ScatterBrain

WHEW – what a week so far. It’s been almost a whole week of non-stop being on.

On Thursday, I spoke at City Hall, and was told that I should invest in public speaking training. On Saturday, I got up on stage in front of a few hundred young leaders and won a speaking competition.

Since Sunday, I’ve been in Ottawa, speaking about and discussing Generation Y in the workplace. And I’ve been very , um, fiery about it.

Tomorrow, after a few key meetings, I’m off to Edmonton for another speaking thing. Only this time, I’ve been warned in advance that my opinions may not be very welcome.

I think I read too much Seth Godin when I started TalentEgg, because I’ve never been able to get the whole ‘be remarkable’ thing out of my head. When I speak, when I write, I’m often quite controversial. Not simply for the sake of being remarkable – that would be fake, and, because I can’t be anything but honest, I would be transparent.

My opinions are often remarkable because I’m completely passionate about what I’m speaking about. And because I’m attacking a problem in the Canadian market that hasn’t been effectively dealt with yet… A problem whose solution may require some established institutions to change (in a good way)… and because sticking to the status quo is usually easier.

The result is that some people aren’t going to agree with me, I guess.

Soniya from Techvibes wrote in a recent article that TalentEgg was just one part of my ‘lofty plans’ for the future. And it’s true to some extent – I won’t be doing this forever.

BUT

I have lofty plans for TalentEgg. Its mission is and always has been to help make transitioning from school to work easier for students.

My success, and TalentEgg’s success, is in part measured in revenues, traffic, cash flow, and brand.

But it is also measured in our ability as a company and a group of passionate and informed individuals to raise awareness of the mess that IS campus recruitment, and encourage effective CHANGE.

On Monday, my presentation was part of an entire conference on “transformation”, examining how organizations react to change and how we can better prepare and manage teams for successful change.

When the conference organizer asked us all to write down 10 words we associated with change, almost everyone had these two words on their list: “Resistance” and “Opportunity”.

Today I think we (TalentEgg) faced our first serious Resistance. But it’s ok, it’s part of change. Given that it’s the first time in two years, it seems the Opportunity side has won, big time.

TalentEgg started with no budget for anything. My 25th birthday present from my family was a flat screen for my $800 dell laptop. My office was the vacant secretary’s desk at my mom’s office. I didn’t pay myself any salary at all.

This was an incredible discipline. Every single penny I spent had to have a demonstrable ROI.

Perhaps from that experience, I never really learned to understand budgeting… If there was positive ROI, why would a budget be necessary?

I read Good to Great and realized that this ‘no budget’ thing could actually work – Jim Collins had proven that successful companies spent an unlimited amount on the things that were core to their business, and absolutely nothing on everything else.

Aside from beer-chats on Friday afternoons and the occasional lunch out with the team, this is still how TalentEgg operates. And I would actually argue that beers with the team on a Friday afternoon have a positive ROI, because our team is really the main and only thing that is absolutely core to our business.

This all goes back to focus. Knowing what you want from your business, understanding your business and its core function, having a deep understanding of the core functions and actions that make your business successful, and focusing all your spending (time, effort, cash) right there.

I definitely haven’t mastered this, but it’s something I’m working toward.

That’s Social with a capital ‘S’. You know, the type that everyone’s talking about and seems to be synonymous with what people are saying is ‘the future of media’.

Case in point: I attended my first Toronto Girl Geek Dinner last night. I say ‘first’ because it won’t be my last, I really enjoyed it. However, I didn’t love the conversation that took place. The event consisted of a panel of industry veterans talking about ‘the future of media’. There was an assumption among them, as well as in the room, that this implied Social Media. Almost the entire conversation revolved around Twitter. And when the conversation wasn’t about Twitter, it was about how the education system can do a better job educating students on the digital space i.e. Twitter (ok, to be fair, Blogs were also mentioned).

Twitter (and other Social Media) are simply not the future of media. I repeat – Social Media is not the future of media. Why? For a few reasons. For one, Social Media, by it’s nature, requires investment on the part of users. Users can only be active in so many ‘Social Media’ sites before they hit overload. I think Social Media is a tool that overrides our whole media experience, not media in and of itself.

More importantly, Social Media is not the future of media because (capital S) Social Media – as we know it today – isn’t a business.

The business of Traditional Media is Dying
At this point, pretty much everyone agrees that Traditional Media (print, radio, TV) models are broken. And the reason is because ‘Display Advertising’ isn’t working. As consumers and as an audience, we’re just getting way too good at blocking out noise. I like to call this ‘interruption marketing’ ala Seth Godin. Take these Traditional Media models online and they’re even less effective. I could go on about this, but I’ll save it for another post. The point is – it’s agreed that Traditional Media models are broken because it’s easy to foresee the death of their revenue models.

