From Idea to Done: Recent Episodes
Codelation
Get ready for your semi regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codelation. We like to talk about big ideas, companies that are winning and those that aren’t, and current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Erick and Josh who challenge you to think big, start small, and turn your ideas into something.
Patrick Kirby, founder of Do Good Better Consulting, is here for this episode! Patrick and his team work with small and medium-sized nonprofits to help them reach their fullest potential. Josh and Patrick discuss the power of pauses, asking questions, and having third-party endorsements for your nonprofit or business.
Check out Do Good Better Consulting: https://www.dogoodbetterconsulting.com/
Learn more about Do Good YOUniversity: https://www.dogoodyouniversity.com/
We welcomed fellow software development CEO, Anthony Molzahn, onto the podcast to discuss product development. The team at Project Phoenix developed an API engine called Devii to help fellow engineers write better code faster. Anthony offers advice for nontechnical founders on how to go about developing a software product and details the journey that his team took while building Devii.
Learn more about Project Phoenix and Devii here: https://www.projectphoenix.io/#/
Exact Instructions Challenge by Josh Darnit (PBJ Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDA3_5982h8
Kurt McSparron, President and Founder of The Executives’ Club of Fargo-Moorhead, joins us for this episode. The Executives’ Club began in 2015 to bring together local business owners, entrepreneurs, and key decision-makers and help them make valuable, meaningful connections. Kurt discusses how he grew the network to where it is today and the importance of refining your business ideas and messaging with the help of your allies.
Learn more about The Executives’ Club of Fargo-Moorhead here: http://the100.online/
Eric Roethel, Co-founder of Sign Badgers, stopped by the podcast to discuss determining your pricing. We talk about Eric's journey into business ownership as well as how his pricing has evolved through the years of printing signage. Josh and Eric dive into the importance of knowing your value, testing pricing, and the value of customer relationships as well in this episode.
Learn more about Sign Badgers here: https://www.signbadgers.com/home
We invited Joe and Emma to chat about Chezy, a production company providing accessible price points for video for small businesses. We discuss how they maximize their project efficiencies as well as cover the power of sharing your brand’s story and unique selling proposition through video.
Learn more about Chezy here: https://chezy.com/
Things on the internet change every day, is your website or app keeping up with design trends and technology developments? We welcomed Tracey and Kacey, Codelation’s resident design experts, on for this episode about UI and UX design. They chat about everything that goes into initial web and app design, explain the difference between low fidelity and high fidelity design, and more.
This week we're focusing on all things business planning with special guest Paul Smith, the Fargo/Southeast Region Center Director for the ND SBDC. Paul shares his expertise on not only the types of business plans but also why it's so important to have one. There's something powerful about putting the details of your idea down on paper!
Learn more about the ND SBDC here: https://ndsbdc.org/
The Secrets of Business Success Symposium, Thurs. Oct 20th: https://www.fmwfchamber.com/events/details/secrets-of-business-success-symposium-8965
Our special guest this week is Co-founder & CEO Kai from Webblen! Webblen is a platform built to drive engagement in our communities. Kai shares how their platform encourages connection by having users earn tokens in exchange for their commitment to community events, live streams, and more. Josh and Kai chat about how Webblen made their unique token as well as where Webblen is going next!
Learn more about Webblen here: https://www.webblen.io/
Extra, extra! Our guest in this episode is Daniel Stedman, Founder & CEO of Pressto! Pressto helps foster students' love for writing and journalism while helping them improve their critical writing skills and media literacy. Daniel tells us about his startup's origins in Brooklyn while volunteering with local schools' newspapers. We also chat a little about how Daniel went through the YC Startup School experience to fuel the fire of bringing Pressto to life! Learn more about Pressto and what their goals are going into the new year in this episode.
Check out Pressto here: https://www.joinpressto.com/
Joshua Riedy, Founder and CEO of Airtonomy is our guest on this episode of From Idea to Done. Airtonomy enables almost anyone to utilize drones, especially those working in the energy and utility industry. Josh shares how Airtonomy came to be as well as the twists and turns faced while growing a business. We also discuss the 2021 GENIUS NY Accelerator Competition and the hard work that Airtonomy put in to win.
Learn more about Airtonomy here: https://www.airtonomy.ai/
Laura Caroon, Co-founder and President of Ladyboss Midwest, is our guest on our season premiere. We discuss marketing a startup versus an established business as well as Ladyboss' origins. Laura also delves into how important building relationships is while marketing a brand-new business.
Learn more about Ladyboss Midwest here: https://ladybossmidwest.com/
Ladyboss Midwest's Retreat (March 3-5 2022): https://ladybossmidwest.com/retreat/
In the final episode of the season, we take a look back at the year 2020 and its challenges. Josh and Erick talk about things they've learned to appreciate more, what they're looking forward to next year, and going after that dream. Thank you to our Codelation community for helping us get through this year, we couldn't have done it without you.
On this week's episode we chat about Among Us, a game we recently played as a team. Tyler, Suman, and Maddy join Erick in giving their thoughts on the game. We also talk about tips for working remotely.
In honor of Computer Science Education Week, Josh and Erick interview one of our interns, Tyler Persons! He tell us a little bit about himself and how he got into Computer Science. We also compare differences between coursework and the internship.
In this week's episode we discuss fact-checking and similar features on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Josh and Erick discuss if businesses like these should be able to filter what's being posted on their platform. They also talk about the new social media platform called Parler and give their takes on its' future.
The topic of this week's episode focuses on the evolution of shopping, especially around the holidays. Erick and Josh talk about the changes in Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping over the past 15 years. They also touch on the newer concept of Small Business Saturday.
Josh and Erick discuss the recent launch of our client's project, My Ideal Tracker. This is one of the first that has involved every portion of our team to bring to launch. We talk about helping clients past development and our plan to improve for our next all-team project.
This episode focuses on the need to celebrate with others. Erick and Josh talk about changes in the team's lives and the need to celebrate. They share Codelation's plans to help clients celebrate launches and victories, starting with our first ever webinar.
It's time for the battle of the consoles! Josh and Erick discuss Microsoft's new option to rent the Xbox console per month. They talk about SaaS (software as a service) models and the expansion of similar models in non-software industries.
In this episode we tackle the question of is finding a cofounder the right route for your startup? Erick and Josh note the importance of being aligned, having good communication, and having complementary skills with a cofounder. Josh also shares the thoughts you should go over before bringing in a cofounder.
Education truly is in an age of evolution. This week's episode is a reflection on the previous EDUcal episode. Erick tells us about his agenda adventures back in the day and Josh gives insight into life with kids that are in school. They also discuss how Codelation helped EDUcal take its' next steps with a mobile app.
Check out EDUcal here: https://educalonline.com/
This week's episode features Tyler Leidholm from Educal. Educal is a classroom collaboration tool that helps connect teachers, students, and parents. Tyler shares the origins and application of Educal in Fargo Public Schools and beyond.
For more information about Educal, visit here: https://educalonline.com/
On this week's episode Josh and Erick discuss when you should start searching for your first investor. Josh gives insight on the differences in getting investors at your seed stage, early stage, or growth stage. They chat about options in where to get funding as well.
Paying with equity is the topic of this week's episode. We chat about taking time to consider if paying or receiving equity in a small business is the best option for you. Erick and Josh also discuss their past experiences with getting paid in equity.
This week's discussion focuses on MVPs, or minimum viable products. We go over what it means, questions we ask before building one, and the big question - How much does it cost to build an MVP. Josh also discusses a related term for a product, SLC or simple, lovable, and complete.
Referenced Articles:
SLC: https://blog.asmartbear.com/slc.html
Pyramid: https://ux.shopify.com/the-thing-thats-missing-from-your-mvp-1e54c954b314
This week's topic revolves around communication and keeping policies flexible and open to adapting. Josh and Erick share recent experiences where COVID exposure was a possibility in their lives and how it affected how they worked. Keeping the team safe and comfortable is a main priority, but it may look different for each team member.
This week's episode is a retrospective on the Team Week we had a few weeks ago. Erick and Josh revisit the goals they set for this weeklong event and discuss if the group hit the mark on them. They both believe there is a huge value in coming together for something like this.
On this week’s episode we take a look at the dating app Hinge. Erick shares how Hinge differs itself from other dating apps that are currently on the market. We also touch on advice relating to creating a clone of an app.
During our Team Week we decided to take the CliftonStrengths assessment together. This episode was recorded prior to us all meeting for the week. Josh and Erick discuss their past experiences with taking this test, their current strength results, and why this test is valuable for a team.
Last week we had some of our remote team come to the office in Fargo to work with us. Josh and Erick recorded this episode of From Idea to Done prior to our team week to discuss goals and plans they wanted us to achieve.
We talk about another good read on this week’s episode, Giftology by John Ruhlin. The book notes that giving an everyday use gift to a person’s inner circle will have a greater impact on your relationship. We also chat about planned randomness in giving, taking time to give personal presents, and team gifting.
On this week’s episode we review No Man’s Land: Where Growing Companies Fail by Doug Tatum. We talk about the four M’s featured in the book; Market, Management, Money, and Model. We also discuss how culture can help teams get through rough or slow patches, driving forward motion.
Our featured guest this week is Tom O'Neil, cofounder of Parallax. Tom shares how and why Parallax came into existence. Josh also asks Tom how the transition was going from a large dev shop to smaller startup. Tom and Erick discuss how to build and maintain the unique company culture based around software engineering. They also chat about keeping connected while teams are working remotely.
Josh and Erick are back to discuss Parallax, a software used by Codelation to help plan out projects and track time. They discuss how it helps the team and how some integrations work with other tools like Harvest and Hubspot. Learn more about Parallax here: https://www.getparallax.com/
In this week's episode Josh and Erick talk about Codelation's recent team integration of Harvest, a time tracking software. They discuss the benefits of not only being able to track billable hours, but also being able to see where gaps need to be filled by hiring extra team members. Learn more about Harvest here: https://www.getharvest.com/
Jake Joraanstad of Bushel is our awesome guest this week. He shares how Bushel came to be and gives pointers on raising funds. Erick and Jake chat about keeping company culture strong as you increase your team. Jake highlights the big question of “Why Fargo?” in terms of serving as a home base for Bushel and other companies.
Learn more about Bushel here: https://bushelpowered.com/
This week’s podcast features Michael Zuercher from Prismatic. We discuss his past venture, Zuercher Technologies, and how they took on a merger and eventual exit. Erick asks about how their company culture evolves while the company scales. Jake also shares some advice for new entrepreneurs.
