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Product Marketing

CEO Daily Update – 5.20.2020

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We’re Hiring for Product Marketing | Website Update | Sanitizer and Dispenser Combo | Prayer Update

Happy Thursday!  

Welcome to the CablesAndKits CEO daily email. Read more about this email by scrolling to the very bottom. 

Did you hear that the zip lock bag broke up with the Saran wrap? Too clingy.  

I make up and say dumb jokes all the time. Sometimes I get lucky and find a funny one. Me and the family went to Chili’s for dinner tonight. The server took my order – a steak with salad. I asked for balsamic vinaigrette dressing. She said “how do you want that cooked?”. I said “you cook the vinaigrette?” She laughed. My wife just stared at me. She said I was like Burt in Mary Poppins with the entire band of instruments on his back – I can make the jokes, say the jokes, and laugh at the jokes and I don’t even need anyone else. Haha … she’s right. As long as I have fun telling the joke I don’t think I care if anyone else laughs :-D.  

I think I find the greatest joy in finding the humor in everything, and I mean everything. My mind instantly goes to a movie scene, a comedy routine, or just the irony or pun hiding in everything. I do everything else because I have to – haha. I think in another life I would have been a writer in a comedy series or an actor in an ensemble group like Seinfeld. I would have been Kramer … maybe Jerry but let’s not get too big headed. 

Sometimes I encounter people and I think “Why so serious? You’re gonna blow a gasket. Ease up … find something to laugh about”. I cannot imagine a life where there wasn’t comedy. I cannot go a day without making a joke or a movie reference or observing a pun. Ask anyone around me. In fact (here comes a movie reference), in meetings, if I observe or think of something funny I will almost always interrupt the meeting to make the joke. Sometimes I have to contain myself but it’s a lot like this if I do ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDsgkRW2hDA 

“No toon can resist the old shave and a haircut”. I cannot resist telling a joke or pointing out a pun. If I worked in corporate America I am sure I would have been fired 10 times by now. I’m sure my leadership team fantasizes about firing me all the time, or worse.  

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CEO Daily Update – 7.22.2020

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Product Managers…Change Shortage…and a Missing Joe…
Oh My!

Happy HUUUUUMMMMPPP DAAAAAAAAAYYY!

I can’t believe it is the middle of the week already. The first two days of my work week went by in a flash. Lots of fun though …. We are working on SO many cool new products. So much fun. Child face masks, washable fabric face masks in child, kid, and adult sizes, UV light wands, hand sanitizer advertising kiosks, and sock puppets (just making sure you’re listening), among other things. I am having so much fun being involved in product development, and I hope you are enjoying / finding value in the things we work on / launch. More to come soon as we get closer to launching some of these new products.

As a leadership team, one of the main strategic things we have been working on over the last several months is building what we call product management and specifically product marketing disciplines and roles. The idea of product management is having someone focused on understanding our customers and their needs, our competitors, and what the market is saying we need to work on including new products and new channels to market. Depending on how many total product lines we have at the time we will have several product managers focused on different customer segments and product groups. Within each product group will be product marketers, who own lists of products and are responsible for the overall sales, profit, and inventory health of that list of products.

In the past we have had exactly zero product managers or product marketers. Now that we have made this a focus we have someone leading the charge of building the team (Rebecca, nicknamed Rerun), and one dedicated product marketer (Joe), who oversees safety supplies. We have been working together weekly to figure out our reporting and the rhythms of the role, and are already working on hiring our next product marketer who will be over fiber cabling. From there we will hire others for Ethernet, Transceivers, Switches, etc. What that means is that as we hire new people to focus on these areas, the products will begin to receive the day to day attention they deserve – and that you deserve as a customer!

I just thought I would share a little about our strategy while it was on my mind. Maybe you find it interesting or useful!

So apparently, we have a change shortage. A CHANGE shortage. Due to a variety of proverbial trains going off the tracks, we are struggling to have enough change … (CHANGE!) to do business. https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/07/20/is-there-really-a-coin-shortage/#4dd4f3e1f0a3

I cannot decide how to feel.

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