02 Building in Public: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Matt Tompkins -

What a stupid question.

But let’s put it another way. What came first, website traffic or job posts? Okay, valid question.

Similar issue. And still, who the hell knows? (not us).

Onward.

The easy part is done. We announced what we’re doing and got a nice hit of dopamine. Felt good. Now for the schlep part. The boring work that goes into it. It’s the willingness to do the boring work that separates the winners from the losers (cc: someone’s dad). People like shiny, flashy things. But those who do the ‘schlep’ work are those that win (cc: Paul Graham)

So, this is the beginning of our boring work. And we have a major problem. How do we get website traffic before we have companies posting jobs?

The number one force to combat issues like these (in our opinion) is community. Community and an audience can leapfrog companies over such hurdles. Sounds easy, right? Not really. Because the inevitable question that comes next is how do we build a community…

Well, there’s a few GREAT things about the niche we’re pursuing that will help:

  • They’re all in a similar age cohort (24 - 29).
  • We know they all have the same education (University degree + CPA).
  • We know where they work.
  • We know their salaries.
  • And, we know where they hang out.

Not bad. But what do they want and how can we give it to them? We’re assuming our muse (ideal customer, whatever you wanna to call it) wants to leave their current firm. They’re typically after a better work-life-balance, better pay, and more interesting work. And they wanted it yesterday. So we need to help them get there.

Likewise, how do we maximize their dream outcome (high paying, flexible career) and decrease their effort (hours spent job hunting)? Because as much as companies attempt to create flashy offers, the best ones still decrease consumer friction. Think Amazon and Netflix. Amazon has goods delivered to your door within hours. With one click. Netflix lets you view endless content from your bed. No need to get dressed and head to the theatre. Decreased friction, and increased perceived value. Win, win.

Okay. Back to the plan. We need community, so we need valuable content.

Content ➡ Community ➡ Site traffic ➡ Monetized job posts.

This is the rough draft of our plan:

  • Video. We are all auditory and visual animals, and this is why video always wins. This means leveraging TikTok and Youtube. Video content will entail everything from quick info hits to interviews with hiring managers. All educational with a splash of fun. Fun fact: TikTok is expected to reach 1.5 billion active monthly users by the end of 2022. So yes, we have to use it and so do you. (PS this is SO far out of our comfort zones. But everyone dies anyway so who cares?)
  • Blog posts. Unlike this post, heycpa’s blog posts will be geared specifically for Big 4 defectors. Educational content made for them to help achieve their dream outcome.
  • Building our “library”. This is most important. We want heycpa to be the spot where Big 4 talent goes when they first start looking for greener pastures. From the moment they have one foot out the door to the moment they finally close it behind them.
  • Networks. It’s amazing what people will do for you if you ask. So this is our mini-ask, spread the word. Give this post a share. Tell a friend. Do your thing. 🙏

We’re going to spend the majority of our time here^. My biggest mistake at Elevate Financial is the lack of muse. I’ve worked with public, private, multi-billion, and one-hundred thousand dollar companies. The variety is great. But what I should be doing is putting blinders on and doubling down on what is most scalable (and what I like most): the small businesses.

I refuse to make this mistake again.

Lesson: spend time upfront figuring out who your muse is and understanding their needs and motivations. Build out an ICP (ideal customer profile), and go deep instead of wide. Especially in the beginning. You might be seeing dollar signs elsewhere but those dollars are not scalable if your ideal customer includes everyone under the sun. I'm going to continually ‘niche slap’ myself to stay in the right lane (great term coined by Alex Hormozi).

And so, let the games begin.

Thanks for sticking around for post two. We’re super excited. We hope these posts bring some clarity or inspiration to whatever you’re doing.

As always - if you liked it, share it. If you didn’t, let us know why.

Profit & (Loss) April 1 - 11, 2022

Revenue........ -$ (this won't move for a while 🤔)

Expenses........ ($665.09)

Profit (loss)..... ($655.09)