[00:00:00] Josh: Hey Jess, how's day number two going?
[00:00:01] Jess: It's going so great, but I do need to hire someone.
[00:00:05] Josh: Okay. To do what?
[00:00:07] Jess: Marketing.
[00:00:08] Josh: Isn't that your job?
[00:00:09] Jess: Yes.
[00:00:16] So Josh? Yeah. Do you remember on, I know it was my first week. Yeah. It might've actually been day two. Yes. Uh, where I was like, Hey, I need someone on this team already. Yes, I do. But
[00:00:29] Josh: distinctly. 'cause I hadn't even written your first page. I can't, you're asking for another one?
[00:00:33] Jess: Yeah. Yeah. Bold move. Yeah.
[00:00:35] Cotton. Mm-hmm. Let's see if it pays off for him.
[00:00:39] Josh: Yep. Well, it worked out. It did. Worked out. Fast forward spoiler. You got the role.
[00:00:42] Jess: That's right. But
[00:00:43] Josh: yes, I do remember that. Yeah.
[00:00:44] Jess: I wanna start those off by talking about like your, you have three very specific criteria Yeah. For how you think about hiring. Yes.
[00:00:50] At Vector.
[00:00:51] Josh: Yes.
[00:00:52] Jess: Let's talk about that.
[00:00:53] Josh: Yeah. So one of the things I think we did a good job of before we started building out the team was [00:01:00] understanding the personas and like the market we were selling into, and we understood that we were selling to. Marketers, we call them adult marketers, as you know. Yep.
[00:01:10] Um, and like adult marketers to us are basically, um, folks that have been, they're not passer buyers. They're in their career for a long time. Um, they're typically, uh, at mid market to enterprise companies. Right. They take their jobs seriously, but it's not their entire life. Right. They have families. And so we, long story short, we really understood who this marketer was.
[00:01:28] Yeah. And what she was looking for in vector. And so we wanted to build a team that when she came to our website or talked to folks on our marketing team or saw the marketing we were doing, it represented her. Yep. And so, you know, that meant that these three things, and I'll kind of dive into to each one of them, but one, we wanted her to be able to look in and see like, oh, this is a team that I trust, so like customers can trust the folks that are within our team.
[00:01:54] Yeah. And, and that meant that we had to. Do some things in an early stage startup that most don't, which is like [00:02:00] investing in like very seasoned marketing professionals like yourself, right? Yeah. It's so easy to say, okay, I'm just gonna go get $60,000 talent, just like work 'em to death, right? Yeah. And you can find these young college students that are coming out as, you know, marketing, um, graduates, but that wasn't what our customer was going to respect.
[00:02:19] Jess: Totally. So
[00:02:20] Josh: we had to make that investment into, to those folks. The second thing that was really important for me. Is practitioners. Yeah. Meaning like I wanted a, like our customer and our prospects to look in the business and say. I'm getting advice from people that have done my job before. Yes.
[00:02:36] Jess: Yeah.
[00:02:36] Josh: Right. Like there's nothing more frustrating than like having a support ticket or like a product outage and you're just dealing with someone that like has no idea how the product works, let alone how they would use it. Right. And so I thought that was something that I really wanted, which is I want folks that, um, it's funny people ask me like, did I look for people that have like social followings?
[00:02:55] Yeah. Like that wasn't the case, but it was an indication. That people [00:03:00] would respect the practitioner. Yes. Right. And so for you, right, content marketing was something that like just you were well known for. Yeah. Um, and I knew it was something that we wanted to do a big investment in. And so practitioners was super important.
[00:03:12] And then the last one was sort of like a side quest. It wasn't something we had to get done, but I really wanted it to happen. Yeah. Which was envy. Yeah. Like I wanted people to look at our team and be like. Damn. Yeah. I want to go work on that marketing team. Yeah. And it's starting to happen. I was at an event recently and it was, um, I think we had just announced Alex joining your team.
[00:03:31] Yeah. Spoiler alert. Um, but not Sarah yet. Yeah. And so people would walk up and be like, oh my God. First you got Jess. Then you got Alex. And I would whisper to them like, we're about to hire Sarah. And they're like, are you building the fucking Avengers over there? And I was like, yes. Yes, I am.
[00:03:47] Jess: Yeah. And that was really exciting.