Learn more about Prismatic here: https://prismatic.io/
Matt Paulson, entrepreneur and author, is our guest on this week’s episode. Erick and Josh ask about MarketBeat and his book Email Marketing Demystified. Some of the topics covered this episode include platform risk and tips for email list marketing.
Learn about MarketBeat here: https://www.marketbeat.com/
Get the book Email Marketing Demystified here: myemailmarketingbook.com
Learn more about Matt here: https://www.mattpaulson.com/
Josh and Erick talk with a master of SaaS marketing, Sujan Patel! He touches on the topics of understanding what your customers value, growth from word of mouth, and making sure you hire the right people for your team.
Learn more about Mail Shake here: https://mailshake.com/
Learn more about Sujan here: https://sujanpatel.com/
Our friend and founder of Tellwell, Max Kringen, is our guest on this week’s episode. Max talks about the importance of brand messaging and making sure your persona online matches what you're doing in real life. Erick also asks about the origins of a certain Tellwell muppet.
Learn more about Tellwell here: https://wetellwell.com/
Special guest Nick Horob discusses Harvest Profit, his business that offers business software to grain farmers. How ghost equity works for employees at Harvest Profit, how true stock options work, and deciding which feature requests need to be made are just a few of the topics discussed in this episode. Josh and Erick take a moment in the postshow to share their thoughts about the discussion with Nick. Learn more about Harvest Profit here: https://www.harvestprofit.com/
Steve Young of App Masters is our special guest this week to discuss marketing your app! Josh, Erick, and Steve chat about the importance of focusing on the main feature that will set your idea apart. Having a narrow target audience and being able to have people understand your pitch in a few words are two other important topics covered in this episode. Josh and Erick also chat more in the postshow about what Steve discussed. Learn more about Steve and App Masters here: https://appmasters.com/
Josh and Erick focus this week's episode on the importance of keeping your team connected during crisis situations. They discuss how Codelation has been trying to keep our teams connected while working remote through business update videos, conference calls, etc.
In this week's episode, intern Maddy asks Erick about his thoughts on Nintendo's Animal Crossing New Horizons. Erick shares his daily tasks in the game, his goal to swipe up the tarantulas, and his hatred for Muffy the sheep. Erick also gives the game his own rating!
Marketing intern Maddy Boecker is our guest on this week's episode to discuss Animal Crossing New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch. Erick asks questions about the game and how Maddy would rate it. Next week after Erick has had time to play we'll see how he likes the game as well!
Erick and Josh chat about apps that are extremely helpful for working remotely. Zoom, Loom, and Slack are some favorites that our team has been using. They also discuss some modes of communication from internet's past.
Our special guest this week is Sean Casto from PreApps, a leading app marketing agency. We discuss what it takes to have your young app grow and gain the traction that you're looking for and validating app ideas. Sean also talks about the pros and cons of marketing an app during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn more about PreApps here: https://www.preapps.com/
On this week's episode of From Idea to Done, Erick and Josh discuss working from home. The Codelation team is partially remote on a regular week, but now the whole team is working from home. The duo shares their favorite apps to keep everyone connected and productive while being away from the office setting.
On this week's episode of From Idea to Done Josh and Erick talk with Jason Swenk, marketing agency consultant extraordinaire. Jason shares his insights in marketing apps, reaching out to your audience, and his past experience with his app that focused on tracking meals through pictures.
Learn more about Jason here: https://jasonswenk.com/
Company culture is the topic on this week's From Idea to Done podcast. Erick has devised an extra special event for the company, the Nerdlympics! Erick and Josh discuss the plan for this video game competition that will be taking place at Replay Games in Fargo.
Hey Everyone, I’m Josh & I’m Erick
E: Today’s idea is company culture. As the unofficial/super official culture person in our office. I have devised a little event. We will get to that a little later. Josh as a business owner can you give me your thoughts on how to improve our company culture?
J: I think the main element to company culture is knowing your team and what is important to them, what’s happening in their personal life and wanting to be around each other.
E: We have chatted a little about culture before on the show before. I think just trying to care about everyone and being inclusive is the first step that basically no one really does. I have kind of taken the lead in starting some cultural events. I actually looked at our projects and tied a mild culture reward to us finishing a big project on time and on budget.
J: And I can really appreciate that you’ve been able to run with those items and celebrate the small wins we have had. It is far too easy to just say… Yup onto the next.
E: So with some brief chats with the nerds. I decided to create a little event based on our conversations. I went to our friends at Replay Games. I have rented out their facility, and we are having the Inaugural Nerdlympics.
J: For those listening who don’t know what replay games is can you explain their business?
E; Basically my friend who worked with me at Toys R Us. Started his own company. He owned basically every console gaming system ever created and a lot of games for each system. They have tons of TVs and comfy chairs. You go there, rent by the hour and can play basically any game ever.
J: Awesome, shamefully I’ve never been, but CJ’s a good guy so looking to change that fact about me. So Erick let’s talk about the Nerdlympics.
E: One of the options for Replay Games is a party package. You get a 3 hour block of time to yourself. I want to give all the nerds 15 minutes to get their best overall score on various games on various systems. Scoring would be the same point system as in Mario Kart. We will have a big spreadsheet tracking everyone’s single game and overall scores.
J: This sounds like I’m doomed to lose unless I can bring the 6th grade version of me and Super Mario 2. I setup a neighborhood competition when i was 12 and the winner took home a years worth of Nintendo Power magazines, what I didn’t tell anyone that it was the prior years used NP magazines. Good thing I won, anyway… Which Mario Kart are we looking at.
E: Obviously Mario Kart 8.
J: Growl….. So you are building a competition, picking the games, and probably play video games most out of anyone on our staff right now.
E: Seems like an amazing idea to me. Can we have the prize be all of the 1989 Nintendo Power magazines?
J: How old do you think I am… It was obviously 1993.
E: Fair enough. We will have a follow up episode with the results of the Nerdlympics.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
Our guest on this week's From Idea to Done is Ben Sailer from CoSchedule. We discuss the importance of validating your ideas before diving into making it an app and gathering data and insights from audience before launch.
Learn more about Coschedule here: https://coschedule.com/
Elite marketer and entrepreneur Neil Patel is our special guest on this week's episode of From Idea to Done. We ask him for advice on launching an app and more specifically how to do it well in today's market.
Find out more about Neil on his site: https://neilpatel.com/
Gordon Miller is on this week's episode of From Idea to Done to share his knowledge from many years of being an entrepreneur and investor. We talk about monetization and making profit, trying to solve a problem with your idea, and marketing your app through social platforms.
Learn more about Gordon here: https://www.gordonmiller.com/
Funding is the focus of From Idea to Done this week. Josh and Erick discuss the ins and outs of gathering the funding to create your startup idea and making sure you're ready to make that jump.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: This week’s idea is how do I fund my startup? Josh you have been in this business for a long time. I am relatively new to the startup space. Can we talk about the main hurdle in the development of any idea. Josh what is the biggest hurdle to get over when starting your startup?
J: Well I don’t think funding is the biggest hurdle when starting. I think a lot of people immediately go to money, and the need. But I’ve seen too many people burn through money because they didn’t have things in the right order.
E: You didn’t say funding... The name of this episode is how to find funding. What number is that on the hurdle list then?
J: I would say #4 if i had to arbitrarily create a list of things in my head. Family Feud style, what is the number one…. Are you solving somone’s problem.
E: We’ll get to the other ones in different episodes I guess. So number for on your list. Funding. If you are flush with cash you probably don’t need to listen to this episode. If you aren’t Josh do you have any advice to someone listening looking for help with funding their startup?
J: Here is a secret for the great state of ND. Ok ND residents listening? There is a great program called InnovateND. Do you have a business that can bring revenue from outside the state? The state is able to provide you $40k in capital to do so. Learn more at innovatend.com
E: Or just chat with your friend Erick who is in charge of sales at Codelation. We definitely broadcast this to the internet. What are some pieces of advice for those who aren’t fellow residents of the glorious state of North Dakota?
J; Absolutely, I’m a big fan of customer funding. It solves a number of issues. One - you have an idea that your target market is wanting. Two - They are willing to give you money to build the thing. Three - ??? Profit? No seriously if you are building something that would cost $1500/yr could you go find 10 customers that would give you $5k for lifetime access to the software?
E: If you can’t find any customers, is your product really even worth building?
J: Nope, finding someone to give you money out of their pocket will be one of the most difficult tasks you’ll accomplish as a startup.
E: Again you are much more versed in this because it has been your entire professional career, and you own a business centered around helping people turn their big ideas into businesses. Any final thoughts that we didn’t go over.
J: Don’t make assumptions about what people are going to want and then put your expenses on a credit card. Keep your day job that pays the bills and hustle to get your product to market. Future you will thank you for this. Trust me….
E: Oh man, now we’re getting into time travel! We get to talk about big ideas a lot. Most of them I can’t talk about because of wonderful lawyers and non disclosure agreements. My last piece of advice is if you are listening to this and have a big idea reach out. Exploring the possibilities of big ideas is the best part of my job.
J: Head over to our blog for a more in depth article on how to fund your startup. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
On this week's episode of From Idea to Done, Erick and Josh talk about the book "Fanatical Prospecting" by Jeb Blount. Josh shares his biggest takeaways from reading it, like the idea of the 90 Day Rule.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: This week’s idea is prospecting. Well a little more aggressive prospecting. In fact Fanatical Prospecting. This is a book you asked me to read by Jeb Blount. Josh why did you want me to read this book?
J: I thought that there were some really strong take aways from the book and he’s got a very good sales background. I thought it could help us learn from someone at the top of their game.
E: I’d like to do a 2 part episode on this. We’ll get your thoughts and mine after I finish it. I am a solid third of the way done with it now. What were some of your bigger takeaways from this book?
J: My two big ones were protecting the golden hours and the 90 day rule.
E: Again, I don’t overly read books unless you tell me to. The main reason is I feel like as a business owner, if you tell me to read something, there is something you want me to take back to our business. I don’t like reading without taking action. From this book what is something you feel like we need to implement?
J: I think that we need to make sure we’re paying attention to is the 90 day rule. We’re in a part marketing and part direct sales organization so to always be prospecting. The 90 day rule states that if you have a sales slowdown it is because you let your foot off the pedal 90 days ago. Remember Glen Gary Glenn Ross - Coffee’s for closers!
E: Alright. I am about a third of the way into this. What is your overall review of the book?
J: It has been one of the better sales books that i’ve read. One of those that feels like common sense, after you’ve read it.
