Seeking Wisdom with David Cancel

On this episode of #Exceptions, we’re going inside Buffer. Buffer sells social media management tools for marketers, allowing you to schedule and analyze everything. It’s used by companies like Shopify, HelpScout, the Denver Broncos, and thousands more. The entire company is run on a platform of radical transparency. They’ve been publishing their revenues, metrics, and even employee salaries for years now. They’re truly walking the walk. Buffer doesn't just pay lip service to transparency. Buffer takes action. Buffer is creating something deeper than traffic. They’re starting conversations and then following through with their community. Through their public slack channel of over 5,000 members, they’re moving customers from traffic to audience to community. Think about your own company. Do you treat your customers as humans? Or merely as transactions? If the answer is the latter, that’s okay. These are changes that any company can make.

On this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC & DG break down confirmation bias & why it's one of the most common biases that impacts how we make decisions at work and at home (and one of the top 25 Cognitive Biases that we deal with every day; arguably it's the #1 bias we have). Books mentioned on this episode: Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini If you're a fan of the show, we'd love it if you left a six-star rating on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave a review and then take a screenshot and tweet at @dcancel and @davegerhardt, we'll hook you up with copies of the two books mentioned on this show.

Maybe you're in product dev, maybe you’re in marketing. Either way, you have customers, and your goal is to provide value for them, drive revenue, and surpass goals. Chances are, you’ve seen someone miss it. Maybe you’ve missed it.

Dave Gerhardt had read maybe 10 books his whole life. Then he met DC, who told him to read like his life (or at least career) depended on it. Now at Drift, he’s read over 100 in just 2 years. Why? Because it’s the difference between mediocrity and success. You can follow the greats in your area of interest, copy their results, implement their best practices, and avoid their mistakes. Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t enjoy reading.” Neither did Dave. But after DC let him in on a few secrets, Dave began ravenously tearing through books on marketing, managing, training, things that mattered to him. 100 books later, he’s letting you in on his secrets, so today on Seeking Wisdom, DG is giving you three keys he learned from DC on on how to read for success PS. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook.

Customer support professionals remove the obstacles and clear the way for your customers to appreciate your product or service. They are the front lines of your business, representing your name day in, day out. Often time, customers service pros may be the only face or voice of a company someone can connect to the business. Yet, these individuals, the ones bearing the flag for an entire organization, are typically overworked, underpaid, and underserved. Meet Help Scout. Help Scout hasn’t just built a kick-ass SaaS product that enables CSRs and others to perform faster and better. They’ve created a culture where these professionals on the frontlines are valued, heard, and understood. Their clients love the product and the company, because both are built around them. From Help Scout’s customers, to their employees, to their CEO, to even those unhappy with how Help Scout’s changing the industry, I heard one thing in common with every stakeholder: Help Scout is ruthless about customer-centricity. They are an #Exception. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio

In this one Pratima Arora, Head of Product at Confluence, discussed how she scaled two product teams - one for Salesforce and one for Atlassian, bringing genuine diversity to her teams at both companies in the process.

On this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC & DG recap the behind the scenes of HYPERGROWTH East, including lessons from Jocko Willink, Casey Neistat, and what happened with Grant Cardone. HYPERGROWTH West is coming to San Francisco in 2 weeks on Monday 9/24 and there are a limited number of tickets still available. Visit hypergrowth.com and use the promo code SEEKINGWISDOM for a little surprise.

The most important thing we can all do as product people is also something that most of us continue to fail at: talking to customers. Getting customer feedback is an example of something that’s simple, but not easy. It’s incredible that talking to customers and getting feedback is the one thing that we all know is the key to building great products—but apparently we don’t all do it. Luckily, there’s a way to massively increase the amount of feedback that you’re getting if you open up your definition of ‘customer feedback’ and instead focus on, ‘How can I talk to my customers more often?’” On Twitter @maggiecrowley and @seekingwisomio

Do you find yourself only learning from people that you like? If the answer is yes, then your growth is in serious jeopardy. Because guess what? There are not that many people in the world who are perfect. If you choose to wait around until they are, or until you like them, or until they have the right experience, you’re going to be waiting a very long time. Whatever the case may be, you must avoid this pitfall that Charlie Munger calls: The Liking/Loving Tendency. If you don’t rid yourself of it, it's going to be your biggest roadblock to growth.

What if your brand could be the battle cry, the rallypoint, the symbolic meeting place for your customers? What if your brand could transform your audience into a community of participants? That’s exactly what InVision has remarkably accomplished. They’ve found and listened to their community. They haven’t just provided solutions, they’ve understood the problem. They’ve created an elevated surface for their customers to have and share a voice. The InVision brand has built a platform. Is transforming your brand into a platform difficult? Yes. Impossible? Not for a #Exception. Visit https://hypergrowth.drift.com/ to get your tickets today and come see speakers like Jocko Willink, Molly Graham, Chaka Pilgrim, Amelia Boone, Grant Cardone, and more in September.     PS. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio