One eye on the horizon | Morgan Strong | Ep. 107

[JP] (0:00 - 0:26)

So I did used to work in construction a bit with my uncle when I was younger. So I do have a taste for lifting sheet rock. You know what I mean?

Just used to have me doing that by myself. You know what I mean? I'm like 10 years old.

Yeah. Taste for it. 10 years old?

Yeah. Cause it got in my mouth. You know what I mean?

But, um, Oh my gosh. Sorry. Please.

[Dillon] (0:27 - 0:49)

What's up lifers and welcome to The Daily Standup with lifetime value where we're giving you fresh new customer success ideas every single day. I got my man, Rob here. Rob, you want to say hi?

What's up value builders? And we've got JP here. There he goes again.

We've got JP here. JP, do you want to say hi?

[JP] (0:51 - 0:52)

Dumps like a truck, baby. What's up?

[Dillon] (0:55 - 0:59)

And we've got Morgan here. Morgan, can you please say hi normally?

[Morgan] (0:59 - 1:02)

Hello everyone. Thank you so much.

[Dillon] (1:02 - 1:09)

Thank you. And I am your host. My name is Dillon Young.

Morgan, thank you so much for being here. Will you introduce yourself please?

[Morgan] (1:10 - 1:19)

Of course. Yeah. My name is Morgan strong.

I'm currently head of CS at project mark, the CRM specifically for the construction industry. If you haven't caught that already.

[Dillon] (1:19 - 1:19)

Yes.

[Morgan] (1:20 - 1:32)

I come to project mark from the property management world, as well as the real estate tech world. So I've been a little bit around the block in terms of being in the real estate world. So I've been excited to be in the construction industry for the last year or so.

[Dillon] (1:35 - 1:41)

Interesting. I sense, I don't know if that was bitterness at the end there when you said, I'm really happy to be in construction.

[Morgan] (1:42 - 1:49)

I've been loving it. It's nice to be in an industry that's still adjacent to real estate, but a whole different facet of it as well. So.

[Dillon] (1:50 - 2:00)

Pretty cool. Pretty cool. All right.

Well, you know what we do here? We ask one simple question of every single guest and that is what is on your mind when it comes to customer success. So why don't you tell us what that is?

[Morgan] (2:00 - 2:26)

Yeah. Today on my mind is definitely onboarding implementation. Since I'm head of CS, I am solo right now at our startup.

So I like to really spend a lot of time on my onboarding implementation processes. As we all know, a positive implementation usually results in a renewal or a happy customer. So when I'm thinking of where to spend my time as a solo CS leader, it's definitely focusing on those implementation onboarding processes.

[Dillon] (2:27 - 2:32)

It's not forgotten password tickets? That's not the highest value activity you can do?

[Morgan] (2:32 - 2:35)

Not the most reward for the time spent, right?

[Dillon] (2:37 - 2:44)

Okay. Noted. It's all about the process for you then.

Is that's the hill you want to die on is making sure that process is locked tight?

[Morgan] (2:45 - 3:01)

Not so much. Not so much. I like to be a bit iterative with it, making sure that we're at least getting, we're holding each other accountable along the process.

The process is more so just the time to launch or time to first value more so than the actual strict process A, B, and C.

[Dillon] (3:02 - 3:06)

JP, what does that make you think of or what questions does it stir up for you?

[JP] (3:08 - 3:47)

Yeah. I'm curious. So I did used to work in construction a bit with my uncle when I was younger.

So I do have a taste for lifted sheet rock. You know what I mean? Just used to have me doing that by myself.

You know what I mean? I'm like 10 years old. Yeah.

Taste for it. 10 years old? Yeah.

Cause it got in my mouth. You know what I mean? But Morgan, yeah.

I'm interested in, I think I'm interested a bit more in you being a solo CS leader. I feel like we haven't really had that as much on our show. I feel like it would be good for you to maybe talk about what some of those unique challenges or rewards there are for you being a solo CS leader.

[Morgan] (3:48 - 4:23)

Yeah, definitely. I'm someone who really enjoys having my hand in a lot of buckets. So naturally I like being the solo CS leader.

It's a great position for someone who likes to collaborate across multiple departments because uniquely we're not only the voice of the customer, we're also the one handling the customer day-to-day. We need to make sure we're able to convey that to other departments, ensure that we're all focusing on the right stuff. So I like that I get that mix of day-to-day interactions with customers, working on things like building out our CS team and processes, as well as getting to collaborate internally with product, engineering, sales, the whole nine yards.

[Dillon] (4:25 - 4:28)

You put such a nice spin on it, Morgan.

[Morgan] (4:28 - 4:32)

I make it sound really fun and exciting. Not as challenging as it usually is.

