Hello Blink Show

Harris and I are sad to report that we have decided to shut down the Hello Blink Show. We had an incredible time creating the episodes, sharing knowledge about sales and marketing, and meeting amazing new people. We learned a lot from our guests, and we hope you did, too. We discuss some of the things we could have done better if we were to go back in time and redo the show: Contextual Electronics ForumHarris is pivoting his career to go from individualized consulting to building a virtual sales assistant. This pivot grew out of his experience developing Intro CRM. He found that even though Intro CRM provided a simplified set of CRM and sales tools, people were not using it. That revelation led to the idea of creating a productized service to literally help people with sales. Shawn is pivoting to focus on embedded machine learning and teaching as opposed to marketing consulting. Part of this focus includes doing research with the hope of being published in academic journals or pursuing a PhD. Hello Blink Show will continue to exist as an archive of episodes, but for the time being, we have no plans to produce future episodes. Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of Resources Podcast - Pipeline Meeting Website - Intro CRM Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Nonsense marketing is the seemingly frivolous activities that marketers do that have a chance of “catching on” or “going viral.” For example, Wendy’s often provocative Twitter account is an example of nonsense marketing. It requires creativity and is often experiential. Christine gives us some other examples of nonsense marketing, such as Ford’s Home of the Future project. The purpose of these projects can be difficult to grasp sometimes if you’re not the intended audience. Shawn gives the example of Bud Light’s “Whatever, USA” campaign where the renowned beer company rented an entire town for a weekend to host a giant party for contest winners. The winners, rather than being drawn randomly, were selected based on personality and social media engagement, as the event was a targeted way to promote the brand through influencers. To make nonsense marketing work, companies need to analyze their audience(s) to determine what kinds of authentic messaging works. If the messaging is missing or the content is inauthentic (e.g. using superficial aspects of viral videos without regard to the audience), nonsense marketing will likely fail. Shawn talks about SparkFun's soldering activities as a form of nonsense marketing. The Badger Hack soldering activity performed much better at SXSW Create (correction: Shawn says “SXSW Edu” in the show, but it should be “SXSW Create”) than the Roshamglo activity at the larger SXSW conference. Christine comments that reaching a critical mass of interest is important and can be more easily achieved in a smaller group. Harris gives the example of Lulzbot manufacturing 3D printers on the CES show floor one year, which attracted a lot of attention from attendees and the press. This helped drive engagement from distributors, which was the ultimate audience of the marketing effort. Christine talks about her project of building an Alexa device inside antique telephones. She sold a few of these as a form of art, which caused a buzz among her tech audience. Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of Resources Podcast - Pipeline Meeting Website - Intro CRM Guest Information Christine Sunu is a developer, designer, and creator who builds emotive interfaces and experiences. Though her main area of focus is the overlap between technology and human emotion, she has worked extensively in product, marketing, and design in both hardware and software. She has often worked with developer education and trending content, appearing in videos for outlets such as BuzzFeed and The Verge and helping to coordinate IoT-related content at Twilio. Among other things, Christine has created soft robots for anti-anxiety, produced trending tutorial builds about sourdough bread, levitated paramecium in giant magnetic fields, and attended half of medical school at Yale. She writes and speaks widely about human motivation and interactivity in hardware and connected interfaces, and she engages an international audience through online open-source tutorials. Guest Contact Information Website - Christine Sunu LinkedIn - Christine Sunu Twitter - @christinesunu Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

In this episode, we talk to Alessandro Grande and Robert Wolff, who run the Arm Innovation Coffee livestream on YouTube (which you can check out here). They tell the story about how they joined forces about a year ago to create a weekly interview video series during the pandemic. Alessandro and Robert use StreamYard to help manage the livestream, including green (waiting) rooms for guests, overlays, and live comment pop-ups. They also use Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio) to stream their own personal feeds into StreamYard to manage multiple cameras and other overlays. Livestreams are great for making connections with audiences where people can chat and ask live questions. They offer a different form of engagement rather than a video or podcast where audience members are expected to passively watch/listen to the presenters. This helps humanize a brand by allowing customers (or potential customers) to interact directly with the presenters and each other. Developer evangelists (advocates, etc.) should consider adding livestreaming to their toolbox as a way to interact with customers and audiences. The new form of voice-only hangouts (e.g. Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces) offers something similar to livestreaming, but seems to lack many feedback features available on other platforms, such as the ability for audience members to type something into a chatbox. Robert talks about how to measure success with livestreams, which can be different than many common business metrics. These measurements include brand awareness and engagement compared to the amount of time to prepare and create the livestream (i.e. the return on investment). Alessandro mentions that a livestream should offer something to the audience to keep them engaged. Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of Resources Arm Innovation Coffee Livestream StreamYard Open Broadcaster Software Studio (OBS Studio) Guest Information At the time of this episode’s release, Alessandro Grande has left Arm and taken a new position as Director of Technology at Edge Impulse. Robert Wolff is an Ecosystem Developer Evangelist Manager at Arm. Guest Contact Information LinkedIn - Alessandro Grande LinkedIn - Robert Wolff Twitter - Alessandro Grande Twitter - Robert Wolff Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Darian Johnson joins the Hello Blink Show crew for a live brainstorming session. He is working on a low-power, battery-operating LCD digital assistant. He plans to fund manufacturing through a crowdfunding campaign, but he needs help figuring out how to market the device first. Darian starts the episode by sharing a personal story about how he encouraged his 12-year-old son to build his own TV. Rather than simply buy a TV, he gave his son a Raspberry Pi and a monitor. The son had to install the operating system, connect all the components, and load streaming services. One of Darian’s recent projects was a set of smart candles made with real wax, which you can read about here: https://darianmakes.com/scent-terrific-smart-candle/. These were turned into a product called the Pyllr. He asks Harris and Shawn for ideas on how to market his LCD digital assistant. Harris mentions that blogging or sending prototypes to beta testers is a great way to gauge product-market fit. Even if it is not open source, sharing the journey and process is a great way to build an audience. Sites like https://hackaday.io/ or https://www.hackster.io/ offer good platforms for sharing projects and journaling the process. Since recording this episode, Darian has started chronicling his efforts at https://hackaday.io/project/178328-always-on-low-power-digital-assistant. Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of Resources Website - Hackaday.io Website - Hackster Guest Information Darian Johnson is a managing director for a large technology services company, where he leads major cloud computing initiatives. Darian is also a hobbyist maker of IoT (Internet of Things) projects. His projects have been featured in numerous publications and won multiple awards. His most recent project, the Pyllr Trio Candle, is scheduled for a crowdfunding launch in the Spring of 2021. Guest Contact Information Website - darianmakes.com LinkedIn - Darian Johnson Twitter - @darianbjohson Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description Sean talks about launching his product, EmotiBit, on Kickstarter. EmotiBit is a wearable biometric sensor used for research, engineering, and maker projects. Julio discusses what types of products do well in crowdfunding campaigns. For the most part, business-to-consumer, physical products with a price range of $50-$300 do the best. Shawn asks if crowdfunding should be seen as a way to fund research and development or more of a pre-order system. Sean mentions that he is using Kickstarter to reach a funding goal in order to meet minimum quantity orders for manufacturing. However, Julio talks about how many companies in recent years are using crowdfunding as a launch campaign to sell pre-orders. In addition, he mentions that using it to fund research or development (without a manufacturing plan) does not generally work well. Julio talks about how small companies should build a community long before launching a crowdfunding campaign, which can involve publicly sharing the project or product being worked on. Harris sums up how well Sean has learned from and worked within the biometrics community. He mentions that it often takes years of learning and community building to create a successful product and business. Shawn and Julio provide an overview of the major crowdfunding platforms: KickstarterIndiegogoCrowdSupplyGroupGets Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications. List of Resources Website - Launch Studio Website - EmotiBit Kickstarter Campaign - EmotiBit Guest Information Julio helped build the Design and Technology Community Outreach team at Kickstarter. For several years, he led Kickstarter's efforts to search the globe for designers and entrepreneurs working on innovative and noteworthy products and help those creators successfully launch their creations. While at Kickstarter, Julio worked with hundreds of creators and developed a deep understanding of the crowdfunding ecosystem. Currently, Julio serves as the CEO of Launch Studio. Sean is the founder of EmotiBit, a wearable bio-metric sensor platform to democratize sensing signals from the body. After finishing his Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Sean created Connected Future Labs, an agile R&D engineering