I was looking forward to this: it didn't disappoint.
I'm going to make a prediction here, in line with my previous skepticism about outsourcing content: I predict you will never find a content manager who you will be satisfied with.
Why?
Content is you: it's your identity, it's your brand. No hired hand is going to create articles with as much energy and authenticity as you. In fact, Sarah, your articles on IH are pretty dam good, some of the best content here: you have a gift for writing. If the comparator is what you yourself put out: I don't envy any content people working for you, as their work will never be able to match what you do fluently yourself.
You may have a case of disliking doing something that you're brilliant at. For example, a person may be a genius at sales, but prefer development.
I'll use a crude analogy: outsourcing content, is like a tired husband outsourcing attention to his wife - it's something that can never work over the long haul, for obvious reasons.
Best of luck with Canny, I look forward to more articles from you hopefully: though I would be happy to be proved wrong. With that I'm back to my fast from IH.
2
Hi there! I do remember you saying that 😊
Thanks for your kind words. I'm not a writer by any means so I'm glad you have enjoyed my posts. In fact, I think I dislike writing because I'm not an expert. It takes me a long time to write and I still don't think we have a real content strategy.
Anyway, thanks for reading again!
(Why are you fasting from IH??)
3
(Why are you fasting from IH??)
Basically: to ship more code. I was spending an hour a day actively commenting on IH. My comments were usually well received and it was a great chance to think out load, but after reflection, I decided that time could be better spent. It's like Denzel Washington said eloquently about smart phones, you have to ask yourself: are you using the device or is it using you (link below).
I still lurk, but am fasting from making comments. Of course, I make exceptions for brilliant content like this, and to encourage fellow IH I've been following for a while.
I'm not a writer by any means so I'm glad you have enjoyed my posts. In fact, I think I dislike writing because I'm not an expert.
If you watch TED talks, most speakers probably haven't spent that much time being trained in rhetoric or public speaking. What matters in the final count is their passion about what they have to say, or even just having something really important to say.
An example of the latter is Ryan Dahl (inventor of Node.js), the guy is not a gifted speaker, speaks in a monotone and gets overwhelmed with nerves: yet when he speaks, people listen with intense concentration.
It takes me a long time to write and I still don't think we have a real content strategy.
You know one way outsourcing would work, is if you lowered your standards and where just content playing a volume game. There are fellow indiehackers who successfully pursue this strategy, and it can work, especially for commodity products. The idea here is just put things before some eyeballs constantly, and get a steady stream of new referrals.
Yet life is funny: often less is more. Have you heard of @amyhoy concept of an e-bomb? Well if you haven't, you just don't the name: your article 'SaaS Pricing: Lessons from 4 Pricing Changes' was a nuke: so much value and insight.
In fact, many large blog attribute much of their traffic, to a few large e-bombs. The megatonage matters more than the frequency: you only need one nuke right :)
In fact your stuff is probably more effective than e-bombs, as you have no hard sell (i.e you trigger no defenses), you're just implanting your product deep in readers subconsciousness through content that is likely to be widely recirculated. (Do you keep stats on that post, I would be surprised if it doesn't generate long tail traffic?)
Half a dozen e-bombs a year, carefully re-syndicated, like that one on pricing may be all you need. And the audience interested in that type of content, is the same one with a use for Canny.
Lets see 6 articles a year, heres 3:
1.) Lessons learned from acquiring customers from paid ads. ( pretty please!, I requested this before)
2.) How we pivoted after a year. (I saw you now do team feedback)
3.) Does the novelty of digital nomadism wear off? (Insights after 2 years as a nomadic couple)
Oh man, this reply is longer than expected. You see why I need that fast :)
Hah! I do see why you may need that fast. I do appreciate the time you put into these.
I do like the concept of less is more (I'm a designer) but it's definitely hard to say if that's the most impactful for business. Some of it is definitely more one-time while others, like the pricing one, are a little more evergreen. Either way, we have the most fun sharing real stories and learnings from experiences like this. What's the point of all this if we're not having fun, right?
Thanks for those ideas and links!
2
Nice article Sarah! Hope things work out the next time around. Paid trial is a great way for both the employer and candidate to get a feel of working together + expectations.
1
Absolutely agree. Thanks for reading Madhav!
1
Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your insights on Canny's first hiring experience.
At CozyCal, we haven't grown to the point where we are considering outsourcing any work or hiring a part-time employee. But that being said, we have discussed about the possibility of bringing onboard another part-time developer if things are growing down the road.
We will incorporate your takeaways on hiring as a part of our benchmark for possible outsourcing in the future. :)
1
Your experiences with marley are exactly why we started fullservice.co .
Content marketing is powerful, but a lot of times interviewing/screening of potential candidates takes lots of times in this field.
1
For everyone that is looking into hiring, I suggest getting the book 'Who, solve your #1 problem'
I got this book after a similar experience, and learned two things from this process;
you need to know what you expect from your hire in terms of clear goals by defining a scorecard including a mission, outcomes and competencies.
you need a clear process for selecting the right candidate, the right candidate is someone you are confident with in matching the scorecard with A's, your process should be in such a way that you rank people based on the scorecard.
