We're Hiring : Join Our Team of Product Marketers
Summary: We are seeking a new team member for our e-commerce and product development business (that’s the one that makes products like cat furniture and portable bars, among many others. We’ve also started creating software products for our customers). If you are looking for a new job that is 1) location independent and 2) will fund your entrepreneurial education and 3) will give you a great deal of responsibility and freedom to impact a business, this position could be for you.
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One interesting concept brought up in Mastering the Rockafeller Habits is that it’s common for the strengths of the business owner to become the weaknesses of the business. As leaders, it’s temping to bear the burden and take care of the things yourself, particularly when you are an expert at them.
Sometimes, being not-so-smart can be an asset. I’m not really an expert at anything in particular. I have friends who are great developers, or SEO geniuses, or artists, and for people who’s identity is wrapped up in their craft it can be a huge challenge to scale.
As much as I’d love to be the guy who thinks in tech, code, capital, or design, since I’ve started my career I’ve always thought first of teams. To me, putting people in chairs (or hammocks) has always been the name of the game.
Just a few days ago, on a phone call with Ian (my business partner) and Taylor (who manages our marketing) we came to another turning point in our business– it’s time to grow our team yet again.
All this was great for me, because I got to to spend the day getting back to my TMBA roots– writing a job ad for somebody passionate about entrepreneurship, learning, and adventure.
If you aren’t not interested in this position, but know somebody who might be, I’d appreciate you forwarding this post to them!
From the Valve employee handbook.
Job Description – Product Marketer
As a marketer in our company, you’ll have direct access to every functional area of multi-million dollar business– from concept, to manufacturing, to delivery. You’ll be in charge of managing a fleet of lead generating websites, and you’ll be tasked with cultivating those leads into loyal customers.
In order to be successful in this postion, you’ll need to be excellent at (or be willing to learn how to be excellent at) the following:
Written communications. You’ll be developing content, strategy documents, marketing emails, and procedures on a daily basis.
Identifying big wins. When it comes to information work, figuring out what not to do is just as important as deciding what to do. From team structure to website headlines, you’ll need to develop the the ability to identify the projects that will create the biggest results.
Critical thinking. We are looking for people who enjoy critically engaging their own work and the work of those around them. If the thought of people continually evaluating your work doesn’t excite you (as it doesn’t for many people), this isn’t the team for you. We are hyper critical because we love improving ourselves and we see honest engagement as the surest way to improve ourselves and our business.
Creating compelling content. You’ll be tasked with creating high impact content for our various brands.
Outreach. You’ll be connecting with online publishers and trade organizations to gain highly targeted exposure (then convert it all into sales!).
Continual learning. Our team is full of book readers, blog lurkers, and business talkers. We are always swapping ideas and taking them for test rides by running experiments in our business.
Creating profitable systems. You’ll be helping us ‘work the system‘ on a daily basis.
Computers and web technologies. You don’t need to write code, but if terms like CPANEL, DNS, HTML, CSS, SEO, Squeeze Page, and the like are unfamiliar to you, you probably don’t have the level of technical know-how we are seeking. Bonus if you are versed in Adwords, SEO, SEM, and email marketing.
Beach retreat in Mui Ne Vietnam, a bus ride away from Saigon.
The terms:
We prefer that you be based out of South East Asia. We do request that you come to Saigon for the first two months of your tenure with us. We want to hang out and work together in person. We’d prefer that you’re Asia based since we, and most of our marketing team, will be here for the rest of 2013 (at least). After an initial few months working together, you are welcome to re-locate anywhere.
You must be interested in a full time position with tons of growth potential. This is not an internship. I expect you to put your full effort into helping us grow our business. For the right person, there are a great deal of opportunities for you to increase your level of responsibility, fun, and compensation. I’m not interested in hiring people with robust side projects or businesses. I’d like somebody to work with us for a few years and help make our community something we can be proud of.
This job is not easy. This isn’t a gig for people who just want freedom and travel. It’s not for people who “hate their jobs.” It’s for people who demand to improve them. I’m all about the lifestyle stuff, but it’s my love of business and doing difficult work that pays the bills. If the prospect of hard work doesn’t excite you, this isn’t a good fit.
You’ll be working on a daily basis with Taylor, and weekly basis with Ian. The bossman still runs our e-commerce business on day to day basis, and you’ll be working closely with him as well as Taylor and a full team of people in our California office (you’ll need to be flexible with the timing of your Skype calls). You’ll have a lot of talented eyeballs on your work, and you’ll be placed right smack dab in the center of a powerful network of successful entrepreneurs.
You’ll get paid enough to live (but not much more). Until your six month review, we’ll be paying you just enough to live a nice lifestyle in a place like Saigon and still save a few bucks for travel.
Hey Manila! Travel in SEAsia is incredibly affordable and diverse. Saigon to Manila is less than $100 and only 2.5 hours.
The Standard Operating Procedures you’ll start with:
Those of you who follow this blog know that we are huge proponents of systems and processes. We’ll teach you right out of the gate how to develop and evolve the processes that are the core asset of our business. It will be clear what is expected of you. I’ll list those processes here. (I know these might not mean much to you, but I want to give the impression that we’ve got a clear idea of expectations, and that you’ll be working on processes that lead directly to revenue).
Each SOP has a ballpark cost and timing attributes which I’ve not included on this post.
Manage conversion rate optimization on e-commerce properties.
Manage blog content production and outreach.
Manage social media outreach and associated contractors.
Write site x and y’s newsletters.
Manage admin standard operating procedures. Organizing domains, SSL certification, Google Apps, invoicing, etc.
Managing phone call tracking initiative.
If this stuff doesn’t make sense, don’t worry about it. We prefer great attitudes and potential over lengthy resumes and experience. After joining our team, you’ll be trained in a broad range of skills including: SEO, content marketing, email marketing, copywriting, and A/B testing (and a huge dose of business strategy talks– I say again, if you don’t like to talk business this isn’t the gig for you).
This is precisely the type of job that got me my entrepreneurial start. This is training “at altitude.” If you manage to come out on the opposite end you’ll do so with solid training in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship along with a track record to boot (and with any luck our 7 figure business with click over to 8 figures during your tenure).
Successful candidates will see the opportunity to get paid for a world-class education in entrepreneurship, experiment and test your ideas with somebody else’s money (I was always way more ambitious with my mentors’ businesses than I am with my own, why not!?), and have a lot of fun in the process.
One of Saigon's parks (this one is right across the street from my house).
It’s easy to apply. Here’s the next steps:
Applications are due Friday July 12th, 2013.
Record a video of yourself explaining why you’d be a good fit for this job. Maximum length is 2:00.
Upload the video to Youtube, make it “unlisted.”
Complete this application form (keep that Youtube link handy).
We’ll get back to you with a decision by July 19th.
Best of luck to all who apply and thanks for checking out and sharing our job opportunities! We are looking forward to getting to work.
Cheers,
Dan
PS, if you’d like to ensure you never miss an opportunity like this in the future, please put your email into the form below: