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Hello Blink Show

Author: Shawn Hymel and Harris Kenny

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Welcome to the practical podcast for technical people who want to start their own company. From founding to building your business, we’re here to help.
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Goodbye for Now

Goodbye for Now

2021-06-2833:46

Harris and I are sad to report that we have decided to shut down the Hello Blink Show. We had an incredible time creating the episodes, sharing knowledge about sales and marketing, and meeting amazing new people. We learned a lot from our guests, and we hope you did, too.We discuss some of the things we could have done better if we were to go back in time and redo the show:The name “Hello Blink Show” was a potential SEO miss. While it was a unique name and meant someone would land on our site when searching for that phrase, it did nothing to convey what the show was about.We need to find a way to break out of the core group of listeners who either knew us personally or followed one of us on social media.Find a way to build a community for technical people building or running their own companies. Chris Gammell’s Contextual Electronics Forum attracts a similar audience, and we would not want to compete with his forum.We would want to ramp up our production and marketing efforts to include releasing an episode every week as well as engage people more on social media (e.g. Twitter).Harris is pivoting his career to go from individualized consulting to building a virtual sales assistant. This pivot grew out of his experience developing Intro CRM. He found that even though Intro CRM provided a simplified set of CRM and sales tools, people were not using it. That revelation led to the idea of creating a productized service to literally help people with sales. Shawn is pivoting to focus on embedded machine learning and teaching as opposed to marketing consulting. Part of this focus includes doing research with the hope of being published in academic journals or pursuing a PhD.Hello Blink Show will continue to exist as an archive of episodes, but for the time being, we have no plans to produce future episodes.SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of ResourcesPodcast - Pipeline MeetingWebsite - Intro CRM Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Nonsense marketing is the seemingly frivolous activities that marketers do that have a chance of “catching on” or “going viral.” For example, Wendy’s often provocative Twitter account is an example of nonsense marketing. It requires creativity and is often experiential.Christine gives us some other examples of nonsense marketing, such as Ford’s Home of the Future project. The purpose of these projects can be difficult to grasp sometimes if you’re not the intended audience.Shawn gives the example of Bud Light’s “Whatever, USA” campaign where the renowned beer company rented an entire town for a weekend to host a giant party for contest winners. The winners, rather than being drawn randomly, were selected based on personality and social media engagement, as the event was a targeted way to promote the brand through influencers.To make nonsense marketing work, companies need to analyze their audience(s) to determine what kinds of authentic messaging works. If the messaging is missing or the content is inauthentic (e.g. using superficial aspects of viral videos without regard to the audience), nonsense marketing will likely fail.Shawn talks about SparkFun's soldering activities as a form of nonsense marketing. The Badger Hack soldering activity performed much better at SXSW Create (correction: Shawn says “SXSW Edu” in the show, but it should be “SXSW Create”) than the Roshamglo activity at the larger SXSW conference. Christine comments that reaching a critical mass of interest is important and can be more easily achieved in a smaller group.Harris gives the example of Lulzbot manufacturing 3D printers on the CES show floor one year, which attracted a lot of attention from attendees and the press. This helped drive engagement from distributors, which was the ultimate audience of the marketing effort.Christine talks about her project of building an Alexa device inside antique telephones. She sold a few of these as a form of art, which caused a buzz among her tech audience.SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of ResourcesPodcast - Pipeline MeetingWebsite - Intro CRM Guest InformationChristine Sunu is a developer, designer, and creator who builds emotive interfaces and experiences. Though her main area of focus is the overlap between technology and human emotion, she has worked extensively in product, marketing, and design in both hardware and software. She has often worked with developer education and trending content, appearing in videos for outlets such as BuzzFeed and The Verge and helping to coordinate IoT-related content at Twilio. Among other things, Christine has created soft robots for anti-anxiety, produced trending tutorial builds about sourdough bread, levitated paramecium in giant magnetic fields, and attended half of medical school at Yale. She writes and speaks widely about human motivation and interactivity in hardware and connected interfaces, and she engages an international audience through online open-source tutorials. Guest Contact InformationWebsite - Christine SunuLinkedIn - Christine SunuTwitter - @christinesunu Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
In this episode, we talk to Alessandro Grande and Robert Wolff, who run the Arm Innovation Coffee livestream on YouTube (which you can check out here). They tell the story about how they joined forces about a year ago to create a weekly interview video series during the pandemic.Alessandro and Robert use StreamYard to help manage the livestream, including green (waiting) rooms for guests, overlays, and live comment pop-ups. They also use Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio) to stream their own personal feeds into StreamYard to manage multiple cameras and other overlays.Livestreams are great for making connections with audiences where people can chat and ask live questions. They offer a different form of engagement rather than a video or podcast where audience members are expected to passively watch/listen to the presenters. This helps humanize a brand by allowing customers (or potential customers) to interact directly with the presenters and each other.Developer evangelists (advocates, etc.) should consider adding livestreaming to their toolbox as a way to interact with customers and audiences.The new form of voice-only hangouts (e.g. Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces) offers something similar to livestreaming, but seems to lack many feedback features available on other platforms, such as the ability for audience members to type something into a chatbox. Robert talks about how to measure success with livestreams, which can be different than many common business metrics. These measurements include brand awareness and engagement compared to the amount of time to prepare and create the livestream (i.e. the return on investment). Alessandro mentions that a livestream should offer something to the audience to keep them engaged. SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of ResourcesArm Innovation Coffee LivestreamStreamYardOpen Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio) Guest InformationAt the time of this episode’s release, Alessandro Grande has left Arm and taken a new position as Director of Technology at Edge Impulse.  