by
Do you ever get stuck? Then watch the Journey, Social Media Examiner's episodic video documentary that shows you what really happens inside a growing business.
Watch the Journey
In episode 8, Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner) and his team work through people, process, and mindset issues that stop tasks from making forward motion.
The show begins with Mike and marketing managers Jennifer Ballard and Kim Reynolds reviewing some new data that could drastically impact ad campaigns, potentially saving the company tens of thousands of dollars.
Google’s cross-device report (currently in beta) just confirmed something the team has long believed to be true: people most often come to and buy from the Social Media Marketing World site via desktop.
Digging deeper, the data points reveal two troubling issues. The number of mobile-only transactions is zero, and only 3 sales received any assist via mobile.
The ad budget is called into question.
When Kim says that 50% of the budget is currently allocated to mobile campaigns, the decision is made to shut off mobile campaigns immediately.
Next, the marketing team welcomes a brand new member when Marketing Project Specialist, Saidah Murphy, officially reports for duty.
The first order of business? Mike directs Jennifer to transfer responsibility for a number projects over to Saidah, before the day ends.
Later in the week, Mike is worried sales aren’t moving quickly enough for the team to reach the goal of selling 7000 tickets. He checks in with Jennifer to get a weekly sales analysis.
Jennifer reports a total of 46 physical sales were completed this week. That’s only 12.5% of the weekly goal, which confirms Mike’s suspicions that sales aren’t on track.
It’s time for Jennifer to work on a catch up plan.
Then Mike confronts a recurring personal struggle he's facing.
He has new staff and systems in place, and loads of free time on his hands, but there’s a big item on his to do list that isn’t getting his attention: Project Genesis.
Acknowledging that he’s stalling for some reason, Mike faces the huge stack of half-sorted slips of paper that has been sitting on the conference room table for weeks.
Another day, another walk and Mike’s run into a wall.
He realizes he’s also got a wall in his head; a voice that says he’s got to have everything with Social Media Examiner perfected before he’s allowed to dabble with Project Genesis. He decides it’s dangerous to let invisible walls in our heads stop up from moving forward.
Just like that, Mike finds a hole in the wall. When he passes through, he discovers the view is pretty nice on the other side. Could this be the inspiration he’s been searching for?
Checking back in with the marketing team, Mike finds Saidah and Jennifer discussing past bottlenecking issues and resolution tactics.
Jennifer’s nature is to handle every query and request personally, and Mike is pushing her to take advantage of the talents of new support staff (like Saidah) so that projects keep moving forward.
Having been on her own for some time, Jennifer is learning to embrace the transition and delegate.
Finally, Mike dives back into Project Genesis. Current status: 1200 slips of paper sorted and just over 2000 to go.
The episode ends with the marketing team in Mike’s office to discuss the results of a recent test. Trouble looks likely because, by all metrics, it was a complete flop. What happened?
What advice do you have for Mike to deal with the walls stopping his progress? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.
Key Mentions:
Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to The Journey on YouTube.
