Last week Quiet Owl’s co-founder David Sinton took part in CXL 10. A growth marketing conference in Austin, TX.
I was so impressed that on the day of his return to the office he brought the team together to discuss his takeaways from the event. One of things that sets Quiet Owl apart is our mission to help brands develop a growth marketing engine that is based on listening-first. It sounds like David listened a lot at CXL and I thought I would share a few things he shared with our team. Things that we can continue to do well, things that set us apart, and things that we can work on doing better.
Transparency
Transparency is obviously a hot topic these days in business. This came up in multiple discussions. First with the cofounders of a health and wellness company based out of Minneapolis. David asked them if they had ever had a situation where they felt they overshared or cases where it was unwise to be too transparent. The resounding answer from them, and everyone at the round table, was “No!”. They share it all the good and the bad. Transparency came up again when he struck up a conversation with the CMO of a publishing company based out of Austin. He said their CEO is huge on transparency and publishes their profit and loss statements on a shared drive and gives in-depth quarterly updates for everyone in the company.
David told all of his employees at his previous agency, “we had a culture where this was forbidden. We didn’t want employees to know how much money we were making or how profitable we were.” He told us how excited he was about changing this and having all of us included in how things are going. He plans to craft a company update by December 1st.
Creating a Quiet Owl Core Values Bible and 3 Year Plan
David spoke about seeing several impressive leaders tout the value of creating company core values and how important that everyone in the company be clear on these. David shared that he wants us all to put more thought into the values / culture / vision of our company. He wants us all to contribute to this with what Quiet Owl means to you, and what you feel our culture and values should embody before producing a company hand book. This will help us find more people to resonate with our frequency and values, because we will all be in alignment. I feel so excited about this, the best leaders have a purpose beyond self-interest / self-profit that is put into action on behalf of the team.
Turning Heads At A Small Table Discussion
While at CXL, David got to share a few ideas and concepts we have been working on here at Quiet Owl. Being open to educate and share information about the cool things we are doing, really opened the doors to new contacts and a greater respect from our kindred spirits in the industry. It’s fun to work for a company where other marketing agencies are realizing that we do very unique and groundbreaking work here.
The Importance of Quiet time.
Both agencies and leaders of high growth business at the conference spoke about the importance of battling burn-out in their teams. David wants to be transparent and knows a few of us have been feeling the intensity of our business growing and keeping up. A couple of recommendations he found interesting from the conference were.
No meeting Mondays. This allows people to ease into the week and focus on deep / productive / flow work while they are at their freshest.
The last Friday of every month is a culture day. Again, no client meetings. Time is spent on team bonding, brainstorming, planning, team therapy, with an early afternoon finish. This is something he wants to start exploring in December or in the New Year? He was curious about our team’s thoughts and was excited about the conversations it brought up.
The Importance of Conflict
I thought this one was super interesting. What boss talks about wanting conflict? If your company isn’t actively experiencing, discussing, resolving some internal conflict then you have a problem. If everyone is just trying to get along, then it is quite likely real problems are being swept under the rug. I think it is amazing that David said he wants each of us to disagree, challenge, voice a concern, complain, surface a problem, or argue in a respectful way at least once a month. A company that, Resolves instead of Reacting, is going to grow and flow as a team with limitless potential.
One final thought. Conferences are supposed to inspire. And our leader came back inspired and ready to implement some new things and continue to move on the things we are doing well. And, if you have been paying attention, you know that this is much more than an organizational topic. It’s personal. He wants each and every member of the Quiet Owl team to have a voice and be a part of something bigger than themselves. I couldn’t be more excited about this.