Robert Wolff is an Ecosystem Developer Evangelist Manager at Arm. Guest Contact InformationLinkedIn - Alessandro GrandeLinkedIn - Robert WolffTwitter - Alessandro GrandeTwitter - Robert Wolff Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Darian Johnson joins the Hello Blink Show crew for a live brainstorming session. He is working on a low-power, battery-operating LCD digital assistant. He plans to fund manufacturing through a crowdfunding campaign, but he needs help figuring out how to market the device first.Darian starts the episode by sharing a personal story about how he encouraged his 12-year-old son to build his own TV. Rather than simply buy a TV, he gave his son a Raspberry Pi and a monitor. The son had to install the operating system, connect all the components, and load streaming services.One of Darian’s recent projects was a set of smart candles made with real wax, which you can read about here: https://darianmakes.com/scent-terrific-smart-candle/. These were turned into a product called the Pyllr. He asks Harris and Shawn for ideas on how to market his LCD digital assistant. Harris mentions that blogging or sending prototypes to beta testers is a great way to gauge product-market fit. Even if it is not open source, sharing the journey and process is a great way to build an audience. Sites like https://hackaday.io/ or https://www.hackster.io/ offer good platforms for sharing projects and journaling the process.Since recording this episode, Darian has started chronicling his efforts at https://hackaday.io/project/178328-always-on-low-power-digital-assistant.SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of ResourcesWebsite - Hackaday.ioWebsite - Hackster Guest InformationDarian Johnson is a managing director for a large technology services company, where he leads major cloud computing initiatives. Darian is also a hobbyist maker of IoT (Internet of Things) projects. His projects have been featured in numerous publications and won multiple awards. His most recent project, the Pyllr Trio Candle, is scheduled for a crowdfunding launch in the Spring of 2021.  Guest Contact InformationWebsite - darianmakes.comLinkedIn - Darian JohnsonTwitter - @darianbjohson Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionSean talks about launching his product, EmotiBit, on Kickstarter. EmotiBit is a wearable biometric sensor used for research, engineering, and maker projects.Julio discusses what types of products do well in crowdfunding campaigns. For the most part, business-to-consumer, physical products with a price range of $50-$300 do the best.Shawn asks if crowdfunding should be seen as a way to fund research and development or more of a pre-order system. Sean mentions that he is using Kickstarter to reach a funding goal in order to meet minimum quantity orders for manufacturing. However, Julio talks about how many companies in recent years are using crowdfunding as a launch campaign to sell pre-orders. In addition, he mentions that using it to fund research or development (without a manufacturing plan) does not generally work well.Julio talks about how small companies should build a community long before launching a crowdfunding campaign, which can involve publicly sharing the project or product being worked on.Harris sums up how well Sean has learned from and worked within the biometrics community. He mentions that it often takes years of learning and community building to create a successful product and business.Shawn and Julio provide an overview of the major crowdfunding platforms:Kickstarter - Consumer electronics, software, board gamesIndiegogo - Fashion, filmCrowdSupply - Electronics (dev boards, etc.)GroupGets - Electronics (dev boards, etc.)SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of ResourcesWebsite - Launch StudioWebsite - EmotiBitKickstarter Campaign - EmotiBit Guest InformationJulio helped build the Design and Technology Community Outreach team at Kickstarter. For several years, he led Kickstarter's efforts to search the globe for designers and entrepreneurs working on innovative and noteworthy products and help those creators successfully launch their creations. While at Kickstarter, Julio worked with hundreds of creators and developed a deep understanding of the crowdfunding ecosystem. Currently, Julio serves as the CEO of Launch Studio. Sean is the founder of EmotiBit, a wearable bio-metric sensor platform to democratize sensing signals from the body. After finishing his Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Sean created Connected Future Labs, an agile R&D engineering group utilizing research methodologies combined with emerging technology to create 21st century solutions. Guest Contact InformationLaunch StudioEmotiBitLinkedIn - Julio TerraLinkedIn - Sean MontgomeryTwitter - EmotiBitInstagram - EmotiBit Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionWe chat with Christine Sunu and Dominik Kundel from Twilio about the importance of developer advocacy in a marketing strategy and how it can help build trust with prospective customers.One of the keys of successful developer relations (DevRel) is to “meet people where they are” rather than trying to create a community out of nothing. This includes going to events and engaging developers on forums and chat rooms that already exist. However, you must make sure that your company’s offerings align with the demands of the community. Additionally, you must be an authentic participant in the community rather than attempt to sell products.Dom announces the release of Twilio Insiders, which is an early access program for developers that use Twilio products. Such early access programs can make fans feel like part of a close-knit community as well as provide feedback to product developers.DevRel is useful if your intended customers or audience are developers. If you are a solo business or find you don’t have time for full DevRel efforts (traveling to events, managing forums, etc.), you can simply blog about what you learned during development of your product. This helps connect you to potential customers as well as act as top-of-funnel marketing.SponsorWe want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IoT applications. List of ResourcesVideo - OK Go Audience Phone Concert at SIGNALBook - Ask Your Developer by Jeff LawsonSite - Twilio Insiders Guest InformationChristine Sunu is a developer, designer, and creator who builds emotive interfaces and experiences. Though her main area of focus is the overlap between technology and human emotion, she has worked extensively in product, marketing, and design in both hardware and software. She has often worked with developer education and trending content, appearing in videos for outlets such as BuzzFeed and The Verge and helping to coordinate IoT-related content at Twilio. Among other things, Christine has created soft robots for anti-anxiety, produced trending tutorial builds about sourdough bread, levitated paramecium in giant magnetic fields, and attended half of medical school at Yale. She writes and speaks widely about human motivation and interactivity in hardware and connected interfaces, and she engages an international audience through online open-source tutorials. Dominik is a Developer Advocate for Twilio in San Francisco. He loves tinkering with anything that can run JavaScript, from the front-end over servers to CLIs and coffee machines. You can find him tweeting @dkundel or working on open source projects for CodeExchange and Twilio Labs. In his spare time, he's working on cocktail, food, and photography projects. Guest Contact InformationWebsite - Christine SunuWebsite - Dominik KundelLinkedIn - Christine SunuLinkedIn - Dominik KundelTwitter - @christinesunuTwitter - @DKundel Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionHarris opens the show by giving an account of his experiences with implementing good search engine optimization (SEO) practices and what he’s learned. After spending a little bit of time learning about SEO, he says that he was able to grow his organic traffic sooner than anticipated.Your goal for top-of-funnel content is to rank highly in search engine results whenever someone looks for your target topic (e.g. the topic of your blog post, podcast episode, or video). You can use SERP to measure how well your content is performing and if your SEO practices are paying off.Shawn gives an overview of 6 good SEO practices that can offer a big impact with relatively low effort: Choose the topic for your content carefully and consider the target audience. Your content needs to educate or entertain the audience. “How to,” “getting started”, or “what is” guides work very well, as those keywords are searched very often. Do not try to sell your product or service in this top-of-funnel content; your goal needs to be to entertain or help people in order to build trust with them. Your title is the most important part of your content piece. Spend some time to figure out what people are searching for. You can do this by searching Google to look at how other, similar pieces of content are titled as well as by using tools like Ubersuggest and Answer the Public to look at search volume. Try to make your title as close as possible to what people are typing into the search field. There is no hard rule when it comes to content length or word count. Look for similar content, and make your content similar length. I usually look at similar content and think “How can I do this better?” which often results in slightly longer content than those lookalike pieces. I aim for about 1200 words in my written blog posts, but that could change based on the subject, the audience, and how the search algorithms operate at any given time. Do not duplicate (copy and paste) content! It will hurt your search rankings. You should care about site speed (for both desktop and mobile browsers). Google will rank fast sites higher than slow sites. You can check your site speed on Ahrefs and Neil Patel’s SEO Analyzer. Many speed analyzer tools will offer you a list of things you can fix or tweak on your site to make it load faster. It’s OK to link out to other, relevant content. Don’t worry about trying to “keep people on your site.” Your goal with top-of-funnel content should be to build trust with your audience. You’ll often find articles (e.g. Wikipedia) or videos outside of your site domain that can help the audience in their journey while consuming your content. Link to those other content pieces, even if they are outside of your domain. Measure your success. It’s hard to improve if you don’t measure how well your content is performing. Google Analytics and Fathom Analytics are good tools for looking at page views, how long people view content, etc. There are plenty of SEO tips that were not covered as part of these 6, but we feel that the majority of them make only a small difference (which can add up, but you must be diligent about using them!). We recommend using an SEO plugin as part of your content management system (CMS), such as Rank Math for WordPress. These plugins will often give you a checklist while you’re creating content to remind you of the small tweaks you can make (e.g. adding alt text to images).SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of ResourcesNeil Patel - The 10 Most Important SEO Tips You Need to KnowTool - UbersuggestTool - Google Trends Tool - Answer the PublicTool - AhrefsTool - SEO AnalyzerArticle - Internet encyclopaedias go head to headTool - Google AnalyticsTool - Fathom AnalyticsTool - Rank Math SEO Tool for WordPress Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionSean gives his reasons for moving to New Zealand and starting his company, MagicDAQ. He was inspired to create the MagicDAQ after working for companies where many hours of labor were spent on manual testing. The MagicDAQ automates the testing and data acquisition process by allowing users to script the process with Python.Sean had success making early sales by cold-calling potential customers on LinkedIn. Specifically, he sought out junior to medium-level design engineers to contact. After selling the first few, he talked to other hardware entrepreneurs to learn how to scale. Specifically, he had success sending free samples to influencers and periodicals, like the Embedded Muse.The MagicDAQ relies on Python for scripting, and Sean chose that language to make it easier to use.Harris asks Sean about distribution back into the United States, which is one of Sean’s target markets. Sean says that it’s been pretty simple to sell back into the United States, which involves some extra paperwork. Harris talks about what is required to have the “Made in the USA” label.Sean discusses what the startup and electronics community looks like in Christchurch, New Zealand. He mentions that the community is small but friendly and collaborative.Sean talks about pricing his product. Specifically, he mentions that many companies have a threshold of $500-$1000 when it comes to purchasing equipment. Anything above that threshold often requires lots of approvals from management. So, Sean prices his product under that amount to make it easier for his B2B customers to buy.Being listed with recognized distributors, such as Digi-Key, works as social proof according to Sean. He mentions that sells more directly, but being listed on distributors helps with brand recognition.SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of ResourcesWebsite - MagicDAQNewsletter - The Embedded Muse Guest InformationSean Hadley is a New Zealand based entrepreneur and design engineer. He has extensive experience in the medical device industry and has launched products in the US, NZ, and the UK. He is the founder of MagicDAQ, a firm that offers radically simple testing solutions for hardware engineers.  Guest Contact InformationLinkedIn - Sean Hadley Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionWe start by checking in with Jonathan Georgino, who last appears on the show in episode 5. Since then, he has gotten more sales and more distributors to carry his product (the Binho Nova host adapter). Specifically, Jonathan mentions that paid ads have not worked well at attracting new leads. However, collaboration with influencers (e.g. Shannon Morse) and appearing on podcasts has worked well. He also mentions that he is starting to see a trickle of new visitors to his site after creating several new blog posts.Harris asks Jonathan about what tools he uses to help create content and analyze his site’s SEO performance. Jonathan says that he uses a combination of stock Shopify and Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest tool to help brainstorm content ideas.Jonathan tells the story how he woke up to an email one morning accusing him of copyright infringement. He had used the “Click” name for one of his boards that conflicted with the MikroElektronika Click ecosystem naming. He apologized and took the product page down. However, he turned the potential legal battle into a collaboration opportunity. He worked with MikroE to create an official Click adapter board for the Binho Nova. In addition, he mentioned MikroE’s design services team was great to work with.Shawn and Harris check in with Jonathan’s distribution efforts. He mentions that he purposely slowed down getting into new distributors, as he’s quite happy with the current mix and sales have been growing. Interestingly, he also mentions that direct sales can sometimes be easier than dealing with distributors.Jonathan talks about when it makes sense to become a reseller for other people’s products. Specifically, he resells the Sensepeek PCBite, which complements the Binho Nova’s