E: Sounds good. Again, I don’t read a ton of books unless someone I like, or someone who pays me recommends them. I am about ⅓ in so far, and I enjoy it. Now that I know why you wanted me to read it. I’ll try to find a way to take action on this information. Then I’ll review the book myself when I finish.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this week's episode of From Idea to Done Erick and Josh try their first remote podcast recording to discuss meditation, or what Erick likes to call "Jedi training." They both share resources they utilize to get into that relaxed zone.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
J: And today’s episode is our first remote recorded episode. I’m not in the studio today in an attempt to bring on a series of marketing experts from across the US in future episodes.
E: This week’s idea is Jedi Training. That is my nerd phrase I made up for Meditation. We’ll do an app review of a meditation app that I got as well to help with meditation called Insight Timer. In the last year or so, I have started meditating. Josh can you give us a little background on meditation with you?
J: I started meditating about a year ago as part of a morning routine, i’m a little bit out of it now and need to get back into the swing of it. Call it my February resolution.
E: Again, I’ve gotten into meditating the last couple of years. I downloaded it after being recommended to from our friend Peter Schott.
J: Peter is a delightfully quirky human being. [other thoughts here]
E: Professionally anything I can do that copies Peter, probably is going to be a good long term thing for me to do. So I downloaded the app he suggested.
J: What are your thoughts on the App
E: I think it’s good so far. It has a lot of introductory meditations that I didn’t overly need. It does have a giant library of meditations to search through. I am looking forward to digging around, using all the filters, and having more great specific meditations for what is going on in my life. My free trial ended after a week, and I was pinged for $60 on my bank account. We’re all in now. Payment means I am committed. By this time next year, I will know for sure if this is worth $60. Josh what do you use for your meditations?
J: I’ve used Headspace in the past and currently using Calm. I like them, but sometimes it's tough to know what session/class to go through. I feel like I need a meditation coach to make those decisions for me. Erick What are your overall review of Insight Timer?
E: It’s pretty much like anything. Exercise, eating right, time management, all are important, and should be done regularly. How you get there doesn’t overly matter, apps can make everything accessible and easier. If you are looking to get into meditation, I would suggest digging around on youtube for free first, or talking to some people you know before jumping in headfirst and paying. There are plenty of free guided meditations on Youtube that I watched before this.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
Josh and Erick discuss the new streaming platform on the block on this week's From Idea to Done. Erick shares his love-hate relationship dynamic with Disney+ and more on this episode. The two compare it to other available streaming services and dig into what it offers.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: This week’s idea is the evolution of streaming television. I did it. I finally stopped being a butt hurt collector, and downloaded Disney Plus.
J: Butt hurt collector? Well thats…. Ummmm… yeah...
E: Yes, well before Disney Plus came out. I was probably one of a very small segment of people that owned all the Simpsons seasons, basically everything Star Wars including the old hand drawn Clone Wars that used to play in 5 minute shorts on Cartoon Network Fridays at 7, as well as all the Marvel movies, a lot of vaulted Disney movies, and weird random Disney cartoons like Rescue Rangers and Gummi Bears. Disney devalued years of collecting and basically my entire Blu Ray collection in October.
J: Rescue Rangers? Oh yeah…. Duck Tales, right? [CLOSE] Anywho, what made you change your mind?
E: The Mandalorian! I knew I was going to crack because I love Star Wars, or at least I love everything that has ever been made in the Star Wars Universe. Minus the movies. We don’t have time for me to get into that though.
J: We did an episode when I switched my family over to the streaming service of Youtube TV what are your thoughts on Disney Plus?
E: It was AWESOME! Basically it is a Niche streaming service for Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel fans. Which as a young at heart nerd. I enjoyed it. I am their Niche market.
J: What made it different from Netflix for you?
E: Nothing. This was the disappointing part for me. It has Phineus and Ferb, and the Mandalorian. It also had Recess and other pretty awesome shows I forgot about, but there is nothing different or better about it. The thing that Netflix should worry about is that Disney owns so much creative rights to basically generations worth of entertainment.
J: Yeah I’m feeling like every channel is now having their own app and its an entire world of HBO’s, good on Netflix for producing their own content. Anywho, we’re here to talk about Disney, I think they did a good job with it, the kids like it, i get my hulk smash movies.
E: I give it a B. I loved the Mandalorian. Disney just stole the revolutionary app idea of streaming entertainment from Netflix, and are making their fans pay them instead of Netflix. The part I liked is they are taking the creative copyrights they do own and expanding them. I am excited for the next season of the Clone Wars, the stand alone Obi Wan series, and more Mandalorian. I want them to create more original content in the Marvel, and all the other kids programming they have before they will get an A from me.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
This week on the From Idea to Done podcast Erick and Josh discuss Codelation's core values. We take a peek at the meaning behind each of the 5 company values and share our thoughts on them.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: This week’s idea is having company core values. This idea came to me last week when you asked me to look at our core values, and kind of evaluate them. I have decided to interview you for our podcast on our core values, chat about them a little bit, and just kind of get into the thought process you had selecting them because a lot of businesses are doing this now. Then I will evaluate them after hearing your reasoning behind each.
J: Sure.
E: Can you talk a little bit about the process of selecting our core values, and when did you actually do it?
J: We set these values probably 18 months ago. We had some work sessions about what we were struggling with and put values in place that was a way to help us get there. Which is why I was asking about re-evaluating them. I feel like they need to be close enough to the team, otherwise they get so wishy washy of “integrity” or “honesty”... I mean shouldn’t that just be implied?
E: Yes, yes it should. Or at least expanded on in terms of honesty in the workplace. We have our company north stars. We’ll just start with the first one. Aligned Vision. Josh what was the team looking for when you picked this?
J: I want to make sure that we are all moving in the same direction as a team and with our clients. If someone is just looking for a gun for hire and the cheapest they can get, it isn’t for us. If they aren’t looking for opinions on how to make things better or another view, it isn’t for us. So it helps keep us all moving together.
E: I think one of the most important aspects of any business is finding customers that are on the same page as you, and as well as needing your services. Mutually beneficial business relationships are much better than fixing an immediate need. That brings us to our next core value that is growth mindset.
J: So Growth Mindset, I always want us to get better, and this one is as much pointed at me as anyone. Stop making the same stupid mistakes.
E: I like this a lot. I think stupid mistakes aren’t bad, we just have to learn. Personally the times I have moved jobs it has been when I have stopped learning, stopped growing, and got bored. When I am bored, I am an unengaged bad employee. Our next core value of unwavering commitment:
J: The reason that we chose Unwavering Commitment is - jodee bock: Commitment is doing what you said you would, long after the mood you said it in has left. I feel like that is pretty powerful, and it is so easy to say… well I don’t feel like doing that anymore. Nope we said we would..
E: Realistically though most of the more successful people I know, are the ones that are just steady. They stick to whatever they are doing, and are unphased by the rest of life’s madness. I like this one too....moving on our next value that is impact driven.
J: I want us to be able to have the maximum impact in all we do. The thought is that if we can’t make visible impact, should we be doing it? It is a tough one as I think we still take on projects that we probably shouldn’t in the hope to help someone.
E: Part of any business though is learning who you can bring the most value to. It is very hard to turn down projects as a small business. Especially when all we really want to do is help people. We will focus the laser eventually though. I think since I have come on, we have been doing a better job at taking on the projects where our team can add the most value. That brings us to the next core value we have of Community First.
J: Community First to me means that we value community over competition. I want to be active in our local community and be able to give back, but it is more than that. We partner with a number of local firms that would typically be seen as
This week on From Idea to Done Josh and Erick talk about Fundraise Awesomer, a book written by the local ball of energy, Patrick Kirby. While the book is written with non-profits in mind, those in sales can utilize many of the great tips in it.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is workweek organization. We’re going to base this off of our crazy friend Patrick Kirby. He has written a book called Fundraise Awesomer. I know the book is kind of directed to people in the nonprofit sphere. I wanted to review it from the perspective of a sales and marketing person.
J: Patrick is a delightful human being. Even on my most positive and excited moments I run about 20% of his baseline of energy.
E: One thing I have learned over my years in sales is people who are great at nonprofits are really good to associate with. You will learn really applicable things to do for your business. Realistically sales is fundraising. Give or take a really little bit, we are all asking for money. I would buy basically anything from Patrick. That made this book worth a read.
J: Tell me some of the takeaways from the book
E: One of the biggest takeaways is planning. Disgusting planning and routine. As a pretty high energy person myself, I have been saying for the past couple of years now, focus the laser. The book says
Mondays are for planning, Tuesdays are for doing, Wednesdays are for documenting, Thursdays are for celebrating, Fridays are for appreciating
This isn’t 100% of what I have implemented into my week, but I have taken some nuggets and applied them to my week.
J: I think it is good to silo your activity around energy levels. I try not to have sales meetings on Friday’s as i’m pretty low energy. Another book I read called Fanatical Prospecting talks about protecting the golden hours. Basically don’t do email or social media during the time that you should be talking to leads.
E: For my rule I kept Monday’s are for planning. I don’t schedule anything Monday morning anymore. That gives me a chance to come in look at my week, and prep. My Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for doing. Coffee, lunch, networking events, etc. Thursdays and Fridays are for marketing. I implement gratitude, celebrations, into that. I write actual thank you cards and online reviews of area businesses I like. Friday before I leave. I review and document my week then give myself a grade.
J: What was your grade this week?
E: I have gotten C’s both weeks this year, mostly due to not going to the gym, and not getting these episodes recorded.
Organized action, planning, gratitude, celebrations, and tracking are at the stem of the best nonprofits I know, and at the same time the stem of all the best sales people I know.
J: It’s really easy to get busy being busy and not doing something that is most important. By being intentional with your week you have a better shot of getting through all the must do’s for the week.
E: One last little tip from the book I wanted to share was the quote, “You can’t ask anyone for a donation before you know the name of their dog.” This is true for asking for business too.
J:I think in our world we need to know what is important to the partners we are talking to. Some favor price, some just need to make sure they are heard, and others just want a final product and to tell them when you are done. Not a one sized solution thats for sure. So what was your big overall takeaway on the book from you?
E: Salespeople should implement practices used by great nonprofits. If someone is great in that world, they are doing it will less time and money than regular business. Learn from them.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this week's episode of From Idea to Done we have our special guest, Suman, back on the show! We learn about his recent build, a Nepali to English translator app. We also ask the important question, "has Suman learned to swim yet?"
Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick AND we are back with one of our fancy awesome nerds Suman. Today’s idea is translating English to Nepali, but first thank you for coming back Suman.
S: You are welcome
E: Just to recap. Since you can’t get enough of building apps at work... In your spare time, you make apps. Last time you were on the show I believe it was when you made an app that uses the force…and mostly google to help us pick a random lunch place when we don’t know where to go.
