1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,470 Robert Plank: So welcome back to the marketer of the day podcast. 2 00:00:04,470 --> 00:00:08,040 We're here with Brad Smith, who can help you uncover the content 3 00:00:08,040 --> 00:00:12,330 marketing secrets of 10 figure brands, Brad Smith is the CEO of 4 00:00:12,330 --> 00:00:16,950 workable and codeless. He helps 10 figure brands like monday.com 5 00:00:16,950 --> 00:00:20,490 or Nextiva dominate categories with content marketing at a 6 00:00:20,490 --> 00:00:23,790 massive scale. Brad's super glad to be talking to you. Thank you, 7 00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:27,000 Robert. Yeah, likewise. And so you have these, these three 8 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,640 companies that you run, and you do all kinds of different 9 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,280 things. And I'm sure you always wonder, like, where to find time 10 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,160 to sleep and, and how to focus and things like that. But what 11 00:00:35,160 --> 00:00:38,220 has been your your passion in the last six months or so what 12 00:00:38,220 --> 00:00:39,510 has just fired up in 13 00:00:39,930 --> 00:00:43,260 Unknown: the last six months or so we have been rebuilding and 14 00:00:43,260 --> 00:00:45,810 re launching portable, which has been interesting. As you can 15 00:00:45,810 --> 00:00:48,000 imagine, it's always a challenge to rebuild something from 16 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,840 scratch. So that's been really interesting. I did some 17 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:55,650 traveling too. So maybe that's a little outside of all this nerdy 18 00:00:55,650 --> 00:00:58,440 content stuff. But I did a big road trip not too long ago, 19 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:02,130 across the US, which is a lot of fun with my family. So. So yeah, 20 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,220 there's just just more interesting projects and more 21 00:01:05,220 --> 00:01:08,400 ways to spend time with family is, it's kind of like the top of 22 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:09,120 my mind, I guess, 23 00:01:09,570 --> 00:01:11,190 Robert Plank: well, doing everything because like, the 24 00:01:11,220 --> 00:01:14,820 thing that has been on on my mind lately is, you know, we're 25 00:01:14,820 --> 00:01:18,510 all going to get old, you'll get old, I'll get old. And, and you 26 00:01:18,510 --> 00:01:21,030 know, hopefully that's a long time from now. And hopefully, 27 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,700 when we're all we have a good quality of life, but there's no 28 00:01:23,700 --> 00:01:26,850 guarantees, and you never know if you might have some, you 29 00:01:26,850 --> 00:01:29,490 know, physical ailment, or if you won't feel good, or if you 30 00:01:29,490 --> 00:01:32,790 have brain fog. And so I've just been really kind of like 31 00:01:32,790 --> 00:01:36,330 reminding myself a lot recently, especially of like, if if my 32 00:01:36,330 --> 00:01:39,660 health is good, if I can think if I can do things, I should be 33 00:01:39,660 --> 00:01:43,350 grateful for what I have, because a lot of people don't 34 00:01:43,350 --> 00:01:46,320 have those things, or a lot of people struggle a lot more than 35 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:50,190 I think I struggle. So it's good that you find the time to spend 36 00:01:50,190 --> 00:01:53,370 that family time and travel where you want to travel. And so 37 00:01:53,370 --> 00:01:55,770 Alright, so So word of well, can you tell me about that and 38 00:01:55,770 --> 00:01:58,470 telling you about, you know, what it does, what problem it 39 00:01:58,470 --> 00:01:59,640 solves and how it's unique? 40 00:02:00,180 --> 00:02:02,130 Unknown: For sure, yeah, so we were actually a customer of 41 00:02:02,130 --> 00:02:05,460 audible. And I've used it for a while basically, it helps move 42 00:02:05,460 --> 00:02:09,990 content from historically Google Docs to WordPress. So we do this 43 00:02:09,990 --> 00:02:12,030 under our content agency codeless, we have like 300 44 00:02:12,030 --> 00:02:15,690 articles a month, it takes roughly 30 to 60 minutes to 45 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,870 upload format, optimize every single piece of content, so 46 00:02:19,020 --> 00:02:22,380 times 300 A month times, you know, whatever we're paying 47 00:02:22,380 --> 00:02:25,290 people to do that. And it ends up being a lot of tedious 48 00:02:25,290 --> 00:02:27,630 recurring stuff. So our hope was workable is to basically 49 00:02:27,630 --> 00:02:30,870 automate all that stuff for you. So that way, it kind of cleans 50 00:02:30,870 --> 00:02:35,010 the code the format and looks exactly like it should, based on 51 00:02:35,010 --> 00:02:37,080 like, what you guys were just working on and getting approved 52 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:39,630 and Google Doc, we still use Google Docs with you know, all 53 00:02:39,630 --> 00:02:42,510 these huge brands we work with, just because easiest, the best 54 00:02:42,510 --> 00:02:45,420 for collaboration. But then also take care of some of the like, 55 00:02:45,450 --> 00:02:49,050 on page optimization. So all the all the you know, sucky stuff, 56 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:51,420 for lack of better word you have to do like once you jump into 57 00:02:51,420 --> 00:02:54,390 your website, to like, make sure a piece of content actually 58 00:02:54,390 --> 00:02:58,170 looks good enough to publish. So where the goal is, is going to 59 00:02:58,260 --> 00:03:00,360 eventually kind of automate that whole process, hopefully. 