A HelloMaaS profile is not a resume nor a LinkedIn profile. It’s your pitch. If you were a radio station would anyone tune in? Imagine a radio station that has jazz, pop, R&B, dance and classical music.  Don’t be a mishmash, go narrow. Get to the one thing people want from you. Remove the clutter so clients can see why they need you. You have about 10 seconds to show what tangible marketing problems you can solve credibly. 

• Select related skill tags, for instance Instagram, Influencer Marketing, Vlogging and Content Marketing. You can’t be all things to all clients. 
• Create a 2-3 paragraph on your why, projects you’re proud of, recent experience and add quantifiable results. This is your elevator pitch. Use bullet, short and snappy descriptions. 
• Select what type of companies you can help credibly. A corporate marketer does very different things than a demand generation marketer in a startup. 
• Add well-known, cool or respected companies you work for/at in recent years.

Skill Up 

You already selected your skills when you signed up. This is a key data point in your profile. Based on your skills you will be featured in search results and receive updates on new projects. Select the skills you love doing and excel at. You can change skills in your profile settings at any time. 

Shine and smile 

You would be surprised how many people upload photos with sunglasses, on holiday with a cocktail, grainy, blurry or “en profile” (without eyes looking into the camera). One of the best things you can do for your profile is adding a professional-looking headshot. Look into the camera, show your personality and smile!

Think bandwidth, not a fixed hourly rate

We know that your hourly rate depends on multiple factors, like project duration, travel time, company and of course scope. Therefore, we offer a bandwidth slider to give you some wiggle room in setting the right rate for the right project. Not sure what rate bandwidth to select? You’re not alone, a lot of freelancers come to us with the same issue. That’s why we’re building a benchmark feature into our hourly rate calculator, you can subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of our website and be the first to test it out!

Got baggage? Package up!

Productize yourself and work with our fixed price packages. This opens up a new client segment of smaller companies with many benefits:

1. Sell what you’re good at and passionate about
2. Create ongoing revenue with packages
3. Work for smaller companies, often with more freedom on where and how to work

Close it out like a boss

Here are some last tips to make sure your profile is ready to go:

1. Proofread to ensure that there are no spelling or grammar mistakes because nothing will make a client drop you faster than poor grammar.
2. Update your profile regularly to show your latest accomplishments.
3. Promote your profile (set it on ”public”) in your social media and add it to your email signature. 

Are you ready to get started?  Start with the new way of working as a marketing freelancer, good luck!

Create your profile now

HelloMasters Episode 10

A new episode, but with a familiar voice! Together with co-host Ellen Bark-Lindhout, co-founder of Collider Amsterdam, we speak to Délia Lauret, Director of AREA52 at PVH Europe (Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein). Délia has been a guest in our show before, where she talked with Maarten Stramrood about innovation labs. We continue discussing this subject in this episode, where Délia shares her experiences with AREA52, the digital incubator of PVH Europe.

Definition Of Innovation

We asked Délia about her definition of innovation and the importance of innovation for corporations and agencies. “For me, innovation goes beyond the classic disruptive service or product. It’s about creating something new, but also about a mindset that you need to foster.” She continues with a quote she likes to use to describe the current situation is: “Technology doesn’t care about your feelings, it’s coming anyway.”

Co-host Ellen can relate. Companies that find the best way to predict the movements of the market have the best chances of success: “Survival of the fittest is not about the best at what you do today, it’s about adaptability in a changing environment.”

The Right Mindset

We also discuss the topic of mindset, which, according to Délia, is closely connected to innovation. She states:“There is not one specific skill that you need to drive [innovation] forward.” She’s noticing a shift in people’s mindsets, specifically in the amount of knowledge sharing that has been happening lately. She happily uses this, regularly speaking to external partners and other corporate labs. “There is a big trend happening in the business, where it’s all about sharing and learning from each other.”

Ellen emphasizes this by stating her belief in facilitating the right circumstances: “The open-mindedness is super important. I believe in serendipity, which is about creating both the mind space and environment to have luck come to you.”

We understand that you sometimes need a burst of quick and specific marketing knowledge. We can help you with that! Go to www.hellomaas.com to learn more.

Topics

[00:00:00] Intro HelloMaaS

[00:00:26] Intro Louise & Délia

[00:00:52] Intro co-host Ellen Bark-Lindhout

[00:01:20] PVH introduction & AREA52

[00:02:04] What is fashion tech?

[00:02:40] Background of Délia – why do you do what I do?

[00:03:26] Common denominator of Délia’s work

“With a lot of different positions I’ve had over the years, I was the first employee.” – Délia

[00:04:10] Definition of innovation

“For me, innovation goes beyond the classic disruptive service or product. It’s about creating something new, but also about a mindset that you need to foster.” – Délia

[00:04:40] Why is innovation needed?

“Technology doesn’t care about your feelings, it’s coming anyway.” – Délia

“Survival of the fittest is not about the best at what you do today, it’s about adaptability in a changing environment.” – Ellen

[00:07:15] Délia’s journey to AREA52

“Freelancing for me was the opportunity to have a look inside other companies and find out what I really want.” – Délia

[00:08:25] Difference between freelancing and in-house employee

“The main difference is the mindset. With freelancing you really come into a business for a certain project, and you know you’re going to leave again. So the politics, you don’t pay attention to it as much.” – Délia

[00:09:40] Délia’s insight on the difference in marketing at the companies she’s worked (agency vs tech vs corporates)

[00:12:10] Challenge of agencies

“Agencies are in the midst of transforming as well, seeking help and collaboration with corporations on these broader projects. Beyond just executions.” – Délia

“The creativity and concepting power that agencies have, together with strategy and the tech-power, they have a lot of potential to drive value for big corporations.” – Délia

[00:14:00] Are agencies not evolving?

