The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 85 - Pivot with Purpose

Transcript:

Pete: Hey, Jen.

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: I just want to congratulate you and call you out-

Jen: Hmm?

Pete: -for the last two, three weeks of tireless, generous, unbelievably thorough work that you've done in recreating your studio.

Jen: Oh, thank you. Well, we are recording this on Sunday, April 5th, which is Monday, April 6th in Australia, and at 10am tomorrow, we will teach our first new class.

Pete: Yes. And so I thought it might be worth using you as a wonderful case study in unpacking what it looks like to not only create a new business from scratch, but create change with purpose and with integrity, which from where I'm standing is exactly what you've done. So I have a list of a thousand questions and on behalf of the listeners, I would like to grill you on what that process looked like.

Jen: Alright, grill away. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Pete: Okay, Jen Waldman. First we should, we should set some context, right? So...

Jen: Okay.

Pete: ...what happened? Well, what has happened that has promoted or prompted you to reconsider what is happening over at the Jen Waldman Studio?

Jen: Okay. Well, I mean, there's a pretty clear before and after. Before March 11th, we taught in-person, premium classes that were extremely intimate. On March 11th, we taught our last in-person class, and made the decision to close down the studio. (We would have been forced to, the following week.) And then immediately I went into go-mode. Because the last thing I want to do is abandon all of these artists who have come to depend on our studio community and their teachers and their training.

Pete: Hmm. Okay. Alright. Alright, alright, alright. So what does go-mode look like?

Jen: Okay. So the first thing was that I needed to reconsider what our values look like in action, given these current circumstances.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: So, you know, the values are consistent, but the way they are expressed changes. So as an example, you know, empathy is one of our core values. And one of our how's, as per the Simon Sinek framework, is build the empathy bridge. In other words, see where people are, and cross the bridge to meet them where they're at. And then also afford them the opportunity to cross the bridge as well, and experience from someone else's perspective. So what I know about actors pre-March 11th is that they often feel unseen, taken advantage of, like they're stuffed into these large classes in order to try to generate as much revenue as possible at their expense. And so we've always kept our classes small and intimate and personal, because that's what it looked like to meet them where they were at. Well, all of that changed overnight. So now what does empathy look like? Empathy looks like these people who relied on their in-person community are suddenly feeling isolated, alone, and unsupported. They need connection. They need learning experiences that are communal. They need something that feels less about the product that they're creating and more about the process. So I essentially had to create an entirely new ethos by which to build something new.

Pete: Hmm. Wow. Okay. So the question I think I'm hearing that you unpacked, which is such a wonderfully generous and beautiful question...it's almost like, what do our values look like in this new world? Or, what do our values need to look like in this new world? What do we, what do we want our values to look like in this new world?

Jen: Exactly.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: And so what we did was...well, I did this first and then I brought it to the team. Because, you know, this is a moment where leadership is required. You can't be flimsy about it. You've got to absolutely stand in integrity with where you see the company headed.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: That doesn't mean without input from other people. But as the leader of the organization, I have to point to the north star and say, "That's where we're going. Now, let's all figure out how we get there.". So I had to come to the table to the first team meeting with some really tangible ideas about what our values look like. So the first thing is we needed to create things that are optimized for the virtual learning environment. So I put in place this boundary that we will not transfer any of our offerings that weren't specifically designed to be facilitated online. So if something wasn't created with online in mind, it was not coming along for the ride. We were going to build all new things. We were also going to create these large group learning experiences. So I kept saying, "High value, low cost. High value, low cost.".

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: And essentially, the more value we can offer, the more people we can enroll. And because we're keeping the costs low, we need to enroll as many people as possible in order to create something profitable, so that was also part of the value. And then the other thing was inclusion. Because our previous offerings were so premium and so exclusive and that, that was of service to the people who were part of the studio.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: But in this moment, expanding our reach and including as many people from as many different states and even countries as possible was going to be how we, as people who move through an industry, can create a new sense of what our culture could be.

Pete: Mmm. Wow. This is why you're my idol, Jen Waldman. Because just like a couple of things that stand out...firstly, the way that you talked about leadership so casually, I think it's just worth, like, doubling back to. Which was, you set the vision, the north star, you said, "This is where we need to go," to your team. And then you empowered them to co-create what that looks like with you. That, to me, is like the most generous, empathetic, and effective way to show up as a leader, is, "Here's where we need to go. Here's the vision. Now, let's figure out how to get there. Let's not micromanage, and let's not let me tell you what to do, but you tell me how we might co-create this.". So, just calling that out as amazing. The second thing, I think, which we talked about in our Your Business and the New Normal episode...which got a really, really great response and some really good feedback on. Which was around, you didn't just seek to replicate what you were doing in-person, online. In fact, you actually did the opposite. Which was, "We will not replicate anything that we did in-person, or that we only were going to run in person. This has to be something that is an online offering.". So you didn't replicate. You actually paused to say (with empathy, to your point), "Who are the people we're serving? What are the needs, the problems, the situations they find themselves in now? How might we serve them with new offerings?". So I just, I'm like standing over here applauding.