capabilities. This allows for a better testing experience for the customer (as they can use both products together and order them from one place), and it drives traffic to his site, as Binho is listed as a US distributor on Sensepeek’s site.Finally, Jonathan mentions that he implemented a simple recommendation that Harris made a few months ago: send a handwritten note with every product that ships. Apparently, many customers reach back out to thank Jonathan for the note, the product, and sometimes let him know what they’re using the host adapter for. This turns out to be a fantastic way to communicate with the end users to get feedback on a product.Harris talks about doing things that don’t scale, which came from Paul Graham’s blog post.SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of ResourcesBinho Nova host adapterYouTube Video - Bingo Nova with Shannon MorseUbersuggest toolClick adapter board for the Binho NovaSensepeek PCBitePaul Graham’s blog post - Do things that don’t scale Guest InformationJonathan, a passionate hardware engineer, routinely found himself creating tools to assist in the projects he’d been working on for several years. In late 2018, he began to merge several of his personal projects into a single tool and the Binho Nova Multi-Protocol USB Host adapter was born. A veteran of several Bay Area hardware startups, he enjoys wearing many hats and doing whatever it takes to bring high-quality products to market, from proof-of-concept through mass production. Above all, he wants to share his enthusiasm for developing quality hardware products with as many people as possible. Guest Contact InformationTwitterLinkedInWebsite Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionDaniel Bogdanoff joins as a guest to discuss his experiences creating video content as part of the marketing strategy for Keysight. He noticed that Keysight, like many other tech companies, had essentially 2 options for creating video content: high-budget ads or off-the-cuff webcam shots. As a result, he transitioned into a marketing role to create the Keysight Labs YouTube channel, which has about 80k followers (at the time of this recording).Daniel believes that companies looking to market to or engage audiences on YouTube should maintain three separate channels: one for community building, one for calls to action, and one for tutorials. Additionally, an inbound marketing strategy should consist of both written and video content, with at least a portion of that being hosted on the company’s site.Creating videos that target specific SEO terms, such as “What is an oscilloscope?” is a great way to provide a top-of-funnel marketing layer and capture new audiences that may be interested in your products (assuming, for example, that you sell oscilloscopes). These types of concept videos (and blog posts) can be complemented with long-tail searches such as “how to measure current with an oscilloscope” and “ground loops” (which are, once again, related to oscilloscopes).Daniel recommends adding a level of human connection to the videos by forcing yourself to appear on camera (rather than just doing close-up shots or screen capture). More than likely, it will be awkward at first until you get more practice. Even just using a few seconds at the beginning of every video to introduce yourself can make a big difference!Developing your own content to build an audience is different from influencer marketing, which involves borrowing their audience. When working with an influencer to reach their audience with your brand or product, make sure you have a very specific topic and call to action in mind, and ensure that it will be relevant to the influencer’s audience. Daniel recommends looking at number of views, watch time, impression rates, and click-through rates as metrics to determine the success of individual videos as well as for content marketing campaigns in general. You’ll want to create custom URLs to post in the video or description that provides a tracking code so you can measure click-through rates.SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.List of ResourcesKeysight Labs YouTube channelVideo Creators PodcastEEs Talk Tech PodcastGuest InformationDaniel is a Test Gear Geek at Keysight Technologies because he gets to choose his own job title. He loves taking complex, technical topics and making them easier to digest. Proverbially. He has an electrical engineering degree, but fell into the marketing department early in his career and never looked back because quote: marketers have all the fun. He runs the Keysight Labs YouTube channel and the EEs Talk Tech podcast if you want to go geek out with him on nerdy EE stuff.Guest Contact InformationLinkedIn - Daniel BogdanoffTwitter - Daniel BogdanoffHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
DescriptionHow do you get your first customers, and when should you hire help? Natalie Luneva joins us, who runs her own coaching and consulting business for software as a service (SaaS) startups. She talks about how she got started helping small businesses and offers insights into finding initial customers, the importance of joining communities, and the pros and cons of developing technologies that rely on other, larger businesses.In the second half of the show, Natalie talks about hiring help, whether by contracting or full-time employment. She discusses how time can easily be wasted on menial tasks that can be outsourced and the associated opportunity costs. She ends the show talking about the need to find a good product-market fit.SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.One Powerful Quotation41:23 - Natalie: "You only grow when you are stretched. If you are not stretched, you never grow.”Key Topics 1:15 - Harris asks Natalie about her experiences and how she helps SaaS teams grow, specifically with a focus on marketing over sales. Natalie talks about how she helps clients achieve growth by tackling “low-hanging fruit” issues in marketing and content. 3:45 - Shawn asks Natalie to give some tips on how new founders can increase traffic. Natalie responds by stating that a focus on getting initial sales is likely more important than inbound marketing content. Specifically, she says to join and engage with relevant communities (forums, chat rooms, social media, etc. that focus on your market area). 7:00 - Natalie talks about how to find and join communities with relevant audiences. 8:00 - Harris asks Natalie about how to create content (specifically, podcasts) that gets shared. Natalie shares her strategy of building relationships on her podcast with peers rather than focusing on potential customers. 10:00 - Shawn relates by talking about how partnering to create content can be used to provide business referrals rather than making new customers. 11:30 - Natalie talks about how a single viewpoint from a successful SaaS founder might be narrow-sighted, as what worked for them might not work for others. 12:30 - Harris asks Natalie about using integrations as partners.  17:15 - Shawn asks Natalie about creating a company or service tied to a larger company or product (e.g. creating a plugin for Salesforce or an add-on board for Arduino). Natalie recommends creating a plugin or suite of plugins that work across multiple platforms so all your eggs are not in one basket. 21:00 - Natalie talks about focusing on one integration initially to learn what works before moving on to support other platforms. 23:00 - Shawn asks Natalie to tell her story about getting involved in coaching and consulting with SaaS founders. 26:45 - Harris asks Natalie what consulting looks like for her. Natalie talks about how she must combine different efforts to help coach her clients as well as apply good business practices. Specifically, she starts by examining metrics and finding the “low-hanging fruit” issues that will give the greatest return on investment (ROI). 