Episode 7: Growing The Team

Will McLellarn -

What's good YouTube?!? We are back with another episode of the 2024 YouTube/ Writing effort...I'm going to call them episodes because, why not?

To begin, let's start with the ONE thing - where are we with the partner app? We are at the finish line, just 2 things remain. I've already scheduled time to finish those items today, push to production, and that will be that. Pumped! That's shipped product 1 of 2024.

Wins aside, we need to push the pace still, 1 is not enough. 10 is probably not enough. What does that mean in terms of habits and actions? Not too much change, just smaller scopes. I'm still taking most mornings to grind on all things general.dev. Can't forget to keep the lights on, just signed another solid deal for Cardinal eCom. That business is becoming a machine, and as that machine matures, it should be more self-sustaining.

On that machine, it's a big day for Cardinal eCom, as we are officially growing the team by another member. Today, we go from 2 to 3 people, which feels weirdly significant. My gut tells me we'll be 4 people in no time. I'm super pumped, not only for the business but to contribute to my team, to lead, to grow all our skills together.

I've built out a Goals dashboard for the business using a custom Notion integration with Mercury Bank (happy to share if anyone wants), and I'm going to share our numbers with the team. Feb revenue has been off to a slightly slow start, and it's frankly a little embarrassing. But who cares - transparency is vital. We will all rally around the goal and make it happen.

I know I'm also putting more pressure on myself to crush business development and keep us all busy. Bring it on. Bringing on a non-technical person also means leading and managing differently. I really look forward to the challenge.

It often feels like I need to be two people at once:

  1. CEO of Cardinal eCom, running the agency, managing the team, growing the business
  2. Indiehacker at General.Dev, ideating, coding, launching products

It's true, I accept these roles. I love the concept of the "unreasonable and". I use the same framework approaching where I want to live.

Sometimes a friend will ask - "Are you planning on living in the USA or Mexico?".

I'll reply: "There's no or, it's and. The USA and Mexico."

I know it's an imperfect approach, but I like it. Bringing in A+ talent to Cardinal eCom, like the person starting today, means I can find better balance across my two companies. Because shipping is the answer to all my problems.

Time to get to it.

🚀 - Will