60 00:03:01,110 --> 00:03:02,760 Robert Plank: Well, cool. So just to make sure that I kind of 61 00:03:02,790 --> 00:03:05,970 have my head wrapped around this. So with word I mean, like 62 00:03:05,970 --> 00:03:08,910 you said, like Google Docs is pretty cool as far as having a 63 00:03:08,910 --> 00:03:12,990 lot of people collaborate. And I think that WordPress that over 64 00:03:12,990 --> 00:03:15,600 the last few years, they've tried to make it easy with like, 65 00:03:15,630 --> 00:03:18,420 the revisions and multiple people jumping in, but I don't 66 00:03:18,420 --> 00:03:20,940 know about you, Brad. But whenever I go to edit a 67 00:03:20,940 --> 00:03:23,490 WordPress post, or some scary thing, saying, like someone else 68 00:03:23,490 --> 00:03:26,250 has already editing it, and you want to override or do you want 69 00:03:26,250 --> 00:03:28,470 to lock it, and I thought, why not the point of the 70 00:03:28,500 --> 00:03:31,830 collaboration was that I could like see someone else changing 71 00:03:31,830 --> 00:03:36,060 and I can do it. And like you said, like, Google Docs is great 72 00:03:36,060 --> 00:03:38,610 for creating it. But then when I want to go and publish it, it 73 00:03:38,610 --> 00:03:43,470 just it feels it reminds me of the days of of having an a Word 74 00:03:43,470 --> 00:03:47,250 document and needing the put it into HTML, and you feel almost 75 00:03:47,250 --> 00:03:49,260 like you're starting from scratch as far as all the 76 00:03:49,260 --> 00:03:52,470 formatting so I can see that the headache and so how does 77 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:56,640 worktable work? Exactly? Is it like a plugin? Is it make it one 78 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,760 click? Like, how, how does this whole process work? 79 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,460 Unknown: Yeah, for WordPress, it is a plugin for some of the 80 00:04:02,460 --> 00:04:05,370 other content management systems we're adding like HubSpot 81 00:04:05,790 --> 00:04:10,470 Contentful. Eventually, Shopify Bigcommerce, the those those a 82 00:04:10,470 --> 00:04:13,500 lot of those platforms are thankfully a lot more modern, in 83 00:04:13,500 --> 00:04:16,260 terms of how we can connect and integrate with them. WordPress 84 00:04:16,260 --> 00:04:18,360 is still a plugin, but essentially, it's kind of that 85 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,850 it's you go into the app, you say, Okay, let me bring in all 86 00:04:20,850 --> 00:04:24,030 the documents I was just working on. Like to your point word, I 87 00:04:24,030 --> 00:04:26,220 always say WordPress is good for everything except for writing 88 00:04:26,220 --> 00:04:29,790 in. I've done a lot of freelance writing. And it's awful to do 89 00:04:29,790 --> 00:04:32,070 like your actual work, especially if you're doing like 90 00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:35,820 about, you know, multi 1000 word articles, with images and all 91 00:04:35,820 --> 00:04:40,470 this other heavy stuff. It's painful. And so we often approve 92 00:04:40,470 --> 00:04:43,110 things or get things approved in Google Docs, or some other 93 00:04:43,110 --> 00:04:46,560 format writers like to write in someplace where it's easy, it's 94 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,310 distraction free. It kind of suits them best. And so we're 95 00:04:50,340 --> 00:04:53,040 basically grabbing those documents wherever they live 96 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:55,710 wherever they are, and then importing them into like, in 97 00:04:55,710 --> 00:04:59,280 this case, portable or any other CMS, and we're cleaning the code 98 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:01,860 is a big one. So If you just copy and paste a Google doc into 99 00:05:01,860 --> 00:05:04,920 WordPress, you get a lot of like these extra span tags, a lot of 100 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:08,880 other messy crappy code, it doesn't properly move. Some of 101 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,070 the formatting doesn't properly move either when you copy and 102 00:05:11,070 --> 00:05:13,710 paste stuff like that, it doesn't move images. So you 103 00:05:13,710 --> 00:05:16,260 usually have to in Google Docs, you have to go to like export as 104 00:05:16,260 --> 00:05:18,990 an HTML file. And then you have to go grab all the images, and 105 00:05:18,990 --> 00:05:21,240 then manually upload those and then go insert them back into 106 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,330 the post. So there's all these like, additional steps people 107 00:05:24,330 --> 00:05:27,090 have to do to solve this problem. And frankly, it's kind 108 00:05:27,090 --> 00:05:30,300 of crazy that there's, there's no better solution already out 109 00:05:30,300 --> 00:05:33,690 there. And so that's what we're hoping to do with Audible is to 110 00:05:33,690 --> 00:05:35,820 kind of like automates everything for everyone. 111 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:38,640 Robert Plank: And did I hear you correctly that you said you were 112 00:05:38,670 --> 00:05:41,130 a customer of theirs? And then you bought them out? Or did they 113 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:42,720 hear that wrong? Yeah, 114 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,000 Unknown: so we, we actually know that people originally created 115 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,390 it, but you the VASH, from growing converts another Content 116 00:05:48,390 --> 00:05:52,020 Agency, they started in 2016, I think we were a customer 117 00:05:52,020 --> 00:05:54,330 probably like pretty early on around them. And then they sold 118 00:05:54,330 --> 00:05:58,470 it to another person a year or two later. And then that owner 119 00:05:58,470 --> 00:06:02,520 held it up until last year when we thought about for sale. And 120 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:05,400 then we like I said, we are a customer and we use it for all 121 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,550 of our WordPress based client sites. But we do have a bunch of 122 00:06:08,550 --> 00:06:11,550 other, you know, clients on bunch of other tools. And so 123 00:06:11,550 --> 00:06:13,920 that's why we're hoping to kind of like build it out now and 124 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,820 evolve and a lot more to add at pretty much every major website 125 00:06:17,820 --> 00:06:18,240 platform. 