group utilizing research methodologies combined with emerging technology to create 21st century solutions. Guest Contact Information Launch Studio EmotiBit LinkedIn - Julio Terra LinkedIn - Sean Montgomery Twitter - EmotiBit Instagram - EmotiBit Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description We chat with Christine Sunu and Dominik Kundel from Twilio about the importance of developer advocacy in a marketing strategy and how it can help build trust with prospective customers. One of the keys of successful developer relations (DevRel) is to “meet people where they are” rather than trying to create a community out of nothing. This includes going to events and engaging developers on forums and chat rooms that already exist. However, you must make sure that your company’s offerings align with the demands of the community. Additionally, you must be an authentic participant in the community rather than attempt to sell products. Dom announces the release of Twilio Insiders, which is an early access program for developers that use Twilio products. Such early access programs can make fans feel like part of a close-knit community as well as provide feedback to product developers. DevRel is useful if your intended customers or audience are developers. If you are a solo business or find you don’t have time for full DevRel efforts (traveling to events, managing forums, etc.), you can simply blog about what you learned during development of your product. This helps connect you to potential customers as well as act as top-of-funnel marketing. Sponsor We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IoT applications. List of Resources Video - OK Go Audience Phone Concert at SIGNAL Book - Ask Your Developer by Jeff Lawson Site - Twilio Insiders Guest Information Christine Sunu is a developer, designer, and creator who builds emotive interfaces and experiences. Though her main area of focus is the overlap between technology and human emotion, she has worked extensively in product, marketing, and design in both hardware and software. She has often worked with developer education and trending content, appearing in videos for outlets such as BuzzFeed and The Verge and helping to coordinate IoT-related content at Twilio. Among other things, Christine has created soft robots for anti-anxiety, produced trending tutorial builds about sourdough bread, levitated paramecium in giant magnetic fields, and attended half of medical school at Yale. She writes and speaks widely about human motivation and interactivity in hardware and connected interfaces, and she engages an international audience through online open-source tutorials. Dominik is a Developer Advocate for Twilio in San Francisco. He loves tinkering with anything that can run JavaScript, from the front-end over servers to CLIs and coffee machines. You can find him tweeting @dkundel or working on open source projects for CodeExchange and Twilio Labs. In his spare time, he's working on cocktail, food, and photography projects. Guest Contact Information Website - Christine Sunu Website - Dominik Kundel LinkedIn - Christine Sunu LinkedIn - Dominik Kundel Twitter - @christinesunu Twitter - @DKundel Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description Harris opens the show by giving an account of his experiences with implementing good search engine optimization (SEO) practices and what he’s learned. After spending a little bit of time learning about SEO, he says that he was able to grow his organic traffic sooner than anticipated. Your goal for top-of-funnel content is to rank highly in search engine results whenever someone looks for your target topic (e.g. the topic of your blog post, podcast episode, or video). You can use SERP to measure how well your content is performing and if your SEO practices are paying off. Shawn gives an overview of 6 good SEO practices that can offer a big impact with relatively low effort: Choose the topic for your content carefully and consider the target audience.Your title is the most important part of your content piece.Ubersuggest Answer the PublicThere is no hard rule when it comes to content length or word count.You should care about site speed (for both desktop and mobile browsers).AhrefsNeil Patel’s SEO AnalyzerIt’s OK to link out to other, relevant content.Measure your success.Google AnalyticsFathom AnalyticsThere are plenty of SEO tips that were not covered as part of these 6, but we feel that the majority of them make only a small difference (which can add up, but you must be diligent about using them!). We recommend using an SEO plugin as part of your content management system (CMS), such as Rank Math for WordPress. These plugins will often give you a checklist while you’re creating content to remind you of the small tweaks you can make (e.g. adding alt text to images). Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of Resources Neil Patel - The 10 Most Important SEO Tips You Need to Know Tool - Ubersuggest Tool - Google Trends Tool - Answer the Public Tool - Ahrefs Tool - SEO Analyzer Article - Internet encyclopaedias go head to head Tool - Google Analytics Tool - Fathom Analytics Tool - Rank Math SEO Tool for WordPress Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description Sean gives his reasons for moving to New Zealand and starting his company, MagicDAQ. He was inspired to create the MagicDAQ after working for companies where many hours of labor were spent on manual testing. The MagicDAQ automates the testing and data acquisition process by allowing users to script the process with Python. Sean had success making early sales by cold-calling potential customers on LinkedIn. Specifically, he sought out junior to medium-level design engineers to contact. After selling the first few, he talked to other hardware entrepreneurs to learn how to scale. Specifically, he had success sending free samples to influencers and periodicals, like the Embedded Muse. The MagicDAQ relies on Python for scripting, and Sean chose that language to make it easier to use. Harris asks Sean about distribution back into the United States, which is one of Sean’s target markets. Sean says that it’s been pretty simple to sell back into the United States, which involves some extra paperwork. Harris talks about what is required to have the “Made in the USA” label. Sean discusses what the startup and electronics community looks like in Christchurch, New Zealand. He mentions that the community is small but friendly and collaborative. Sean talks about pricing his product. Specifically, he mentions that many companies have a threshold of $500-$1000 when it comes to purchasing equipment. Anything above that threshold often requires lots of approvals from management. So, Sean prices his product under that amount to make it easier for his B2B customers to buy. Being listed with recognized distributors, such as Digi-Key, works as social proof according to Sean. He mentions that sells more directly, but being listed on distributors helps with brand recognition. Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of Resources Website - MagicDAQ Newsletter - The Embedded Muse Guest Information Sean Hadley is a New Zealand based entrepreneur and design engineer. He has extensive experience in the medical device industry and has launched products in the US, NZ, and the UK. He is the founder of MagicDAQ, a firm that offers radically simple testing solutions for hardware engineers. Guest Contact Information LinkedIn - Sean Hadley Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description We start by checking in with Jonathan Georgino, who last appears on the show in episode 5. Since then, he has gotten more sales and more distributors to carry his product (the Binho Nova host adapter). Specifically, Jonathan mentions that paid ads have not worked well at attracting new leads. However, collaboration with influencers (e.g. Shannon Morse) and appearing on podcasts has worked well. He also mentions that he is starting to see a trickle of new visitors to his site after creating several new blog posts. Harris asks Jonathan about what tools he uses to help create content and analyze his site’s SEO performance. Jonathan says that he uses a combination of stock Shopify and Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest tool to help brainstorm content ideas. Jonathan tells the story how he woke up to an email one morning accusing him of copyright infringement. He had used the “Click” name for one of his boards that conflicted with the MikroElektronika Click ecosystem naming. He apologized and took the product page down. However, he turned the potential legal battle into a collaboration opportunity. He worked with MikroE to create an official Click adapter board for the Binho Nova. In addition, he mentioned MikroE’s design services team was great to work with. Shawn and Harris check in with Jonathan’s distribution efforts. He mentions that he purposely slowed down getting into new distributors, as he’s quite happy with the current mix and sales have been growing. Interestingly, he also mentions that direct sales can sometimes be easier than dealing with distributors. Jonathan talks about when it makes sense to become a reseller for other people’s products. Specifically, he resells the Sensepeek PCBite, which complements the Binho Nova’s capabilities. This allows for a better testing experience for the customer (as they can use both products together and order them from one place), and it drives traffic to his site, as Binho is listed as a US distributor on Sensepeek’s site. Finally, Jonathan mentions that he implemented a simple recommendation that Harris made a few months ago: send a handwritten note with every product that ships. Apparently, many customers reach back out to thank Jonathan for the note, the product, and sometimes let him know what they’re using the host adapter for. This turns out to be a fantastic way to communicate with the end users to get feedback on a product. Harris talks about doing things that don’t scale, which came from Paul Graham’s blog post. Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of Resources Binho Nova host adapter YouTube Video - Bingo Nova with Shannon Morse Ubersuggest tool Click adapter board for the Binho Nova Sensepeek PCBite Paul Graham’s blog post - Do things that don’t scale Guest Information Jonathan, a passionate hardware engineer, routinely found himself creating tools to assist in the projects he’d been working on for several years. In late 2018, he began to merge several of his personal projects into a single tool and the Binho Nova Multi-Protocol USB Host adapter was born. A veteran of several Bay Area hardware startups, he enjoys wearing many hats and doing whatever it takes to bring high-quality products to market, from proof-of-concept through mass production. Above all, he wants to share his enthusiasm for developing quality hardware products with as many people as possible. Guest Contact Information Twitter LinkedIn Website Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink...