[00:16:35] Louise about how HelloMaaS disrupts the model

“Agencies operate from a premise of scarcity.” – Louise

“There usually is some kind of focus area, because marketing is becoming so broad, that one agency might not be the solution for one brand.” – Louise

[00:19:10] Innovation teams

“Within marketing you’re always looking for the latest way to promote yourself.” – Délia

[00:20:05] T-shaped / full stack marketers – skills for innovation

“There is not one specific skill that you need to drive [innovation] forward.” – Délia

“To quote Jeff Bezos: 1. Do I find this person inspiring, 2. Does this person bring the average productivity of this team up, 3. Does this person excel in the skill that he/she has.” – Délia

[00:22:40] External input

“There is a big trend happening in the business, where it’s all about sharing and learning from each other.” – Délia

[00:23:52] Dealing with competition

[00:24:10] Labs that Délia looks up to & Horizon 3

“Horizon 3 is disrupting the industry that you are in, horizon 2 is expanding the industry, horizon 1 is improving the industry that you are in.” – Délia

[00:26:25] Education & takeaways (Singularity university)

[00:28:10] Character traits and background to thrive in a corporation innovation environment

“Being open, being patient, things don’t change overnight in a corporate. And celebrate the small wins.” – Délia

[00:28:50] Top three tips to take on a role in an innovation lab

“Your network comes from the most unexpected places.” – Délia

[00:30:10] Characteristics in the eyes of Ellen

“The openmindedness is super important. I believe in serendipity, which is about creating both the mind space and environment to have luck come to you.” – Ellen

[00:31:50] Outro HelloMasters

HelloMasters Episode 09

Together with co-host Willemijn Schneyder, Founder & CEO of SwipeGuide, we speak to Sander Nagtegaal, CEO of Unless.com, about his experience as both CTO & CEO, the difficulty of building a good team and the hardships of funding in this new episode of the HelloMasters podcast.

The Importance Of Teams

We discuss the importance of teams with Sander; something that seems inseparably linked to startups. Sander explains that his first reason for a hire would be a missing skill within the company, but that the personality of someone should definitely be considered: If you have three really timid people, you need to have an anarchist to compensate for it.”

From experience, he states that finding the right hires is essential for a startup: “Hiring, especially in the early stages, is the most important thing that you can do wrong.” He elaborates further: “If you dislike going to work because of the people, something is seriously wrong.”

Finding The Right Culture

The role of a stimulating work culture is essential in this: “I like rules, and therefore I like process. But at some point, when you work together nicely, process will leave the room.” Practically, Sander tries to encourage his employees to present their ideas. There are no boundaries in this: “We have regular meetings, every two to four weeks, called idea meetings. Anyone can present any idea that they have been thinking about. It doesn’t really matter what.”

Fundraising Challenges

When discussing fundraising, it becomes apparent that Sander took a somewhat unconventional fundraising route at his last company. “We basically made a giant list of 50 people who all had value to us […] And we basically called them.” This worked exceptionally well: after only calling 30 people on their list they were able to close the round. But, Sander continues on a more serious note, finding the right investors can be an incredibly challenging endeavor. He learned how to deal with it over time: “The hardest thing about raising money is constant disappointment.” Even doing a good job can mean that you receive thirty no’s and only one yes.

We understand that you sometimes need a burst of quick and specific marketing knowledge. We can help you with that! Go to www.hellomaas.com to learn more.

Topics

[00:00:00] Intro

[00:00:28] Introduction Louise & Sander Nagtegaal & Willemijn Schneyder

[00:01:12] Sander answering: “Why do you do what you do?”

[00:01:50] His early career & digital agencies

“I really like to build things that I can consider my baby for a while.” – Sander

[00:02:38] From CTO to CEO

“Basically the title that was left was CEO.” – Sander

[00:04:05] Sander about what he likes the least about being a CEO vs CTO

“I really don’t enjoy the administrative stuff, the numbers.” – Sander

[00:04:42] Skill set for these roles

“The different part is that you get interviewed more often, go to presentations and go to events.” – Sander

[00:05:48] What type of background do you need

“It’s about the mix of co-founders that makes it perfect or not.” – Sander

[00:06:25] Sander about his startup Unless

“We make websites respond like humans would. We change websites depending on whomever is looking at it.” – Sander

“Because of my injury, I lost the ability to captivate people. So I really had to learn again how to make sure that people would actually listen to my story.” – Sander

“I just want people to communicate better.” – Sander

[00:10:00] The importance of teams / how do you build them

“We basically looked at the things we did not have. And then we got them.” – Sander

“I like to look at a team like a menu. It has to be balanced. If you have three really timid people, you need to have an anarchist to compensate for it.” – Sander

“Every decision you make ever, will come at a cost.” – Sander

“Hiring, especially in the early stages, is the most important thing that you can do wrong.” – Sander

[00:12:40] What area do you have the most mishires?