126 00:06:18,870 --> 00:06:21,420 Robert Plank: And that's really cool story. Because like I think 127 00:06:21,420 --> 00:06:24,900 about there were like a handful of software tools that I use 128 00:06:24,900 --> 00:06:27,960 that like I feel like I'm like one of the biggest fans of and 129 00:06:27,990 --> 00:06:30,990 and unlike I feel like they owe me a commission for how much I 130 00:06:30,990 --> 00:06:33,840 just like to talk about what I do and how much it's like, 131 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:37,260 embedded into my business. So that's cool that you used it so 132 00:06:37,260 --> 00:06:40,680 much that when I went up for sale, you said you'd be crazy to 133 00:06:40,770 --> 00:06:44,040 to not grab it, because who knows if someone else will get 134 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:48,330 it. And now you have the chance to add the features that you 135 00:06:48,330 --> 00:06:50,730 always wanted to do. Because that's always a problem too. 136 00:06:50,730 --> 00:06:54,000 When you when you use a tool, use a platform, and you love it 137 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:56,190 so much and use it for everything. You're like, Ah, I 138 00:06:56,190 --> 00:06:58,860 wish they just did these things, extra three things and they just 139 00:06:58,860 --> 00:07:02,010 won't budge. They just won't do it. So that's cool that that 140 00:07:02,010 --> 00:07:06,480 worked out for you. And so how long has it been since you since 141 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,170 you acquired it? And like what's the difference between worktable 142 00:07:10,170 --> 00:07:13,650 before you and what you've added since you've been in charge? For 143 00:07:13,650 --> 00:07:15,660 Unknown: sure we acquired it a little over a year ago. So like 144 00:07:15,660 --> 00:07:20,910 last summer, or like last early summer, we were always going to 145 00:07:20,910 --> 00:07:24,180 rebuild it kind of from the from the beginning, because a lot of 146 00:07:24,180 --> 00:07:28,710 the existing logic and everything was still tied very 147 00:07:28,710 --> 00:07:31,650 much to Google Docs and very much to WordPress. And one of 148 00:07:31,650 --> 00:07:33,930 the things one of the big reasons we wanted to acquire it 149 00:07:33,930 --> 00:07:36,720 and kind of like continue working on it was just that 150 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,540 problem that we have, when we have clients on Contentful. 151 00:07:39,540 --> 00:07:42,540 There are all these new headless CMS is like Contentful and craft 152 00:07:42,540 --> 00:07:45,300 and ghost, you have lead flow coming up, you have big 153 00:07:45,300 --> 00:07:48,390 commerce, Shopify, like a huge e commerce space that you know is 154 00:07:48,390 --> 00:07:51,780 it really doesn't really have any good options for this. And 155 00:07:51,780 --> 00:07:54,150 so that was always one of the big things. And then we always, 156 00:07:54,270 --> 00:07:57,570 even after moving a document over, we still found ourselves 157 00:07:57,570 --> 00:08:01,020 having to jump into that client or our own websites and still do 158 00:08:01,020 --> 00:08:05,250 like, you know, five to 10 other things. So to optimize like a 159 00:08:05,250 --> 00:08:08,010 piece of content properly, you need to compress your images, 160 00:08:08,010 --> 00:08:10,440 you don't want to you don't want images to be like massive file 161 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,190 sizes to slow down your website, you don't want on those images 162 00:08:14,190 --> 00:08:15,990 themselves, you want to make sure you're adding alt text and 163 00:08:15,990 --> 00:08:19,140 other things too for like web accessibility, but also for 164 00:08:19,140 --> 00:08:21,450 search engines. So there's like all these additional little 165 00:08:21,450 --> 00:08:24,420 steps, sometimes even like opening External links in a new 166 00:08:24,420 --> 00:08:27,450 tab, so that that window opens like in another, you know, 167 00:08:27,450 --> 00:08:29,940 browser window or another tab and you're able to keep people 168 00:08:29,940 --> 00:08:32,640 kind of on the page on the site. So there's all these like little 169 00:08:32,850 --> 00:08:36,300 dumb, recurring tasks that you need to do that might take, you 170 00:08:36,300 --> 00:08:39,600 know, a minute or two minutes each time, but when you're doing 171 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,660 it across, like 10 links per article, or 10 images per 172 00:08:42,660 --> 00:08:45,240 article, and they're doing a ton of articles. So you can imagine 173 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,270 that stuff like really, really adds up. So the plan was always 174 00:08:48,270 --> 00:08:51,540 to kind of rebuild it from scratch at all these things 175 00:08:51,540 --> 00:08:54,570 really kind of evolve what we're doing, and some other kind of 176 00:08:54,570 --> 00:08:57,180 cool stuff in the works. But yeah, I think it's this. It's a 177 00:08:57,180 --> 00:09:00,540 very kind of easy ROI. If you're working on a ton of content like 178 00:09:00,540 --> 00:09:03,690 we are we we probably spent 1000s Like no joke 1000s of 179 00:09:03,690 --> 00:09:07,320 