After a year & a half of working with over 40+ people in our company & also, interacting with 30+ people from different backgrounds & experiences through our private FB group, I’ve learned 2 things about people in our niche.

There are 3 types of people:

• One naturally ‘gets’ what captures attention & naturally ‘gets’ conversion-driven principles
• One that doesn’t naturally get it, but is so motivated that they’ll spend hours studying it, on their own, without anyone asking them to.
• One that doesn’t naturally get it, and treats the position like a job to clock in hours & is unmotivated so they won’t spend hours studying it, so they’ll never get it.

The most important people that this pertains to is the Video Team, Graphics Team, & my Ad Buying Team. I’ve also learned that the most important attribute about a person that will determine their success is the following:

That they make mistakes & then get back up & try again & again & again, always learning from the previous mistakes. As long as they’re progressing PLUS they don’t ‘roam’ too long in self-defeat, shortening their time spent ‘fallen’ & just getting back up & keep going.

*Intelligence doesn’t matter
*Age doesn’t matter
*Level of experience doesn’t matter
*Speed of execution – prioritizing that it just gets done instead of perfect.

A-Players in our company are the combination of #1&#2 from both categories.

I know that structure is important for sure, but as a revenue-driven startup whose success hinders in performance, it’s important that we identify the A-Players quickly & accelerate people quickly. I’d like to make it so that we know in 30-60 days of working with someone if they’ll get it. I’ve crossed the moral dilemma of whether I should keep someone on the team for their sake b/c I care about them, but they actually held the team down.
They’re not a good fit but do I keep them for much longer b/c there has to be a fit for them?

I’m all for making things structured for predictability purposes, however, we’re still a start-up & it’s important we make dynamic adjustments from the things we learn so as not to repeat the same mistakes. I started this company thinking we had to be the best and had to have all the right answers from the beginning. But I learned, we need to encourage mistakes, applaud failure, & encourage each other to get back up & not reprimand each other for trying. It’s not normal for us to do so b/c in school, we’re taught that mistakes = failure. In what we do here, quick mistakes & quick iterations based on learning from those mistakes = success.

High # of failures = success. What does this have to do with your team?

It’s unwise to train someone for 4-6 months when in actuality, it’ll be apparent that someone will either get it or don’t in the first 30-60 days. If they don’t we need to move on & it’s actually better for them to pursue something that fits them better. Sometimes I feel guilty that I’m causing frustration for making so many changes when things are in place, but I realize that is what we do, to keep succeeding, this is necessary.

I must die a thousand deaths & the company, too, must die a thousand deaths. I encourage you to continuously make improvements & iterations within your team & don’t get too attached to any structure. Expect it to only live for 3-6 months max, then expect it to change again. This has been my experience & I don’t want to take away from you the infinite treasures that experience provides.

So try it for yourself & let us know how it goes. Good luck.

Your fellow warrior
Kris