“That’s an easy answer. It’s sales. They are probably the furthest away from my personality type. Plus they’re trained into selling themselves, which makes it confusing.” – Sander

[00:13:44] Hiring people that are similar to you/look like you

[00:16:35] Building a culture: experimentation vs growth goals

“We have regular meetings, every two to four weeks, called idea meetings. Anyone can present any idea that they have been thinking about. It doesn’t really matter what.” – Sander

[00:18:55] Importance of process

“I like rules, and therefore I like process. But at some point, when you work together nicely, process will leave the room.” – Sander

[00:20:55] Fundraising – Why crowdfunding?

“We basically made a giant list of 50 people who all had value to us […] And we basically called them.” – Sander

[00:23:23] Pressure for growth compared to investors

“The investors so far just feel that the vibe is pretty much what they want it to be. So there are no real issues there.” – Sander

[00:25:25] How do you decide how much to raise & when to do it

“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t be too late.” – Sander

“If I have 6-7 month runway left, I start raising. Just to be in the clear.” – Sander

“VC’s like stories even more than they like tangible businesses.” – Sander

“The hardest thing about raising money is constant disappointment.” – Sander

[00:28:00] What’s important to you in selecting VC’s.

“It’s mostly gut feeling, I have to like them. I like it when they’re smart in areas where I am not so smart.” – Sander

[00:29:35] Start an advisory board

[00:31:00] Hiring for marketing

[00:32:10] Knowledge in the founding team

[00:34:00] How to decide where to play and how to play

[00:37:30] Personal PR

“It helps to align people vision wise. The more I talk about that, the more clear it is for our employees and stakeholders.” – Sander

[00:41:30] One thing that Sander would change about marketing

“I would probably like to have a proven marketing strategy for basically the channels. Because we have two channels for sales (sales & marketing).” – Sander

[00:42:50] Prediction for the year

[00:44:00] Outro

HelloMasters Episode 08

With this podcast, we continue discussing corporate innovation and innovation labs similar to how we covered it in our latest podcast. Together with host Ellen Bark-Lindhout, former Global Innovation Manager at Heineken and now co-founder of accelerator Collider, we speak with our guest Gerben Klop. Gerben is the former CEO of Tessa, a corporate scale-up of Unilever, and currently Founder & Managing Partner of THEBLUEGARAGE.

Corporate Startups

We asked Gerben about his experience as the CEO of a corporate startup, and what dynamics he faced being in such a dynamic environment. Gerben states that the execution of a startup within a large corporate can be very tricky: “A corporate-startup is maybe a hundred times more difficult than a startup. You have to solve a problem for your mother, and you have to find an idea worth executing while finding money.”

However, further elaborating, Gerben emphasizes that corporates will not always solely have monetary motives: “The return of investment in euros might not be important if the initiative contributes to the value perception of that corporation. That can be a reason to keep it alive.”

Ellen fully agrees with this, pointing out the importance of looking beyond financial outcome: “If you look at the financial outcome from the very beginning, this can be a trap. Because often, it is very difficult to be sure about the business case. Which means potentially killing something that never really had the chance to prove itself”

Importance of a team

Discussing the importance of a good team and the difficulty of finding a fitting team, Gerben is clear: “I think that’s the far most difficult topic to crack for me.” Echter, gelooft Klop wel in een outside-in approach: “Outside-in is always good. No matter what team, after a certain amount of time, blind spots do occur.”

T-Shaped Marketers

We also briefly touched upon the concept of a T-shaped marketer – someone with a broad width of knowledge, accompanied with a deep understanding of a few areas of expertise – which is deemed incredibly difficult by Ellen: “You have to have immense wide shoulders if you want to be a true t-shaped marketer. […] It’s impossible to harbor every marketing discipline into one person nowadays.”

We understand that you sometimes need a burst of quick and specific marketing knowledge. We can help you with that! Go to www.hellomaas.com to learn more.

Topics

[00:00:00] Introduction HelloMaaS

[00:00:28] Introduction Gerben Klop

[00:02:30] Introduction Ellen Bark-Lindhout & Collider

[00:03:10] Motivation and reasoning of Gerben

[00:03:30] Why innovation?

[00:03:45] Why is innovation necessary? Is it rather a goal than a means?

“For me, innovation is to optimize a current revenue model, and to find, activate and secure new revenue models. From that perspective, it’s needed simply to expand the lifespan of corporates.” – Gerben

[00:04:35] Ellen on her background and Heineken – in-house vs outside

“You do really need to understand what you want, and what your scope is, on the inside, before you can go outside.” – Ellen

“We know quite a lot, but we also realize there is more knowledge outside of the company. So how do we leverage that?” – Ellen

[00:07:45] Gerben about his experience with Tessa & Unilever

[00:08:30] Gerben & Ellen about a startup operating under a corporate

“If you look at the financial outcome from the very beginning, this can be a trap. Because of often, it is very difficult to be sure about the business case. Which means potentially killing something that never really had the chance to prove itself” – Ellen

[00:10:35] Corporate innovation vs corporates expectations

“If success is return on the euro, go with M&A and joint ventures. There are completely different values attached when you start an internal innovation program.” – Gerben

“The return of investment in euros might not be important, if the initiative contributes to the value perception of that corporate. That can be a reason to keep initiates alive.” – Gerben

[00:12:48] Co-creation with audiences/customers

[00:14:00] What is innovation? vs Ideation

“The biggest challenge I faced is execution and to get the proper team in place.” – Gerben

“A corporate startup is maybe a hundred times more difficult than a startup. You have to solve a problem for your mother, and you have to find an idea worth executing while finding money.” – Gerben

[00:15:00] Fundraising for corporate startups

“In a corporate startup, the validation phase is too long.” – Gerben

[00:17:30] What are corporate startups exactly?