S: Yes
E: That app was awesome, and the force has guided us to lunch a few times since. What did you make today?
S: My mom wanted to learn English so I made and app that has a list of basic english words and it’s nepali meaning and the way to pronounce them. And there is also a way to give exam too.
J: Can you explain your process in making this?
S: I used some Javascript.
J: Just normal old js, or what did you use?
S: Some rails as well.
E: Can we talk about why you made this app?
S: So my mom could understand english better.
E: Josh what is the last app you made for your family?
J: I bought my kids some tablets that use apps. Does that count?
E: The last app I made for my family was chicken wings. Suman can this evolve to translating other languages?
S: Yes it can be used for basically any other language. It is a simple table.
E: Last time you were in the show, you talked about how you wanted to learn how to swim, or you were going to build a new app. Did you learn how to swim yet?
S: No
J: So what it the next app you are planning?
S: Yes, I am going to build some more cool things. I don’t know what they are yet.
E: Alight we will have you on when you next big idea is developed. Thanks for wandering over here to explain your translator or (Nepalise words for thank you.) Dhanyabad pronunciation(dhaan-yew-baa-the)
S: You are welcome
J. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
On this episode of From Idea to Done, Josh and Erick discuss Network Center and playing nice with your competitors. They talk about recently having made connections with the folks over at Network Center and share why it's beneficial to interact with the competition.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today’s idea is playing nice with your competitors. Josh last month you spoke at the NVision conference can you give a brief overview of what you spoke about.
J: Seven steps to startup success. We wanted to give an idea of how you can win by thinking like a startup.
E: What was interesting about this to me, was this was for network center’s conference. Can we talk a little about what network center does.
J: Basically anything that has to do with computers or technology for your business they can help with. Everything from helpdesk and support to infrastructure design and implementation.
E: This was interesting to me because they are competitors of ours. When we got there, we were chatting with my exact role at their company talking about a project we both bid. We ended up winning the contract, and everyone was actually really happy about it. It was kind of a very good weird conversation. This kind of takes us back to one of our core values and that is community.
J: Yes I think we have a similar culture to Network Center’s that we don’t see each other as competition but that we are trying to do what is best for the customer.
E: In all my sales various sales roles I have always considered no one as competition. It is up to me to find the right customer, and win their project. Then we have to crush it, so they don’t even listen to bids from other people for future projects. It’s as easy to say as that. Very tough to execute.
J: It is, but it is also easier as we continue to define our niche as consulting and development for startups. Whether that is a true startup or just an existing business with a new idea they want to tackle.
E: If I see one of our “competitors” I just did air quotes just as a heads up to people listening. If someone in our field wins a bid. Not finding the right person to be on that bid list, not not doing great enough work to even consider us is all on our team. A part of my role marketing too. If people don’t know about us, I need to do a better job of telling the story of our great work to everyone.
J: Yeah it is all about brand awareness and understanding of what we do as a company. It is really easy to say here is the list of a hundred things that we can help you with, but at the end of the day it is confusing how a small team can fulfill against that. Doing things that others don’t such as this podcast or a random video series helps to differentiate us as a team and culture as much as anything.
E: I actually connected with their marketing person at the event. I said, we both have to market something as terribly unsexy as app and website development. I have a meeting with her next week, and we are going to chat strategies together. I am really excited about that. It all kind of goes back to our core value of community. I just wanted to thank network center for being like minded and open to collaboration.
J: Absolutely, they have been great to get to know this last quarter and I imagine doing a lot more together as 2020 rolls on.
E: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done we discuss the pros and cons of Youtube's streaming platform, Youtube TV. Josh shares why his family made the switch and we compare it to other popular streaming platforms.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
This week’s idea is cutting the cord. Josh you recently switched your family over to Youtube TV. Can you explain what youtube tv is, and the reason for switching over?
J: YouTube TV is now our cable provider, it has a bunch of stations, i’m not sure how many or what they are. But i’m saving money and we can still watch local channels. So…. win
E: I basically peaked out with maturity at 12. My big question with youtube TV is can I watch ESPN, NFL Football, Spongebob (Nickelodeon), and Clarence (Cartoon Network)?
J: I think we had to add on another service for Nickelodeon for the kids, but has mostly have everything you are hoping for.
E: I have seen a couple different variations of this. What is the difference between this and getting Netflix and Hulu?
J: I think it is just the channel options. When we made the switch we compared every possible murder mystery and baking show that my wife watches against my want to watch shark tank. Go through your dvr and figure out what you watch and what channel it is on, cause i’m not sure what Sharknado is on...
E: I buy straight up just still buy kids movies, have Netflix, HBO Go, use Vudu for renting, and am really excited about the new Disney streaming service happening now. We will have to have an episode about it. Do you like Youtube TV vs having a few different streaming services?
J: I do like it, we did have to upgrade our wifi to super mega mode (aka 500Mbps) and buy a new router, cause evidently 3 kids with tablets, phones, internet tvs, etc is too much for my old Netgear.
E: Does the programing change? I remember watching Phineas and Ferb a while ago on Netflix at the end of the month, at midnight mid episode the show stopped because they pulled show at midnight. Initial thought with that was HOW DARE YOU NETFLIX!!! Would this happen with Youtube TV?
J: I don’t think so, it is more channel based, so we’ll get new channels from time to time, but not remove a single program. So if they pull AMC from me, i’m gonna go all zombie apocalypse on them. #walkingdead
E: Side note my boys Phineas and Ferb will be on the Disney streaming service, and I am basically thrilled about giving them my money. Overall thoughts on Youtube TV?
J: The pro tip that I have is that I signed up for Youtube TV with my codelation.com email and since it is a business account I couldn’t do any extra accounts so a side effect is when i turned it on I got recommended The Great British Baking show and not my walking dead. So since then we signed up under my wife’s personal account and now I only get recommended Squawk Box and nothing about profiteroles (baking reference).
E: Fair enough now that Disney Plus has come out, I’ll weigh the options of youtube tv vs Disney plus...or I will just buy it all because it’s winter and I don’t want to go outside
J: Thank you for listening to this episode. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we take a peek under the hood of Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo's Mario Kart app. We compare it to previous iterations and discuss using nostalgia.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea, is the new Mario Kart app better than Mario Kart on the consoles for Nintendo? We have reviewed new fun game apps I have been excited about before, but today we’re going to take a little different approach and look at this from a business perspective.
J: Are you going to make me download an app that I will never use again this week?
E: No, I mostly want to talk about the idea of Nintendo getting into the mobile gaming, but first things first. I will review the app. I wasn’t a giant fan of mobile Mario Kart. I have a drawer in my desk that says in case of emergency. It has a Wii U in it with a copy of Mario Kart 8. We randomly host happy hours some Fridays. I rent out the conference room in our building, then we drink, and play Mario Kart on the projector. The game is just better, and it is a solid 4 years older than what Nintendo came out with last week. That isn’t the big takeaway with this though.
J: What was your big take away?
E: Nintendo should have been doing this YEARS ago. I watched a video of your boy Gary V. Nintendo has been missing out on tons of revenue over the past 10 years by not embracing mobile phone gaming.
J: I agree you have such an iconic brand in Nintendo. Every guy that is in their 30’s has to have some fond memories of one of their games. To not lean on nostalgia to some level feels like a crime and missed opportunity. I don’t buy anything gaming, but if you get me a mobile version of crystalis, paperboy, or battle toads I'd absolutely pay $5 for that.
E: I did a little research, I did the overall sales of the 3DS consoles last year + if you bought $200 in new games once you bought it. The overall number I got from that was $2.4billion. I then did a little digging. The mobile app Pokemon Go has now grossed over $3 billion according to wikipedia. I know the source is wikipedia, but those numbers are the interesting part to me.
J: Plus what’s the risk for Nintendo to put out another console, there is a lot invested in R&D as well as the marketing of it? Granted you get a larger wedge of the revenue, but there is more risk. On a platform can you roll out a test of river city ransom at a lower risk than producing it yourself.
E: This honestly makes me a little nervous for console gaming.I get what Nintendo is doing with these apps. To their credit compared to basically every other mobile game I have ever played, their controls are really good, the games look amazing, and they aren’t blatant cash grab games. I wish someone would just create a great mobile game that has an end, and doesn’t keep bugging me to buy things.
J: Yeah I’ve downloaded some games that are fun for the first few dozen or so times, then they get into pay to play versions. I even got hooked onto that silly Dr. Mario World game and now i’m pretty much over it.
E: I hope Nintendo finds a good balance of mobile games while still making quality consoles and better games. I would be sad if I could only play Zelda from my phone.
J: I wouldn’t disagree with that. I went out and bought the NES reboot last december so i can play with the original format on my bigger tv.
E: We have talked about the business strategy of Nintendo bringing some of their classic titles into the mix. My technical nerd question for you is could our nerd make the mobile version of Battle Toads I have been dreaming about?
J: Yes, we need to make Battle Toads. I don’t think that it will sit well for q4 profits for us, but hey… why not.
E: Finally! Also, that game was so freaking hard, that if we charged people a penny for 10 extra lives we would be billionaires soon.
J: Thank you for
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we discuss Lyft and their plans to eliminate the need for private vehicles by 2025. We chat about their current attempts at integrating with public transport systems.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today’s idea is replacing private cars. This week Lyft came up with an update to their app. With this update their president said, “There is only one mobility mode that Lyft truly wishes to defeat. The private automobile. That seem a little ambitious to me.
J: The battle between Lyft and Uber seems like a zero sum game. I don’t know if I fully agree with his statement that by 2025 owning a car will go the way of the DVD. They actually showed that short term usage of vehicles went up with the growth of Uber and Lyft.
E: The article talks about incorporating dockless scooter, bike and car shares, and public transportation with time and cost comparisons on top of their normal taxi services.
J: I think a big opportunity is the ability to have, in real time, multiple transportation options available to you. It makes me not have to plan as much, but just adapt to current conditions. Unless that adapting is for me to use a scooter. That I will not do. I’m a 38 year old adult for god sakes.
E: I got in trouble when I worked at Toys R Us for bringing carts in by lassoing them with twine while riding electric scooters. We’ll just agree to disagree on scooters.
J: Thats fair.
E: One of the problems I see with it, is it isn’t all automatically deducted from your account in app. Their main competitor Uber has taken a similar route just incorporating public transportation.
The big difference with Uber, is you get the ticket in App. Part of today’s super ambitious world is we just don’t have time to do anything. I don’t care what a bus pass costs. I just don’t want to think, push a button, and have a bus pass. Lyft how dare you have me interact with any aspect of public transportation, and buy a ticket myself!