The business of Social Media was never born
Now let’s look at Social Media. Let’s look at Twitter. With no business model at all. It’s success is purely defined by it’s User base – a VERY LARGE group who is questionably engaged and attentive. Let’s look at Facebook – at least they have a business model… One that only works when a VERY LARGE group of people use the service (targeted display ads, which are questionably effective). Actually, in Facebook’s case, it’s probably their free services which are of most value to advertiers/marketers, and it’s not Facebook that’s making the money there – it’s the ad agencies who are able to command six-figure rates in order to customize a FREE PRODUCT.

It’s interesting – we’re so quick to dismiss the future of Traditional Media because of the declining revenues associated with its revenue model. However, it seems like everyone (at least, everyone at the event last night) is so quick to accept the future of Media as being Social Media, in spite of its absence of any legitimate proof of an attainable/viable business model/absence of business model, in many cases.

So what is the future of media?

Regardless of it’s shape, it’s based on a successful and attainable business model for more than just the giants (i.e. Facebook, Google).

Simply, media can’t survive if it doesn’t produce revenue.

But there’s still opportunity for Ad supported models. Just not in the way we see them today. The future of media will be about finding ways to engage your audience with your advertisers in a way that’s useful to everyone (in contrast to the Traditional model, where advertisements are really just useful to the advertiser). My favourite line these days is ‘It’s about integration, not interruption’. Finding a way to be there when people are looking for you, rather than interrupt people when they’re trying to do something else (chat with their friends on Facebook, watch a video on YouTube).

This is why I’m so passionate about what we’ve done with TalentEgg.

TalentEgg is a business – it’s not social media. It leverages technology to provide a service. And really, it’s ad supported. Our business model is based on recruitment advertising. Except it has a little twist, because the ads ARE the content. Our audience comes to our site for the purpose of interacting with our advertisers. And the results show in terms of engagement and every other metric you want to throw at me.

This wasn’t my idea – it’s been going on in the UK for almost 10 years. More people should be doing this. There’s more value to advertisers, there’s more value for users, and there’s more revenue for media companies. Ultimately, this combo is the future of media.

I’m not a confrontational person. I would often rather let someone win an argument for the sake of not having to argue – I give in easily by nature. Even moreso, I reallly don’t like it when people don’t like me.

This has perhaps been the most difficult of my personal traits to adjust and change in my role as a business owner.

And after 2 years of TalentEgg, I can confidently say that there are people in this city who think really poorly of me. There are individuals who think I’m mean, there are former employees who think I am unfair, there are potential employees, partners, and vendors who think I’m a bad or even immoral business person, and that I’m not very bright, and there are probably even clients who just don’t like me.

Wow. That’s hard for me. And in many cases, perhaps a result of the “business is business” attitude that I adopted about 6 months in to the TalentEgg project.

This attitude stemmed from the fact that when I started this company, I let my nature dictate how I acted completed. I was too nice, I gave in too easily, and in some cases, I was definitely taken advantage of. In expensive ways – both financially and emotionally.

And so at times, I’ve swung the other way as a reaction. I’ve been too harsh, too black and white.

At this point, I’d like to say I’m a bit more balanced. As I go through each important decision here – especially ones that have implications on other people – I try to stage a little battle in my head – “what would lauren do” vs “what would my lawyer tell me to do”. I’ve also installed other checks and balances, such as “what would my girlfriend say”.

All this being said, it’s still not easy, and knowing people think I suck is perhaps one of the hardest necessary parts of being a leader.

One of the first meetings I attended for TalentEgg was with Kraft. The (then) Campus Recruiter listened to our pitch and the history of TalentEgg and said:

“Listen, I don’t think we can use TalentEgg. But I have say, you’ve really created a Win-Win-Win”

“A ‘Win-Win-Win’? What’s that?” I responded.

“Well, the website will really help students find meaningful opportunities with great companies when they graduate. So students win. Employers win because using TalentEgg will save them tons of time and money travelling around the country to recruit top students. And you guys are going to get rich in the process, so you win too.”

Since that conversation over a year ago, I’ve become obsessed with the concept of Win-Win-Win, and apply it as a test to almost every product/business decision I make at TalentEgg. For example, when we bring on a new employer, the transaction has to satisfy the Win-Win-Win criteria:

Do students (our audience) benefit from this employer being on TalentEgg? Will the advertiser (employer) see value? Is this a profitable transaction for us?

It’s a fantastic discipline tool for business decision making.

I’ve recently become obsessed with the BootyCamp Fitness business model. It’s also Win Win Win. Booty Camp Fitness is a girls-only Boot Camp style workout ‘club’. I generally have issues committing to any sort of fitness regime, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I joined their September camp and not only absolutely loved it, but managed to attend every single session. There was real value for me in their program.

When I looked further into their business, I discovered that they work on a sort of franchise level, and that there was a huge upside for personal trainers who become Booty Camp instructors. Their Win Win Win works like this: The Recruits (people like me) win because they’re getting in shape in a way that works for them, the Instructors (franchisees) Win because they make way more money than they would working independently as a trainer or in a Gym like GoodLife, yet still have the freedom to run their own classes, and Booty Camp Fitness makes a ton of money in the middle. It’s three way value – super scalable – and it’s fantastic.