[00:17:50] Importance of the support of the C-Suite

“I still have to find a corporate where governance is a hybrid team. Most often, the governance of these initiatives are done by internal people.” – Gerben

[00:18:30] Adding additional resources

[00:19:30] Statement: marketing is the instigator of innovation

“A lot of innovation is consumer insight, or market driven […] but that doesn’t mean it can’t come from technology side.” – Ellen

“At the heart should be consumer insight, with innovation. But we shouldn’t drive complex innovation ideas by marketeers. Rather strong project managers” – Ellen

[00:21:55] Building a good team inside a corporate startup

“I think that’s the far most difficult topic to crack.” – Gerben

[00:23:35] T-shaped marketeers

“You have to have immense wide shoulders if you want to be a true t-shaped marketeer. […] It’s impossible to harbour every marketing discipline into one person nowadays.” – Ellen

[00:24:45] Why HelloMaaS

[00:25:30] External input into teams

“Outside in is always good. No matter what team, after a certain amount of time, blind spots do occur.” – Gerben

[00:26:42] Tools and Methodology

“Hardly at an accelerator do you find something that is completely new and has not been done before. So then it’s more about how you deliver it.” – Ellen

“As long as the team works together and is able to collaborate, I’m fine.”

[00:33:00] Gerben about product/market fit.

“Ask less and listen more.” – Gerben

[00:35:10] Predictions & trends

[00:39:45] Outro

[00:40:00] Speak to advisors

HelloMasters Episode 07

This 7th episode of HelloMasters is completely dedicated to corporate innovation labs and the ins and outs of leading such a lab within a big corporation. We speak to Délia Lauret, director of PVH Europe’s digital incubator AREA52 and Maarten Stramrood, Chief Digital Officer at Brenntag Group and Managing Director of their digital hub DigiB. We do this with the great help of our co-host Ellen Bark-Lindhout, who was Global Innovation Manager of Heineken in the past and is now co-founder of accelerator Collider.

The Role Of Innovation Labs

We always like to challenge our guests, which is why we proposed some challenging statements for them to tackle. One of these dives deeper in the role of innovation labs within corporates: is it true that these labs are the last resort of corporates to innovate? Delia explains: “For every corporate, it’s a different story. There needs to be a certain willingness. Truly realizing they need to change […] Technology changes and startups, they’re coming for you.”

Maarten admits he is a bit skeptical, considering the many different definitions of what innovation entails. “If rising prices is your level of innovation, that’s pretty sad I would say.”

Importance Of Teams

We also discuss the role of the team within the innovation labs of Maarten and Délia. As a fitting statement, we ask them if the innovation lab is doomed, because they lack T-shaped personalities. Délia agrees on the need for flexibility within teams: “We’re only four people, so we cannot solely be the data analyst, or designer. It’s about developing your skills broader.”. Maarten agrees and emphasizes the importance of having the right mindset: “It all has to do with your mindset. Are you eager to learn, are you eager to experiment and take on a challenge? If you have that, everyone can become a bit more T-shaped.”

Entrepreneurship vs Intrapreneurship

Finally, entrepreneurship versus intrapreneurship is brought up. There is consensus regarding entrepreneurship, again specifically about the needed mindset. Délia states: “I think it’s about self-starting, not having someone telling you what to do, or giving you the order.” Intrapreneurship is something we define as an entrepreneurial mindset within a corporate, which brings up some debate. Maarten is clear and says:“At the end of the day, you don’t run your own personal risk and you get your salary. Either you are on the payroll, or an entrepreneur. For me, there is nothing in between.”

We understand that you sometimes need a burst of quick and specific marketing knowledge. We can help you with that! Go to www.hellomaas.com to learn more.

Topics

[00:00:00] Intro Podcast

[00:00:28] Intro Louise

[00:01:00] Intro Maarten Stramrood

[00:01:23] Maarten about why he does what he does

[00:02:40] Intro Délia Lauret

[00:04:10] Corporate Innovation labs are just innovation theatre
[00:05:40] Ellen about open innovation

[00:06:10] Background of AREA52

“There is a lot of opportunity to ideas within the business (PVH), but there is not really an opportunity to develop them, because in the end, we’re also working towards the calendar. We need to create a safe place where we can test, tryout and experiment.” – Delia

[00:08:35] How is DGB setup within Brenntag

“It all depends on what your targets are. There are quite a few companies who use their innovation lab as a showcase. We set ourselves ambitious targets, so now we have to deliver. This puts pressure on ourselves, but also the mothership.” – Maarten

“Besides people from the mother company, we also hired people externally, to have a different mindset.” – Maarten

[00:11:00] The objective of DGB

[00:11:30] Objective of AREA52

“The whole mindset of starting small, doing prototypes that are not completely finished, that’s a big shift.” – Delia

[00:12:30] Scope of AREA52

[00:12:55] Myth 2: You don’t really need to measure success in the innovation lab

“If you don’t set the goals, especially with a declining economy, you get more and more questions. If you’re not able to answer these questions, why you’re doing things, people will be double checking their budgets.” – Maarten

[00:14:18] Creating a business case at an early stage can be difficult

“Most people make a business case, based on assumptions.” – Maarten

[00:15:40] Understanding a new way to be customer first

“It’s very hard to put real KPI’s or a business case behind it. Things we also look at is the NPS.” – Délia

[00:16:50] Corporates can’t really innovate anymore, so the labs are their last resort to get new ideas into the market

“For every corporate, it’s a different story. There needs to be a certain willingness. Truly realizing they need to change. Technology changes and startups, they’re coming for you.” – Délia

“When this project started, about four years ago, all the salespeople said you’re gonna go bankrupt if you do this.” – Délia

[00:19:20] AREA52 and the future

“The tricky part is, there are always many what if’s and buts when you try to do something else, so finding your way through the organisation and seeing how you can actually start really small, or under the radar, is very important.” – Délia

[00:20:00] Maarten on innovation inside

“I’m quite sceptical, because I have been around for a long time.” – Maarten

“People tend to get a little bit curious, and then all of a sudden there is a new hype and they jump on top of that.” – Maarten

“The most disruption is currently happening in the B2B space.” – Maarten

“If rising prices is your level of innovation, that’s pretty sad I would say.” – Maarten

[00:22:35] Délia on new technologies

[00:23:00] Maarten on overestimation

[00:23:30] Ellen on finding a balance in innovations as a company

[00:24:30] Tools used to structure innovation

“Somethings just can’t be agile.” – Maarten

“There is a big corporation behind us, so that also means a lot of knowledge and power. Whenever we can, we look them in, if not, we don’t. There is no obligation.” – Délia

[00:31:09] Methodologies and ways of working

“Use a sprint as inspiration, but don’t make it the holy grail.” – Délia

[00:32:45] Teams, mentality and personality – The innovation lab is doomed, because they lack T-shaped personalities.

“We’re only four people, so we cannot solely be the data analyst, or designer. It’s about developing your skills broader.” – Délia

“It all has to do with your mindset. Are you eager to learn, are you eager to experiment and take on a challenge. If you have that, everyone can become a bit more T-shaped.” – Maarten

[00:35:30] Intrapreneurship vs Entrepreneurship

“At the end of the day, you don’t run your own personal risk and you get your salary. Either you are on the payroll, or an entrepreneur. For me, there is nothing in between.” – Maarten

“I think it’s about self-starting, not having someone telling you what to do, or giving you the order.” – Délia

“Intrapreneur gives me a bit of the chills, it sounds a bit dirty.” – Délia

“There are a lot of aspects of being an entrepreneur, it has to do with mindset indeed.. It’s so important to be creative in finding solutions, the persistence you need in a corporate context as well.” – Ellen

[00:41:30] M&A – more efficient?

“For certain parts of the company it might be more efficient, but on the other hand you want to grow together within the market and world we’re living in. If you’re only going to acquire, it feels almost like the easy way.” – Délia

“I always try to do business with startups, so they can learn from us and we learn from them.” – Maarten

“I haven’t seen a lot of successful exits with the founders staying. They’re entrepreneurs and cannot, or don’t want to, survive in the corporate environment.” – Maarten

“Strong, innovative companies, use various methods to innovate.” – Ellen

[00:45:00] Importance of the board & C-suite & new environments

[00:46:00] Other ways to ignite innovations

“You have to appreciate startups have a different horizon. Especially with cash.” – Ellen

“Innovation needs to be lived throughout the organisation. It cannot be done with a business trip.” – Ellen

“You need each other if you want to do corporate innovation. Running it solo is not going to work.” – Délia

[00:49:00] Last words Maarten

[00:49:45] Work for AREA52

[00:50:08] Professionalism in big companies that you can leverage

[00:52:50] Outro

HelloMasters Episode 06

Our 6th episode already! For this episode, Louise Doorn speaks to Willemijn Schneyder, CEO & Founder of SwipeGuide. Willemijn has been a guest in our show before (episode 3), but has returned to talk about her journey in more detail. Her professional career, life as a female founder & CEO and creating a team culture are just a few of the topics that are discussed.

Starting Your Own Company

Willemijn’s decision to start her own company was not one that came completely out of nowhere. Even though she worked for advertising agencies and at a marketing consultancy firm in the beginning of her career, she soon found a strong passion for emerging technologies and customer experience. Looking back, these years were fundamental in the process of founding a company. She elaborates: “Founding a company is not something that just happens. You really need a great insight and a real need to solve and a great team around you.”

Life As A CEO

Talking about combining her personal life with the role as CEO, Willemijn explains: “You need a big personal support system, just to keep you in check. Building your startup company, you can be so much focused on the next milestone that you forget to take care of everything that keeps you in check.”

She emphasizes, however, that this support system is not only important in her personal life. “It takes a village to raise a startup, so you have to surround yourself with a great team.”

The Power Of Values

The importance of a stimulating working environment is pivotal in this. Something that even resonates in the company’s hiring process: “Our values are: go positive, leave your ego at the door and embrace failure/celebrate success. When you stick to these values, you find yourself attracting and working with people who share the same values.”

This includes working with potential partners or even VC’s. “When they ask me about my commitment because I have two children, I immediately check out. Then it’s just not a fit.”

Experimenting And Iterative Working

Finally, the crucial role of experimenting and iterative working played in the company is mentioned. SwipeGuide has done a lot of A/B-testing to come to grounded conclusions, for instance in creating an ideal customer profile. “If you’re impatient and you scale before you’re ready, there is just too much inefficiency going on”.

Work like these startup founders and build your network around people in the same position. Ask for expert feedback and grow smarter. Find your strategic sparring partner at HelloMaaS. Go to www.hellomaas.com and learn more.

