Curious to know what happens behind the scenes of Bean Ninjas Product Launches?

In this 5-part working episode of the Bean Ninjas Podcast, Anfernee Chansamooth and Michael Wark share the stage to talk about handling and working on their latest projects at Bean Ninjas. Anf is the Learning and Community Lead for Bean Ninjas Education and Michael is the Financial Coach and Profit First Consultant for Bean Ninjas Money Mindset.

This is an interesting episode as we get a peek on what’s currently happening at Bean Ninjas and the exciting things we can look forward to in the next couple of months.

In this episode, we discuss:

[01:02 ] Reasons why Bean Ninjas is doing a 5-part working series for 2020.
[02:38 ] Michael working on Bean Ninjas Money Mindset.
[03:16 ] Launching the first product of the Bean Ninjas Money Mindset – Profit First.
[04:08 ] Anf shares about building Bean Ninjas Education and the 2 courses we are launching in June.
[05:24 ] The difference between working for Bean Ninjas and starting a business from scratch.
[08:58 ] Michael’s goals and deliverables moving forward. [10:00 ] Michael shares what blueprint and implementation sessions look like.
[11:34 ] Types of businesses that can take advantage of the sessions offered by Bean Ninjas.
[12:08 ] Anf’s current and future goals and deliverables.
[15:24 ] Finding partners with the right audience.
[16:50 ] Key challenges that Michael has experienced.
[18:35 ] Big challenges in Anf’s education role.
[20:27 ] How Michael decides what to spend time on in the business.
[22:57 ] What Anf spends his time on at the moment.
[25:46 ] Michaels experience working on a landing page.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"></figure>

Transcription

Finding Product Market Fit Week 1 – Behind the Scenes of 2 Product Launches

Announcer Welcome to the Bean Ninjas Podcast, where you get an all-access pass to see what happens behind the closed doors of a fast-growing global bookkeeping and financial reporting business.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

So we are here. First of all, let’s introduce ourselves. So, I’m Anfernee Chansamooth.

Michael Wark:

And I’m Michael Wark.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

And Michael, what’s your role, currently, at Bean Ninjas?

Michael Wark:

I’m a Financial Coach at Bean Ninjas and a Profit First Consultant. 

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Excellent.

Michael Wark:

And yourself?

Anfernee Chansamooth:

And I am the Learning and Community Lead for Bean Ninjas Education. And you’re working on Money Mindset.

Michael Wark:

Yes, yes. Rolling out a new business unit in Bean NInjas called Bean Ninjas Money Mindset. 

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Okay. Right. So we’re going to dig a bit more into that. Now, we are recording a 5-part Working in Public Series for 2020. And let’s talk about why we’re doing this. So, Mike, what are some of the reasons we’re sort of doing this series?

Michael Wark:

So I think the reason why we’re going public with it is to provide the ultimate level of accountability; both holding each other to it, as well as the public so they can learn from our journey as we voice this new unit. And hopefully, maybe learn from some of the challenges and issues we face, and yeah, get some value from it. 

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Love it. And yeah, this is like a series we actually did in 2019. So, Meryl and Wayne Richard, they got together and we did two product launches. They did a simultaneous for a product launch and that’s been documented over a 5-part series. And so, that’s going to be linked in the show notes if you’re going to check that out. 

But there was a lot of positive feedback that came from that because other people who were following it were saying, “That’s really cool that you kind of opened the curtains a bit and let people see behind the scenes of what is happening inside the business.” 

Because often, we see what’s the polished product at the end of it but not so much the challenges and the goals and the metrics and those sort of things. And that I think for anyone working in a start-up or trying to grow a business, that level of detail is quite important. What do you reckon?

Michael Wark:

Absolutely. Absolutely. The devil is in the detail. For sure.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

For sure. And we just enjoy; one of our sort of key values is always growing. And so, this is a big part of that. We want to share what we’re learning and it’s not always wins. We have the right challenges and struggles and we’re going to go through some of that as well.

Okay. So now, Michael, what are you actually working on right now and why?

Michael Wark:

So I guess right now, I’m working on getting Bean Ninjas Money Mindset an online presence. That’s the top priority is getting up our service offering to the world wide web to let people know what we’re doing. 

And it’s the beginning of this business unit. So it’s formulating what our offering is and letting our current clients as well as new clients know what we’re doing. So there’s a whole bunch of stuff that we’re growing up as part of that and I’ll talk through the deliverables maybe in coming up.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Cool. So what are, for Bean Ninjas Money Mindset, what’s kind of the first product, if you will that you’re actually putting out there?

Michael Wark:

So we’re helping people with implementing Profit First, which is an awesome cash flow blueprint system based on a book called Profit First, by the same name. This is something that our clients have been asking for and people have really been demanding. 

So it was the no-brainer first product that we want to launch. So it’s helping people get this implemented in their business and then offering a six-month program to help them set the first goals, but then also, move along and delve into some of the more advanced techniques with it.

Anfernee Chansamooth:

That’s cool. So I know you’ve recorded a whole episode with Meryl about the launch of your business unit and the product. So if you want to learn more about that, go and check that one out. And Michael has also published a couple of blog posts on our blog, which goes into specifics around the implementation product and what Profit First is. 

Michael Wark:

What are you working on, Anf?

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Well, I’m sort of tied to the Profit First. The validation of that kind of came from the courses that we launched last year. We launched a couple of Xero online courses or membership programs.

And I’m working on building Bean Ninjas Education, which is also a new business unit for Bean Ninjas. And the first two products that we’re developing are a Xero Bookkeeping Course and also a Financial Literacy Course, which we’re calling Know Your Numbers and that’s coming out in June. 

So they’re kind of the two things, and really just, we know it’s validated because we did the validation last year with a couple of pilots that we’d run with existing Bean Ninjas clients and new people to Bean Ninjas. And now, we’re looking at how do we actually grow this as a completely different business unit as education. So I’m driving that right now.

Michael Wark:

Awesome. And I think it’s great we’re doing this podcast together because we’re both moving in a similar direction, which is trying to add value to people’s businesses and educate them and really try and offer a whole bunch of knowledge to help them level up and not just move away from straight compliance work, which is what a lot of accounting historically was. And yeah, I think it’s awesome and exciting we’re doing this. 

Anfernee Chansamooth:

100%. Alright. So now, how is this different from actually starting from scratch because we kind of both mentioned that these businesses that we’re developing are coming from Bean Ninjas, which is a brand, which has been around; the business has been around – it’s going to hit its fifth year very shortly. 

So how is it different from you doing your own start-up or freelancing or me doing my own thing? What are your thoughts around that?

Michael Wark:

I mean, the biggest difference for me is that I still get to be in the Bean Ninjas team and be part of our network and still have all those relationships we’ve developed. And that’s what I really value about working with Bean Ninjas and also our clients that I’ve worked with for years and years as well. 

And it’s, I mean, for us, I thin