It’s an idea that several digital client services shops toy with: build and launch a product of your very own. So what do you do when you have the idea, know how to build it and want to give it a go? Craig Bryant, Founder/CEO of We Are Mammoth has been there, lived that. With the help of his team, he’s successfully spun up not one, but two SaaS products. Craig joins us to share insights into We Are Mammoth and the stories behind two products: DoneDone, a simple bug and issue tracker, and Kin, HR software to improve onboarding, engagement and the bottom line. Craig discusses five and 10 years into a product, patience as a critical virtue and how to go with your gut when you’re told to pull the plug.
Has project management reached a tipping point? Rachel Gertz, Partner and Digital PM Trainer at Louder Than Ten, believes so. In the not-so-distant past, project managers didn’t have much say in how their companies were run. They shuffled folders, organized to-dos and made small talk with clients. Today, companies recognize DPMs as the front lines of business, secondary business developers, early-stage strategists and more, well worth attention—and investment. Rachel joins us to talk about a new class of empowered DPMs and how these resilient leaders are shaping the future of the industry.
As digital agencies, we’re great at marketing our clients. Marketing ourselves? Not so much. Mark O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer at Newfangled, knows how this goes. In 2015, the “too cheap to fire” intern turned CEO realized Newfangled needed to ditch 20 years of web development fast or perish. Going through the EOS Traction coaching program, Mark helped Newfangled to tai chi its way to discover its unique ability. Tune in to find out how you can uncover hard truths, market smarter and overcome your fear of changing out the plumbing while the water is still running.
How do you gain more control over leads, and improve your chances of working with your ideal clients? For Bear Group in Seattle, the answer lies in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and personalized campaigns—getting in front of the right people at the right times, in the right places. Can this approach work for you? Greg Bear, Systems Architect / President, and Travis Caldwall, Marketing Director at Bear Group, outline their process, drop resource hints such as Predictable Revenue and ZenProspect and discuss how they’ve found focus through ABM and personalized campaigns.
Over the past nine years at Sparkbox, Rob Harr has engineered a finely tuned Ops system built on Friday forecasts, micro-cash sheets, rolling six-month billable averages and two years of feeling really uncomfortable. Tune in to hear the method behind his magic and learn how to uncover truth in your own data sets, repetitive grading and a fresh mindset.
“What did you want to be when you were eight years old?” It’s a powerful question that can open up all sorts of conversations and illuminate the way we work together and where we want to go with our career. But who feels comfortable asking this during a 1:1? We're managers, not Oprah—bosses with a big letter B. Plucky's Jen Dary has the solution. Drawing on four years of leadership coaching, she’s created The Plucky 1:1 Starter Pack to help leaders and teams be more successful together. Listen in on her story, find out what she wanted to be as a kid and discover how she found her North Star.
How do you start a tech company without a computer? Drive and relentless determination. Sherri and Reuben Johnson worked out of their local library, and would park their junker car out of sight to walk the main streets handing out printouts promoting their web services. Like many of us, their beginning setup wasn’t ideal. So how do you make things work when you have ability, but few tools or resources—and how do you stay true to yourself in the process? Listen to part 2 of their story for some inspiration.
Of the hundreds of people I’ve met who started a digital agency, almost all of them stumbled into it. But the two people on today’s show saw the web as a way to improve their lives. Living in a small Northeastern mill city, a tanking economy and failing health were taking its toll on the young couple. And then a friend told them about working in tech in Atlanta. Sherri and Reuben Johnson never looked back. Listen to part one of The Fly Media Origin Story.
