James: James Schramko here from SuperFastBusiness.com and as is often the case lately, I’m having a chat with John Lint from 10XPRO.io. Hey, John!
John: Hey, hi, how are you?
James: Good. Now, you’re a busy guy, you’ve got your software program. 10XPRO.io is the best platform in the world for funnels, courses, memberships, etc. And it’s growing quickly, we’re getting a lot more users come along, we’ve been talking about it on these videos. And we’ve done a few podcasts and users are getting results, which means they stick around and as you add more users, the userbase grows. And over time you get feature requests.
Now, we’ve talked on previous episodes about how it does quizzes better than the quiz funnel softwares out there, that it does segmentation, that it does deadline funnels, that it has up-sells and down-sells and cross-sells and pixels on pages and technical advancements that even I don’t know how to explain; it’s there.
But obviously, at some point, you’ve rolled these features into the program. So what I’m interested in, and I get this question a fair bit, is how do you organize your projects so that you know what’s coming down the line and you stay on top of it with your team without getting overloaded and overwhelmed, and out of control? So what kind of system or process does John Lint use to make 10XPRO the amazing tool that it is?
John: Okay, cool. Well, I always try to keep things simple, alright? In the past, I tried a bunch of different tools. And when we think about different projects that people work on, you can use a ton of different softwares that have all the bells and whistles, and you can do crazy amount of meetings, if you are working in a corporate environment like I used to more than 12 years ago now, bunch of meetings, talk about stuff, bunch of tools that you need to learn.
A couple of things that are really important for me is speed. Speed is super important. You can talk to all the 10XPRO.io members, they will tell you, that’s the main thing that they love. Like, you know, if someone is going to tell me about a really cool feature, and I get excited about it, you can bet that this feature is going to probably be ready in a few weeks. It’s not going to take a month, 6 months or a year. It’s going to be there in a few weeks, right? Because speed is one of the core values and one of the things that we really want to do.
But, of course, we get a ton of requests, so we need to prioritize. When it comes to tools, I try to keep it super easy, because that way, everybody that comes on board can really get going very fast. We don’t need to learn something crazy. So to be honest, we use Trello for managing the tasks, Trello.com. It’s a free software, by the way. Anybody can get started today. And then we use Google Docs for all the documentation. And I also use, in terms of communication tools, I’m on Skype with my team. I know that a lot of people like to use Slack, I don’t use Slack, I use Skype because I’ve been using it for a long time. And it’s just super easy for me, it allows me to really use it well. So these are the 3 tools, Skype, Google Docs, and Trello.
When it comes to like features, we put everything on Trello. We have columns, one that says ideas, the other one that says to do, doing now, done. Very simple. Very simple like that. Yeah. And ideas, basically, everytime I have an idea or a client requests a feature, it goes into ideas. Then the process, I look at those things, and I prioritize the one that will help people the fastest. It’s all about again, speed.
But now I look at it from a “what is going to benefit our members the fastest?” For example, maybe James Schramko asked me this feature that is really going to be important for SFB members, that is high priority. I’m thinking hey, if we do this one task, we can please X amount of people, right? Or we can attract X amount of more people. That increases the value of that ticket, of that task, right?
James: So you are using 80/20 there? Not all jobs are equal? Some are more important than others.
John: Exactly, right? And another analogy will be big rocks first, right? The big important things, the little tasks that are going to get the most results. Sometimes it’s just like, there’s a very important client that comes in and they’re kind of maybe checking out or maybe there’s a little feature that is needed, something that can be done fast, this is going to be a priority. All of these things get a certain priority. And then we just assign them to the team. They go through the process, they move it to doing when they’re working on it. And then when it’s done, they go to done, very simple that way.
But I think the most important thing is being able to decide this is a worthwhile task and this is not something that is needed right now or urgent right now. And that is going to be the hard part as a creator of any software, especially when you are talking to other members. Because there’s going to be that balance between pleasing some members and other ones are going to be like, hey, but what happened to the one I requested before?