Description Daniel Bogdanoff joins as a guest to discuss his experiences creating video content as part of the marketing strategy for Keysight. He noticed that Keysight, like many other tech companies, had essentially 2 options for creating video content: high-budget ads or off-the-cuff webcam shots. As a result, he transitioned into a marketing role to create the Keysight Labs YouTube channel, which has about 80k followers (at the time of this recording). Daniel believes that companies looking to market to or engage audiences on YouTube should maintain three separate channels: one for community building, one for calls to action, and one for tutorials. Additionally, an inbound marketing strategy should consist of both written and video content, with at least a portion of that being hosted on the company’s site. Creating videos that target specific SEO terms, such as “What is an oscilloscope?” is a great way to provide a top-of-funnel marketing layer and capture new audiences that may be interested in your products (assuming, for example, that you sell oscilloscopes). These types of concept videos (and blog posts) can be complemented with long-tail searches such as “how to measure current with an oscilloscope” and “ground loops” (which are, once again, related to oscilloscopes). Daniel recommends adding a level of human connection to the videos by forcing yourself to appear on camera (rather than just doing close-up shots or screen capture). More than likely, it will be awkward at first until you get more practice. Even just using a few seconds at the beginning of every video to introduce yourself can make a big difference! Developing your own content to build an audience is different from influencer marketing, which involves borrowing their audience. When working with an influencer to reach their audience with your brand or product, make sure you have a very specific topic and call to action in mind, and ensure that it will be relevant to the influencer’s audience. Daniel recommends looking at number of views, watch time, impression rates, and click-through rates as metrics to determine the success of individual videos as well as for content marketing campaigns in general. You’ll want to create custom URLs to post in the video or description that provides a tracking code so you can measure click-through rates. Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. List of Resources Keysight Labs YouTube channel Video Creators Podcast EEs Talk Tech Podcast Guest Information Daniel is a Test Gear Geek at Keysight Technologies because he gets to choose his own job title. He loves taking complex, technical topics and making them easier to digest. Proverbially. He has an electrical engineering degree, but fell into the marketing department early in his career and never looked back because quote: marketers have all the fun. He runs the Keysight Labs YouTube channel and the EEs Talk Tech podcast if you want to go geek out with him on nerdy EE stuff. Guest Contact Information LinkedIn - Daniel Bogdanoff Twitter - Daniel Bogdanoff Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Description How do you get your first customers, and when should you hire help? Natalie Luneva joins us, who runs her own coaching and consulting business for software as a service (SaaS) startups. She talks about how she got started helping small businesses and offers insights into finding initial customers, the importance of joining communities, and the pros and cons of developing technologies that rely on other, larger businesses. In the second half of the show, Natalie talks about hiring help, whether by contracting or full-time employment. She discusses how time can easily be wasted on menial tasks that can be outsourced and the associated opportunity costs. She ends the show talking about the need to find a good product-market fit. Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. One Powerful Quotation 41:23 - Natalie: "You only grow when you are stretched. If you are not stretched, you never grow.” Key Topics Matt Bradshawthe DrumKid drum machineList of Resources Book - The E-Myth Revisited Book - The Genius Zone Site - MicroConf Connect Group DrumKid drum machine Guest Information Natalie Luneva is a growth and team performance coach to SaaS founders. She is on a mission to help SaaS companies scale, clarify business priorities, and grow high performance teams. Drawing from her 10+ years of leading marketing teams, she helped over 100 companies implement high ROI opportunities, scale their operations, clarify business priorities and grow high performance teams. Guest Contact Information Website - Natalie Luneva LinkedIn - Natalie Luneva Facebook - Natalie Luneva Twitter - @natalie_luneva Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Trailer for the Hello Blink Show.