Topics

[00:00:00] Intro
[00:00:28] Louise intro
[00:00:45] Intro Willemijn
[00:01:22] Willemijn on the course of her career

“I think I’ve always been an entrepreneur, I’ve always acted as one, but I just needed to acquire enough guts and experience to fly out on my own.”

“Founding a company is not something that just happens. You really need a great insight and a real need to solve and a great team around you.”

[00:03:13] Is being a start-up CEO/founder borderline insanity? Willemijn about keeping insanity, wearing different hats and fun.

“I don’t know if I am the right person to ask if I keep my sanity”

“Building a startup is much like running a marathon. You have to have an enormous drive, train and practice and also take your rest. Training towards a marathon, you don’t get there by running more kilometers a week; sometimes you have to sprint, sometimes you have to have an interval training, sometimes you need recovery time. That’s how you should review your work and role”

“It takes a village to raise a startup, so you have to surround yourself with a great team. Not just in work, also in your personal life. People who tell you when you are going horribly wrong.”

[00:04:38] Support system on a personal level

“You need a big personal support system, just to keep you in check. Building your startup company you can be so much focussed on the next milestone, that you forget to take care of everything that keeps you in check.”

[00:06:15] Startup CEO as a female

“We are a company that creates instruction software for industrial processes… Simply because of the fact that you are a woman, people get disregarded for the conversation.”

“Our values are: go positive, leave your ego at the door and embrace failure/celebrate success. When you stick to these values, you find yourself attracting and working with people who share the same values.”

“When they ask me about my commitment because I have two children, I immediately check out. Then it’s just not a fit.”

[00:09:38] About SwipeGuide, their product & their journey

“If companies are willing to pay 100k a year for software solutions that help solve a question, there must be a market for software that helps prevent the question.”

[00:12:20] Sticking where you are today & Pivots

“We have never once pivoted from the core of the product vision. We have always been true to the product vision. To make it as easy as possible for anyone, to create a very interactive, compelling instruction that you can use on a mobile device.”

[00:13:55] How do you accommodate changes?

“We have customers that can help us learn, change the stories so they fit a specific industrial market.”

[00:15:15] Diversity in hiring strategy

“Up to now it already came naturally. We look at content, and not the bucket the content comes in. Do they have a fit with our company cultural values?”

“Cultural fit is in many little things. We look at the skill set, followed by an interview. A part of this process is a peer review with someone random in the company. They will ask related questions and help enable a setting where it has to come out. It’s also something that I cannot define tangibly. It’s the way people make eye contact, the way a conversation picks up yes or no.”

“When the skills match, but the cultural fit isn’t there, am I going for a sustainable hire or go for someone who might not really fit. Once or twice I thought it would be okay, but then it wasn’t. We have learned from it.”

[00:18:17] Fundraising & keeping sanity

“It was a huge struggle to get to the first level. But once you meet people that align with your values, they are just fully aligned with what we believe.”

“The one thing I would have done differently, is get legal guidance. Even if you think you don’t need it.”

[00:23:00] Marketing and SwipeGuide’s team

“Some people have a role in one, two or three teams, depending on their ambitions.”

[00:24:35] KPI’s and targets

“Constructively building towards the common goal. It has to be ambitious but also feasible.”

[00:26:25] Teams and their autonomy
[00:28:05] Leverage opportunities in marketing

“We opened ourselves up to experiment. We narrowed those experiments down to an ideal customer profile.”

[00:31:00] Alternative ways of working
[00:32:35] Things Willemijn would have done differently

“I would focus more on building a balanced core team quicker.”

[00:34:38] Predictions of this year

“We envision our product to have a predictive value.”

“If you’re impatient and you scale before you’re ready, there is just too much inefficiency going on”.

[00:35:58] Outro

HelloMasters Episode 05

This episode, Louise Doorn and co-host Danne de Vries of BrandPit* interview Fiona Vanderbroeck, former Chief Marketing Officer at Travelbird and Head of Marketing-Communication at KLM. They spoke about her learning moments, her career path to CMO and the transition from working in a corporate environment to startup.

The Central Role Of The Customer

Fiona holds a strong belief that the customer should always have the most central role, a thought that was empowered by Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness: “If you put the customer central to a maximum extent, then that is always a good business model.”

Working In A Growing Company

About the diversity of tasks and the pressure you can experience working in a fast-paced and growing company as Travelbird, she says: “The hardest to do, especially in a startup where you not only have so many possibilities but also points of improvement, is deciding what you are going to do first.”

Importance Of Adaption

Fiona emphasizes the importance of adaptation and self-reflection when it comes to this. “Constantly reflect on if what you do is the right thing and if it has the right effect. You can do this by looking at hard data, but also through knowledge sharing. Talk to others and learn from them.”

Transition To A Startup

The transition from big corporate to startup is another subject that is discussed. Both Louise and Fiona have actively experienced this in switching companies. “Really realize what you get into. It has to be a fully conscious decision.” The chaos you have at a startup is far different than that of a corporate. It makes for a great environment, but it also means some things are just not there yet. I personally experienced the transition as un-learning and re-learning.

Curious how you can build your marketing team on-demand? You can connect with freelancers directly on our platform. Go to www.hellomaas.com and learn more.

*BrandPit is involved as a partner of HelloMaaS in providing on-demand marketing specialists for our platform. BrandPit specializes in the recruitment of digital specialists (online marketing and e-commerce) for both permanent and interim positions. They work closely together with well-known brands and delivers recruitment solutions to upscale digital knowledge and expertise throughout their entire organization.