31:30 - Shawn recommends the book “E-Myth Revisited” when it comes to hiring help. Natalie agrees and talks about the learning curve of managing people.  34:45 - Natalie offers advice on hiring someone full time and figuring out which tasks can be outsourced to an employee. 37:15 - Harris talks about why he hasn’t outsourced any tasks yet, and Natalie mentions that the opportunity cost can hinder potential growth. Even if hiring and managing people is scary and uncomfortable, you must stretch yourself in order to grow. 42:45 - Shawn mentions the hidden costs of context switching between tasks and why it’s important to maximize time in the “genius zone.” 44:15 - Natalie adds that the “genius zone” also needs to correspond to the highest paying task in order to maximize profits and potential to scale. 46:45 - Shawn and Natalie discuss blocking time, especially as it relates to engineering and software development. 48:30 - Natalie talks about the importance of identifying and understanding the problem potential customers have before building a product rather than the mindset trap of “if you build it, they will come.” 52:00 - Natalie shares her contact information. 52:45 - Shout out segment: Matt Bradshaw talks about his first product, the DrumKid drum machine, and thanks Shawn for his KiCad tutorials. List of ResourcesBook - The E-Myth RevisitedBook - The Genius ZoneSite - MicroConf Connect GroupDrumKid drum machine Guest InformationNatalie Luneva is a growth and team performance coach to SaaS founders. She is on a mission to help SaaS companies scale, clarify business priorities, and grow high performance teams. Drawing from her 10+ years of leading marketing teams, she helped over 100 companies implement high ROI opportunities, scale their operations, clarify business priorities and grow high performance teams. Guest Contact InformationWebsite - Natalie LunevaLinkedIn - Natalie LunevaFacebook - Natalie LunevaTwitter - @natalie_luneva Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris Kenny License Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
State of the Show

State of the Show

2021-01-1132:03

SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.Key TopicsIn this episode, we take a step back to look at how the show has performed over the past year. The Hello Blink Show is almost 1 year old, and we want to thank everyone who listens to the show!Specifically, we dive into the listener and download metrics to try look for patterns to determine what worked and what did not work over the past year. Harris talks about his new podcast, "Pipeline Meeting," that specifically dives into sales process and teases his new product, Intro CRM. At the end, Harris and Shawn asks listeners to submit their own thoughts to the show about what they want to hear in 2021.One Powerful Quotation17:50 - Harris: "I think that we're doing a good job giving people exposure [and] access to what happens in the business side of the shop, which is obviously more important when it's your business."Key Topics1:20 - Harris talks about the reasons for moving the show hosting to Transistor.fm for the foreseeable future.1:50 - Harris mentions that he has started his own podcast, "Pipeline Meeting," where he talks about the sales process and his own customer relationship management software, Intro CRM.8:15 - Shawn dives into the metrics of the Hello Blink Show over the past year. We grew from only a handful of downloads to over 100 each episode.12:45 - Shawn looks at the episodes that did particularly well, including SEO vs. SERP, how to become an engineering consultant, and IP clauses in contracts.16:15 - Harris mentions that the practical, business-oriented topics seem to do the best.18:10 - Shawn notices that when the guest had a large following, the episode had a larger number of downloads.19:00 - Shawn and Harris talk about working to be inclusive on the show.21:15 - Harris talks about the future plans for the show.23:00 - Shawn mentions that he wants to continue covering the psychological aspects of running a small business, and Harris offers his own personal story regarding raising a family while taking on the risk of working for himself.27:30 - Shawn asks audience members to give their thoughts: what do you want to hear in 2021 from the Hello Blink Show? Reach out to the show via Twitter (@HelloBlinkShow) or email (info [at] helloblinkshow [dot] com).30:25 - We hear from one of our listeners, Nathan Mangar, a maker who runs tecknologg.website.List of ResourcesPodcast - Pipeline MeetingIntro CRMHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.comkennyconsultinggroup.comLinkedIn - Shawn HymelLinkedIn - Harris KennyTwitter - Shawn HymelTwitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Trailer

Trailer

2021-01-1100:49

Trailer for the Hello Blink Show.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewIn this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn wanted to share their presentation on sales and marketing for Boulder Startup Week 2020. They are joined by Katie Hackos to delve deeper into retaining customer relations but the disconnect between sales and marketing can have adverse effects on these efforts. Listeners will hear their insights on communicating with customers and why marketers and sales people should work together. They explore the dynamics to why these departments operate in different directions and include best practices. This episode is an interactive, mock business discussion as they elaborate on these topics.One Powerful Quotation36:01: Harris: “...If you’re not creating a culture where everyone feels bought into what’s happening in the sales side of the business, you are not helping that build a culture that’s going to help the company grow in the long run…People need to understand what the sales team is thinking about. How they’re thinking about it. Marketing needs to know what the sales numbers are.”Key Topics4:25: The episode kicks off with Katie, Harris, and Shawn introducing themselves and their work background. 8:15: Shawn is introduced as Chief Marketing Officer of boulder.io as he prepares to meet with the CEO to cover their annual statistics. 12:54: Harris is introduced as Director of Business as he shares his reflections of boulder.io. 17:15: Shawn and Harris answer questions from viewers and discuss their mock roles. 25:46: Shawn continues his talks on why marketing teams should recognize KPIs to discover buyer personas. He also explains the Pareto Principle. 33:14: Harris talks about the dysfunctions in sales teams and why this department should not be disjointed with marketing. He also discusses the prisoner’s dilemma as it relates to business strategy. 41:40: Shawn talks to the audience about The Hello Blink Show. 43:08: Shawn clarifies the Pareto Principle, and Harris/Shawn discuss calculating the lifetime value of your customer base. 48:56: Harris and Shawn articulate the most common and costly mistakes they’ve witnessed in organizations for sales and marketing. 52:50: Harris and Shawn respond to why there are no chief revenue officers in more organiza-tions. Harris thinks there is a cultural shift in venture capital moving away from having this position.List of ResourcesWebsite - Bonusly Website - Boulder Startup Week Website - Prisoner’s Dilemma Article - Round canoe syndrome Website - Pareto PrincipleLinkedIn - Ben TravisGuest InformationKatie Hackos is a high spirited and energetic Account Executive for WonderProxy, a SaaS company, who successfully manages accounts and contains a proven track record of retaining customer relations. Her specialties include: Retaining and building B2B and B2C relations, sales closer, superb communicator across all media platforms. LinkedIn TwitterHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Katie Hackos.