J: Well that's stupid, it is a big cost of integration with those mass transit platforms, but they are leaving a ton of data and money on the table. I think that in NYC or LA they should look at pulling the transit systems into the app and pay through the app. The MAT systems would get increased ridership and Lyft would be better positioned.
E: And according to the article Uber is doing that in test markets already. You have to keep up with your main competitor. They have some pretty big ambitions to get rid of private cars within six years. I don’t think they are going to do it. I am buying a car this month Josh do you think it will be the last car I will buy?
J: No, cars are going to be around for a while, especially here in Fargo, ND. I mean I am going to leave here today, pick up my 3 kids that are all in booster and car seats, how am I going to do that in a ride share. I dunno, maybe I’m just embodying a cranky old man that doesn’t get things.
E: ...basically us. Prove us wrong Lyft.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about Erick Hatch's book, "Play for the Person Next to You." We take a look at how knowing your team member's professional and personal goals can help teamwork as a whole.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today’s idea is Playing For The Person Next To You. This is a book written by Fargo’s very own Erik Hatch. We went to his book release party a couple of weeks ago.
Like many parties, I left them excited. I wanted to come back, and make things better for our team. Josh how did you feel after the release party?
J: I really like Erik and how he’s evolved his message over the years. He definitely drove home why we need to be playing for the person next to us.
E: I leave a lot of those events really inspired, then I get back to the office, and do nothing with the information. I wanted to change that with this. I now have a weekly spreadsheet that I make with all of my professional and personal goals. At the top I listed each of our team members.
We had a few pretty big discussions lately, and I was able to find everyone else’s why. I list that first on my spreadsheet, along with the questions what can I do to help you this week, and what I need from you this week. This puts teamwork first, and is the first thing I look at each week. Can we talk about some of your thoughts as our owner to help us play for each other?
J: There are some goals and promises that I’ve made to my family and they tie to performance here at the office. Those goals aren’t something that I can achieve on my own but need the tribe to help me get there. How can I flip that from an owners perspective and instead say, how can you help me write you a $10k quarterly bonus check, or Erick I know you like to travel, how can you help me send you to India.
E: You presented on your why last week. One of the best parts of your presentation was when you talked about wanting to really change our lives, and help us get where we want. I think the part I like about working on a small team is co-dependance. We all have things we want to do outside of work. Explaining to each other what those things are, and helps us align for each other. That is something you don’t get at a bigger company.
J: Hatch has a unique perspective of how can you be a chapter in everyone else’s book vs your own book which i think plays well here. Well other than he just wrote a book, so I might need to talk to him about that….
E: After the presentation we said hi to Erik. I told him I wasn’t going to have him sign my book until I read it. I reached out to him today to have a lunch meeting, and get his thoughts on my takeaways, and how I can make our action for our team better
J: I think that's great.
E: Since we have had our big discussions it is really motivating for me to be working for Suman to see his family, helping you get a home and time with your kids, and helping everyone else pay for their upcoming weddings. It is a different good feeling knowing what everyone is trying to do, and it keeps me on track with my work to help get them there. Erik’s book opened my eyes up to a better way of thinking.
J: 100%
E: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about the Dr. Mario World app, compare it to its predecessor, and admit to losing rounds to a spouse.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea, is Dr. Mario still amazing?
J: I’m not sure, my wife always beats me at the nintendo version and she doesn’t even think about how the placements work. So I’m not sure if it is still amazing… You tell me.
E: YES! As app developer nerds it is our job to review new apps. Our boys at nintendo released the Dr. Mario World app that I downloaded this week I am actually really excited about it!
J: Really?
E: YES! To get into the history of Dr. Mario we have to hop into a delorean go back to good old 1990. I was 7, I recently moved to a new town. I was a new kid on the block listening to New Kids On The Block. On weekends if I was good, my parents would take us to a video rental store because that was a thing. That would be the first time I played Dr. Mario.
J: Oh I remember playing it back then, somehow i was better as a 9 year old than I am as a fully functioning adult. What were your thoughts on Dr. Mario then?
E: I absolutely hated it. Nintendo fooled me into spending my $3 on a game that had Mario on the cover, but was definitely Tetris. Don’t put Mario’s face on something, if I am not going to be able to fight bowser in. ESPECIALLY when the last thing you put Mario’s face on was possibly my favorite game ever Super Mario 3. Marketers are the worst.
J: Yes they are mr marketer. What are your thoughts now?
E: A few years later with the introduction of gameboy color to the marketplace, and a version of tetris on that particular system. I have learned to enjoy puzzle games after many hours of roadtrips in our sweet Ford Aerostar van. I now give Dr. Mario World an enthusiastic Thumbs up. Josh do you have this app?
J: Well I made you read a book and you had me download this app. Honestly two things jumped out at me, the pills are going the wrong direction and you only need 3 in a row to clear the virus. So obviously no regard for historical accuracy here.
E: Back in my day we hads to make 4 colors match before the group would disappear, and gravity worked like it was supposed to.
J: Yeah none of this disregard for physics…. Seriously.
E: Your overall review?
J: For the one level I played, it’s better than getting beat by my wife at the original Nintendo version.
E: Well there you have it. If you like wasting time on your phone before bed, or if losing to your spouse in puzzle games is infuriating, I would recommend downloading Dr. Mario World. Thank you Nintendo.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we finish our chat about "The 12 Week Year" by Brian Moran. We discuss how we're putting our plans and goals into action.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is work efficiency. It’s the third part in our series on the book The 12 Week Year. Where we left off, you read the book. You had our thoughts. I read the book, I had my thoughts. Now we are to the point that has never happened to me when I have read a book before. I took action.
I combined 3 motivational books that I have read for work, and done nothing on. Made an accountability spreadsheet, and from the 12 Week Year held a Weekly Accountability Meeting or a WAM meeting on Monday. Josh, I would like to get your take on the action that I took.
J: I think it was great, it really set the tone for the week and what was really nice for me was that it wasn’t coming from me. The fact that you were able to set the stage and say, look, anyone has the ability to do this and dream is great from my seat.
E: I have never gone as far as actually doing what a book told me. That is why I don’t like books. You just sit on knowledge, and rarely if ever take action. I have talked with other people, and I actually tried to make something similar to what I came up with. The book helped me be a little more organized, and set better trackable goals. I think the part I liked the best was taking some of the bits I have liked of other books and incorporated it into my goals.
J: What were the other books you took from
E: Erik Hatch’s Play For The Person Next To You, and Simon Sinek’s Find Your Why.
J: Have you read those?
E: I sure haven’t, but we went to Erik’s release party, and Youtube is a thing, so I just watched the Find Your Why Video. On a side note, I am in the middle of reading Erik’s book. As part of my personal fitness goal I wanted to go to the gym everyday, and I have done that. I also read while I am riding bike. I will finish both soon.
J: Nerd
E: You know it. One thing I liked about the book is it talked about leading. Josh, you read the book. Have you taken any action from it, other than buying us all copies and telling us to read them?
J: I have started planning for personal and business items. I was able to talk to my wife last weekend and tell her to give me something to shoot for. She isn’t a planner or a dreamer and I absolutely am. So she set a couple of goals for me to chase for her. Now I have the motivation as it isn’t about me, but about her and our family.
E: Part of my presentation was to get a better understanding of everyone else’s why. Can you do a similar presentation to mine Monday? I want to learn your why, your goals, how you set your goals, and get a better understanding of the big things you want to do, so I can help you get there.
J: Absolutely, i’ll be geeking out with some spreadsheets and analysis tools this weekend and get ready for it.
E: My big conclusion with all of this. I am glad I read this book, and took action. 2 consecutive weeks into working out, first time I have done that since high school track, I am happy you asked us to read it. I hope it will do big things for us as a business.
J: Oh it absolutely will, I started at the gym last week in preparation of my 12 weeks coming up and wanted to lead by example. The one thing I can say is that man am I out of shape.
E: Round is technically a shape. Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we continue our discussion of "The 12 Week Year" by Brian Moran. We focus on setting goals and accountability.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is work efficiency. It’s the second part in our series on the book The 12 Week Year. Where we left off. I had just finished reading part one. I don’t read a lot. That was like a month ago. I finished it yesterday. It’s time to dive a little more into this now that I have actually read it.
J: So my big takeaways from the book were: discard annual thinking, periodization and overload, and start with the end goal and work backwards. Erick, what were your big aha moments from the book now that you’ve actually read it?
E: Write down your goals, and structure them, stop thinking so big that you don’t start, and don’t start so small that you can’t gain traction. Incorporate more than just your work into your goals. Tie in health and spirituality.
J: So last time you talked about how you didn’t like reading, but you read a book, how did that work?
E: My boss bought me a book and told me to read it. I also took the first part of the book and set some goals for myself. I wanted to not lose 100 pounds, I wanted to lose some weight. 12 pounds to be specific. 1 Pound a week.If I stick to this plan, by this time next year I will be smoking hot.
J: That’s great. That leads to one other part of the book I forgot to bring up which is setting goals and hitting 85% of your check list each week.
E: That brought me to my next important part of this is planning my week. I scheduled into my calendar gym class. Around lunch time every day, I have gone to the gym, and worked out. I also was super efficient, and read the rest of this book while pedaling 50 miles. Now I exceeded my goal of 3 days this week, and finished a book.
J: Gym class, I like that…
E: In high school, I loved gym class because it gave me afternoon energy to get through stupid Spanish. As an adult..adultish normally around 2, I am ready for a nap. I have had energy to do work this week, even though I had to stay a little later in the day, but it is much easier to catch up on emails at 630 then start working out.
J: That is awesome. So I’ve read the book and drank the kool aid, sounds like you are on board as well. What is next?
E: Brining it to all the nerds! One of the things in the book that most people miss is leadership and accountability. It says to have a Weekly Accountability Meeting, or WAM. I want to make it our own and have a Weekly Hourly Accountability Meeting or WHAM like the super group for the 80s. I have a meeting scheduled for Monday with my personal, and professional goals lined up to present, have everyone do for themselves, and help hold me a little accountable.
J: That's definitely one thing that helps drive things forward is the accountability factor. It is a lot easier when you get to say that you hit your goal then to say I only worked out once last week.
E: I want everyone to ask if I have had gym class today? At the same time I want to ask Brian or Cody if he has had gym class as well.
J: The accountability is something that helps align the team and now we’re fighting for each other to succeed. Sort of a rising tide raises all ships. So what’s next?
E: Presentation for everyone! I will present my thoughts Monday to the group, and try to raise the tide of our whole team.
