Oct 1, 2021
Anonymous employee
ProfitWell Response
4yHey there - PC (CEO of ProfitWell) here. You didn't have a great experience and since I'm at the helm, I wanted to respond directly. My goal here isn't to debate, but to provide some context. Ultimately clear communication and alignment is on me, so apologies you left with a bad impression.
Let's start with some specifics:
*COVID Furlough*
We furloughed 9 people as a precaution in April 2020. We gave the option of severance and ensured all had health insurance, unemployment benefits, etc. It was the hardest thing we've dealt with and obviously much harder for people furloughed. Within 8 months those furloughed had either started new jobs or were in roles we weren't bringing back. Communication was transparent internally and with this group, but that didn't make it any easier for anyone who wanted to come back.
*Tulum Retreat*
Nearly 2 years after COVID started we decided it was important to get our team safely together again. A big part of our team is outside the US and can't get VISAs because of closed consulates, so we needed a non-US location. Tulum seems fancy, but this retreat is the cheapest retreat we've had, costing us less than the cost of a full-time team member (to put it in the perspective you expressed).
*Van tour*
During COVID my family decided to work on a project together, so we bought a camper van. As travel picked back up, our growth team wanted to do safe, in-person events. I suggested I could travel in the van to save us money on hotels and we could make it a cool marketing campaign. ProfitWell didn't pay for anything except the branded wrap and a few production items.
Hopefully that clears those specifics up. In terms of the "PC show" and content being about my brand, let's take a step back. Something you may not know is that up until recently I was running all content operations with responsibility for timelines, goals, execution, etc. Without that context, I suppose you could have a very negative interpretation of this being an ego exercise, but the goal is to eliminate me completely. We published publicly this internal doc from 4 years ago that walks through our path and strategy here: https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/pth-b-side-hubspot-and-the-hustle
To summarize, here are the basic stages:
*Stage 0*
Just me writing 1-2 articles per week, doing all ideation, writing, editing, etc. I was the sole marketer for years in addition to running the Pricing Team and dealing with all kinds of fires that occur with being a founder/ceo.
*Stage 1*
Here we formed the foundation of our media team, which involved outsourcing SEO posts which were ghosted for me (and now are ghosted for our other writers) and then hiring our first producer. I did all editorial and writing. He did all production. It was just him and me for a long time.
*Stage 2*
We're currently in this stage, producing multiple audience building shows for the different issue areas and verticals we target. Some of these shows are heavily scripted and some are more off-the-cuff.
Why am I so involved still here? 2 reasons.
1. We produce expertise, data laden content. I'm currently the only person with subject matter expertise on the content team, which means I pull data, review what's produced, etc. We haven't had luck taking inexperienced writers or those with minimal industry experience and getting them to take over at the quality we require. Thankfully, we've finally grown into a position where we can prioritize hiring those who fit these requirements.
2. We don't have a big team for the amount of content we produce. We're a team of 5 people who do graphics, writing, editing, producing, capturing, etc for an avg of 8 pieces of long form, data laden content per week. This is unheard of in our industry. To achieve this our path of least resistance is to produce content that's either very structured through contractors (our SEO content) or content that's very easy to turn the camera on and let it rip, which is content that typically has me in it because I have a lot of subject matter expertise and am the one pulling our data.
Obviously this isn't sustainable, which is why we're actively working on getting to stage 3. One way we're bridging to this is with heavy scripting. I can review or write scripts for others who can then be the "face" of the show. PW Report and Boxed Out don't have me in them at all now, but I'm still doing the scripts.
*Stage 4*
Here I'll be involved in shows, but will be out of the week to week completely. We'll also have at least four other "faces of the brand". The goal is to be here by mid-2022 with those new writers.
Maybe you didn't have this context or maybe you're taking the least charitable interpretation because you're hurt from your experience or maybe you just don't think we're moving fast enough. All aren't great and that's on me. Hopefully this clears some of this up though, but if you ever want to chat through things, let me know. Here to help.