Topics

[00:00:00] Louise intro
[00:02:10] Danne de Vries and Brandpit Intro
[00:03:50] Fiona Vanderbroeck Intro
[00:05:40] Fiona about her position at KLM and Travelbird, her work experience and meeting Tony Hsieh

“If you put the customer central to the maximum extent, then that always is a good business model.”

[00:08:30] What would you advise your twenty-year-old self?

“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I was focusing too much on making sure everything was perfect. Mistakes make you bigger, as long as you bring it up for discussion and learn from them.”

[00:09:10] Fiona about her average working week
[00:12:05] About dealing with pressure and the variety of tasks

“The hardest to do, especially in a startup where you not only have so many possibilities but also points of improvement, is deciding what you are going to do first.”

“Rather do one thing great, than ten things half.”

[00:13:55] Data versus intuition

“I believe good marketing is a combination of smart technology and human power.”

[00:15:50] KLM’s Werelddeal weeks as campaign
[00:16:39] Other campaigns and channels Fiona has used. E.g. customer team, A.I. and retention.
[00:18:35] Building your team and a culture in a fast-growing company.

“A customer moves over channels. We didn’t put their journeys next to each other, but through all our channels. We basically changed our organisation to have a growth culture..”

[00:21:28] Adaptive organisations

“Constantly reflect on if what you do is the right thing and if it has the right effect. You can do this by looking at hard data, but also through knowledge sharing. Talk to others and learn from them.”

[00:22:54] Fiona about her role as CMO.

“Feedback is the only way I can really learn something. What is my status quo? I ask feedback, maintaining a 360 view and gaining knowledge through experts and colleagues.”

[00:24:29] Fiona about Travelbird and setbacks
[00:26:36] The role of CMO and other executive-level roles
[00:28:49] From Corporate to startup. Experiences of Louise and Fiona.

“Really realize what you get into. It has to be a fully conscious decision. Know why you do it.”

“Really try to understand the economic value of a customer and get the right data to determine this.”

[00:33:00] Leadership in transition
[00:35:10] Predictions for 2019

“It’s getting crowded.”

[00:37:45] Predictions within the domain of marketing
[00:41:20] Outro

Louise Doorn, Founder and CEO HelloMaaS left her career as a global marketing executive to work on creating a 21st century, decentralized marketing collaboration platform.

Marketing doesn’t stay the same for long. The speed of change keeps increasing and it’s nearly impossible to understand the full breadth of options today. After 15 years in marketing, building new global operating models with prominent brands, showed me that even with ample resources it’s challenging to operate in an always-on, consumer-first world, with global platforms that change their product frequently. Not to mention, the 5,000 mar-tech tools. Keeping up with the ever-changing trends, understand how new tools and channels work, and how technology and social aspects shape the success of marketing has become very time-consuming and intense.

That’s the reality for marketers. Think about what it’s like for small or medium-sized business owners…..

Go Bottom Up!

I firmly believe that the conventional client-agency model need a drastic update. As in software development, there are plenty of opportunities to work more collaboratively, open and connect based on shared interests.

Bottom-up, self-organizing teams, open knowledge sharing, crowdsourcing, incentive competitions, transparency through reviews are going to be the building blocks of the future of marketing. These are also hallmarks of an exponential organization.

And you know what? The future has arrived!

Are our marketing teams the hotbed of inefficiency?

Not necessarily, but it is not easy to create a team that is incentivized to stay on top of their game, has the freedom to experiment and up to date know-how on new tactics and channels. The underlying challenge is that the marketing operating model hasn’t changed since the era of Mad Men.

While not only people are changing, also marketing technology, tools, trends, customer behavior, and expectations are adjusting by the minute. Business owners need to be up-to-date with specialized marketing knowledge that is far beyond their expertise or interest. Having a marketing team on the regular payroll is often not cost-effective nor smart, in addition to the difficulty of building and sustaining a good team.

Why use an organizational model that hasn’t evolved for decades in an industry that is changing at the speed of light?

Forward-thinking digital nomads

True innovation happens on the fringes. As part of my early research I went to a digital nomad conference in Thailand, and was blown away. I met lots of smart and driven digital marketers working remotely in places like Bali and Chiang Mai, with an excellent portfolio of clients. They chose to be in charge of where and how to work while some made an exceptional living as well. This experience has helped me to understand that marketing can be redefined. When you put people and expertise first, and use technology smartly, you get high-quality output with little hassle.

Hey freelancer! Switch to HelloMaaS to focus on what you like to do best.

The fastest-growing group of freelancers are knowledge workers and creatives. My goal is to create an environment where freelance marketers not just make a good living, but they can thrive. Being a freelancer had some negative connotations in the past. However today it is an efficient and modern way to create high-quality output with maximum flexibility.

I met freelancers who did not want to waste time sitting in meetings, get tired from daily commutes, managing people and writing reports. They just really wanted to do what they were passionate about without much drama or overhead.

However, in reality, many freelancers struggle to find new clients, and they don’t always feel confident with the business side of their dealings. After all, their expertise is in something entirely different than continually chasing new businesses. Also, quite a few freelancers feel lonely due to the nature of their work environment and would like to connect with peers or be part of flexible marketing teams.

It’s our goal to support a like-minded community and encourage freelancers to take an active role in it. By connecting, but also by co-creating our product, for instance through the Blockchain Lab. As a freelancer, you’ve got freedom, and we love to collaborate in designing a 21st-century marketing operating model.