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewWhether you have a new product idea or business project, listeners will appreciate hearing her experience with developing and building software applications. Lola is involved in the Atlanta tech startup scene, where she currently runs Lunch Pail Labs, a digital product studio and consultancy. Her insightful remarks range from being a solopreneur to the trends in risk capital investments. One Powerful Quotation30:35: “I think the rise of the almost solopreneur I think we’ll see more of in this decade enabled by some of these tools that just enable you to do so much more with your time like the automation tools as a one person business.” Key Topics2:01: Harris opens the show by asking Lola about no code development.3:27: Lola shares use case examples of no/low code and internal business productivities that can be automated including web flows and domain sites.6:02: Shawn asks Lola about cross app development tools.7:21: Shawn further inquires with Lola about API integration for hardware. 8:48: Shawn and Lola discuss custom, no code solutions that have integrated tools for transferring data. 9:53: Lola shares her background and the inspiration behind her business, Lunch Pail Labs.11:42: Lola explains how she runs her business and acquires clients. 14:42: Lola digresses on this year, how remote work and networking help her succeed, and her thoughts about what it means to be an entrepreneur. 18:40: Harris asks Lola about her client base and their type of use case needs. 23:07: Lola talks about being a venture scout at Indie.VC and explains the difference of risk capital. 27:00: Lola responds to Harris’ commentary on venture capital and the idea behind the “power law” compared to independent risk capital. 29:19: Lola adds to Shawn’s remarks that there is a gap in raising capital. One of the trends has been the exchange for equity in business by providing human resources they need to grow and scale their business. 32:32: Lola shares another trend in revenue sharing type agreements that invest in people that want to develop and create.34:06: Shawn and Lola talk about networking and how she became involved in the startup scene. Lola highlights how early connections can help shortcut your business growth and create partnerships. 37:08: Shawn and Lola further extrapolate on how these partnerships facilitate finding clients/customers. 39:27: Harris inquires with Lola about considering building her own product. 40:14: Harris wraps up the show and asks Lola to share her contact information. List of ResourcesWebsite – Lunch Pail Labs Website – MicroConf Community Website – Zapier Website – Integromat Website – Elementor Website – Wordpress Website – Squarespace Website – Wix Website – Indie.VC Website – Adalo Website – Bubble LinkedIn – Robert Walling Website – TinySeed Investment Thesis “Power Law” Website – Steve Case’s “Rise of The Rest” Website – Intro CRM: Harris' new project, built with no-codeGuest InformationLola Ojabowale runs Lunch Pail Labs, which is a digital product studio and consultancy. She works with clients to plan and execute the initial versions of their products with no and low-code development tools. Her background is a mix of product, strategy, and operations, and she has built products for herself and others. When she's not running Lunch Pail Labs, she's active in the venture and startup community. She is a scout at indie. vc and works with various early teams. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and a native of the Washington D.C. area who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Twitter LinkedInWebsite – Lunch Pail LabsWebsite – PersonalHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Lola Ojabowale.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewIn this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn welcome back legal expert and attorney, Mark Tyson. Mark shares some legal advice in negotiating contracts and how to handle particular pitfalls with your employer or contractor. One Powerful Quotation43:47: Shawn: “Read your damn contract.”Key Topics3:17: Shawn opens the show by asking Mark about the invention of assignment clause in contracts as a conflict of interest for ownership. 7:18: Shawn discusses with Mark about forgoing statutes as an employee. Mark recommends negotiating your contract and understanding all of the terms/conditions. 10:20: Harris asks Mark about defining formal employment agreements as an employee with a small company or startup. Mark encourages listeners to be upfront with the employer and the reality behind trying to copyright ownership.12:49: Shawn inquires with Mark about red flags in contracts and when to seek legal advice. Mark highlights what to be look out for in the contract language.15:31: Shawn and Mark agree that everything is negotiable; Mark adds this can leverage your value including compensation, benefits, stock options, etc. 18:25: Mark explains his definition of inventions and how they are defined in contracts. He delves into the prior ownership clause and the importance of due diligence. 27:32: Mark responds to Harris’ comments on future success and how contract negotiation are formulated.31:14: Mark explains the difference between prior ownership and background technology clauses and their implications. 33:37: Shawn asks Mark about disclosing prior inventions or body of works on contracts. 37:02: Harris asks Mark how people should approach seeking legal advice. 40:45: Mark discusses contract negotiation and reasons you need to ask good questions. He suggests sample agreements and why pricing isn’t always the benefit of the bargain. 44:34: Mark talks about the risk-analysis in the value of contracts for ownership. 46:48: Harris shares his final thoughts for the episode, and Mark adds that enforcing new contracts is contingent on additional independent consideration and covenants such as noncompetes or non-solicitations. List of ResourcesExample of Invention Assignment ClauseAssignment of Inventions - Research or any other work performed while working on the behalf of CLIENT to CLIENT. You agree that all Inventions, research or any other work performed while working on the behalf of CLIENT that are developed using the equipment, supplies, facilities, or Proprietary Information of CLIENT or result from or are suggested by work performed by you for CLIENT or are conceived or reduced to practice during your contract term with CLIENT and relate to the business and products, or to the actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of CLIENT.Example of Prior Inventions ClausePrior Inventions - It is understood that all Personal Inventions, if any, whether patented or unpatented, which I made prior to my employment by the Company, are excluded from this Agreement. To preclude any possible uncertainty, I have set forth on Schedule A attached hereto a complete list of all of my prior Personal Inventions, including numbers of all patents and patent applications and a brief description of all unpatented Personal Inventions which are not the property of a previous employer. I represent and covenant that the list is complete and that, if no items are on the list, I have no such prior Personal Inventions. I agree to notify the Company in writing before I make any disclosure or perform any work on behalf of the Company which appears to threaten or conflict with proprietary rights I claim in any Personal Invention. In the event of my failure to give such notice, I agree that I will make no claim against the Company with respect to any such Personal Invention.Example of Background