Hey Reader,

In a way, the chaotic start to our interview, then by the calm, cool conversation that followed, is a metaphor for Jordan’s business journey this year.

See, this isn’t just a story about how to hire good people for your business. It’s a cautionary tale, and proof that running a business is about always learning and adjusting.

Jordan runs an agency of high-level remote assistants. Today, she’s telling us her own trials and tribulations with making what seemed to be the right hiring call, but ended up plunging her business into a few chaotic months.

Don’t worry though, through patience and vigilance, she came out on the other side in a much better position.

Plus, in the PRO show, we talk about what she’s doing for me…and why she’s contributed to me potentially leaving Airtable for Notion.

Top Takeaways

• You need to share your mission with your team early on. This ensures that you’re both aligned on the same values – which will form a stronger bond than a paycheck.
• Know when to communicate. Jordan saw that through hiring contractors, they were taking on too much, and as a result, the quality of their work slipped. Clear communication could have prevented the worst outcome for her: loss of clients.
• Know when to cut ties. Jordan saw that for her agency, a contractor relationship would not work. So she pivoted and decided to hire full-time employees instead. It took several months to find the right fit, but she’s happy she didn’t rush into the decision.
• When you do bring on new employees, make sure to have a rock-solid, hands-on training program. This will allow them to start learning and doing, from day 1.

Behind the Scenes: Creating Short Form Videos

This week marks a pretty big moment for How I Built It. I’ve decided – with a push from my new video editor, Zach – to create short form videos for episodes. This required me to do a couple of things.

The first is actually record video. I’ve toyed with this in the past, and with other podcasts, but I’ve never done it consistently for How I Built It.

Part of it was that I never thought straight interviews were compelling video. But the other part was I didn’t think the effort for short form was worth it.

It still might not be. But now I’m willing to try. More on that in a minute.

The other thing I needed to do was update my guest notes. I made it pretty clear in the notes that it was an audio-only podcast – so I updated that to say “video will be recorded, but only for social media.”

This wasn’t crucial, but courteous, as some folks want to make sure they’re camera-ready.

So what’s my strategy?

Right now, I’m mostly testing. I’ll post 3-4 videos per week on TikTok, X (neé Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube Shorts and see what happens.

I also made a discovery about TikTok as it relates to podcasting. I’ve added a new video for members of the Foundry, and will be more open about my experiments there.

For now, I’d love to know if you have a short form video strategy. If so, respond to this email and let me know!

Until next time,

Joe Casabona The Podcast Systems Guy

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