[00:03:49] I remember you calling me, you were at CMO Summit and you were like, you would not believe the number of people who are freaking out over the team we're building It got
[00:03:55] Josh: annoying eventually, right? I was like, Hey, I'm kind of hot shit. And they're like, fuck you, you hired Jess Cook. Can [00:04:00] we talk about that?
[00:04:01] How'd you get her? I was just like, this is my company. I'm here too.
[00:04:04] Jess: I
[00:04:05] Josh: built this thing. It was so cool though. Yeah. It was like a very rewarding moment to see that these investments that were like against the grid or, or grain, um, you know, people were resonating with. And I've always thought that that's interesting.
[00:04:18] And I think it's not only true in a startup, but in marketing as well, which is if you follow status quo, you're more likely to get to the same outcome as most people. Yeah. Which for startups is often failure, right? Yes. Like most startups fail, so don't follow the patterns.
[00:04:30] Jess: Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it's such a signal of like.
[00:04:34] We mean business. Yeah. We're hiring people who, they're gonna come in day one and make an impact. Yeah. Not only in the work they do, but just in elevating the entire brand. Yes. Right. Like people see that and they're like, oh, they're not messing around. Yes.
[00:04:49] Josh: Exactly. Yeah. Side note, last night you and I were talking about like things our kids say.
[00:04:53] Yeah. That we don't, you just did one. We stand on business up in here.
[00:04:58] Jess: We got the Riz. The Riz. [00:05:00]
[00:05:00] Josh: You ain't got that? What's that Gibby toilet written? That's not us. It's
[00:05:03] Jess: not Ohio. Oh,
[00:05:04] Josh: it's it's not. It's the
[00:05:05] Jess: opposite of Ohio. That
[00:05:06] Josh: one was new to me. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Everyone lives in Ohio. I don't know why you got such a bad rat. I
[00:05:10] Jess: don't either.
[00:05:12] Josh: Seems like a lovely place. I still don't really get it.
[00:05:13] I just hear it. I haven't been there, but I'm sure it's lovely.
[00:05:17] Jess: Parts are great. I'm kidding. Hello, Ohio. I'm Miss Midwestern. Go
[00:05:20] Josh: Midwest. She can say it. Um. Okay. So like, so I had this like hiring theory. Yes. But I wasn't expecting it to go in effect day two. Jess, what was it? Um, like literally 48 hours in, you're like, oh my God, we need help.
[00:05:34] Jess: Yeah. Well I think I saw what you and Nick had built already. Yeah. I knew where I wanted to be able to get us to as the marketing leader. Yeah. And I knew how quickly we wanted to get there and I, I knew I couldn't do it myself. Yeah. Um. Especially in this like next six to 12 months are gonna be really critical for us.
[00:05:54] Yeah. And so what I knew we needed, right. If my background is in content Yeah. [00:06:00] Storytelling top of funnel. Mm-hmm. I needed someone where I didn't, our, our Venn diagram of skills had very little overlap. Yeah. Except for the fact that like we would be very skilled writers. Yep. And we had the ability to weave story into things.
[00:06:14] Right. So did that
[00:06:15] Josh: lead you to PMM
[00:06:17] Jess: directly to product marketer?
[00:06:19] Josh: Yeah.
[00:06:19] Jess: So I think for me, product marketer is a really foundational role. Yeah. In fact, a lot of founders, that's their first hire. Yeah. As a product marketing. Mm-hmm. Because it's so foundational. Yep. I'm really glad you didn't go that route worked.
[00:06:31] Just fyi. I actually think it's really interesting that you took the the content route. Yeah. And I'm really glad you did because I think. I've always believed like your marketing leader should be your best storyteller. Yes. They should be the person who's able to kind of like trickle down the narrative Yes.
[00:06:48] To the rest of the marketing team. So you can all push the gas on the same story at the same time. Yes.
[00:06:53] Josh: Well, I believe in like hiring your weaknesses. Yeah. Right. And when you joined us at the time, the thing that we had [00:07:00] really going for us was a great product. Yes. Right? Like not to do a, a shameless plug, but like contact based marketing is so much better than the traditional abms.
[00:07:08] Totally. So like we had something that was working there. The thing that we were missing was this ability to. Build a category, tell a story, have a narrative. And so you're right. I made a very like untraditional, uh, like bet. And it, it's paid off. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you. Um, but yeah, content marketing's not what you typically see, but so you got here, you started covering those bases and you realized, hey, that traditional first hire we actually do kind of need, do, need it.