No, you don’t need/have to employ an entire marketing department!

After conducting various interviews, and feedback sessions with companies, it became clear that many don’t want to build and manage marketing teams. At the same time, they struggle to find freelancer marketers to get the job done. Furthermore, they often don’t have in-depth knowledge or understanding of what they need or what needs to get done.

HelloMaaS is a platform where clients can search based on business goals and get connected to local, vetted talents. We join people who prefer working in a non-traditional environment with companies that need professional marketing work done smartly. Bring fresh talent temporary in-house often ignites new ideas and boost innovation.

Our approach to team matching is based on personality and skill matching. Short feedback loops through weekly checking will measure progress in highly data-driven and analytical way.

Lifelong learning is not a luxury, but a necessity

In marketing, it is essential to keep learning and developing. For this reason, I wanted to create an opportunity for freelancers to share and sell their know-how through tutorials with optional coaching. Talented freelancers can generate passive income and share their knowledge that is honed through years of practice.

Let’s say you’re a fashion brand and like to get into Snapchat. Rather than taking weeks to figure it out on your own, buy a tutorial from an expert in your vertical and your market with a few hours of personal coaching and off you go.

Freelancing Augmented

Where we differ is that HelloMaaS only has community vetted marketers that speak the local language and understand the local culture, which is crucial for marketing. Many companies are open to remote work but like to meet freelancers for a coffee first and appreciate in-person meetings or brainstorming sessions every other week or so.

The HelloMaaS marketplace we’ve just launched is just the start. Next, the product on the roadmap is a marketing planner, powered by the brains of the HelloMaaS community. Using augmented intelligence, allows us to build an equitable and scalable platform that hopefully result into a viable alternative and a truly 21st-century marketing agency model.

— — — –

How does your ideal future in marketing look like? Please share your ideas and wishes with us!

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I moved from Amsterdam to New York 7 years ago. My career got onto an accelerated track. A new friend recommended me to hire an executive coach to provide an external perspective. My first reaction: “I’m not sure, I’m working effectively already, it feels this executive coaching is a New York shrink thing which is going to take forever and will be expensive”. If only I knew how much I would learn about myself and other personality types.

My friend convinced me and the executive coach guidance proved to be very impactful. In the first session, we got right to business by filling out a personality test called Myers-Briggs (MBTI) based on the work by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

I’ve done these types of tests in Dutch companies before, for instance DISC. It was interesting and fun to discuss the results with team members, but I felt a lack of personal relevance since the results-focused mostly on how you would act in certain situations.

MBTI personality types

Fast forward, I took the MBTI assessment to learn how I perceive the world and make decisions. MBTI is used often for:

1. Leadership development
2. Job candidate selection
3. Team building
4. Career selection
5. Personal development

The assessment points you to one of the 16 different MBTI personalities. Each provides general assumptions on how your personality type is best suited for success in terms of careers, communications, relationships and collaboration.

OMG, I’m an ENTJ

The survey results in a four-letter acronym, in my case: ENTJ (Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Judging). Fellow ENTJ’s are Steve Jobs, Aung San Suu Kyi, George Clooney, Sheryl Sandberg. All people I look up to.

This is what a quick Google search told me:

The ENTJ is the master of change, the big picture conceptualist who loves the new and the challenging, who devise the long-range plan then relentlessly drives it towards conclusion. Confident and authoritative the ENTJ will take the lead rarely hesitating and with a directness that can often leave others reeling in their wake having no time for anything seen as woolly or obstructive.

Yup, that is about 99% accurate. I also learned that only 0.9% of women have an ENTJ profile vs. 2.7% of men. I found this post by a fellow female ENTJ on Reddit:

We are pretty rare. And if you met me in real life, just by chance, you might not realize I was NT, since I tend to chameleon a lot. Life as an NT woman can generally be summed up like this. People want you to be softer, less opinionated, less sarcastic, more supportive and maternal. They want you to care less about concepts and more about social activities. They want you to spend your whole life dreaming of marriage and children, and pity you if you don’t.

The test result and insights gleaned online sparked a useful, and at times confrontational, coaching trajectory. I left the well-paid, well regarded corporate world career and moved into more entrepreneurial roles, leading to founding and running a startup today. Throughout the years I’ve built teams and always inquired about the MBTI personality types of peers, partners, members and consultants. This helped me to learn more about myself and identify opportunities for better connections. The test result itself is not the panacea, it’s the acknowledgment and discussion between team members that drives positive change.

MBTI personality types and the Future of Work

At HelloMaaS, we’d like to connect people in marketing more effectively. Marketing is a creative profession. Today data, tools and A.I. are used when hiring people. Not necessarily a bad thing. Yet, with the rapid rise of freelance working, online matchmaking can become too task and output focused without considering the personality of the person.

We like to make sure brands, agencies and freelancers connecting on our platform are not only a good skill and experience match but also good personality matches. That’s why we’ve added the option to list your MBTI type on your profile.

If we invest more time at the start of a project in understanding each other’s personalities, and communicate about the potential challenges, we feel more engaged and appreciated as a human being which usually leads to better work experiences. It’s clear some types might be more natural leaders, deep thinkers or out-of-the-box creators, all 16 types can find a way to work and play well together.

We’d love to learn from your experiences with MBTI or other personality tests so we can design HelloMaaS to connect people better. Comment on this post or send a message to sayhello@hellomaas.com.

Source: https://www.careerplanner.com/MB2/Personality-Type-In-Population-By-Male-Female.cfm