When you needed to decide between Marley and Robin, the decision could have been on their respective scores on their scorecards and the decision was probably more obvious.
To give one example; The book is full of very practical tips on how to conduct the interviews but in this case one of the outcomes that should have been on the list is 'Will create a high quality article every week'.
To check this outcome, you need to understand if the candidate previously delivered articles every week, and if these articles where of high quality. This is something that can be checked by reading the articles that where produced in previous roles, and also checking with their previous bosses to understand how they scored.
Relating this to Marley and Robin, Robin probably scored A on this item, Marley a C, and your initial decision was more clear.
1
It's admirable to be vulnerable and share your mistakes and failures.
However, it is shameful to use a detailed post mortem on a failed hire as content marketing to promote your business.
Firing someone is one of the most difficult things to do as a founder, and being fired is even worse. Having your name (disguised or not) run through the mud afterwards to promote your product is shameful, and if I were any candidate I would run away fast if I saw this on your blog.
There's plenty of ways to share lessons learned without going into detail about the failures of the employee you hired.
3
Hi there! Thanks for the feedback on our post.
Sorry, I'd have to disagree with you. Firing is something most founders will encounter. People don't talk about it a lot because it's hard and uncomfortable to talk about failures and mistakes. This wasn't an attack on the (anonymized) individual. I think people can learn from our experience.
1
Sarah,
This is another minor reason for my IH fast.
Inevitably, you can't please everyone: you just have to be comfortable with your own conscience. In fact, the more polarizing something you put out, the higher its probable value: it's like an exercise in tuning in your core audience (Sean Mcabe speaks about this).
It's interesting, as a rule: the people who criticize, aren't the people regularly contributing and providing value.
2
What's interesting is that she handled the criticism well and you decided to lead and end with passive aggressive ad hominem attacks.
I've had several of these firing conversations and they've been the worst days of my 7 years as a founder, so I offered my perspective, and she disagreed. It's her business and her prerogative. Don't need you to join the sidelines.
1
Why not hire a part time virtual admin?
create like first tier customer support, research ideas etc.
1
Hey Bob, I'm not sure exactly what kind of expertise a "virtual admin" has but we are currently hiring for customer success and support.
1
Like a personal assistant. Why do you need to hire "expertise" To me in the beginning the more adaptable the person the better.
Hi Sarah,
I was looking forward to this: it didn't disappoint.
I'm going to make a prediction here, in line with my previous skepticism about outsourcing content: I predict you will never find a content manager who you will be satisfied with.
Why?
Content is you: it's your identity, it's your brand. No hired hand is going to create articles with as much energy and authenticity as you. In fact, Sarah, your articles on IH are pretty dam good, some of the best content here: you have a gift for writing. If the comparator is what you yourself put out: I don't envy any content people working for you, as their work will never be able to match what you do fluently yourself.
You may have a case of disliking doing something that you're brilliant at. For example, a person may be a genius at sales, but prefer development.
I'll use a crude analogy: outsourcing content, is like a tired husband outsourcing attention to his wife - it's something that can never work over the long haul, for obvious reasons.
Best of luck with Canny, I look forward to more articles from you hopefully: though I would be happy to be proved wrong. With that I'm back to my fast from IH.
Hi there! I do remember you saying that 😊
Thanks for your kind words. I'm not a writer by any means so I'm glad you have enjoyed my posts. In fact, I think I dislike writing because I'm not an expert. It takes me a long time to write and I still don't think we have a real content strategy.
Anyway, thanks for reading again!
(Why are you fasting from IH??)
Basically: to ship more code. I was spending an hour a day actively commenting on IH. My comments were usually well received and it was a great chance to think out load, but after reflection, I decided that time could be better spent. It's like Denzel Washington said eloquently about smart phones, you have to ask yourself: are you using the device or is it using you (link below).
I still lurk, but am fasting from making comments. Of course, I make exceptions for brilliant content like this, and to encourage fellow IH I've been following for a while.
If you watch TED talks, most speakers probably haven't spent that much time being trained in rhetoric or public speaking. What matters in the final count is their passion about what they have to say, or even just having something really important to say.
An example of the latter is Ryan Dahl (inventor of Node.js), the guy is not a gifted speaker, speaks in a monotone and gets overwhelmed with nerves: yet when he speaks, people listen with intense concentration.
You know one way outsourcing would work, is if you lowered your standards and where just content playing a volume game. There are fellow indiehackers who successfully pursue this strategy, and it can work, especially for commodity products. The idea here is just put things before some eyeballs constantly, and get a steady stream of new referrals.
Yet life is funny: often less is more. Have you heard of @amyhoy concept of an e-bomb? Well if you haven't, you just don't the name: your article 'SaaS Pricing: Lessons from 4 Pricing Changes' was a nuke: so much value and insight.
