Codex Audentia

This codex post is about how I’ll design the webpage for each episode of the Age of AI Podcast.

The key thing to understand is that these posts will become (by intention) the biggest source of traffic to the company website, and are therefore a crucial part of the business funnel. How I handle and guide the traffic coming to the page will decide how we find customers as a company, so it makes sense to put some thought into how each page will be setup.

Here’s what I’m thinking right now:

1. It needs to provide value, while branding us as trustworthy, reliable experts
2. It needs to convey clearly what we do as a company
3. It needs to direct the right people to other high-converting, trust-building pages on the website
4. It needs to get people on our newsletter, or subscribe to our podcast

Let’s draft a rough ideal storyboard

1. Prospect discovers post on social media
   “Oh that’s my acquaintance, let me check it out” / “Interesting title and topic, let me check it out”
2. “I have no idea what to expect, but I’m short on time.”
3. Person gets a quick “pitch” up front, that entices them to listen to the episode.
4. Person finds some links to listen to the episode in different places. They also see the option of seeing a short summary or reading the transcript!
5. If the person doesn’t understand certain topics, they get links to educational content explaining those things.
6. Person sees my summary and comments, which are thought-provoking, and are then enticed to sign up for my mailing list which promises similar high-quality content in their inbox, regularly.

Desired end result:

“This was really good content and this person seems to know what he’s talking about; I should sign up to their email list and also check out what they do!”

Going back to my roots

I never set out to please people, but to teach them, and to speak out my opinions.

Why don’t I just write stuff that’s interesting and educational? And let people decide for themselves whether they agree or not?

There is nothing to hide, and nothing to protect against.

So, what is the “valuable” educational content?

• AI is changing which industry?
• What’s the story? What’s really going on? What’s the value of the problem?
• Technical details: why ML is a good solution, what is challenging
• Honest thoughts and food for thought

It’s time to design a new home page. Here’s what the old one looks like:

Needless to say, it’s time for an upgrade. I don’t think that the customers I’m trying to attract will find this very legitimate or give off the “world-class” feel I’m looking for.

Process comes first

How do we go about it?

First, it’s important to set a goal. What are we trying to accomplish here and how does this fit?

• The landing page should give an introduction and “anchor” our brand, for anyone who’s curious about what the company does. It’s not a sales page.
• How would target customers and influencers arrive on our landing page?
  • Read about ME on LinkedIn and curious what my company does
  • Consume some content that links to it
  • Read an email we sent them
• What do we want them to do next?
  • If they know nothing about us: anchor our brand and add value — divert them towards our content.
  • If they’ve already consumed our content: get them curious about working with us, and divert them towards a sales page. Reassure.
• How to do it?
  • Visitors are more likely to know about us through ads or content marketing. OR, they’re looking to understand WTF we do. So diverting them towards sales pages comes first, and content second.
  • Explain in crisp terms, who we serve, what we do.
  • Don’t be needy. We’re teachers, and we teach. We are THE experts and expect to be treated as such. All selling is a transference of energy. Transfer the right energy.
  • First capture the emotion inside the visitor’s head. Then paint a different vision. Make a PROMISE, based on a BIG IDEA.
  • Promises to non-technical CEOs/leaders: emotional and logical

THE PROMISE

The promise is a BENEFIT to the consumer. It must be unique and competitive.

• Emotional promise: Confidence
• Logical promise: Competitive advantage, higher margins

Forced brainstorming: 15 ideas. Some will be terrible and some might be good, but it doesn’t matter.

1. Higher margins
2. Save time in sales meetings
3. Save time in product discussions
4. Feel confident while leading engineers
5. Feel confident when investors or employees question you
6. Never be afraid to ask questions or challenge engineers
7. Never be awkward in technical meetings
8. Save money while working with dev firms etc
9. Save money for the whole company by making better choices
10. Feeling reassured and safe about the big technical choices they make
11. Get a refreshing new direction for their company
12. Be more reassured and secure about the future, less worry
13. More trust in the team and happiness at work
14. Save frustration and energy when people don’t understand you and vice versa
15. Don’t ever get bullied or sidelined by an engineer
16. Take ownership of your company’s big moves into the future
17. Don’t let a lack of knowledge burn your bank account
18. Save you from regret of making jackass mistakes that cost your company
19. Avoid company-destroying mistakes
20. Knowledge is the ultimate insurance — which makes the greatest insurance company for CEOs
21. We give you the feeling that you’re never alone.
22. Being a CEO is lonely. We will stand with you.
23. Be seen and acknowledged as your company’s future leader, not just the past/current one
24. Be acknowledged by the engineers
25. Be a more confident leader
26. We help companies adopt AI. I’m a self-driving trucks engineer, also built robotic humanoid assistants, and a worldwide recognized AI educator.
27. Help you avoid hiring the wrong CTO/engineers.