[00:07:30] Yeah. Yes,
[00:07:30] Jess: exactly. And here's another reason why, right? Because I'm kind of covering the top of funnel. Yep. I'm starting to bring in folks who are either problem unaware or solution unaware or unaware of our brand. Yep. And then we needed someone who could come in and continue that momentum. Yes. Right? Yes.
[00:07:49] Build the product led content that got them to see the value of the features and benefits. Yeah. And translate those things. Build a use case kind of walkthroughs for us. Yeah. Um, [00:08:00] who could understand like the best way to kind of like when we have something in the product that triggers an upgrade, like what's the nurture after that?
[00:08:08] Right? Yeah. Things of that nature where it's like she and I could work together to really figure out this beautiful flow from. Entering our universe. Yeah. To becoming a customer.
[00:08:18] Josh: What time is it, Jess?
[00:08:19] Jess: Do you know what time it is? What?
[00:08:22] Josh: I don't have my watch by
[00:08:22] Jess: my watch. It's that time where we look into the camera deeply.
[00:08:26] Okay. Longingly.
[00:08:27] Josh: Yeah.
[00:08:28] Jess: And we deliver positive affirmations. Let's fucking go to the marketers who need it most.
[00:08:32] Josh: Let's do it. Dear marketer, when you run AB tests, both versions, succeed.
[00:08:37] Jess: Dear marketer. Your brand guidelines influence next season's fashions.
[00:08:43] Josh: I'm sorry for all our listeners 'cause they'll know the answer to this, but I'm an ignorant CEO that doesn't why a pm.
[00:08:48] A PMM over like a growth marketer or a demand gen marketer. These, these two roles feel like really bottom of funnel capture leads, convert for sales. It feels like those would be on the, the polar [00:09:00] opposite side of the spectrum of like content. Why PMM?
[00:09:02] Jess: Yeah. So to me, PM and content build the fuel. Yeah. For the rocket.
[00:09:10] Yeah. That is demand gen or growth. Got it. And we need to build that library first. Yeah. Of all of the stuff. Yeah. What if, if I brought in a demand gen marketer right now, I would have very little for that person to create campaigns around. Yeah. In terms of content, right? Yeah. In terms of meaningful. Stuff that people would be willing to like, oh yeah, I actually wanna like click on an ad.
[00:09:32] Yeah. To learn more about that.
[00:09:33] Josh: Do you, do you think that's a common mistake that CEOs make is like they say, Hey, I want the outcome of leads. Yeah. Therefore I need a demand gen marketer. And they go there first, and then there's nothing that can be done. Yeah. Yeah,
[00:09:44] Jess: yeah. It's hard to build a campaign around nothing.
[00:09:48] Right. Air. Yeah. Just vibes and like
[00:09:51] Josh: vibe marketing baby. Yeah. How
[00:09:52] Jess: do you do that? And so, I mean, there's this, there's this. Kind of an argument that's been going on for a long time that content marketing just is [00:10:00] marketing. Yeah. Like you can't do anything without content. Yeah. Everything is content. Yeah. So you have to build that library first.
[00:10:06] Yeah. Before bringing on demand gen or growth or anything like that. Totally. That's, that's a good, logical next hire, I think. Yeah.
[00:10:11] Josh: That makes sense. Okay. So I understand, uh, where, like why you went that role. Yeah. What did you look for?
[00:10:17] Jess: Okay. So. I needed someone who really understood positioning. Mm. And I think that's because I know.
[00:10:28] The roadmap. Yep. I know where we're gonna wanna go in the next 6, 12, 18 months. Yep. And I know our positioning is gonna slightly tweak a little bit mm-hmm. Every time we launch some of this new stuff. Yeah. Right. It's already happened. Yeah. We're launching Funnel Vision tomorrow. Yep. Uh, when you hear this back, you know you, you'll be able to time travel to the day before exactly
[00:10:48] Josh: the launch.
[00:10:50] It was a good world back here. It
[00:10:51] Jess: was. Yeah. But, um, I needed someone who could help me like kind of. Tweak that messaging a bit. Yeah. Like knowing this [00:11:00] new product was coming out. Yep. What does that mean now? How can we talk about ourselves in a way that's so very clear? Yeah. But encompasses all of the things that.
