Today marks 555 days since Video Husky started, just over 1.5 years! A lot has happened since the last update that I wrote about here, but instead of discussing Video Husky’s growth, I wanted to share a few personal lessons as well as what I’ll be focusing on in the next few months.
What got you here won’t get you there
Hiring a full-time marketing manager was the most uncomfortable thing I did in the past six months. Until that point, I had run all of Video Husky’s marketing and while it was a relief to get the work off my plate, I worried that whoever I hired wouldn’t work out, especially since I ended up paying him more than myself.
Yet it was also one of the best things that could’ve happened to Video Husky. Khalid Halim coined the Law of Startup Physics: “humans grow linearly, companies grow exponentially”. No matter how much I studied and implemented new marketing ideas, my improvement would never outpace Video Husky’s potential growth. Hiring Mike meant that Video Husky now has a more knowledgeable and dedicated digital marketer who has pushed our growth more in the last four months than the previous fourteen.
It also means that I’m now 100% focused on leading the company. Where we were once a slow two-person kayak that could change direction on a whim, we’re now a bigger ship that goes faster that can’t pivot as well. This means that the direction we’re going is much more important than it used to be and so it’ll be my job as the captain of the boat to ensure we’re going the right way.
Focus outside the organization
In his book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker wrote, “The higher up in the organization he (the executive) goes, the more will his attention be drawn to problems and challenges of the inside rather than to events on the outside." A situation that I want to avoid.
Continuing with the boat analogy, it’s easier for the captain to focus on the issues on the boat because they’re both tangible and within his control but is no amount of improving the boat will help if it crashes into an iceberg that nobody noticed.
Making sure the boat operates well is something that I’ll have to trust my team to handle. Instead I need to spot dangers and opportunities on the horizon to ensure Video Husky’s smooth progression and growth. I can do more for the company by spotting “currents” like new markets or channels that we can ride and noticing “icebergs” like profitability issues that we can avoid.
It’s a frustrating role since I have no control over when opportunities come up but I’ll continue to keep my eye out for them and make sure we’re ready to take advantage when those chances come along.
Understand the difference between what we do versus the value that we deliver
Part of being on the lookout for opportunities is understanding exactly what problems our customers are facing, why they’ve chosen to work with us and how they hope life will be different as a result.
Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon once said, “In the factory, we make cosmetics. In the drugstore, we sell hope.” Reading this was the first time that I thought about the difference between what Video Husky does for the customer versus what value that the customer receives.
In his book When Coffee and Kale Compete, Alan Klement illustrated an interesting point asking car owners, “what’s more valuable: getting transported from point A to point B or having the peace of mind that you have the ability to go where you want to go, whenever you like?” Applying this perspective to Video Husky, it’s made me wonder whether our service is just about delivering videos and how we can further align the services that Video Husky offers to our customers’ long-term success.
While I’m still some way from being able to articulate the value that Video Husky provides as well as Revson did for Revlon, understanding that there is a difference has a big lesson for me.
Prioritize holistic alignment over individual progress
We all love seeing how our individual work pays off, but reality is that it only makes sense if it contributes to the whole.
One example of this has been an internal debate about whether we should offer one off video editing jobs. From a marketing perspective it makes sense. One off jobs are both cheaper and tap into a bigger market meaning there’ll likely be more leads and customers--what every marketer wants to achieve. Yet while things would look good in the front end, our entire operation is focused on developing long term win-win relationships with our customers. To start working with customers who only need one off jobs done means there’s a mismatch between what customers want and what we deliver – ultimately a lose-lose situation.
The lesson to learn here was best summarized by Tiago Forte in this post, “adding up a series of local optima does not automatically lead to a global optimum.” Attracting more leads only makes sense if they fit within the customer criteria that we feel we can benefit most. Hiring more editors only makes sense if they’re a long term fit for Video Husky’s culture. Getting this wrong just means that we’ve created unnecessary extra work and stress for ourselves.
The consequence of this lesson is understanding that less is more. While focus is great in that you can do more faster, it means missing out on the big picture. As the team gets bigger, it becomes exponentially easier to forget how our work contributes to overall growth and so it’s crucial to ensure everybody understands how their work makes a difference and we move in the right direction together.
Making decisions with perspective
“We greatly overestimate what we can do in one year but underestimate what we can do in ten.” – Bill Gates
$80.7 billion of Warren Buffett’s $81 billion net worth was accumulated after his 50th birthday. Amazon’s market cap grew more in the past 18 months than the past 18 years. Even on a personal level, this is my eight year of entrepreneurship and I’ve earned more this year than the past eight combined.
This illustrates how big things start small and that for Video Husky to succeed, thinking long term is the way to go, but that it requires the discipline and sacrifice necessary to make it happen. Video Husky recently came across an opportunity that will take our profile and growth to a while new level, but will require an almost six figure investment, significantly more money than we have in the bank right now.
Making this decision to invest was challenging but one that I believe is right. While I have no idea what the world of video is going to look like in 10 years, I know that video will be around and there’ll always be a need to have them edited. Given this, I’ve been thinking about Video Husky more in terms of the next 5-10 years, rather than just the three months ahead of us as that’s how long that I want us to partner with our customers and ensure their success. Knowing that puts my current investment situation into perspective and so made it an easy decision.
With that said, I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of mistakes and painful experiences to come, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to go through them and can’t wait to see what comes next!