Technology ClauseThe parties acknowledge that certain intellectual property developed, acquired, or otherwise obtained by Contractor prior to, or independently of, this Agreement (collectively, “Background Technology”) may be used by Contractor in the performance of Services. Contractor shall not include Background Technology in any deliverable or Work Product without Company’s prior written consent. Contractor unconditionally grants to Company a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, fully-paid right and license, with the right to sublicense through multiple levels of sublicensees, under all of Contractor’s intellectual property rights in any Background Technology incorporated into or necessary for Company to fully utilize and capitalize the Work Product, (a) to reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, digitally transmit, and otherwise use the Work Product in any medium or format, whether now known or hereafter discovered, (b) to use, make, have made, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise exploit any product or service based on, embodying, incorporating, or derived from the Work Product, and (c) to exercise any and all other present or future rights in the Work Product.Guest InformationMark started his own law firm, Tyson Law PLLC, to help entrepreneurs and small businesses with their legal issues. TwitterLinkedInWebsiteHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Mark Tyson.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewIn this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn interview Matt Liberty. Matt shares his experience with finding contractor work and how you should go about referrals and selecting the best candidate. Listeners will hear his advice as Matt discusses his company, Jetperch, and their tool, Joulescope. One Powerful Quotation20:47 Matt: “Overall, trying to find better ways to do your job, find better ways to value your work and value the parts and work you have and how to negotiate with local people as well to do it. I found that working through these freelancing sites has helped me figure that out better and be better positioned.”Key Topics1:31: Shawn opens the show by asking Matt about his self-employment experience as a software consultant. 2:06: Matt explains why he developed Joulescope as a way to measure the dynamic range of battery power. 5:32: Harris inquires with Matt about his go to market and direct sales strategy. Matt describes how his operations and contract manufacturing work. 8:59: Harris asks Matt about his scaleability and why working with distributors is a roadmap to get back to working with engineering. 9:44: Matt describes his freelance process discerning that his manufacturers/designers act as his engineers, and smaller projects were relegated to others with varying degrees of success. 10:53: Matt notes his success with freelancers has been with designing his logos for Jetperch and Joulescope. 12:14: Shawn follows up with Matt on his experience with hiring freelance engineers.14:16: Matt shares what he believes is the biggest challenge. 15:29: Shawn asks Matt about his experience with managing freelance, software engineers. 17:32: Harris surmises that the risk benefits of freelancing are not worth the hidden and unseen costs. 19:06: Matt explains the differences in using Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelance.com for finding artists and freelance engineers. 22:47: Matt highlights why finding your community and leveraging relationships can can develop key strategic partnerships. 25:16: Matt explains the tradeoffs with screening and hiring, qualified talent as full time employees versus paying freelancers for one time transactions. 27:28: Shawn asks Matt his recommendation on a project management framework with freelancers. 30:37: Harris asks Matt why you should consider using freelancing for accelerating the growth of your business. Matt encourages listeners to delegate responsibilities to those with the skills you need. 34:51: Matt adds to Shawn’s commentary that the scaleability of your business can determine the amount of work to give your partners. 36:28: Matt shares the percentage of managing his product engineering and customer service.38:00: Shawn and Harris wrap up the show, and Matt shares his contact information. List of ResourcesWebsite - Jetperch LLC. Website - Joulescope Website - Contextual Electronics Forum Website - Shopify Website - Upwork Website - Fiverr Website - Freelance congruentgraph on FiverrGuest InformationMatt Liberty is the creator of Joulescope, the easy-to-use, affordable test instrument for low-power design, and also the founder of Jetperch LLC, a software and hardware engineering consultancy. Matt was the primary inventor of Hillcrest Labs' Freespace® motion control technology, and he was granted 27 US patents. Matt has a broad engineering background encompassing digital signal processing, PCB development, FPGA development, and software development in C, C++, and Python.TwitterLinkedInHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Matt Liberty.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewIn this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn interview electrical engineer, Mihir Shah. Mihir shares his insights into the success of his latest startup and his acquisition by another firm. Listeners will hear his advice as he shares his experience with selling inspectAR to Cadence Design Systems.One Powerful Quotation9:16: Mihir - “Fundamentally, your business has to make money…And if you don’t understand that this is going to make money, then don’t even bother going to an investor…Investors inherently are not bad people; there’re not sharks; their job is to buy into companies and in many ways help them get to a successful exit so they can get a return.”Key Topics 1:03: Shawn opens the show by asking Mihir to describe inspectAR and how he envisioned the design to debug hardware.  3:43: Shawn inquires with Mihir about the inspiration to form inspectAR as a need for the market.  9:16: Harris advocates for Mihir to make the case for capital investment. 13:55: Mihir tells the story of what he pitched investors inspectAR as a lens for how all interactions and electronics will be done.  19:30: Shawn inquires with Mihir about his acquisition and how that changes the process of growing and building a business if it’s your exit strategy.  24:27: Shawn follows up with Mihir about VC funding and how it met the needs of his business. 27:49: Mihir explains the how and why of his structured acquisition plan.  29:00: Mihir delves into the promenade process and his internal champion at Cadence that made his exit strategy successful.35:09: Mihir shares his background and why his work experience was so invaluable to his professional development. 46:49: Shawn wraps up the show and encourages Mihir to impart his final advice to listeners. List of ResourcesWebsite - InspectAR Website - Cadence Design Systems Website - Royal Circuits Website - Y Combinator Website - Autodesk Website - Transistor FM LinkedIn - Justin Jackson Website - Paul Graham - Don’t Talk To Corp Dev Website - Axon LinkedIn - Luke Larson Website - LaBarge Weinstein LinkedIn - Colin Wrynn LinkedIn - Alicia GrantGuest InformationAn EE who grew up in a PCB Fab. The rest is history! Previously designed hardware at Tesla and Taser. Joined family businesses to help grow and get schooled in how to build an ultra profitable business that scales. Took those teachings to a couple failed startups, and ultimately inspectAR, which I helped co-found and operate as CEO. inspectAR was successfully acquired this month by Cadence Design Systems, just 18 months after being founded.TwitterLinkedInHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Mihir Shah.