dollars on people just having to manually do this stuff. And you 180 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,530 know, they don't like doing it. It's not the most fun task in 181 00:09:10,530 --> 00:09:12,930 the world either. And so it's, you know, we're hoping that it 182 00:09:12,930 --> 00:09:15,420 should be kind of a win win for for content teams, and also the 183 00:09:15,420 --> 00:09:18,030 people doing the work. So they can kind of do more important 184 00:09:18,030 --> 00:09:20,550 stuff with their day, not just like, have to mess around with 185 00:09:20,550 --> 00:09:23,700 WordPress and get things like formatted exactly right. Well, 186 00:09:23,700 --> 00:09:25,950 Robert Plank: and that's the whole point of software in 187 00:09:25,950 --> 00:09:30,510 general, right. It's to replace a manual repetitive task done by 188 00:09:30,510 --> 00:09:32,820 a person so that way it can be done automatically. I mean, it's 189 00:09:32,820 --> 00:09:35,850 like, I remember when I was a kid, and I was like six years 190 00:09:35,850 --> 00:09:38,520 old, and my parents let me play with a typewriter and you type 191 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:40,590 things on a page. And if one little thing was wrong, then 192 00:09:40,590 --> 00:09:43,320 guess what you had to start completely from scratch and go 193 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,500 back to the typewriter. And then nowadays we have word processors 194 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:49,380 and now you can just do one quick thing and now it's fixed. 195 00:09:49,530 --> 00:09:52,230 And in your story there. What came to mind is that that whole 196 00:09:52,260 --> 00:09:55,530 eating your own dog food programming concept where it's 197 00:09:55,530 --> 00:09:59,340 like, well, you have a piece of software and sure they they 198 00:09:59,340 --> 00:10:03,150 might have like Tutorial Videos. But it's usually sort of like, 199 00:10:03,150 --> 00:10:06,390 like feature base where I got to like tab based like, Hey, isn't 200 00:10:06,390 --> 00:10:08,610 it great that we let you do this? Isn't it great that we let 201 00:10:08,610 --> 00:10:11,760 you do that. And then usually when you like, go deep into like 202 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:14,940 a software tool, then those tutorial videos only get you so 203 00:10:14,940 --> 00:10:18,240 far. And then maybe you run the message boards, or then you 204 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,610 might buy like a course or something. And then the course 205 00:10:20,610 --> 00:10:24,150 is usually saying, well, here's how to use this tool. But then 206 00:10:24,150 --> 00:10:26,460 also for the features that lacks, here's this other 207 00:10:26,460 --> 00:10:28,680 solution. And here's this like second toy you might have to 208 00:10:28,680 --> 00:10:31,710 use. And here's some things to watch out for things to do not 209 00:10:31,710 --> 00:10:33,810 to do. And it just kind of seemed like when you were 210 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,170 explaining the whole process there of having to, you know, 211 00:10:37,170 --> 00:10:41,550 move images, compress images, set links to open it in new 212 00:10:41,550 --> 00:10:44,190 windows, it's it's just it brought to mind all those kinds 213 00:10:44,190 --> 00:10:47,490 of missing features that if there if there was a course on 214 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:51,480 workable before you came along, it might you know, spend hours 215 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:53,670 explaining all that saying, well, you'd have to run over 216 00:10:53,670 --> 00:10:57,030 here to do this remember to like, why not just roll it all 217 00:10:57,150 --> 00:11:00,780 into the software. And it's also cool that you kind of found all 218 00:11:00,780 --> 00:11:03,810 these new, like, you know, universes to tap into, right? 219 00:11:03,810 --> 00:11:07,710 All the other CMS has. And now that way, you're not just stuck 220 00:11:07,740 --> 00:11:11,640 in WordPress and so, so many cool things going on. But have 221 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:14,640 there been any difficulties because like, you know, you're 222 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,310 talking about software where like a million things to go 223 00:11:17,310 --> 00:11:20,370 wrong. And people even more things go wrong. So what kind of 224 00:11:20,370 --> 00:11:23,100 difficulties have you experienced in the past year 225 00:11:23,100 --> 00:11:23,850 growing this thing? 226 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,180 Unknown: Yeah, for sure. So we, when we originally relaunched 227 00:11:27,180 --> 00:11:31,860 it, the historical customer base has been a lot of you do get 228 00:11:31,860 --> 00:11:33,690 like content managers and stuff, but you also get a lot of 229 00:11:33,690 --> 00:11:36,510 writers, a lot of editors, that's great. I think they can 230 00:11:36,510 --> 00:11:38,310 still use the new version affordable. But we're also 231 00:11:38,310 --> 00:11:41,160 trying, I think, the bigger pain point and the bigger people, you 232 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:42,750 know, the people that experienced this problem the 233 00:11:42,750 --> 00:11:45,390 most are similar to us, and that their agencies or their larger 234 00:11:45,390 --> 00:11:49,500 marketing teams with like a team of writers. And so we were, 235 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,710 we're used to managing content in bulk. And so we're thinking 236 00:11:52,710 --> 00:11:55,860 of like, how do we, how do we help teams like that? And how do 237 00:11:55,860 --> 00:12:00,630 we kind of like, change? How do we change how things were done 238 00:12:00,630 --> 00:12:03,870 previously, as far as like how people actually use the tool, 239 00:12:04,050 --> 00:12:07,920 and as you can imagine, existing customers don't like change. 