Jen: Hmm. So after we brought the team together, I gave them an assignment, which was...it's really pulled from the Pete Shepherd catalogue.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: I said to every person on the team, you have forty-eight hours to send me fifteen ideas for new offerings.

Pete: [gasp] Yes!

Jen: And what was amazing, Pete, is not only did all of the teachers complete this assignment...because I didn't say everybody on the staff. I didn't actually specify the teachers, I just sort of assumed that people would think I was talking to the teachers. Every single person who works in the studio submitted fifteen ideas for new offerings, whether they have ever taught a class for us or not.

Pete: Wow. So like support staff, and everything?

Jen: Yes.

Pete: Ooh, I love that.

Jen: And basically what that did (instead of saying to them, "You need to come up with the one idea that's going to work,"), giving them the ludicrous notion that they have two days to come up with fifteen ideas...some of their ideas were ridiculous. Some of them were amazing. And most of them were workable.

Pete: Yeah. And was there a whole...was there a bunch of overlap?

Jen: Actually what I thought was amazing, and really points out one of my blind spots, is that no. There was not a lot of overlap in their ideas. Which lets me know that I had not been paying enough attention to the kinds of things people wanted to teach.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: The kinds of classes, or like the special gifts they wanted to bring to the table. So now everyone is more fully expressed because the idea came from them, instead of them teaching a class that I had created.

Pete: Yes. Again, empowerment and co-creation. That is how to lead. Okay, that's amazing. So what did you do with this said list of giant...I'm assuming you had like a giant list of probably hundreds of ideas now. What do we do now?

Jen: So now we apply the Stephen Sondheim rules of creating something, which we've talked about on a previous episode. And there are three of them. Content dictates form. God is in the details. Less is more. And all three of those rules are in service of clarity.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: So, content dictates form. Basically, I had to look at all the content, and then figure out what is the form that this needs to take in order to be most easily delivered in an understandable way to people. Less is more. We could have, we really could have had everybody teaching multiple classes because there were so many great ideas.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: But for clarity, I decided to choose classes that would have, what I call, a rhyme. (Which I could talk about in a second.) And then, God is in the details was really about....I had one-on-one sessions with all the teachers to walk them through a curriculum-building exercise, to make sure that we had paid attention to the details and gotten rid of anything excessive, and like really boiled it down to the main concept. But the idea behind rhyme is that, at least for the business I run...and we talk about this on the podcast all the time. I'm not interested in theories. I'm interested in practices.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: So one of the practices we are trying to instill in our artists is to connect the dots. And so basically, our first month of classes are classes that have some element that rhyme with each other. So we've got one person, for example, doing a vocal workshop, and we've got someone else doing a comedy workshop. And so, in what ways do your vocal choices play into whether or not your comedy is working? So, trying to find these connect the dot points. Which, again, is one of our values in action. Connect the dots is literally one of our values in action.

Pete: So cool. So cool. Okay. So we're creating things at rhyme, all in service of clarity. Okay, I love that. And so, what next?

Jen: Okay, so next came infrastructure and goals.

Pete: Oh, yeah. Here we go. Tell me more.

Jen: Okay. It occurred to me that I needed to change the way we were paying people.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: Because the kind of work they were doing changed. And, and I also wanted to create a lot of goodwill among the teachers. Because when you're building something new, and you're attracting new clients, you don't want to start a popularity contest of like, "So-and-so has more people in their thing than in my thing.".

Pete: Totally. Yeah.

Jen: So, changing the sort of internal infrastructure of how people's work is being valued, at what price point, etcetera. And so, what I did was create a profit-sharing model. So, I set a revenue goal. And once we reach that revenue goal, anything above that point is split evenly among the teachers, regardless of how many people are in their class or not.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: So, this incentivizes them to practice good finding with their colleagues...to shine a spotlight on someone else's class, as opposed to only focusing on themselves.

Pete: So good.

Jen: So setting that goal, and...and I'm also super transparent with them about finances. And they know at what point we cross the profitability threshold.

Pete: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Infrastructure and goals, okay.

Jen: And then we had to build a digital infrastructure, because we literally had no platform.

Pete: Yeah. And that happened in like the space of what was it three days, four days?

Jen: Yes, it was absolutely crazy. It was crazy. But we did it. And I actually think it's quite beautiful that when you log in to the membership portal, you're taken to something that is so organized and easy to navigate. And that was another connect the dots moment of...maybe several months ago, listeners might remember me talking about building an online course. So, I like to customize everything. I never use things the way that they were intended to be used, which you have pointed out to me, Peter. So I had been building an online course, like a pre-recorded online course, on a digital platform. And then it occurred to me, I could re-purpose the platform for live virtual classes. So we basically created a virtual classroom, with a community element that functions kind of like a Facebook page. So I had to build the whole digital infrastructure. And we did.