J: Awesome. I guess we’ll have to wait until the final part 3 of things to see how your presentation went.
E: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about a book we started recently titled "The Twelve Week Year" by Brian Moran. We discuss thinking about making goals in terms of 12 weeks rather than annually.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is work efficiency. This comes from a book you last week while traveling. What book are we talking about?
J: The 12 Week Year and the tagline is get more done in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months.
E: So what are some of the bigger ideas of this book?
J: discard annual thinking, In January, December looks a long way off. We begin the year with big goals, at the end of January we are slightly behind, at the end of march, we’re still behind, but not worried. We aren’t worried because we have plenty of time to catch up.
The second big takeaway was periodization. It’s principals are focus, concentration, and overload on a specific skill or discipline. It began, as an athletic training technique to help increase performance. The athlete focused on one grouping of skill and then moved on to the next every 4-6 weeks.
E: You liked this so much, that you actually bought us all copies of the book. I don’t read a ton. I am more of a forget thinking and reading about ideas. Let’s take action! I did start to read it though because you are my boss and told me to read it. I have related to it. It had a quote that I really liked. It said an ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Again, I am about taking action. What are we going to take away from this book to our team of co-nerds to help us go forward?
J: You start with a 12 week plan,
E: Spoiler alert
J: It is in the title it isn’t a spoiler Erick.
E: Fine, back to the takeaway.
J: Start with the end in mind. At the end of the 12 weeks, what do you want to have achieved? For example you may want to have a personal goal of losing 10 pounds, and a business goal of closing $100,000 in new business.
E: We have all made new years resolutions. What is the difference?
J: The difference is it is 12 weeks and not a year. You need to check off 85% of the checklist items on your list, and you will be wildly successful. The way you do it by make them specific and measurable, state the want in a positive over negative statement, ensure they are realistic, assign accountability, and be time-bound.
E: I’d like to have a follow up episode. Aired soon, explaining how we used this book to help us actually move the needle. By my calculations it’s Friday afternoon, and I have worked 12 weeks already this year. Is it time to go home after this?
J: well i hope you’ve worked more than 12 weeks already this year….
E: Fair enough on to editing... until 5.
J: Thank you for listening to this episode, the first in our mega series. If you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about what Suman decided to do with his weekend. It turns out that he made another app, but this time it involves NATO phonetics.
E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick and I’m Suman
E: Today's Idea is: What are we going to do on the weekend? Suman thank you for being in on another episode. We were kind of chatting the other week about what we are going to do the weekend. Your response is, you were going to learn to swim, or develop an app. The big question is. Did you learn to swim?
Suman. No
Josh: What did you do instead?
Suman: I made an app that translates normal words into nato phonetics
Josh: Wait… what the heck is nato phoenetics??
Suman: It is like… where the alphabet has its own word….
Josh: Hold on, i’ll look it up…...
Erick: So last weekend I went swimming. Learning still has to be at least somewhere on your list isn’t it?
Suman: Yes
Josh: The NATO phonetic alphabet, officially denoted as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, and also commonly known as the ICAO phonetic alphabet, and in a variation also known officially as the ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet.
Suman: Actually it means that A is translated to Alpha, B is translated to Bravo.
Josh: Ah that makes more sense than what i read off Wikipedia, If you don’t get around to swimming what is your next random side project?
Suman: The Suman Chat bot.
Erick: That makes sense because you talk soooooo much. Just so you know the pool downtown is closing relatively soon. You might want to get on that swimming before the disgusting cold comes back. Thanks Suman for coming on, and being our guest again.
Suman: You’re welcome.
Josh: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use our random advice and thoughts have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we talk with Suman about how he made his Lunch Place Chooser web app. Suman is a software engineer at Codelation and a fellow nerd.
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick and I’m Suman
Erick: Today's Idea is: What the heck are we going to do for lunch? I am here with one of our other co-nerds and first guest on the show Suman. Suman, tell us about yourself:
Suman: I am me.
Josh: Everyone, Suman is a software engineer here at Codelation. A noticeable introvert who might use up his word allowance on this podcast.
Erick: Each week you and I will go grab a lunch somewhere. Each week we have the dreaded, “where do you want to eat?” question. You decided to just create a web app to help us answer that question. Can you talk a little bit about this lunch place chooser?
Suman: So we never know where to go for lunch. So I built the app using Google Maps and Places API, Ruby on Rails, and Javascript
Josh: How does it work, what is the experience of using it, do i have to enter my zip code or?
Suman: When you first load the app, it tries to access your browser location. If it can’t you can enter your current location.
Josh: So a location can be any address??
Suman: Yes
Erick: We used this thing on Monday, and it was basically amazing. It took us to a pretty great Indian restaurant, that I never would have thought of without the app.
Josh: Suman you built an app at work to help you go on breaks?
Suman: No I built it on the weekend
Erick: Good answer good answer! As a giant nerd. I requested you make the app be Yoda, and talk like him. I’m a big fan of that fact that you made this all happen. How did you do that?
Suman: There was a website that translated english into yoda speak.
J: So you had some phrases translated into yoda, what’s next clingon?
E: I freaking love this. It worked amazing! I really like that the force is helping us pick where to go to lunch.
J: That force is google’s places api.
E: Don’t be a downer. We can talk about terrifying data on a different episode. I am actually looking forward to the next time that I have no idea on where to go for lunch. Thank you Suman for walking 20 feet to help us record an episode.
S: You’re welcome
J: Thank you for listening to this episode, if you know a startup that could use advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we chat about Jolly Roger Telephone Company and how they mess with scam callers using their own robots. Check out their website at: https://jollyrogertelephone.com/
J/E: Hey Everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is: JollyRogerTelephone.com. This is kind of an interesting concept. Nerds developed a robot to fight robo calls. Josh from a technical standpoint, can you tell us a little more of what this is?
J: I like that, nerds to fight robo calls - What they do is use a 3rd party service called TrueCNAM to assign a reputation score to the number. Once the score hits a high enough level it triggers the call to be routed into their system. From there the pirates, as they call them, use some sort of a natural language processing to pick up when the telemarketer is talking. Really interesting how they handle it.
E: I think this is pretty great. It would save me a lot of time. Mostly because I usually talk to robot callers, and am just weird on the phone with them.
J: Yeah i think it is great, they’ve really dialed into how to mess with the telemarketer. Listen to this: [https://jollyrogertelephone.com/our-robots/ Bloody Billy 3:00 the telemarketer is actually responding to the robot]
E: I freaking love this. My thought is if you are bold enough to talk to anyone and everyone wasting their time. I/this app can waste your time right back.
J: Yeah I immediately thought of you when you when I saw this on Shark Tank.
E: Yes one time they called saying I qualified for some credit something or other. I just started talking to them in binary answering them in zeros and ones anytime they had a question. I figured it would be hypocritical of them to robodial me, and not accept my robot answers. They stayed on the phone with me longer than you would think. Eventually they got tired when my answer to everyone of their questions was zero one one zero zero one one one one one zero. What I liked about the app, is the ability for them to stay on the line with the telemarketer for so long.
J: Yeah it’s a difficult problem to solve.
E: We have all had, or at least heard one of our stupid friends in the early 2000s with the Hello….hello, I can’t hear you. It’s actually Scott’s voicemail I got you. I hate freaking Scott. There is a little more tech in this than tricking me for 10 seconds.
J: As a computer you can pick up is there is sound on the call, but how do you pick up what the person is saying. As a computer if i hear a sound, how do i know the intentionality of what they are saying. For example if someone said “How are you today” I could pick up on keywords or possible phrases, but it gets complicated quickly. You’d have to take the audio in real time and then process the audio into something that can be analyzed and responded to. So i’d guess they have a bucket of phrases that they respond to the caller with, and then inject a longer phrase/sentence so they aren’t just saying “uh huh…. Ok” for the entire call.
E: Yeah this product would save me the time of coming up with new material to mess with the robot calls, and actually having to talk to them. My one complaint is with a name like Jolly Roger Telephone. None of the pre-recorded things talk like a pirate.
J: But they do have a number of personal robots and even some holiday themed ones as well.
E: Big question could our nerds develop Real Pirate Talking Robot Fighter App?
J: We absolutely could. The toughest thing is to set the trap right for the telemarketer to keep talking, engage with the right wording so it seems natural.
E: YARGH! We now have a project that I am ready to really get behind. If you want to hear some fantastic sample calls from jolly roger telephone. Go to their website. It’s pretty entertaining.
Thank you for listening
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about the acronym "NBAT" and what it means for your business. We take a look at each portion of the acronym coined by Jason Swenk and how it can help you with prospective clients.
J/E: I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is: Another random sales acronym NBAT. Everyone handles sales differently. This is actually an idea I learned from you can you talk about what exactly NBAT is
J: Well, actually I stole this from Jason Swenk. It stands for Need, Budget, Authority, and Timing. It really is the 4 things that you need to be paying attention to when in a sales conversation. Let's break those 4 things down a bit. Need - Do you have a service or product that the person you are talking to would purchase?
E: Budget - If they need what you offer can that person actually pay for your service? Or does their need fit financially with what your team brings to the table?
J: Authority - Are you talking to the person who signs the checks, or does this person need to talk to the person that signs the checks. If you are not talking to the decision maker, don’t rely on them to translate what you do to them, try and get a meeting with the decision maker.
E: Timing Last, what is the actual timeline? You may have something in the budget for this month, this year, in your 5 year plan. Finding when things are going to happen also can help determine if your team is the right fit.
J: It also helps with follow up, what is better “hey just checking in”, or “hey you had said that this was important to get it done in August, guess what, it's now August”
E: It’s interesting as a salesperson to be so targeted in looking for that. I have coffee meetings all the time, like literally all the time. The main goal of the meeting is to find out the NBAT, or see if the NBAT is out of their power or unknown. If they are missing any piece, a sale is improbable to close.
J: Not only you can’t close, but you now have a clear reason for the meeting or discussion. I think a lot of sales people go have a coffee or lunch with someone and say, man that is a great lead when they didn’t get enough information to even consider them that.
E: I think it’s important though to discover if the person you are meeting with has any of the NBAT because at the same time you never know when things could change.
J: Well it helps understand if it is a lead, a prospect, or just a coffee conversation.
E: It’s the job of sales people to be in people’s heads before the go to blasted google. This is why finding out a potential customer’s NBAT, and checking in is so important.
J: Yeah its really the difference between two people catching up and an actual sales lead. Getting brand awareness is another subject for another day Erick.
E: And there you go, the idea of NBAT is done. The weird Michael Scott way I remember NBat is pairing it with the Batman theme Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na NBat. I hope that helps everyone remember it forever.