240 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:11,130 That's an understatement. So that I think that was a big 241 00:12:11,130 --> 00:12:14,220 challenge. And a big oversight, especially on my part is trying 242 00:12:14,220 --> 00:12:17,850 to change too many things at one time. I'm very much like a heads 243 00:12:17,850 --> 00:12:19,710 down, like, let's just do it, you know what I mean? Like I 244 00:12:19,710 --> 00:12:21,840 know long term, I noticed the right move, I knows the 245 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,870 direction we need to move in, let's just do it and move fast. 246 00:12:25,980 --> 00:12:29,880 But, but that tends to freak people out when when, you know, 247 00:12:29,910 --> 00:12:32,700 even giving people a heads up still changing a lot of things 248 00:12:32,700 --> 00:12:36,180 from what they're used to their normal routine. That was 249 00:12:36,180 --> 00:12:39,090 definitely like a huge area where I've probably dropped the 250 00:12:39,090 --> 00:12:42,720 ball the most, because I was like leading the charge. That 251 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:49,410 was a big issue. Another one has been. It's, it's a challenge. 252 00:12:49,410 --> 00:12:51,900 And that, like, there's so many extra cool things that we're 253 00:12:51,990 --> 00:12:55,680 about to build on top of what we have now. But it just things 254 00:12:55,680 --> 00:12:58,770 just take time. And so it's really difficult to almost like 255 00:12:58,770 --> 00:13:01,530 release something that in my mind is like half finished, but 256 00:13:01,530 --> 00:13:03,180 it's like, well, we have to release it because we're not 257 00:13:03,180 --> 00:13:05,400 really supporting the old version anymore. This is the 258 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,010 direction we're moving in, like 100%. And we're committed to it. 259 00:13:08,310 --> 00:13:10,980 And so we just kind of have to release what we have now and 260 00:13:10,980 --> 00:13:14,400 then slowly start to add in a lot of the the additional things 261 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,230 that are going to make the process easier. So it might 262 00:13:16,290 --> 00:13:19,290 things that seem clunky, right now are getting cleaned up. But 263 00:13:19,290 --> 00:13:22,200 it's not, you know, like anything, it's not fast enough. 264 00:13:22,890 --> 00:13:24,840 It's not it's not ever fast enough or good enough. And 265 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:27,480 that's also kind of, like painful to me, because you have 266 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,340 to kind of like, like I said, you kind of have to release 267 00:13:29,340 --> 00:13:32,880 something that you know, you're not 1,000,000% satisfied with, 268 00:13:32,910 --> 00:13:35,250 but it's just kind of it is what it is. And it's going to be like 269 00:13:35,250 --> 00:13:38,880 step one, in a longer, much longer kind of journey. So those 270 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:40,560 are those have been the hardest things for me personally, 271 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:44,010 because it's there's, there's ideal world and then there's 272 00:13:44,010 --> 00:13:45,900 kind of real world and you have to live in the real world, 273 00:13:45,930 --> 00:13:46,590 unfortunately. 274 00:13:47,310 --> 00:13:50,250 Robert Plank: Yeah. And it seems like Like sometimes you have 275 00:13:50,250 --> 00:13:53,400 like, like five or six options in front of you. And they're all 276 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:55,920 bad. So it's like you choose like the least bad option. 277 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,890 Exactly. And one of the and one of the options is doing nothing 278 00:13:58,890 --> 00:14:02,280 and you can't do that you can't let the software just sit and be 279 00:14:02,310 --> 00:14:04,980 be comfortable and complacent. I mean, for all we know, that's 280 00:14:04,980 --> 00:14:08,130 what happened with with the previous owners, right? Maybe 281 00:14:08,130 --> 00:14:10,200 they just let things sit and they got so bored that they had 282 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:14,820 to get rid of it. Who knows. But so yeah, and but so I like your 283 00:14:14,850 --> 00:14:18,180 your philosophy here where you say, well, it's never going to 284 00:14:18,180 --> 00:14:21,990 be 100% Perfect, but what's more important is that people start 285 00:14:21,990 --> 00:14:25,230 using it. And some people might be mad because one little thing 286 00:14:25,230 --> 00:14:27,840 changed. Like I know I get mad if WordPress like, you know, 287 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,500 moves one, one little thing in the sidebar up a little bit. But 288 00:14:31,500 --> 00:14:33,900 people might be a little bit mad, but you're saying what's 289 00:14:33,900 --> 00:14:37,320 more important, versus the perfection is get people using 290 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:37,980 the dang thing? 291 00:14:38,850 --> 00:14:41,430 Unknown: Yeah, definitely. And it's not obviously it's a rocky 292 00:14:41,430 --> 00:14:44,430 road and we're expecting you know, I was expecting I was 293 00:14:44,430 --> 00:14:46,860 expecting issues. So it's not like you can't go into a blind. 