[Dillon] (4:33 - 5:06)

Cause I've also been there, but I'm a pessimist. So I feel like I can't get to all the work I've got to do in a day, but it's cool to be there at the ground level, right? Assuming being that you'll be able to build a team eventually.

So you get to constantly be looking out at the horizon as you build these processes of, I can't wait to see somebody succeed with this process, blah, blah, blah. It can be really painful in the meantime, cause you're trying to build the plane while you're flying it, blah, blah, blah. Rob, I would love to hear your opinion on all of this and your experience with it in the past.

[Rob] (5:07 - 5:46)

Yeah. Well, experience-wise, Morgan, I feel like you are the person that I wish I was when I was also in that solo leader position, particularly working in PropTech. Cause similar to you, that's, I try as hard as I can to get away from PropTech and it just pulls me back in.

But one of the interesting things I want to pick your brain on, it's, I feel like it's a decade old problem for me, is when I'm in that position of being the solo CS leader, it's so hard to manage my calendar proactively and to build my calendar in such a way that I can focus on the proactive client motions. And you've got a better grip on that than I ever did when I was running solo. So I'm curious just to get your take on that.

[Morgan] (5:47 - 6:36)

Yeah. I feel like it's radical prioritization. How can I ensure that what I'm doing is actually going to deliver both short and long-term for myself?

Obviously we know we need to handle those things like support tickets, day-to-day fires, that's just part of the job, but making sure that we're slotting out of an hour, even a week for just some strategy time, that hour will go so much further than you'd ever imagine because we're spending all 40 doing these really reactive items. If we can even just pull back for an hour, I think we actually get better at those reactive items as well, because we're thinking more forward. We're thinking about how these will serve our proactive plans rather than just being stressed, overwhelmed that we have so much going on, knowing that, hey, I support ticket waiting until tomorrow so I can focus on something much bigger that's going to propel us forward a few weeks.

That to me is a bit more important priority-wise.

[Rob] (6:38 - 7:14)

Yeah, that's super meaningful. When I started to build up a team from being in a similar position, one thing we did, which was really hard, we were so strapped for bandwidth, we decided for a period of time we were going to give certain people days where they did not come into the office, they did not log in, they did not, and it wasn't for them to just take off. It was for them to think strategically, build process, and people would come back rejuvenated and excited.

They'd have a work product that was finished, and they were like, I've been waiting for months to get to this. I know that's a step further, but hopefully that'll help paint the picture of what the next phase looks like once you've got a few other folks on your team.

[Morgan] (7:15 - 7:39)

100%. In previous roles, we've had focused Fridays where there's no internal meetings on Fridays. Obviously, do your best with the external, but we felt the same way.

You feel rejuvenated. It doesn't feel so much like a vacation rejuvenation, but it gives you time to pull back and remind yourself how you enjoy the role, why you're in this role being solo and dealing with all this reactive stuff, and again, focusing on that horizon for the future.

[Rob] (7:40 - 7:47)

I like that. Meditation Mondays, time out Tuesdays, meeting Wednesdays, 20 hours with me, I don't know.

[Dillon] (7:48 - 8:24)

Rob, I think you said elegantly what I said pessimistically, so I appreciate you propping me up, but I do have to call out that you had to get a buzzword in there, PropTech. Buzzword Bobby strikes again. Morgan, do you have any tips for, let's say, aside from the radical prioritization, anything else folks who might be entering into a role like this, a player coach style situation that they can do to succeed from the very beginning?

[Morgan] (8:24 - 8:59)

Yeah, I would say be real with your capacity. There's no need for us to be at 150% of the time. We need to make sure that we're allowing that space for us to accommodate for those reactive moments as well as the proactive ones, so being communicative with those around you as to where you are in terms of capacity is incredibly important.

It doesn't always mean that things are going to get fixed because you're at capacity, but it allows us to forecast more into the future as to what's putting us over capacity and ways we can help mitigate that or even strategically higher to take some of those things off my plate.

[Dillon] (9:00 - 9:25)

Yeah, I like that. Always comes back to communication it feels like, doesn't it? Always.

Morgan, that is our time. Love this topic, and like JP had mentioned, don't think we've had one of your type before, the sort of founding member, player coach, just getting started at the ground level, so very exciting to talk about, but I do not envy you in your position.

[Morgan] (9:25 - 9:30)

I was going to say, we usually don't have time for things like this, so that's probably why I'm the first one.

[Dillon] (9:31 - 9:37)

Yeah, that's fair. Fair. Anyway, we'd love to have you back in the future and hear how things are going, but for now, we've got to say goodbye.

[Morgan] (9:38 - 9:40)

All right. Well, goodbye. Thanks for having me, guys.

[Voiceover] (9:44 - 10:15)

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