BIG IDEA

A big idea is what makes copy REMARKABLE. It jolts the customer to take NOTICE. It is SIMPLE but MEMORABLE.

Without a big idea, your message will pass like a fart in the wind.

What are some candidates for our big idea? Let’s do a forced brainstorming — 25 ideas.

• Do you want to be (seen as) the past or the future of your company?
• Tame AI before it tames you.
• An executive looking stupid?
• Powerful female CEO on the cover?

Another good way is to broaden the horizon — go on a “safari” and see what’s possible out there.

I wonder how I could provide my team with the training they need.

Major areas:

1. Negotiation and collaboration
2. Job-related skills and knowledge
3. Things that would accelerate their career in general
4. Personal growth and well-being

Negotiation

Black Swan method by Chris Voss. The most effective I’ve found yet. Ship a copy of the book to every new team member and see if they learned anything from it. Also the Vimeo uploads by this user: https://vimeo.com/user104273425

Things that accelerate their career in general

Writing good emails. Speaking more clearly. Sales and marketing. I can share with them:

• The 10-day MBA
• Ebooks that changed my life and career (especially Seth Godin)

Personal growth and well-being

More ad-hoc. If someone wants to learn meditation, Judo, art, a foreign language, whatever. But not sure how to budget for it in a way that’s simple yet effective.

SANPRAM needs its first recruiting page. Let’s chart out what the page will look like.

Hiring Philosophy

1. Trust is foremost
2. Root for their success
3. Look for students of their craft – the very best way to see if someone’s really fit for a role or not.
4. Hire happy people – no complainers
5. Be welcoming to everyone

Audience

1. People who want to try something unique, adventurous
2. Motivated to learn new things and succeed
3. May be frustrated with job/internship hunting (not sure what they’re good for, ignored/ghosted by recruiters, impostor syndrome, submitting resumes etc)
4. Want to be given a chance, responsibility
5. Want to do great work
6. Heart of a teacher
7. Enjoys reading? (because I write a lot)

Job posts

• Build empathy
• Talk about the work itself, not the requirements you’re assuming
• Paint a picture of what it would be like to work here
• Describe clearly what they can expect from the process
• Don’t make “applying” a trivial thing.
• No resumes/CVs/cover letters. I don’t care.
• Encourages them to share their obsessions/side projects, not what they’ve done before.
• Send them a nice audio/video message while rejecting. Script it nicely to be encouraging and at least slightly personalized, instead of general and fake.

Messaging

• Have a hook (catch their attention)
• Remarkable, trustworthy, targeted

Remarkable

1. No resumes/CVs/unrealistic experience demands
2. Acknowledges that job hunting and career decision making is hard
3. Be sincere
4. Talk about them more than ourselves

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

High level sales areas:

1. Event tickets
2. Training programs for employees
3. 1:1 coaching program for leaders
4. Book sales

Action Areas

1. Event research, generate ideas for lectures, lecture preparation, getting guest speakers, promotion (social media and cold calls), delivery, follow up with participants
2. B2B and in-person sales: add products to website, do networking at scale, get contacts and upload to CRM, call, voicemail, email, follow up on social media and email 5x, conduct interview, keep in touch
3. 1:1 coaching programs: find on social media and online portals, engage, produce content, do webinars, podcast outreach, record podcast, post-production, publish, make clips and promote on social media, and further growth through connecting with people on social.
4. Book sales: write the book, keep interviewees in touch, grow an email list, reach out to appear on podcasts, make book marketing materials, promote book through affiliates in multiple countries. Engage on social media.
5. Creating reports about the industry: doing more research and analysis, writing the report, identifying journalists who would be interested and emailing them, promoting the reports through press releases.

Doing events is the most important – that’s direct sales. SANPRAM might become a company that’s primarily known for events, interviews and reports. And the coaching/training will come through the prospecting.