Win Win Win represents the type of business I think I’d always like to be involved with, which, at its core, implies that I like scalable, service based businesses. I think this is a good thing.

PS – Kraft ended up becoming one of our first clients

Before TalentEgg, I had a work email address, and (multiple) personal email addresses. While I occasionally received personal emails on my work address, anyone who emailed me there knew that I wouldn’t be accessing that account after 5:30pm or on weekends.

Today, I really have 1 functional email address – lauren at talentegg – and it receives everything.

Two years ago, when I had a comfortable job in London, England, I could leave work at 5:30 and spend my evenings carelessly enjoying a beer in a nearby pub, or (more likely) killing a few braincells indulging in some East Enders or Hollyoaks.

Last night, I had a string of dreams about different issues that are going on at work – hiring, accounts receivable, sales, etc.

To borrow a phrase from Penelope Trunk, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of work and life. For me, I feel like it’s not so much an intersection but just one giant, inescapable…scribble… with many, many intersections instead of just one.

This is fantastic, because I love my work. And it’s also sometimes suffocating, because sometimes, when work is hard, I find it hard to escape.

This weekend, I attended an event for TalentEgg and heard a terrifying speech from Brett Wilson (of Dragon’s Den fame). He told the audience about his entrepreneurial journey, including the part where he realized that his single-minded devotion to his work almost ruined his life and alienated him from his family. Absolutely terrifying.

I think that one of the most important skills you can possess is being able to honestly see things from other people’s perspectives.

It’s a skill that I’ve thought of a lot, as we’ve had recent turnover at TalentEgg and I’ve started to consider new (exciting) strategies for growth in the future. Despite a degree in Economics, in which I specialized in microeconomics (understanding why and how individuals make decisions), understanding other people’s perspectives is very challenging to me, and something I’m actively working on.

A few areas where putting myself in another person’s shoes is critical these days:

1. HR. As I mentioned, we recently had turnover at TalentEgg. Before it happened, I struggled to understand Point of View (POV), and to approach the situation with as much sensitivity as possible. Regardless, turnover sucks. Turnover also means that we’re currently hiring, and in doing so I’m actively writing and re-writing copy for the job description. I’m constantly asking myself, “What does this say to someone reading this?”, “If I were reading this, and I was the ideal candidate, would I respond to this job description?”
2. Overall Strategy and Positioning. In the quest to find the best, I’ve experimented with a few HR solutions. I’ve posted the job on free job boards, on paid job boards, I’ve put an Ad in the Marketing/Ad industries main daily email newsletter, I’ve chatted with recruiters, toyed with hiring an HR consultant for screening purposes, and even experimented with a few free(ish) Applicant Tracking Systems/Applicant testing programs. This has been an invaluable experience to me – experiencing myself what many small businesses who use TalentEgg must experience when they approach us for job listings. I’m finally able to understand why we sometimes experience sticker shock from potential clients, why we sometimes experience extremely satisfied clients,  and what the main concerns/deciding factors might be for smaller employers wanting to use our site.
3. Sales. At the end of the day, everything comes down to Sales. The role we’re currently recruiting for is a sales role, and aside from the sales benefit I’ve derived from the recruiting process, I’ve also been prepping myself to work on sales strategy. Part of that has involved tons of reading, including a McKinsey report I read this weekend on Solution Sales. I’m not sure Solution Sales really suits TalentEgg, but what I learned from my reading is that it all comes down to really understanding what your clients want and need  - aka, putting yourself in the other person’s shoes (note – I think we’re actually most suited to a ‘vertical approach’ – presenting different solutions for different buckets of clients).

One of my favourite business books is  “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. In it, he writes that one of the keys to success – in life and in business – can be achieved if you “try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.”  I read (most of) this book a few months ago. Today, as we sit at the brink of a massive opportunity and are faced with some very difficult, critical decisions, I think it might make sense to finally read the rest of the book.. :-p

I went back to Yoga class today after a 9 month hiatus.

It brought back lots of memories – the first time I signed up for Yoga class, it was because I needed somewhere to go to get my scattered mind off of TalentEgg’s first big crisis.

And it was in that Yoga class that I first met and interacted with the mother of TalentEgg’s First Sales Employee.

And then it was that Yoga class that I subsequently stopped attending when we had another TalentEgg crisis, leading to TalentEgg’s First Sales Employee… no longer working at TalentEgg.

So it was only appropriate, that after 9 months, I returned to Yoga class on the eve of yet another sad, significant, game-changing day at TalentEgg.

Only this time, instead of attending the Beginner Class, I went to the Advanced Class.

And as I settled into one of the final poses of the class, our teacher announced “Lauren, I’m glad to have you back. You’re just so…focused.”