[00:11:08] Vector now is with this new launch. Okay. So that felt really, really important. Yep. Um, I needed somebody who was a great writer because I need this person not to just kind of sit and think about positioning and document that, but I also need them to be creating content, bottom of funnel content, product led content.
[00:11:25] Um, I want them to be talking to customers and translating that into good content. Yeah. So I need someone who can write, who can think, who can piece together stories, connect dots.
[00:11:33] Josh: And, and I think to, not to interrupt you here, but you know, the, the opener I made made fun of like, isn't that your job? Yeah. I think the, the real takeaway for, for CEOs and founders is.
[00:11:44] If you hire a marketing leader, you have to let them lead. Mm. Right? Like at some point you have to let them build the team out. And so there's skills that Alex has that you also have, but you also have 19 different things every Monday that you wake up from a Slack for me, asking me to [00:12:00] also have you go do Sure.
[00:12:01] And so. That overlap sometimes is okay. Yes. And I, I don't think CEOs who just holds their marketers hostage by being like, you can do that. Yes. It's like, I can, but I shouldn't.
[00:12:11] Jess: Yeah. Or like, I, a couple episodes ago, it was like, what's the thing I'm gonna take off of my plate so I can do this other thing?
[00:12:17] Right, right. There's just, there's time is Yeah. The ultimate resource. Yep. So, um, bringing this person on felt. Pretty crucial to us being able to position ourselves well. Yeah. Build out this library of content that we will eventually need a demand gen marketer to help distribute and put some paid support behind.
[00:12:36] Yep. And third, I needed this person to build us a library of sales enablement. Mm-hmm. I needed someone who had done that Yeah. Really well before. Yeah. Um, we don't have anything yet. Right? No. Pretty fresh team. Mm-hmm. Um, we need some things that are like, you know, just the typical like leave behind after a disco call.
[00:12:55] Right? Yeah. Yeah. So these are just really foundational things that we're in need of. I [00:13:00] needed a product marketer who can like, just, that's second nature to them who can create that stuff. I
[00:13:03] Josh: don't think we even had a sales deck. No, when Alex, before Alex got here, we
[00:13:07] Jess: did not, I
[00:13:08] Josh: had like a slide that had like randomly made, but I don't think it was consistently used across the people that were selling.
[00:13:14] Jess: Right.
[00:13:14] Josh: So basic stuff.
[00:13:16] Jess: Yeah. Yeah. We, we needed some things, so we. Put a job description together. Yeah. Um, and, and actually first let me go back to, I sat down with you and Nick and I talked about what this person would do Yep. And what I thought a salary range would look like. Yep. For the person we needed, again, that grownup marketer who was a practitioner people would respect.
[00:13:38] Yeah. Right. And so we wanted this person, we had to have a pretty solid salary range. Yep. Um. So we agreed on that and we took off. So we, I posted a job description. I think I'd, I think I'd been there maybe a month. Been here a month.
[00:13:53] Josh: Yeah. I'm trying to think like, so like the opener wasn't facetious. I think like literally week one you said that you needed it.
[00:13:59] I think week [00:14:00] two-ish we were. In Nashville and you asked for the budget in person. Yep. Um, which by the way, like, give yourself credit. That was not an easy conversation. Like second week. Yeah, I know. With a new boss, right. In person. Yeah. Uh, and we did, we didn't just give it to you like we, Nick and I collectively grilled you.
[00:14:15] You as shouldn't. Right? Yeah, yeah. Nature was like, what's this
[00:14:17] Jess: person gonna do that you can't? Yeah. You know, like, I mean, and it wasn't, it wasn't grilling like that, but it would, there needs to be some rationale for like, yeah, this needs to be a one plus one equals. Three situation. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:28] Josh: And you did a great job of justifying that.
[00:14:30] And so I think it must have been week three or four, I think, so that you had the job description out there. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:36] Jess: So that was pretty exciting.
[00:14:37] Josh: Yeah.
[00:14:37] Jess: Um, and that thing took off. Yeah. That was really exciting. That was one. Um, really great side effect of building a personal brand. Yeah. Is like man hiring.
[00:14:47] Yeah. Uh, gets a lot easier.