J: Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use our advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we discuss the book "Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod. We take share the tips Elrod mentions and talk about how we try to utilize them in our morning routines.
J/E: Hey everyone, I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Alright Josh today we’re talking about The Miracle Morning by that one guy. You actually asked me to read this hog when I started. I did, I tried to do what the book said, but I didn’t quite keep to the book’s advice. What do we have as a big idea behind this book?
J: Yes, by that one guy you mean Hal Elrod, and by hog of a book you mean all 180 pages….. Its pretty simple, wake up early. 60 minutes, Six different activities, each 10 minute segment to start your day off right
E: I don’t disagree with the principal of this book. If you would like, I think we should just kind of go over the main points of the book.
J: ummm….. sure.
E: Silence. Straight up Yoda into the day. I love this. I try to do this when I wake up and when I fall asleep at night.
J: I do the same thing if I don’t get out of bed, however what Hal teaches you to do is to set your alarm clock away from the bed and to do something to jumpstart so you don’t go back to bed, mainly drink a full glass of water to hydrate, then do something to wake up. Brush your teeth, take a shower, etc.
E: I am not going to lie, I fall back asleep sometimes when I do this, and should probably have a glass of water by my bed, or move my alarm clock. Even if I fall back asleep, if I am waking up a little early it’s just fine. That will bring us to the next action. Affirmations: or Encouraging words you tell yourself to achieve your goals. To me attitude and mindset are so important. It’s pretty powerful to go into the day with a better feeling than I hate Mondays. Telling yourself each morning that you will do great things is way better than same shit different day.
J: Think of it as your friend that hates doing something, but you know it is good for them, you need to convince them to keep going. Sometimes you need to do the same thing for yourself, even if you don’t believe it you need to have the consistency to make it a habit.
E: I just had a friend I saw on Facebook. He has been struggling with weight issues since I have known him. He actually was online crying because he was trying, and he gained a little weight back. I stepped in, told him he was brave, hardly anyone actually does the work to change things they don’t like about themselves, nothing you have ever done you are proud of has come easy, and if he wants some help, I would be there for him. I should be mirroring that message to myself, every day. That kind of brings us to the next main point of visualization.
J: I used to think that affirmations and visualizations were overly woo-woo, some sort of late night infomercial way to scam me out of $100 for some course. But as I’ve moved on in life I find there is so much negativity so many debbie downers out there that you need to be in the right frame of mind to start your day. So Erick, what are your thoughts on visualization?
E: Visualization: This is an interesting one that no one does, but something that basically every successful professional athlete does. This is another one I could be better at. Every day I write out a list of things to do. I should change my list to Things I will do. I think it would be good for me to change the phasing of my checklist to, I will talk to ____. A proposal to _____ will be sent, ect
J: I think an important piece to add to the visualization is what success looks and feels like. So after sending that proposal, then what?
E: We sent the proposal, they accept, pay us with money, and then we eat victory tacos. That is way better than my original I will send a proposal. Then we will be consistently eating victory tacos which brings us to the next main point. Exercise. Does a
In this episode of From Idea to Done, we address the importance of networking. We share our tips and best practices for gaining these connections.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we chat about Niantic's Harry Potter app, Wizards Unite. Join us as we take a peek at what makes up this AR game.
J/E: I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is: The Release of WIZARDS UNITE!!!!!
E: I think it’s important in our world of App Development to talk a little bit about the newer apps that have been developed. Wizards Unite is developed by Niantic. They are the same crew who developed Pokemon Go. It’s a pretty similar game set in the Harry Potter Universe, and we’re going to chat about it today. Josh do you know anything about this game or even the developer?
J: I heard from a mutual friend that they could, and I quote “take all my money”. Other than that, no, I’m an adult.
E: True...Fun story. After work today, I will be wandering through the streets of Fargo playing this game with him until Monday. I say we just dive right into this. I am going to get right into it. Let’s open this guy up and see what it’s doing.
E: Opens the app. I did a little bit of pre work with this and registered my character last night. As a developer what do you see as I open this?
J: It looks like it is using the accelerometer, yes that is a real thing, along with some gps functionality. I can zoom in and rotate around my red fedora wearing knight goblin, but that's about it, looks like I have to get up and move now.
E: Right an accelerometer. That little knight goblin is actually the griffindor avatar character I made up Named Roderick J. Heron. It’s actually an anagram of my name Erick John Roder. All my super Harry Potter nerd friends should appreciate the anagram.
J: #dumbledork
E: Raise your hand if you know what an accelerometer is? Muggle Dork
J: sad panda
E: Let’s get back to the amazing game. We’re at the office at the tech park right now. It is actually a hotel in the game. There are different GPS pins in our area of other places to actually walk to.
J: Oh I didn’t realize that the markings on the ground were actual buildings and roads, that seems pretty cool. So i’d have to go over to the parking lot to go pick up this shining diamond deal thing huh?
E: Yes, it’s very similar to Pokemon go. Nintendo tricked me into walking 100 miles when that came out.
J: Ok, so that’s sort of neat, so then I click on this thing… what i think i’m battling something now, what’s going on.
E: That is obviously a pixie.
J: Obviously
E: After we find that we have to do random touch screen motions to capture it, and return it to the pretend in game museum of things we caught. I think this well do well. I am going to walk around my neighborhood 20 times this weekend collecting pretend things. Well played Niantic. Here is the big question. Josh is this something that is in our realm to develop?
J: Well anything is possible, but I’d probably leave this to the dev shops that have a big budget and the market of awaiting nerds to play it. At the end of the day building this would be tough, but marketing it would be even more difficult without an audience.
E: Cool, did you hear that Disney, we’re ready to develop Wookie Go!
J: I’m not sure if that is made up or not, but heck, I’m in.
E: I made it up just now, and am pretty excited about it. What a good idea, if only we knew of a company that developed ideas into apps. Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we discuss jumping the hurdle of starting marketing for your business. This is the third episode in our marketing series.
J: Welcome to another episode of Idea to Done
J/E: I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: We have been discussing marketing ideas in the last few episodes. Today’s topic is going to be starting. It’s important to start in the mediums you like, and build. I do a lot of our business content on Facebook. I am more comfortable on Facebook. You on the other hand are more professional than I will ever know. It makes sense you are more active on LinkedIn.
J: Plus it's how you use the platform. I don’t want to promote our business directly on FB, i want to use the platform to show other aspects of life and then use LI to drop some knowledge. - For example, there is a great brand here in town Hatch Realty. Erick uses his personal facebook to build people up, not to buy the house and I think that is really a great model. It helps keep him visible in the market, but not as the pushy buy my stuff way.
E: To expand on that, I have actually been to marketing seminars hosted by Erik. He says that he doesn’t ever say he sells homes on Facebook. He shows his team, he promotes good things going on in the community, and just has fun. On facebook I just want to entertain. In my head marketing should be entertaining. I think it is easiest to start on the platform you genuinely enjoy the most.
J: It is easiest to start on the platform you enjoy the most, make sure that your audience is there and make sure that we’re fitting the content to the audience. Remember, I don’t want to watch an hour unedited video on facebook. Give me 30 seconds of the steak and sizzle. Squatty Potty and Dollar Shave Club.
E: Again, on of the most important aspects of marketing is starting. Actually create some content. We’re actually about 8 episodes into our show now before we have even figured out what to do with it.
J: As of today we don’t have our promotional plan, but we wanted to find out, do we like sitting here on a Friday afternoon script writing and talking to a microphone. I mean look at Gary Vee’s first video for Wine Library. So get out there and start something.
E: That video is nothing compared to anything he currently puts out. His whole brand completely evolved. He saw the opportunity on the platform of YouTube, so he started.
J: Yeah, how long did we talk about the idea of a podcast and what could it be before we started. I mean we wasted a few months kicking the tires, granted what we came up with was way better than what we started with, but would we have gotten there quicker if we just jumped in? Or did planning the way we did work out best?
E: I think it’s a combination of both. We needed to jump. We also needed a plan, and that is actually what we’re going to talk about in our next episode. Is having a marketing plan.
J: So its, set a budget, find the platform and try some stuff, just start!, and then plan…. Well that's the order we did them in, no matter what order you actually do them in, they need to fit for you, and you need to address all 4, otherwise that's what leads to a mistake.
E: Mistakes aren’t learning. Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use actionable advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we talk about using marketing mistakes as a tool for learning. This is the second episode in our marketing series.
J: Welcome to another episode of Idea to Done
J/E: I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is: small businesses marketing ideas. This is the next part in our marketing series. Last time we ended on how it was important to learn from marketing mistakes.
Make mistakes! It helps you find your customer. I like posting content on Facebook. You like posting content on LinkedIn. Which one is right? Sales determines. We won’t know unless we try both. Marketing fails happen all the time. Meow mix had all sorts of advertising before it started Meow Meow Meow Meow. Something will stick. Don’t be afraid to fail.
You mean the cat food from the 90’s right??
J: I think a lot of people try social or some form of marketing and say well that didn’t work and call it a mistake. I’d shift the narrative on it a bit and call that learning, not a mistake :) I think the mistakes only happen when you don’t have an expected outcome and steps for how you end up there. If you think you are going to promote your product on Facebook to an audience that doesn’t know your business you aren’t going to sell anything, you need to warm them up and share about your company and brand.
E: And finding the right place to share your brand, and message is a challenge. Your product might make more sense on Instagram. I know a florist who is all over instagram. I rarely see their posts on Facebook. Their audience isn’t there. At the other end of the spectrum my financial planner posts things on LinkedIn because if it isn’t cat videos, or something entertaining, stay off my facebook feed. Finding the platform that makes sense for your marketing is a trial.
J: I’d challenge that a bit, her audience is on Facebook as well, but not interacting the same way. You need to shift your message to the platform. 30 min videos work well on Youtube, but not on Insta. - just repaired my car
E: And there you go, marketing ideas for small businesses. I want to stress that marketing is about learning where your marketing sticks. Meow meow meow meow… You should jump in while I am doing the meow mix song.
J: Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use actionable advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we chat about how to budget marketing for small businesses and startups.
J: Welcome to another episode of Idea to Done
J/E: I'm Josh and I'm Erick
E: Today's Idea is: Small businesses marketing ideas. I’ll start because I am talking. I think one of the biggest things small businesses [and startups] need to do when marketing themselves is establish a budget. Josh what are your initial thoughts as a business owner on marketing budget.
J: If you don’t have a budget it is tough as you see it all as an added expense. If you have it already factored in then you’ve planned for it. Think of it as giving your money a name - you guys are my marketing dollars, you guys are my marketing dollars. Many people do this with their personal budgets but not businesses, Erick as a marketer what do you think?