Obviously, we can’t do everything at once. So everything can be done in terms of features when it comes to any project. But then you are, as the decision maker, you need decide, first, based on your vision of what the software should do, then okay, is that aligned? Is that aligned to the end goal of that software? You know, or that tool or whatever you’re creating. And if the answer is yes, well, then it’s all about prioritizing which one can we get the most results out of as fast as possible.
Yeah, that would be really my tips when it comes to managing your different tasks. I tried to keep it super simple, like I said in tools, ideas, it’s pen and paper for me. You know, I usually get ideas when I’m out and about, I write them down. And then, you know, just Trello Google Docs, and Skype. That’s all I use. I’ve been using that for more than 10 years. We’ve developed seven-figure software with that, never failed us.
Another very important part though that I have to say, is also the team members that you attract. And the way that they communicate. Communication is key, I am able to use very few tools and very simple processes because I have a team that has been with me for pretty much more than seven years now, almost 10 years actually. I’ve seen their baby grow old and so it’s really guys that we work really well together. And that took time. At the beginning, of course, like everybody, I found some developers, didn’t work out. You send them a message, you never hear back from them, or a few hours later, they say yes, when you ask a basic question. You can’t work that way. At least, I can’t work that way, you know?
So we work in that team where we have great communication and we know what each one needs to do. And then we use very simple processes to just keep everything lean and fast. And that is what makes us different. And that’s why people are switching to us, to be honest. And that’s why they are so frustrated with other tools out there.
The famous ones that I’m sure everybody knows about, they have heard of them. But they get frustrated because they ask something to support, it’s usually a bot not even a real person. Platforms love to use that these days. Chatting bots where you can send a question, there’s a little robot that answers a canned question. I hate that. I will never have that. I’d rather hire more people in my support. And that’s what we do. We try to cover 24/7. Obviously, they need to take their lunch break. But it’s a real human being. Not some kind of software that has pre-programmed answers.
In terms of getting things done, because we are so fast and lean, we’re able to develop those things that most other platforms will take months or not even get back to you about, hey, we can’t really do that right now. So yeah, that’s how we do it.
James: Well, it’s good to hear that common theme, you know, I’ve got team members coming up to 10 years now. And I make a note in our weekly meeting to ask them about things or to tell them about new initiatives. And one thing I do as the business owner is I’ll hold things back from them, so that they’re only working with enough at a time. And because I asked them for a traffic light report, green, yellow or red, I know how busy they are. I’m not going to load another task on to a team member who’s orange or yellow or approaching red, and I’ll hold back.
But also it’s knowing the right person to give the task to. And also, I know that from the stats that we get, I get sent a weekly summary from Slack that the bulk of messages, over 90% of messages in our business are one-to-one communications, so they’re chatting. So, you have the right team members and they’ll coordinate behind the scenes in the grapevine and they’ll just make it happen.
But it’s important as the business owner, to give the right task to the right person at the right time, to have realistic expectations, to communicate clearly, to explain what your vision of the perfect outcome might be and let people stretch and show initiative and fill it in. When I have a big, big initiative and there’s not many, I might put a pink post-it note on my whiteboard over here. I’ve only got three there. Three things. That’s it. The rest, I don’t have a to-do list. I don’t have any other project management tool. I just know what’s important because I’m speaking to my customers every single day.
And that’s what makes you special, John. You talk to your customers all the time. And you talk to people like me all the time. And anything that I find that’s useful that I asked you about, you’re already all over it. So keep doing that. The innovation and the great team is how you’re able to get things done so quickly. You know, I remember asking, my two carts ago, I asked for a feature that after seven or eight years, they still haven’t done and they wanted me to pay for the development of it as well. It’s like, that’s such a contrast to the way you operate. So keep being awesome.
James Schramko here chatting with my mate, John Lint, from 10XPRO.io. Thank you for sharing your productivity tips. And if you’ve got a question about how John runs his business or how I’m doing things, by all means, ask your question right where you see this video, whether it’s on LinkedIn or Facebook or YouTube or on the SuperFastBusiness website, or on John’s website. We man our chat and we’ll keep an eye on the questions there. And let us know what you’d like to hear about for a future episode.
Thank you so much.
John: Thank you.
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