The Working Experience: The Website
“It brings into sharp focus the value of of having a purpose in life and it motivates me to do more.”
Matty Kerr is co-creator with John Brancaccio of The Working Experience. Check out our website, theworkingexperience.com, for podcast episodes, videos, blog posts, and merchandise. You can also find us on Twitter, Linked In, Instagram and Facebook.
Our website went live on June 5th, 2020. From start to finish it took about 10 months which is an absurdly long time but…
Here are the issues we encountered:
- The site was developed by a company in India, which was much cheaper than having it developed in the U.S. However, if you are going to go that route be aware of the 10 hour time difference; this caused some major delays.
- It took forever to get the design and format correct. They would create something and we would want changes and then they would make changes but they wouldn’t be quite what we wanted and on and on. Doing this via email and the time difference made this process difficult and time consuming.
- We had issues with the podcast API feed displaying all the information for individual episodes (title, description) as well as the images. This comes from the server and it took some time to correct.
- Our merchandise is hosted on Shopify and setting that up and linking it to the site was lengthy and complicated.
- Before we could even put anything on Shopify we had to hire a designer to create our logo and the graphics for the shirts, hats, mugs etc. That was an added expense.
Bottom line: we needed to save money. It would have been much faster and easier to have someone close to home do it but we just couldn’t afford that.
However, despite all the issues, it is done and I have to say it is looking pretty slick, pretty professional. We have a great logo and image at the top, a sort of cartoon that shows a guy evolving from an to sitting at a desk in front of a computer to laying dead on the other side of the desk.
Our slogan: WE MAKE STUFF TO HELP YOU SURVIVE WORK
Okay, so I’d still like to tweak a few things. I would like to change “make” to “create” and “stuff” to a different word such as “joy”. I dislike nonspecific language such as “stuff’.
However, we could debate these small points endlessly and they really don’t matter. The brand is not going to succeed or fail on one word or phrase. I think people get bogged down in those details due to a lack of confidence. Perfectionism can just be an excuse for not finishing.
At some point you have to say, “Done.” and get the damn thing out there.
The site is divided into different sections by content:
PODCASTS
All of our podcast episodes are up on the site so now people don’t have to hunt around on iTunes or Spotify to find them. We have a nice picture of each guest who did an episode which Tom (our tech guy) was able to grab off of the internet. He did great graphics for the podcasts with just John and me. There is also a brief description of the content of each episode.
We have to make sure to plug the site on every podcast twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. I need to make a note to myself because I often forget.
SHOP
There is a link to the Shopify page with our merchandise (or “merch” as the cool kids call it). We are still deciding on what we should offer. I would like to drop the prices and lose some items. I doubt many people are going to buy a Working Experience hoodie for $40 or a tank top with HARD IN THE PAINT on it for $35. I am thinking we stick with a t-shirt, hat and mug for $10 or $15 each. That seems pretty reasonable.
BLOG
There are 14 posts on the site right now. Some are serious, some are jokey. I’m not sure what we are going to do with that right now. I post most of my writing on Medium and I’m not sure how to link these stories to the site; we need to figure that out.
EVENTS
This section is somewhat misleading. It indicates that we do live speaking events, corporate retreats, keynote speaking, coaching, things like that. The implication is that we book these events on a regular basis and that we are really in demand on the circuit.
What it should say is that we are very willing to come and speak to anyone for a reasonable fee; maybe a combo meal from Burger King or a bucket of fried chicken. John and I are will to split an order.
NETWORK
We have about 50 videos in this section. These were shot over the last few years and existed on our first YouTube channel and we would post them to Instagram and Twitter. We have now consolidated them on the site but we will continue to use those other outlets.
CONTACT
There is a place to submit an email to us if one of our listeners has a burning desire to tell us something. We thought people might send us funny stories that happened at their work or maybe ask for advice. No one has done so yet but shoot us a message, we would love to hear from you. At least that is what the site says.
ABOUT
A brief description of the brand. There are animated pictures of John and me. Whoever created mine gave me a pretty athletic build so kudos for the artisitc license. We were going to include short bios of ourselves but who gives a shit?
So why have a site?
We need an anchor for all of our content, a central place where we can direct people to go and listen to our podcasts, watch our videos and read our content, maybe contact us.
It also motivates us to create conetnt. I would shoot videos and then they would just seem to be lost in the ether of YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Now I can see the finished product in one place.
Plus we need to keep the content fresh. That is key. If people see the same videos and blogs every week they will quickly move on.
What else can we do with it?
We would really like to be more interactive with our audience. We would like people to send us content: stories, videos, etc. Providing opportunities for the audience to participate is a great way to engage people. Just look at game shows and reality TV.
I’m really glad it is done. I can see all of the work we have put in over the last three years and be proud of what we have accomplished.
It brings into sharp focus the value of having a purpose in life and it motivates me to do more.
