Thanks Steele!

Another solo episode. WTF is a responsive buying platform, you ask? If you give us 9 minutes, you can have the answer.

Had the pleasure of chatting with Maureen about People Ops. What is people ops? How do you think about recruiting and onboarding for an 18 person company. What tools do you use? What are the only two states that you haven't visited?!?

Joe and I got a chance to chat about his career in Commercial Real Estate. We talk about capital markets, leasing, and what brokers can do to be different. Joe is one my favorite guys and I really enjoyed our chat.

In this episode I talk about marketing and some of the psychology behind helping people. Is there friction between what we do and what the brokers are doing to make themselves different?

In this episode I talked about learning how to market. Shout out to Mark Kilens for the title of this pod.

Fun chat with Dan. Dan started a food delivery business before it was cool and ended up selling it to a publicly traded company. He took those lessons and now spends his days helping tenants open offices.

Greens has tremendous insight on how to hire a real estate broker.

In this solo episode I talk about what we are doing today. Trying to answer the question of "why would anyone work with us?"

Another solo ep where I talk about how we can help the broker community help their clients. I started to tease HOW we actually work.

We talk about Networking, Coffee meetings, and some people that Colin admires in Boston CRE.

Bit of a rickety recording of another pivot. We were wrong again. What do we do now?

First part of a running series of chats with Greens. We talk about habits and squash and Jocko.

Picking up where we left off last time, I talk about our second version of blacksmith.work. the audio here is not great.

Early conversations with CRE Brokers in Boston led to v1.0 of Blacksmith dot work.

TS solo episode about starting blacksmith dot work.

I've been meaning to start a podcast for at least a year now. I finally am in the game. This quick episode is an introduction.