294 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,310 But yeah, there has been some things that we had to change it 295 00:14:50,310 --> 00:14:53,910 maybe to revert the behavior to be a little more like the old 296 00:14:53,910 --> 00:14:58,800 app just to kind of like help people use it a lot more 297 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:02,130 efficiently. And there's other things that we're building and 298 00:15:02,130 --> 00:15:04,500 all these additional features, which is great. But additional 299 00:15:04,500 --> 00:15:08,580 features often just complicate the process or the workflow. And 300 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:11,580 until we can come back and build on top of that to to again, like 301 00:15:11,580 --> 00:15:16,110 streamline everything, that's where it's a little bit. It's a 302 00:15:16,110 --> 00:15:18,360 little bit clunky in that it's just, you know, takes a few 303 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,780 extra clicks, a few extra steps. But that obviously adds up. And 304 00:15:21,780 --> 00:15:24,810 it's not, it's not an ideal scenario by any stretch. So it 305 00:15:24,810 --> 00:15:28,140 just kind of like one of those, like, you know, band aids, you 306 00:15:28,140 --> 00:15:31,950 have to use in the short term to get over that hump and do 307 00:15:31,950 --> 00:15:33,510 something that's a lot better long term. 308 00:15:34,170 --> 00:15:36,840 Robert Plank: Yeah. And I think about that a lot where I even as 309 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,050 a user of different software, like you can kind of tell when 310 00:15:40,170 --> 00:15:42,630 maybe they have a little bit of a false start, or they have to 311 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,240 backpedal a little bit. And like, what comes to comes to 312 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:49,050 mind is Zapier where they change their interface so much. And I 313 00:15:49,050 --> 00:15:51,780 can tell like, I'm really like, Okay, well, it was kind of 314 00:15:51,780 --> 00:15:55,350 awkward before, and then now that I can I can tell what 315 00:15:55,350 --> 00:15:58,530 they're trying to go for. But maybe, maybe it's like, now I'm 316 00:15:58,530 --> 00:16:01,020 not, I'm not, I'm even more lost about what I do. And I'm almost 317 00:16:01,020 --> 00:16:03,480 about to give up. And then I check a couple of weeks later, 318 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,060 and it's like, okay, now they, they added something in there to 319 00:16:06,060 --> 00:16:09,120 like bridge the gap and make it easier for me. So even as a, as 320 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,540 a user of software, I can kind of, I can see a little bit of 321 00:16:12,540 --> 00:16:15,030 that inaction where they're like, Okay, we want to add this 322 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:17,940 feature, we want to add this extra power, we want you to be 323 00:16:17,940 --> 00:16:20,940 able to do these other things. But we also don't want to get in 324 00:16:20,940 --> 00:16:23,850 the way of the speed and the workflow. And sometimes it's 325 00:16:23,850 --> 00:16:27,480 like, you can't even get there until you you make a bunch of 326 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,610 mistakes. And then you can get through to the other side. So 327 00:16:29,610 --> 00:16:31,740 yeah, so that's, that's interesting to think about. And 328 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,140 so you mentioned about, you know, adding a new features 329 00:16:34,140 --> 00:16:37,740 adding a new thing. So is there anything exciting coming up that 330 00:16:37,740 --> 00:16:40,770 you feel like sharing with us about some things that are in 331 00:16:40,770 --> 00:16:42,480 the future moving forward for wearable? 332 00:16:43,110 --> 00:16:44,790 Unknown: Yeah, definitely, I think a couple of them, like one 333 00:16:44,790 --> 00:16:47,910 of them, the additional CMS integration, so big commerce, 334 00:16:47,910 --> 00:16:50,550 Shopify, Contentful, a lot of other big ones that people are 335 00:16:50,550 --> 00:16:52,560 building, you know, a lot of times they're moving away from 336 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,830 WordPress, even to even like a tool like web flow, a lot of 337 00:16:55,830 --> 00:16:58,410 people are kind of moving in those directions. And so we're 338 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,860 happy to start releasing that stuff. Other things too, but 339 00:17:01,860 --> 00:17:05,820 better automation. So being able to save your preset, a lot of 340 00:17:05,820 --> 00:17:08,670 people will publish to the same site with the same type of 341 00:17:08,700 --> 00:17:11,700 settings. So they might want to compress images, or they might 342 00:17:11,700 --> 00:17:13,650 not, they might want to open link in a new tab, or they might 343 00:17:13,650 --> 00:17:15,930 not. There's all these different like little optimizations that 344 00:17:15,930 --> 00:17:18,450 people once they get into the routine. And they start using 345 00:17:18,450 --> 00:17:21,510 the same thing. That doesn't change that often. All the 346 00:17:21,510 --> 00:17:24,660 content they start putting in will often like take the same 347 00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:27,240 formatting. And so being able to save those settings and be a 348 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,210 little more like one click almost like Amazon kind of one 349 00:17:30,210 --> 00:17:34,500 click by type of idea. And then we're also we're also building 350 00:17:34,500 --> 00:17:37,950 out not just like the sources to import, but also like better 351 00:17:37,950 --> 00:17:41,130 deeper integrations with with Google Docs. So can you like 352 00:17:41,130 --> 00:17:44,160 export a document directly from the Google doc you're working on 353 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:45,930 as opposed to having to jump inside the app? So just 354 00:17:45,930 --> 00:17:48,720 basically, like, a lot of those things will kind of build on top 355 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,990 of that infrastructure we already have. And basically take 356 00:17:51,990 --> 00:17:54,930 like the existing experience and make it you know, lightning 357 00:17:54,930 --> 00:17:55,920 fast, essentially. 