[00:14:49] Josh: I was actually worried for you because of that. Right. I was like, she's gonna get destroyed with applications. My inbox a mess. Yeah. In
[00:14:56] Jess: a good way. Yeah. Um, I think that that post had about [00:15:00] 55,000 impressions. Yeah. Um, it had like 53 reposts, which is. Wild.
[00:15:05] Josh: Unbelievable. Yeah. Um, how did you sift through all of it?
[00:15:08] Jess: Yeah. Well, I did look at every single one. Yeah. That's, that's cool. Uh, I think I had 65 applications in my inbox in 48 hours. Oh my god. Maybe less than 48 hours. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
[00:15:19] Josh: and great quality people. Really high
[00:15:22] Jess: quality people. Yeah. Yeah. Like people I've admired on LinkedIn Yeah. For a while. Yeah. Um, we
[00:15:27] Josh: obviously won't say names, but like you brought me to.
[00:15:29] Some of them and I was like, oh my God, I know who this person is. Yeah. It's wild. It was
[00:15:32] Jess: exciting. Yeah. The things that stood out there, there were three. Yeah. Um, one was recommendations. Mm-hmm. So people would comment on my post and be like, you should talk to this person. Yep. Or if it was someone who wasn't, you know, didn't want people to know they were actively looking, they would send me a message and say, you should really consider this person.
[00:15:48] I've worked with them before. They were amazing. Yeah. Those folks roast the top for me. Yeah. So that's a tip for anyone listening. Yeah. Like if you're looking to make a move, find somebody who will go out there for you and like, put your [00:16:00] name in, in the hat. Yeah. Because, um, that meant a lot. Yeah. Um, more than the person actually coming and saying like, I wanna, you know.
[00:16:07] Yeah. Right. Like that, that gave, uh, quite a few extra points. Yeah. Um, the second was they listened to directions. Mm. So I think in my post, I said something about. Send me a link to one piece of content that you are really proud of. Yeah. And you not believe the number of people who didn't send me anything.
[00:16:27] Mm-hmm. Um. Sent me 17 things, right? Mm-hmm. And so automatically I'm like, I need to be able to compare some sort of apples to apples. Yeah. I'm not, I can't look through your whole portfolio. Yeah. I have 65 of these and I'm one person. Exactly. Also doing a job. Yeah, exactly. So people who listen to gut points.
[00:16:45] Yeah.
[00:16:45] Josh: And I know it sounds like old school, all these, uh, tricks and hiring things, but. It's, it's at this stage the attention to detail. Yes. Right. The ability to focus, the ability to sort of like, um, again, not follow instructions. That's not what we're looking for, [00:17:00] but, you know, to, to basically complete a task.
[00:17:02] Jess: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Josh: Right. And like when there's so many applicants out there, it's a tough market. It is tough a little. Things matter.
[00:17:07] Jess: Yeah. And I was looking for people who did it in a really interesting way. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Who had a great, I didn't even, I didn't even ask. I don't want a cover letter. I don't wanna have to read through all of that, but just the message on LinkedIn mm-hmm.
[00:17:17] That accompanied their, one thing they were really proud of, talked about, why they were proud of it. Yeah. Kind of the process they went through. Their opening line to me was really punchy and cool. Yeah. And short and exciting. Right? Yeah. I could get. Feel their energy and enthusiasm or their personality through the post.
[00:17:34] Yeah. And that was those kind of three things together. Mm-hmm. Helped me get down to, I think I interviewed six people total.
[00:17:42] Josh: Yeah. Which is impressive to think about. You were able to narrow down to just six. Yeah. With all those submissions in there.
[00:17:49] Jess: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:50] Josh: Because I
[00:17:50] Jess: think besides the 65 I got in my inbox, I probably had another 10 or so recommendations.
[00:17:57] Yeah. Yep. Um, so yeah, it was a lot to [00:18:00] wade through. Yeah. So, you know, tho those to me were the things that stuck out. Yeah. Um, so we got to interviewing and that was a process too. Yeah,
[00:18:08] Josh: yeah. Yeah. I, I enjoyed, so I was, I think second in line after you spoke to them and you did something that was really helpful for me, which is like.
[00:18:18] CEOI don't know what I'm looking for in this role. Right. Yeah. Like I rely on, on you for that. And so you did this really cool thing after each of your interviews, which you should probably talk about what you were looking for Yeah. And how those went. But you recorded them for me and I would listen to 'em at night, like, uh, on my way to the gym or something.
