A day in the life of StartupNation’s chief community officer
Want to know what happens behind the scenes here at StartupNation? Let me tell you what’s in store for me today, a fairly typical day although no two days are the same.
My cell phone alarm buzzes at 6am and within 10 minutes I’ve connected to the StartupNation server to check email and review what’s scheduled today. While eating oatmeal I reply to emails that have come in through the Contact form on our website and one from Rich Sloan - his show up in
I’m normally in the office by 7:30 or 8am but today we are recording a radio show in the studio at 9am so I’ll work from home for a bit, writing this blog and spending some quality alone strategy time, before heading to the studio at 8:30. The radio production team includes Jeff & Rich Sloan, the StartupNation co-founders and head coaches; Heather Cohen, our superstar radio producer; and Eric Granowicz, the engineer who always puts me in a good mood. While this is the team that is physically involved with the radio show production, every other team member contributes in some fashion to the show, whether it’s the creative on show planning & guest identification, authoring billboards that get read by the Sloan brothers on the air, working with sponsors/advertisers for audio ads, writing & posting of the show on our website, creating CDs for our national syndicate of radio stations to receive shows for airing at a later date - the radio show is truly a total team effort.
We have a Friday team meeting at 10am that I will be late for, or may not make it at all, depending on how things go at the studio. This weekly meeting allows our team to officially get caught up with what each of us has been accomplishing over the past week and what we’re focusing on in the coming week. It’s a time where we can feel up-to-date with one another because we’re all running at such a screaming fast pace all week long. I’ll have to get caught up sometime later.
At 11:30 I have a scheduled conference call with the folks at MeetUp.com, the company that helps people all over the globe connect with others of similar interests in live meetings. We’re putting the finishing touches on a plan to enhance the experience for visitors to both our websites.
I’ll spend time after that and before a coaching call at 2pm connecting with special StartupNation community members that we are inviting to be a part of a Community Advisory Board. If you’re interested in being on this board, read an earlier blog that tells you the scoop. I will also reply to incoming emails from our community throughout the day, move forward with a relationship we are building with SCORE, a division of the SBA that provides individual consulting to aspiring and current entrepreneurs.
The highest priority in my chief community officer world right now is contributing to the development of a community connections initiative on our website that will launch in beta in the coming month. I will work with our internet manager Brian Cleveland later this afternoon to begin to do some internal auditing of this very exciting upcoming launch.
By the end of the day I’ll be ready for my physical therapy session, as it’s been only 7 weeks since I had total hip replacement surgery. I’m walking without a limp and without a walker or cane, so now the really hard work continues so that I’m in shape for my wedding this summer.
That’s what I expect will happen today. Oh, there will certainly be changes & adjustments along the way. We all act as entrepreneurs here at StartupNation, and I am absolutely blessed to be on a team of true superstars.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Joel,
I can only imagine how structuring your time has advanced your production with such a busy schedule. I”m in a business, baseball, where there isn”t quite as much structure and emphasis on use of time. I”m learning that growing as a businessman will consist of staying hungry but also increasing productivity. The only way for me to really make a difference in how much I get done is to hold myself accountable. How do I do that, right now it’’s through my Treo…my PDA. I”ve only owned it for a short amount of time, but it has helped me tremendously. I stay busy, but at times I will overlook something I had planned because of a LACK of planning on my own part. When you”re working for yourself you”re working with yourself, too. Without an assistant, partner, co-worker or someone to assist you with every half hour of your day, you”re losing the battle. What I”m trying to say is that I”ve been softly focusing on what I need to get done for the day and I”m realizing more and more that a strict schedule to keep myself accountable will increase my own productivity.
The above paragraph is a reflection of the structure that StartupNation provides for an individual wanting to open a business. Structure is essential. We have a saying in sports: "Perfect practice makes perfect". You can work with 100% of your effort, but if you”re not doing the right things the effort is lost in wasted time. Life planning is crucial because even if opening your own business isn”t the end result of using StartupNation’’s 10 Steps to Open for Business…maybe a change in the quality of life is the result. Either way you”ve learned life lessons from pushing yourself on a personal and professional level.
Thanks, guys, for all the help!!
Chad