Priority List of Tasks

1. B2B leads data wrangling, email and phone follow ups – EA
2. Relationship nurturing after interviews: email, social media – EA
3. Podcast post production – Digital Media
4. Reaching out to podcast hosts – Marketing/BD
5. CEO guest research and outreach – Marketing/BD
6. Content creation, lead generation and strategy for social media – Social Media, Creative Writer, Digital Media
7. Events – Marketing/BD, Social Media
8. Reports – Journalist/Writer

Structure of job descriptions

Empathy building:

• They want to know if the job is worth applying for (what are their chances, is it a cool job, does it pay well)
• They want to move as quickly as possible.
• They’re tired of being rejected and of applying, and wondering “what went wrong.”
• For an unpaid position, they’ll only do it if they think it’s great for building their resume and lead to a better job down the line.
  • Companies want you to put down REAL tangible results in your resume. They won’t take chances on someone with no experience.
• They may not be sure about their chosen career path.

Goals:

• It’s a company of adventurers and open-minded people.
• Clearly answer what’s in it for them if they take the job.
  • Being able to visualize what they’ll gain on their resume.
  • Able to visualize what they’ll be doing, and how it will feel like.
  • Who the manager is and what the management style is like.
• Say that it’s an unpaid position. Also say that it will give them a lot of responsibility and we’ll invest a lot of time into them. What our beliefs about “internships” are.
• Put a face on the job description.

Structure of each job post:

• Intro
  • (External) What the company does, what we’re looking for, why we’re different. We know job hunting sucks, and we care: No resumes, no cover letters, no ghosting after interviews.
  • The importance of the position in the company
• The Role / Responsibilities
  • What they’re expected to OWN
  • What tasks would look like (what exactly I would ask them to do, and how they would be trained)
  • What are the challenges of the job – reading/writing a lot, making quick and dirty reports and presentations, (clear > beautiful)
  • Learning potential and unique benefits
  • Career growth
• Should you apply? / How we hire
  • Empathy: they don’t need to be an expert in day one, but they HAVE to be interested.
  • Ask if they’d be okay with challenges like XYZ (to be able to visualize themselves in the role)
  • It’s an unpaid position, and it’s a lot of responsibility/ownership of results. We can’t compete on salaries anyway. If they’re crunched on money, and they don’t want a rigorous internship, they probably don’t want this. Or they should apply but keep looking.
• How to apply
  • We want them to do some research and submit a form (should be as closely related to the job as possible)
  • Our hiring philosophy: be a student of your craft, be happy, be motivated to do a good job.

Goals

• Attract people who are students of their trade
• People who want to try new things
• People who are nice and honest
• People who want to make a mark
• Good communication skills

What we can offer to such people

• Ownership and freedom to experiment
• Being recognized and celebrated
• Supportive team and clean culture
• Variety of work
• Ability to hone their craft

What candidates may be concerned about

• Not knowing if they’re good or not
• Not knowing if they’ll get selected
• Tired of applying and not hearing back?

Structure

Build trust, be remarkable, be encouraging

What does every internship post do?

• Show how cool the company is
• Talk about the competitive nature
• Promise a great career start

Goals of the page:

1. Establish the brand of SANPRAM and myself
2. Get guests excited about being on the podcast/show
3. Get listeners excited about tuning in

Don’t just make it like an Anchor webpage – give it more personality!

The page should have more things than the average podcast page. Like a description and what makes it unique. Without useful stuff, nobody will remember it!

Who is the target guest/customer?

• A true student of business
• Enjoys discussing and sharing knowledge
• Not very shy
• Has a good sense of humor
• Wants to learn and get better.
• Willing to invest in themselves and their company.
• A “promising” CEO

Accusation audit:

• There are a thousand business podcasts out there
• A lot of motivation, coaching, advice, founder stories of success and struggle
• Or a deep dive into a single topic or industry
• This show is Discovery Channel, Freakonomics and Business School all in one.

What someone gets out of our podcast.

• Have you ever wondered why X, Y, Z?
• There are so many industries, and we have no idea how they work. The world around us is a mystery.
• Deep dive into a new industry every week – guided by none other than someone trying to disrupt it. The best tour guide of any industry, is the one trying to conquer it. Learn about different industries and markets, by the very entrepreneurs trying to disrupt them.