[00:18:34] And then you would also put some notes of like, here's what I thought, but here's what I want you to look. For when you go speak to them as well. So you made that really easy for me to go be part of that process.
[00:18:44] Jess: Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, it was a little bit like a selfish thing for me to give that to you too, because there were still things that I didn't get to touch on in the interview and I was like, I'm gonna need Josh to suss that out a bit.
[00:18:54] Yeah, yeah. And so that was really helpful. We could kind of like play off of each other to To figure out, yeah. Like is this person the [00:19:00] right fit?
[00:19:00] Josh: What were you looking for when you were going through that first round?
[00:19:03] Jess: I was looking for someone. I think some, this is something you and I say all the time.
[00:19:07] Yeah. We want. Top 1%. Yes. Employees. Yep. I was looking for that top 1%. Yeah. I wanted someone who understood what it was like to be in a startup. Yep. Bonus points. If they understood this, this market, like yes, they're already a marketer. Yeah. But like if they've already marketed to marketers. Yeah. Big deal.
[00:19:24] Mm-hmm. Um, I wanted someone who was a great writer, not just kind of product. Marketing philosophy, right? Yeah. I think there's, there's product marketers who, um, love y'all, product marketers, but there are some of you out there who, like your job ends when the positioning document is done. Right? Right. Yeah.
[00:19:45] And I needed someone who could be a practitioner. Yep. Craft content.
[00:19:49] Josh: Yep.
[00:19:50] Jess: Great writer. Yes. Great thinker.
[00:19:52] Josh: Yeah. Which was what was really interesting when, when you brought me into the interviews, right. The, the conversations I had and everyone was great that I spoke to. It was really [00:20:00] difficult to, to narrow in the decision.
[00:20:02] It was, but it was, um, I was surprised how much the interviews were technical and tactical. Yeah. And here's how I'm using Nevada and here's my Zapier workflows. Yeah. When someone signs up, it was like a very. Uh, practitioner filled, uh, audience that was applying.
[00:20:18] Jess: Totally. That was another thing I was looking for.
[00:20:20] I wanted someone who knew how to build systems. Yeah. Use ai. Yeah. And maybe even more importantly, know when to not use ai. Yeah. Like what the limitations are and when it's not great. To use those things. Yeah. That's also really important. Mm-hmm. Um, so those were, those were really the things I was looking for.
[00:20:39] Um, and we interviewed people like across the whole spectrum of product marketing. Yeah. There were some folks, their skill was like building interactive demos. Mm-hmm. Awesome skill. Yep. I didn't think it was the thing we needed at this time. Yes. We have a free product. Yep. So people can kind of go in already Yeah.
[00:20:55] And look at the product and play around to an extent. Mm-hmm. Um, so I didn't really [00:21:00] feel like that was the top skill we needed. Yeah. Um, and then. I got to interview Alex. Mm-hmm. So the opened up, um, Alex came to us. She was recommended to us. Yeah. Um, Alex Verden was the product marketer at Metadata. Mm-hmm.
[00:21:17] Check another box. Yep. Because she understands the, you know, the marketer. Yep. Audience. That was huge. Yep. Um, the work that she had done there spoke for itself. She built these beautiful like, use case walkthroughs, which she's building for us right now. Yeah. They're stellar. I love them. Yeah. They're so detailed, right?
[00:21:34] And so it's kind of like if this is the use case you're trying to use Vector for. Yep. These are the things you need before you begin. It's almost like a recipe. It's so good. So good. It's like, these are the things you need. Yeah. Here are the steps you're going to take. Here are the outcomes you can expect.
[00:21:48] Here are the KPIs. You should be, I mean, they're beautiful, right? One, I was
[00:21:52] Josh: looking at one the other day. Even like the smallest detail of like, she has a thing where it's like you should start running this playbook like two to three weeks before the [00:22:00] campaign. Just these little like nuances of the recipe.
[00:22:02] I'm just like, chefs
[00:22:03] Jess: kiss, so good. So good. Right? And so she sent me that, that she'd worked on metadata. Um. I am friends with Mark Huber. Yeah. Who was her manager at Metadata. And so I texted him and I was like, what do you think of Alex? Yeah. And he, I, I actually said, I'm looking for top 1% marketers. Yes.