Pete: Wow. Of course. And I've seen it, and it looks amazing. It's kind of mind blowing how quickly this has all come together. And that leads you to today, essentially, which is the day before launch. Have I missed, have we missed a step?

Jen: Yeah, we missed the marketing.

Pete: Oh, yeah. What did that look like, Jen Waldman?

Jen: Well, I was talking to you about this earlier, before we started recording, because you said, "You know, what's the biggest learning?". And I believe that trust is cumulative, and you can't hack trust.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: So, a lot of the success of the marketing...which, I barely did any marketing for this, because I know it's new and I'm in early adopter territory. So really, the people I'm talking to are the people who already trust me and know me. That, trust is cumulative. So when I say to someone, "We know each other, and I see where you are right now, and I built something that is specific to where you are,", they trusted me enough to say yes.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: And then the other thing is that if you build it, and if they trust you, they will come. And a mistake, (I guess I would categorize it as a mistake), I see some of my colleagues making is they're waiting for someone else to build something for them. So that nobody's got any place to come. So if you build it, and if they trust you, they will come.

Pete: Yeah, and I think that the trust thing is the thing that's worth calling out though, right? Is that you see the opposite, which is plenty of people building things, and yelling into the void of something like social media and saying, "Come over here, and pay me money, and trust me," without having first built the trust asset.

Jen: Right. Mm-hmm.

Pete: So there's, there's a rich learning there, I think, in this trust asset. Which you've built over, you know, fifteen years?

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: And then that, to me, is if, I mean, if I was to think about marketing...and many, many, many of the questions, and clients that I work with, and the questions they ask that are around marketing are, you know, in unpacking "who's it for", for example, such a common response is, "Well, it's for everyone. So we should try and target everyone.". And it's like, sure, it could be for everyone, and I'm not saying it's not. But you need to start with, to your point, the early adopters. So who are those trusted customers or clients that you have, that you can serve, and that you don't necessarily have to market to, you can enroll?

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: And they...if and when you deliver on your promise, if and when you over-deliver, if and when you change their little corner of the world in some way, they'll tell the others. And that's how it spreads. It doesn't start by spreading and yelling at the masses, it starts by taking those trusted groups of people. Generously serving them to the point where they tell the others, which is exactly what...I'm sure that's exactly what's going to happen with you.

Jen: Well, I hope so because I...oh, this is something else that I left out of the equation.

Pete: [laughter] Please!

Jen: Is that we decided...you know, we know that we have to build something, and we know that it won't be worth it if we sacrifice all of our integrity in order to build it. So with integrity intact, what I created was something we were calling the Community Builder Rewards Program. So instead of telling, like, for us to start doing all this crazy marketing to let people know, it was like, "Please tell someone who you think would benefit from our community, and we would benefit from having them there. Tell them about this. And if you do, we'll send you a reward. And you can either use it for yourself, or you can give it away to someone else.".

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: And that turned into like this beautiful connection tool for people to enroll only those who they really wanted to be a part of our community. So, that was pretty swell. And that idea for the "give it away to a friend" came from one of our community captains, which seems appropriate.

Pete: I love it. Now before I do my very best impersonation of Jen Waldman and try and wrap this up by working backwards, is there anything else you'd like to add around...?

Jen: Yes. So I, you know, I listen to a lot of podcasts, Peter, and I read a lot of articles. And there is this one nasty little word that I keep seeing pop up everywhere.

Pete: What is it?

Jen: And that word is "pivot". "We've got to pivot. We've got to pivot. We've got to pivot so fast. If you need help pivoting..." You know, there's like, every ad has "pivot" in it. And, um, I want to, I want to just say (and sorry, you might have to bleep this), but pivot is bullshit. What we must do is pivot with purpose.

Pete: Mmm.

Jen: There's no reason to pivot unless you know why you're doing it, and you understand how you are going to be serving people with what you are creating. So, pivot with purpose. Don't pivot just to pivot. That's the missing piece.

Pete: That's the summary of every single thing that you just talked about, though. And so I'm actually going to not do a Jen Waldman and work backwards. I'm going to do...I'm going to say, one approach to pivoting with purpose (which is what you did), is to start by looking at your values, and considering how they might play out, given the change in contexts or circumstances that you might find yourself in. Then you might enroll and lead a team with said vision, and ask them to co-create some ideas on how you might move forward together. You might also bust out a bit of Stephen Sondheim, in the interest of creating something in service of clarity.

Jen: Yes.

Pete: And by adding infrastructure and goals that generously serve not only the people within your staff, in this case, but also the people within the community, you're then able to market to those that trust you and create something that will be so good that they will tell the others. And that, I think, is how you might pivot with purpose.

Jen: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.