Looking forward to hearing an update about the exciting things happening inside Bean Ninjas?

In Part 2 of this 5-part working series of the Bean Ninjas Podcast, Anfernee Chansamooth and Michael Wark share the mic to talk about their big wins, challenges, key lessons, and goals that they had for the past and coming week.

They share updates on the progress of their goals for the week and what they’re currently working on. It’s definitely a good example and reminder for all of us that all businesses and teams experience the same kind of things in different ways.

In this episode, we discuss:

[01:25 ] Updates on Mike’s objectives for the past week.
[02:13 ] Anf’s updates on his objectives for the past week.
[03:32 ] Mike’s wins for the week.
[04:18 ] Anf’s big wins for the week.
[05:52 ] Mike shares the roadblocks he went through.
[06:44 ] Anf’s biggest challenges.
[08:04 ] Key lessons for Mike.
[08:45 ] Actions Mike took to find his current partners.
[09:21 ] Anf’s key learnings.
[12:44 ] Mike’s goals for the next week.
[13:39 ] Goals for Anf in the following week.

 

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Transcription

Finding Product Market Fit Week 2 – Identifying Customer Needs

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:

We’re back on Episode 2 of the Working in Public Series with Michael Wark and myself, Anfernee Chansamooth. And we’re just going to sort of jump in from where we left off last week. How are you doing, Mike?

Michael Wark:

Very good mate. Very good. Yeah, great to be here. 

Anfernee Chansamooth:

Now, you’re calling in from somewhere else. Where are you?

Michael Wark:

I’m overseas in Indonesia at the moment on a trip. So just so happened that this trip was lined up for months and months and months before we kicked off this podcast session. So yeah, I’m calling in from Indonesia. On a bit of a surf trip over here. So internet is a little bit bad. But it should be, hopefully, we can get through this chat.

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

Yeah. Amazing things we’re learning already like there’s a bit of a behind-the-scenes look. We’re actually recording this through WhatsApp because of the internet situation. So if you’re wondering how this is happening, thank you, WhatsApp.

Okay. So, Mike, let’s just run through what were your job objectives for last week and how did you track against them?

Michael Wark:

So Anf, I had a few objectives for last week. I didn’t tick as many goals as I’d like to be honest with you. So I flew away for work trip Wednesday last week and that was a two days transit and then getting out here whether it’s not too bad. So I landed over safely but that landing page, there was a hitch and that is not right yet. So I need to edit some video just to get it up. 

My certification is almost there, but then again, with the net slow here, I couldn’t finish off the last two modules, but I did deliver the implementation. So out of the four objectives, I achieved two but also didn’t achieve two. 

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

That’s still a good week and we’re going to share some of the lessons from that in a moment.

Michael Wark:

Yeah. What about you?

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

So for me, I had finalized a three-part video series and get the pages for that up; so that was done. I wanted to work on a Drip sequence and tested that and have that ready; so that was completed as well. And then, the final one I had was to send a re-engagement email campaign to some past clients and leads and let them know about this upcoming course.

And that was delayed for me as I was waiting on some of our sales team to clean up some of the database and we’re still working through what is the appropriate message to send to re-engage past clients and leads. We want to make sure that if we are re-engaging them; you know, it might have been some time since we last did some work with them or they were in contact with us. 

So we want to make sure that it’s not just a straight, “Hey, buy something from me,” kind of message and it’s more value than that. So we’re exploring what’s the appropriate path for that. 

Michael Wark:

Great work, mate. So is that two out of three?

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

Yeah, that’s two out of three. And yeah, all in all, a good week. And then, there’s some other challenges, which I’ll talk about in a moment. So what would your wins for the week be, Mike?

Michael Wark:

I guess making it over here safely is the big one. I’m flying in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic so that was a bit nerve-wracking. But I got here safely and healthy, which is good. And in terms of the work wins, I’ve had seven blueprint sessions lined up for when I’m back, which is a result of direct outreach. 

So that’s direct one-on-one sales calls with business owners about their business and I’m really looking forward to those and I’m glad I booked them because I’m going to try and uphold their offering based on these calls and try and listen to these business owners’ problems and make sure that we’re solving them. 

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

Good.

Michael Wark:

So those are probably my two big wins for this week. And what about yourself, Anf?

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

That’s awesome, mate. For me, so a couple of wins here. The first one was getting that three-part video sequence up and that’s live. We also had a webinar recorded with one of our partners and they’re going to use that as an Evergreen webinar to sell our course as an affiliate. 

And we’ve also got a second, a live webinar happening tomorrow with another partner that I reached out to, which is a lesson in itself in terms of just staying in touch with somebody because we had worked together before. And I just made it an effort to continually reach out to this person every three months and then say, “Hey, I think it would be good for us to work together.” 

And we jumped on a call a couple of weeks ago and sort of, it all lined up. And she said, “Yup. I definitely want to have some kind of collaboration between us.” And then, that’s led to this webinar happening tomorrow for her audience, which is really cool. And then, the final one sort of wins is…

Michael Wark

That is cool.

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

Yes. And the final one, just like I wanted to set up an automated webinar, which is now up and running and in promotion mode. So that’s going to be; the website is beanninjas.com/Masterclass. 

And if anyone wants to check that out, that’s basically an automated webinar that we’re using to educate people on how to set up their sort of Xero system and how that helps them to build financial freedom. And we’ve been getting already six signups for that. So I’m quite excited about that result.

Michael Wark:

Well done, mate. Congrats.

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

Cheers. And so, Michael, you mentioned internet was definitely a challenge for you. But would you share a bit more about was there anything else that was a hitch for you? You talked about live or editing videos and things like that. What came up for you? 

Michael Wark:

I guess with the landing page; that was my big hitch, which is making sure I’ve got over the video and edited succinctly for our landing page instead of having old system manual update. And then of course, [Inaudible 00:06:20 ] the implementation.

And also, yeah, the internet, which has pivoted what I’m going to be doing whilst I’m on this trip. So I’m going to try and pivot into doing a little bit more stuff on, I brought a few books. So it’s going to be more of a personal development trip and working on myself a bit more rather than having to rely on internet, which we do a lot these days.

Anfernee Chansamooth: 

I mean, that’s a great direction for you, I think, and something that, us, being business owners and entrepreneurs, we come across these roadblocks along the way. And it is, like you say, how do you pivot to get with that, right? And how do you not try and struggle and try to force something to happen? 

And this is going to be one of the challenges that I face as well this week. So for me, basically, we have, based on the campaigns that we put together over the last month, we’ve currently got 102 leads in Drip for this course that we’re selling. But we haven’t generated any sales yet, right?

And so, I was starting to freak out a few days ago and just go, “Okay, what the hell is going on?” And it just came down to, well; you can’t force someone to buy something. You have to actually have conversations and understand what the challenges are and make sure that your solut