[00:22:21] And he sent, he sent me back a text that was like, she's absolutely that. That's so good. And so, yeah, I think, you know, we went through the process of interviewing her. Um, we just adored her and just knew she'd be like a great fit. Yeah. And yeah, she has crushed it. She
[00:22:36] Josh: was the one. Yeah. Speaking of the one.
[00:22:38] You, you've mentioned something, you and I speak about a bunch, which is this top 1% thing. Yeah. And I've had people come to me and say like, that's so harsh. Right? Like top 1%. And it's funny, one of like my favorite conversations to have in the interview process when you're talking to someone that's top 1% is basically saying like.
[00:22:54] You shouldn't come here. Right? Like you have so many options in front of you, right? Yeah. You can go to a [00:23:00] massive company, probably get twice the pay Yep. Of what we can afford to pay you, uh, and work less time.
[00:23:05] Jess: Yeah.
[00:23:05] Josh: And what makes top 1%, top 1% is they, they understand that and they say. No, I'm here to build something.
[00:23:12] Jess: Yeah. Right.
[00:23:13] Josh: Like I'd rather do this. Yes. Like I want control. I want ownership of the thing that I'm building. Yeah. And Alex had a lot of that, right? She did, yeah. She was
[00:23:20] Jess: very excited about the product.
[00:23:21] Josh: Yep.
[00:23:21] Jess: Some of the questions she asked in the interview about the product made me understand just how she was thinking about what she would do with that information in terms of.
[00:23:29] You know Yeah. Marketing it. Yeah. Um, and, and so that was amazing. I think top 1% marketers also, they don't just stick to their job description, right? Yes. Especially in a startup. Yes. They don't go home at the end of the day and like, oh, well I did my thing. Right. Yeah. I mean, right now we're here recording.
[00:23:47] Yeah. Alex is making sure everything is set up for this product launch tomorrow. Yep. Right. And okay. She's product marketing, she's gonna own product launches moving forward. Yeah. But like, there are things she's doing that like. Were [00:24:00] mine that she took over. Yeah. Right. She's, she's one of those people. And I think everyone that the company is one of those people that's like, yeah, what needs to be done?
[00:24:06] Give me the thing that needs be done. Exactly. And I'll take it there.
[00:24:08] Josh: Autonomy, right? Yes. Just saying, Hey, this person's not here. I am capable of doing this role. I'm gonna help them out. Yeah. It's massive.
[00:24:15] Jess: Yeah.
[00:24:15] Josh: What, um, so you already kind of blew my budget for the year 'cause I wasn't expecting that higher.
[00:24:20] Uh, what's next surprise me. What, where, what are we gonna hire next? When you gonna need it?
[00:24:24] Jess: Yeah. I don't think we're gonna need somebody for a while. Thank God. Which is, yeah. Music to your ears, I'm sure. Yep. But I think that was the point I wanted to bring someone in early on. Mm-hmm. Who could help us immensely.
[00:24:38] Yeah. And then sit for a while with that. Small team. Yeah. So between me, her, and then our agency, we spoke about them in episode one. Yep. We're gonna cover a ton of ground this year. Okay. We're gonna build an amazing content library. Yep. We're gonna make some really, um, great, I think optimizations in terms of the website, the [00:25:00] messaging, yeah.
[00:25:00] The product triggers that. Move people into purchase from free. Right? And that's really exciting. So I don't, I think we're good for a little while before we need to look for someone to help us build demand gen. That will be the next hire.
[00:25:15] Josh: You heard it here first. Go blow up, Jess. Give her your application.
[00:25:18] She's hiring. No, not yet.
[00:25:22] Jess: But come connect with me. Come connect with me on LinkedIn if you're a growth marketer. It's
[00:25:29] Josh: incredible. Very exciting. Yeah. Jess, this one was great. I loved this.
[00:25:33] Jess: It was such a good meeting. So good. This meeting could have been a podcast.
[00:25:36] Josh: Could have, but you spent all of your budget on hiring, so we can't.
[00:25:39] Jess: Sorry. Hmm. This meeting could have been a podcast as a vector. Production Vector is a contact based marketing tool that reveals your best buyers on and off your site, and lets you target them with plays tailored to their exact spot in the funnel. Our site de anonymization tool is free forever. Go give it a whirl@vector.co.[00:26:00]
[00:26:00] See you next time.