E: One of the other mistakes I see small businesses make is not establishing a budget. At one of the bigger companies I worked for in the past, 2% of our sales was dedicated to marketing. They built that into the price of their goods. It was a pretty big company, we had a national ad campaign, but we had a budget. Apply that to your business. If you sell $10,000 a month you should probably be focusing your $200 marketing efforts on social media, boosts, and even face to face coffee meetings. I consider relationship building lunches and coffees part of your marketing budget, and essential for small business. There will be a tipping point where you will want to bring in a marketing person to go coffee meetings, and help write and produce podcasts and such. What do you think Josh?
J: I like it, as a business owner if I don’t have a pile of money sitting around and you ask for $500 for advertising, I’m gonna see that as an expense that I have to take from somewhere else. But if we have funds available, then we can be proactive about it and you’re happy because you have the budget to do things.
E: As a marketer too if I know I have a certain pile of money sitting around. It helps with my planning. If I know we have just enough money to buy microphones and start a pod cast. That is the route we’re going to go. In your face billboard.
J: The way I look at it is that even if you have $100, take that $100 and split it up along many small tests to see what drives engagement. You don’t know what you don’t know, so try things. Otherwise you’ll end up with buyers paralysis, and even worse remorse. I’d take that $100 and spend it on 10 different FB ad buys to different market segments. Or take the $100 and test it against the same audience on FB, LI, and IG. Heck, send out postcards that have a tracking phone number on them, just try something that is measurable. Nothing worse than spending $1000/mo on a billboard and not knowing what it is doing. Now that’s a mistake…
E: It’s important to make marketing mistakes. Don’t be stupid with your money. Marketing is constant trial and error. Making mistakes with marketing is a big enough topic to have an episode about, so I’m going to end our budget episode here.
J: I’d shift the narrative on it a bit and call that learning, not a mistake :)
E: Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use daily advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we talk about Netflix and how it became the company it is today. Netflix has changed the way that we consume entertainment.
In this episode of Idea to Done, we talk through 7 things to think about when building a website.
Josh Christy 0:03
Hi, I'm Josh.
Erick Roder 0:10
And I'm Eric. And on today's episode, we're going to talk about the seven things you need to know when building a website.
Josh Christy 0:17
There's a lot of people that that do website design and development, there's also a lot of different types of websites that people need. And we want to make sure that you understand some of the differences. And really seven things that that go into things that we'd recommend that you take a look at when when building your next website, website for a chiropractor, or coffee shop is going to be different than a sales based website where you're trying to get people to sign up for your your SAS product or service. And that leads us really into the first thing of you know, what is the goal of your site,
Erick Roder 0:49
right, and as a salesperson, you can't sell the wrong product to somebody. And so he really had a talk about the goal of your own we're all site because if you have a really nice expensive website that doesn't do what you want, that does nothing for your business. And so one of the things that we like to kind of look at and and balances like what do you think the difference between having a marketer on your team, do it in house, getting an agency to do it or having a freelance person handle your website?
Josh Christy 1:24
Yeah, so there's, you know, the The second item is, you know, who does it, there's no right or wrong, who's going to build the site for you. But you want to look at the opportunity cost where if your internal marketing department is is billable, and you have to take them away from billable activities to build your website, is that the right place for them to be? So you know, Freelancer be a cheaper option, and agency is going to have more bells and whistles, but also comes with a higher price tag. So you know, just keep in mind how expensive it could be and what you're looking for and make sure that you know it's aligning with your goals, at the end of the day, don't get sold something that you're not believing in or or don't see the value in.
Erick Roder 2:03
And that even kind of brings into who's going to be doing the content for you. And that should be an important part of your decision making process. Because an agency is going to help you a lot with your content, and you're going to pay for it. And your marketing team might be able to have that to where you can just hire a freelancer to make all of your moving pieces in your message kind of roll with your messaging that you technically want know how to kind of do that.
Josh Christy 2:30
And that's the biggest piece that you can play. If you're not going to do a website and houses providing the content, I recommend that people start with the concept of you got a very small whiteboard and a very big dry erase marker tour start with broad strokes of the content, kind of the bullet points and then flush it out from there. If you end up going the other direction on the website built then you try to add content, you're going to try to cram information, the wrong direction and right to fit the space that it has. And,
Erick Roder 3:01
and when you finish your site and your content and everything. And it's all done. One of the things that a lot of people don't really think about is what's going to what's it going to cost to keep this going? And do you need some extra support with that moving forward?
Josh Christy 3:18
Yep. I always recommend for people to find it, you know, if it's going to be an outside vendor, or even your internal team to try to say, you know, if we had to have somebody take two hours a week to update this is the external team that I'm looking
Welcome to the first Book Review on From Idea to Done. We like to talk about big ideas, companies that are winning and those that aren’t, and current events in our crazy world of software startups
Erick Roder 0:00
Today we're actually going to do our first book review. And it's talking about the hundred dollar startup by Chris Bow, bow. Bow, Gilly bear, Chris G.
Erick Roder 0:28
If you're googling this, I would just do the hundred dollar startup,
Josh Christy 0:32
it's on Amazon, you'll find it, it's on
Erick Roder 0:33
Amazon, we didn't win. That's another episode.
Erick Roder 0:37
But um, I actually I don't read a ton. And I read the books that you tell me too. And that's kind of it. And as I'm the boss, or? No, it's because I learned by talking. And so this is kind of this is how I'm going to learn about all of the books that you read. And so so yeah, what is the problem, the problem that Chris solves with this book.
Josh Christy 1:01
It's illustrated under, on the inside of the front cover of the book, and there's a napkin drawn on it says start today, deposit money tomorrow, I think there's the the idea that if I start the business, I'm going to start making making money. But there's a disconnect between how that happens,
Erick Roder 1:21
okay, and so I'm just going to, you know, small business or like, Who is this for, then,
Josh Christy 1:27
I'd say this is really good for anyone that has an early stage idea, but they don't know what to do next. They like the idea of working for themselves are launching a business or a product, but they don't have all the steps in place. And you should probably make a plan before you're going to take that big leap. You you definitely should make a plan. But you know, in my world, that's spreadsheets and burn down charts and expense tables and all this stuff that normal human beings don't don't talk enough,
Erick Roder 1:56
I have no idea what you just said. So let's kind of break this down and make it easier. And I think that's what this book does. Can you talk about some of the bigger takeaways as well?
Josh Christy 2:08
One concept that still is applicable for me is start now. Not later. I think there's this idea that you have to have the perfect thing in place to get something started. Why not just start and figure it out as you go
Erick Roder 2:21
as we talk into $20 microphones to start our little podcast here and so I like that takeaway.
Josh Christy 2:33
The next takeaway that I had is that there's no complex financials or a secret sauce to get started. There's a lot of really easy checklist to break down of like, first I need to do X y&z tomorrow, I need to do some more things. So don't try to think about it as this monumental thing that you have to accomplish at once. You know, there's the saying that, you know, how do you eat an elephant?
Erick Roder 2:56
It's a bite at a time.
Erick Roder 2:57
I had no idea and I that's on my list, but I check it off. And I do a checklist every day. And that helps just kind of straighten things out and get you give you a compass. And that's an interesting thing. And, and so what's the big last takeaway from this book?
Josh Christy 3:13
I think everyone thinks that if I just had the money, more money for an office, more money for a team, that it's going to solve all my problems. Chris shows you how you can get a business started quickly without a lot of money. I think the metrics they have in the book is that he talks to 1500 different entrepreneurs that are making over $50,000 a year and usually put in hundreds of dollars to get it started. So this is actionable advice for anybody that's trying to start a company. A
Welcome to the pilot episode of From Idea to Done. We like to talk about big ideas, companies that are winning and those that aren’t, and current events in our crazy world of software startups
Erick Roder 0:01
Alright, I think we're just going to
kind of jump into Josh, what are we? What are we doing here today?
Josh Christy 0:08
Are we doing it?
Erick Roder 0:09
Right?
It's recording, I hope.
Josh Christy 0:14
Well, I wanted to welcome everyone to our new podcasts from idea to done to where we bring you actionable advice every day to help move your startup forward.
Erick Roder 0:21
And this kind of sprung from from just a marketing standpoint. And that kind of gets into our introductions. When I came on, I wanted to start a little, a little talk show that we would air and then I bring on guests of people that I liked, and people doing great things in our community. And after the first couple shows on I was like, well, you don't even talk about what you guys do at all. And so
marketing fail, but at the same time, one of our core values is community. And I like that show. But I do want to highlight what we're doing as a marketer. I think you as an owner, one mind that as well.
Josh Christy 1:03
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't mind more people know what we do.
Erick Roder 1:09
And I think that what's interesting for me working here, is we have such a different perspective on stuff. Like, I'm the idea, a dreamer, marketing communicator, that's me. And then I work with this team of people that are completely shifted focus, where they're like, Okay, this is your idea. And their whole business has basically taken an idea, good idea, tearing it apart, and making it into a real thing. And so that's kind of the basis,
base idea of kind of the show here.
Josh Christy 1:43
And who are you?
Erick Roder 1:44
Oh, I'm Eric Roder, and
business development for Codelation.
None of my guests have ever asked that before. So that's, that's kind of exciting.
Unknown Speaker 1:53
And I'm Josh Christy, the founder of Codelation, and just to kind of echo Eric's words, is, we work with a lot of early stage startups, and we just kind of wanted to take the opportunity to to start sharing some of their experiences, our experiences, with anyone that's willing to listen, and really looking to break this down into, you know, five different categories of information that we're trying to try to help people with. The the first one that we're looking at is just general advice. And this is where Eric and myself, we're going to share how we help advise our clients with their startups.
Erick Roder 2:34
Right. And I think that
Unknown Speaker 2:37
even if people don't follow the, it's always good to talk about it. And that's kind of that's the thought behind that kind of category. Another one that we want to do is just interviews, we want to interview some of our customers, we want to friend base to just kind of share what they're doing in their business, and to get a little bit better feel on projects that we've actually worked with. And then this has kind of taken the marketer and the nerd. The next couple ones, I'm gonna I thought of this random episode idea where we take things like the moon landing, or inventing cars, and have someone say, Oh, hey, I have this idea. We should look at the moon, we should go there and then have Josh kind of reverse engineer it, because that's what he does.
Unknown Speaker 3:30
If we could take our strategy for our clients and apply it to something that was done. You know, in the past, like Eric said, the moon landing or, hey, what's a combustion engine, I don't know where this part of the th