358 00:17:56,670 --> 00:17:59,610 Robert Plank: Will super fun. And and yeah, and even just 359 00:17:59,610 --> 00:18:02,850 that, that that thought process loan is, how can we remove 360 00:18:02,850 --> 00:18:05,850 clicks? How can we get it to one click, I mean, I remember, my 361 00:18:05,850 --> 00:18:09,120 mom was blown. The first time I came across Google Docs so many 362 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,640 years ago, and I was like, there's no save button. Whatever 363 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,090 happened. I use a Word document, I have to click Save. And I 364 00:18:15,090 --> 00:18:18,180 forget to save I use it. And it was awkward at first. But I was 365 00:18:18,180 --> 00:18:20,850 like, man, it's it's so much easier now. Because I don't have 366 00:18:20,850 --> 00:18:23,760 to think about what happened. And I don't have to like save 367 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,450 every 10 minutes. Like it just happens. And so. So yeah, just 368 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,660 even that even that thought process alone in whatever it is 369 00:18:30,660 --> 00:18:34,350 that we do even like if it's if it's software, if it's dealing 370 00:18:34,380 --> 00:18:37,380 with clients, or whatever kind of like interface, it is like, 371 00:18:37,410 --> 00:18:41,430 can we remove one step here to there just to make it that much 372 00:18:41,430 --> 00:18:43,980 smoother to move along? So there's all these good things to 373 00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:46,350 think about? And as we're getting to the tail end of our 374 00:18:46,350 --> 00:18:49,620 conversation here, Brad, is there some kind of a secret to 375 00:18:49,620 --> 00:18:52,770 your success? Like with all of your your travels and all of 376 00:18:52,770 --> 00:18:56,460 your years of you know, business and ups and downs? Is there 377 00:18:56,460 --> 00:18:59,880 something that you think people need to know about or something 378 00:18:59,910 --> 00:19:03,180 that maybe you do better than others that just is really 379 00:19:03,180 --> 00:19:04,080 missing in the world? 380 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:09,000 Unknown: Through your question, there's no secrets. The two 381 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,720 things that kind of come to mind are one is getting much better 382 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:16,440 at like the boring stuff like operations. So getting much 383 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,420 better at building systems and all that kind of stuff. Because 384 00:19:18,420 --> 00:19:21,810 that allows me like that. We have really good teams now in 385 00:19:21,810 --> 00:19:24,750 our agencies and stuff where I don't have to get involved. And 386 00:19:24,750 --> 00:19:27,180 if I do get involved, I usually screw things up at this point. 387 00:19:27,180 --> 00:19:29,640 So they don't want me to get involved. But that means I get 388 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:32,610 to spend the time on new new projects like this like portable 389 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:37,050 because I don't have to be on every call taught up on Slack 24 390 00:19:37,050 --> 00:19:39,630 hours a day. I don't have to like do all those things because 391 00:19:39,630 --> 00:19:41,850 I've been able to like build out good systems and processes and 392 00:19:41,850 --> 00:19:44,340 then hire really good people. I think that's a huge part of it 393 00:19:44,340 --> 00:19:47,730 is like just just and then rewarding like good people. The 394 00:19:47,730 --> 00:19:49,470 other I think I guess the other part of it too is like I've 395 00:19:49,470 --> 00:19:52,170 basically been working at the same problem for like a decade. 396 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:56,010 And I think people tend to get a little too like shiny object 397 00:19:56,010 --> 00:19:59,550 where if anything, we're just going deeper in the same space 398 00:19:59,550 --> 00:20:01,680 like we're not We're not like, I'm not opening like a 399 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,590 restaurant or a brewery or like all these other fun things that 400 00:20:04,590 --> 00:20:06,840 would be awesome. On the surface, I'm just like, still 401 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,120 chipping away at the same problem like this intersection 402 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:12,510 of content and SEO. And so I think that's, it's not a secret 403 00:20:12,510 --> 00:20:15,210 by any stretch, because it's just, you know, if you, I'm not 404 00:20:15,210 --> 00:20:18,120 that smart, if you just do something long enough, and keep 405 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:20,190 attacking it from different angles, and you just keep at it 406 00:20:20,190 --> 00:20:22,140 for a long time, then eventually, you'll figure it 407 00:20:22,140 --> 00:20:22,440 out. 408 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,530 Robert Plank: Well, I like that a lot. I feel like if we were to 409 00:20:25,530 --> 00:20:28,710 name this episode, or if someone was to write a book about you, 410 00:20:28,710 --> 00:20:31,950 it could be called get better at boring because there's so much 411 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:34,920 just built into that, right? Because it's like, if it's if 412 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,490 it's a boring problem, like it's something that a lot of people's 413 00:20:38,490 --> 00:20:41,760 like, won't even won't even bother with. And if you find a 414 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,400 successful solution that's making you money that people are 415 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,520 using, like you said, you can go deeper and deeper into it. And 416 00:20:47,670 --> 00:20:51,180 you always hear about that entrepreneurial ADD where some 417 00:20:51,210 --> 00:20:55,050 of a project or a business might be boring for you, but it's 418 00:20:55,050 --> 00:20:57,840 still making money. And it's still helping others. And I 419 00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,690 mean, even there's so much in like in marketing matches, 420 00:21:00,750 --> 00:21:04,710 taking something that is boring on the surface, but then you add 421 00:21:04,710 --> 00:21:08,010 up all these kinds of, you know, fun, fun psychology and fun 422 00:21:08,010 --> 00:21:10,920 language and fun features and fun, like, you know, tutorials, 423 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:14,220 videos, demonstrations, things like that, and you make it fun, 424 00:21:14,220 --> 00:21:18,300 you make it not boring. And what's boring for you is not 425 00:21:18,300 --> 00:21:20,610 boring for other people. So yeah, I think that we could all 426 00:21:20,610 --> 00:21:23,820 really learn from that get better at the boring. And we 427 00:21:23,820 --> 00:21:27,720 were talking to Brad Smith from watertable.io. Do you have any 428 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:31,440 other links, resources or places to go to a plug here today, 429 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:31,830 Brad? 430 00:21:32,370 --> 00:21:35,640 Unknown: Yeah, where double.io is the best. I'm on LinkedIn, 431 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:39,180 but I'm not that active. I think my handle is BS marketer, 432 00:21:39,210 --> 00:21:44,400 because those are my initials. Also, my content agency is 433 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,880 codeless get called this.com. And then you serve as our PR 434 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,990 distribution, that's you STRP like search engine results page, 435 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,700 that I so those are all the places that I'm at. But as I 436 00:21:56,700 --> 00:21:58,890 mentioned, I'm not I'm not usually too too active on the 437 00:21:58,890 --> 00:22:03,390 socials because I I'm spending too much time trying to get all 438 00:22:03,390 --> 00:22:06,090 these all these various projects to line up and off the ground 439 00:22:06,090 --> 00:22:06,540 and all that 440 00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:11,430 Robert Plank: you're busy on the important stuff. And, and early 441 00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:16,140 on, I was super young once when my mind was blown. When one time 442 00:22:16,170 --> 00:22:20,550 on sometimes. One time someone told me like, you don't have to 443 00:22:20,670 --> 00:22:24,000 give away things for free. Like there was a period of time when 444 00:22:24,150 --> 00:22:26,820 everyone had an opt in page, everyone had a free gift. 445 00:22:26,820 --> 00:22:30,090 Everyone had a free trial. And I had this mentor. I mean decades 446 00:22:30,090 --> 00:22:33,210 ago who was like, you know, not everyone does that. Like you 447 00:22:33,210 --> 00:22:36,210 don't have to have a blog, if you don't want to you don't have 448 00:22:36,210 --> 00:22:39,600 to have social media presence. If you if you don't want to, you 449 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,240 can try and if it if it works for you and gets your clicks 450 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:45,420 great. But just because everyone else is doing it, you don't have 451 00:22:45,420 --> 00:22:48,540 to be the one that does it. If you have other ways of making 452 00:22:48,540 --> 00:22:51,300 money. If your personality doesn't work there if you if you 453 00:22:51,300 --> 00:22:53,490 don't want to do it, if you just want to do it sometimes like you 454 00:22:53,490 --> 00:22:56,610 don't have to do anything that you don't want to do. So that's 455 00:22:56,610 --> 00:22:59,610 a good lesson there. At least for me listening and talking to 456 00:22:59,610 --> 00:23:06,390 you, you s e rp.io Get codeless.com warrantable.io Go 457 00:23:06,390 --> 00:23:08,730 there right now, while it's still fresh on your mind. And 458 00:23:09,180 --> 00:23:12,900 why not add BS marketer Brad Smith on social media, even 459 00:23:12,900 --> 00:23:15,600 though he might only check every now and then well, when he does 460 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:19,470 check, he'll see a message from you saying, Hey, I listen to you 461 00:23:19,470 --> 00:23:22,110 on the marketer of the day podcast. I really liked what you 462 00:23:22,110 --> 00:23:25,680 said. And Brad will be very impressed that once a month or 463 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:29,220 so he goes and checks it so why not go to those places? Talk to 464 00:23:29,220 --> 00:23:33,660 him on social media. And if you were at all dealing with content 465 00:23:33,660 --> 00:23:36,960 marketing, if you're an agency of some kind if you deal with 466 00:23:37,140 --> 00:23:42,450 Google Docs or or HubSpot or a Shopify or WordPress and you 467 00:23:42,450 --> 00:23:45,330 need to use this tool, this tool sounds good for you and your 468 00:23:45,330 --> 00:23:50,310 team workable.io is the place to go and Brad Smith. super glad 469 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:52,260 talking to you and thanks for stopping by. 470 00:23:52,740 --> 00:23:54,330 Unknown: Yeah, thank you, Robert. I really appreciate it's 471 00:23:54,330 --> 00:23:54,870 been a lot of fun