SponsorWe want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing.OverviewWe chat with Lisa Lewis Miller, career coach, owner of Career Clarity, and author of an upcoming book about changing careers (or starting fresh!). Lisa describes the four pillars for career fulfillment that make up the framework she has been using throughout her coaching practice to assist many clients in their journey. She also discusses the importance of finding a good lifestyle fit (even if that means working for a company rather than entrepreneurship) and how a “bridge job” can help make a career transition smoother. Lisa runs her own career coaching service and is releasing a book, Career Clarity, which is due out on November 17, 2020.One Powerful Quotation 8:45 – Lisa: “Phase one of the career discernment journey is: you need to start with who you are, what you value, and what you prioritize, and use all of those data points to then help you generate some hypotheses and some ideas for what could be next.”Key Topics0:45 - Lisa talks about starting her journey as a career coach and her upcoming book, Career Clarity, which you can pre-order here (due out on November 17, 2020): https://getcareerclarity.com/order/.6:30 - Shawn asks Lisa to describe her “Career Clarity” framework to career coaching. Lisa responds by talking about how someone can prioritize happiness in their life and career to achieve success.8:45 - Lisa talks about doing some self-discovery to figure out what drives a person and makes them happy before trying to find the right job or career.11:00: - Lisa lays out the four pillars for career fulfillment: strengths and gifts, interests and passions, personality, and lifestyle. 15:30 - Shawn asks where making money fits into the pillars.20:45 - Shawn asks Lisa to share her views on how much luck plays into career success.24:15 - Lisa talks about finding a “bridge job” to help people transition from one career to another (or to help prepare for entrepreneurship).28:15 - Harris asks Lisa about the benefits of not working for yourself. Lisa mentions that if safety and security are high priorities for someone, they may be better off working for a company.34:00 - Shawn and Lisa talk about “paving your runway,” which involves taking side hustle jobs before jumping into full-time freelance or entrepreneurship. 36:30 - Harris and Lisa discuss the risks of working for yourself while trying to start a family.List of Resources Career Clarity by Lisa Lewis Miller Good to Great by Jim Collins Pivot by Jenny BlakeGuest InformationIf there’s a job out there, Lisa Lewis Miller has probably done it. Lisa is a career change expert and the founder of Career Clarity, a company helping individuals step into the careers they’ve been dreaming of. Her path evolved into coaching after working in digital marketing for nearly a decade at companies like 2U, Edelman, the American Cancer Society, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and CBS College Sports.Lisa has been featured in Business Insider, US News and World Report, Fast Company, Refinery29 and more, and received her coaching certification as one of only 7 coaches in the world trained in the Pivot Method. Clients praise her ability to see through their excuses, champion their possibilities, and give resume reviews that are like “purifying hellfire.”Lisa is based in Westminster, Colorado and received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Barnard College in New York City.TwitterLinkedIn Instagram FacebookPodcast WebsiteHost Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guest: Lisa Lewis Miller.
OverviewIn this episode, Harris and Shawn chat with David and Chris, owners of Cyber City Circuits. David and Chris are working to expand their contract manufacturing (for electronics and PCB assembly) business and need help reaching new customers. As a result, Harris and Shawn perform a live consultation with them to give advice on how to approach marketing and sales.In particular, Harris gives his thoughts on best ways to set up a sales pipeline, and Shawn helps brainstorm marketing ideas. Both Harris and Shawn agree that marketing and sales must be approached with a scientific mindset: experiment and learn from the experiments.One Powerful Quotation 58:45 - Shawn: “Everyone thinks marketing is fun colors and shapes and photographs, and while that is a part of branding, real marketing comes down to ‘what do customers engage with?’...you have to take a scientific [approach] to go ‘I have a hypothesis, I’m going to test it, and see the results.’”Key Topics1:00 - Shawn asks David and Chris to explain what Cyber City Circuits does.3:40 - David talks about how he’s working to ramp up a contract manufacturing business within Cyber City Circuits.4:45 - Harris asks David and Chris about why shipping is a hard problem.9:00 - Shawn talks about automating shipping processes to allow for capacity and time to work on sales and marketing.12:00 - David talks about wanting to find more CM customers to help pay for his and Chris's time and provides some examples about what ideal customers would look like.14:00 - Shawn asks David and Chris to define whether they want to be B2C or B2B.15:30 - Harris gives his thoughts on setting up sales pipelines.18:15 - Shawn asks David and Chris to elaborate where their current customers are coming from.20:30 - David mentions that they currently test 100% all of their boards.21:30 - Shawn and Harris help David define their current sales pipeline.23:00 - Harris gives some advice on setting up onboarding techniques when hiring a salesperson.28:30 - Harris talks about how a good, simple CRM tool can help Cyber City Circuits.32:00 - Harris and David discuss the various ways to position a brand when it comes to sales.33:45 - Harris recommends that David and Chris create marketing and sales personas and then use outbound marketing to validate hypotheses about those personas.36:30 - Harris talks about the customer acquisition process.37:15 - Shawn asks if Cyber City Circuits is seeing repeat customers for their CM service.41:00 - Shawn recommends following Hubspot’s tutorials for developing personas.43:15 - Shawn and David talk about potential problems Seeed Studio’s CM service might run into. Correction in the show: Seeed Studio still offers their Propagate service for low-to-medium volume manufacturing.45:00 - Chris and David talk about why tooling costs are so high for CMs.46:45 - Shawn talks about how to find potential customers outside of an existing network along with how to engage with people on Twitter.50:30 - Harris gives feedback on Cyber City Circuits’ Twitter profile page.54:30 - Shawn talks about what it takes to create good content.58:00 - Harris and Shawn talk about experimenting in sales and marketing.1:00:00 - Harris and David talk about the difficulty in setting up a bootstrapped business. David mentions that he used Shopify to build his ecommerce storefront.1:01:30 - Harris and Shawn talk about how to test and measure various sales and marketing tactics. 1:07:00 - Harris and Shawn discuss ways to develop good content and apply search engine optimization (SEO) to appeal to a particular audience.1:12:30 - David and Shawn talk about the necessity of having a good product to start with before being able to market it.1:14:30 - David talks to Shawn about handling poor designs or customers that want things outside of what a CM can provide.1:19:00 - Chris and David talk about wanting to transition to being primarily a CM shop with electronics distribution on the side.1:25:30 - David leaves listeners with some words of wisdom.List of ResourcesHubspot’s Buyer Persona tutorialShopifyGuest Contact InformationDavid Ray and Chris Williamson started Cyber City Circuits to bring our passions for electronics and education together in an effort to make it our full-time job.  We bought a full production line worth of equipment to try to pay our bills with and it is kind of working out, but slowly.  We would like to find new and innovative ways to contribute to the electronics and makers communities while being able to earn income.  We started our store (CyberCityCircuits.com) at the beginning of May and have had several products with varying degrees of success. TwitterWebsite Host Contact Informationshawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris KennyLicense Information“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0Special Guests: Chris Williamson and David Ray.
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