In fact, many large blog attribute much of their traffic, to a few large e-bombs. The megatonage matters more than the frequency: you only need one nuke right :)
In fact your stuff is probably more effective than e-bombs, as you have no hard sell (i.e you trigger no defenses), you're just implanting your product deep in readers subconsciousness through content that is likely to be widely recirculated. (Do you keep stats on that post, I would be surprised if it doesn't generate long tail traffic?)
Half a dozen e-bombs a year, carefully re-syndicated, like that one on pricing may be all you need. And the audience interested in that type of content, is the same one with a use for Canny.
Lets see 6 articles a year, heres 3:
1.) Lessons learned from acquiring customers from paid ads. ( pretty please!, I requested this before)
2.) How we pivoted after a year. (I saw you now do team feedback)
3.) Does the novelty of digital nomadism wear off? (Insights after 2 years as a nomadic couple)
Oh man, this reply is longer than expected. You see why I need that fast :)
Links:
Denzel spiting wisdom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKd2QVrQVIM
Indeed, Amy is the bomb:
https://yourfirstproduct.com/info/ebomb
Interview with Ryan Dahl (he complains about need to take care about what he says, because so many people pay attention)
https://mappingthejourney.com/single-post/2017/08/31/episode-8-interview-with-ryan-dahl-creator-of-nodejs/
Hah! I do see why you may need that fast. I do appreciate the time you put into these.
I do like the concept of less is more (I'm a designer) but it's definitely hard to say if that's the most impactful for business. Some of it is definitely more one-time while others, like the pricing one, are a little more evergreen. Either way, we have the most fun sharing real stories and learnings from experiences like this. What's the point of all this if we're not having fun, right?
Thanks for those ideas and links!
Nice article Sarah! Hope things work out the next time around. Paid trial is a great way for both the employer and candidate to get a feel of working together + expectations.
Absolutely agree. Thanks for reading Madhav!
Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your insights on Canny's first hiring experience.
At CozyCal, we haven't grown to the point where we are considering outsourcing any work or hiring a part-time employee. But that being said, we have discussed about the possibility of bringing onboard another part-time developer if things are growing down the road.
We will incorporate your takeaways on hiring as a part of our benchmark for possible outsourcing in the future. :)
Your experiences with marley are exactly why we started fullservice.co .
Content marketing is powerful, but a lot of times interviewing/screening of potential candidates takes lots of times in this field.
For everyone that is looking into hiring, I suggest getting the book 'Who, solve your #1 problem'
I got this book after a similar experience, and learned two things from this process;
you need to know what you expect from your hire in terms of clear goals by defining a scorecard including a mission, outcomes and competencies.
you need a clear process for selecting the right candidate, the right candidate is someone you are confident with in matching the scorecard with A's, your process should be in such a way that you rank people based on the scorecard.
When you needed to decide between Marley and Robin, the decision could have been on their respective scores on their scorecards and the decision was probably more obvious.
To give one example; The book is full of very practical tips on how to conduct the interviews but in this case one of the outcomes that should have been on the list is 'Will create a high quality article every week'.
To check this outcome, you need to understand if the candidate previously delivered articles every week, and if these articles where of high quality. This is something that can be checked by reading the articles that where produced in previous roles, and also checking with their previous bosses to understand how they scored.
Relating this to Marley and Robin, Robin probably scored A on this item, Marley a C, and your initial decision was more clear.
It's admirable to be vulnerable and share your mistakes and failures.
However, it is shameful to use a detailed post mortem on a failed hire as content marketing to promote your business.
Firing someone is one of the most difficult things to do as a founder, and being fired is even worse. Having your name (disguised or not) run through the mud afterwards to promote your product is shameful, and if I were any candidate I would run away fast if I saw this on your blog.
There's plenty of ways to share lessons learned without going into detail about the failures of the employee you hired.
Hi there! Thanks for the feedback on our post.
Sorry, I'd have to disagree with you. Firing is something most founders will encounter. People don't talk about it a lot because it's hard and uncomfortable to talk about failures and mistakes. This wasn't an attack on the (anonymized) individual. I think people can learn from our experience.
Sarah,
This is another minor reason for my IH fast.
Inevitably, you can't please everyone: you just have to be comfortable with your own conscience. In fact, the more polarizing something you put out, the higher its probable value: it's like an exercise in tuning in your core audience (Sean Mcabe speaks about this).
It's interesting, as a rule: the people who criticize, aren't the people regularly contributing and providing value.
What's interesting is that she handled the criticism well and you decided to lead and end with passive aggressive ad hominem attacks.
I've had several of these firing conversations and they've been the worst days of my 7 years as a founder, so I offered my perspective, and she disagreed. It's her business and her prerogative. Don't need you to join the sidelines.
Why not hire a part time virtual admin?
create like first tier customer support, research ideas etc.
Hey Bob, I'm not sure exactly what kind of expertise a "virtual admin" has but we are currently hiring for customer success and support.
Like a personal assistant. Why do you need to hire "expertise" To me in the beginning the more adaptable the person the better.