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Key Topics In this episode, we take a step back to look at how the show has performed over the past year. The Hello Blink Show is almost 1 year old, and we want to thank everyone who listens to the show! Specifically, we dive into the listener and download metrics to try look for patterns to determine what worked and what did not work over the past year. Harris talks about his new podcast, "Pipeline Meeting," that specifically dives into sales process and teases his new product, Intro CRM. At the end, Harris and Shawn asks listeners to submit their own thoughts to the show about what they want to hear in 2021. One Powerful Quotation 17:50 - Harris: "I think that we're doing a good job giving people exposure [and] access to what happens in the business side of the shop, which is obviously more important when it's your business." Key Topics Pipeline MeetingIntro CRM@HelloBlinkShowtecknologg.websiteList of Resources Podcast - Pipeline Meeting Intro CRM Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview In this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn wanted to share their presentation on sales and marketing for Boulder Startup Week 2020. They are joined by Katie Hackos to delve deeper into retaining customer relations but the disconnect between sales and marketing can have adverse effects on these efforts. Listeners will hear their insights on communicating with customers and why marketers and sales people should work together. They explore the dynamics to why these departments operate in different directions and include best practices. This episode is an interactive, mock business discussion as they elaborate on these topics. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics List of Resources Website - Bonusly Website - Boulder Startup Week Website - Prisoner’s Dilemma Article - Round canoe syndrome Website - Pareto Principle LinkedIn - Ben Travis Guest Information Katie Hackos is a high spirited and energetic Account Executive for WonderProxy, a SaaS company, who successfully manages accounts and contains a proven track record of retaining customer relations. Her specialties include: Retaining and building B2B and B2C relations, sales closer, superb communicator across all media platforms. LinkedIn Twitter Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guest: Katie Hackos.

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview Whether you have a new product idea or business project, listeners will appreciate hearing her experience with developing and building software applications. Lola is involved in the Atlanta tech startup scene, where she currently runs Lunch Pail Labs, a digital product studio and consultancy. Her insightful remarks range from being a solopreneur to the trends in risk capital investments. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics List of Resources Website – Lunch Pail Labs Website – MicroConf Community Website – Zapier Website – Integromat Website – Elementor Website – Wordpress Website – Squarespace Website – Wix Website – Indie.VC Website – Adalo Website – Bubble LinkedIn – Robert Walling Website – TinySeed Investment Thesis “Power Law” Website – Steve Case’s “Rise of The Rest” Website – Intro CRM: Harris' new project, built with no-code Guest Information Lola Ojabowale runs Lunch Pail Labs, which is a digital product studio and consultancy. She works with clients to plan and execute the initial versions of their products with no and low-code development tools. Her background is a mix of product, strategy, and operations, and she has built products for herself and others. When she's not running Lunch Pail Labs, she's active in the venture and startup community. She is a scout at indie. vc and works with various early teams. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and a native of the Washington D.C. area who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Twitter LinkedIn Website – Lunch Pail Labs Website – Personal Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guest: Lola Ojabowale.

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview In this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn welcome back legal expert and attorney, Mark Tyson. Mark shares some legal advice in negotiating contracts and how to handle particular pitfalls with your employer or contractor. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics List of Resources Example of Invention Assignment Clause Assignment of Inventions - Research or any other work performed while working on the behalf of CLIENT to CLIENT. You agree that all Inventions, research or any other work performed while working on the behalf of CLIENT that are developed using the equipment, supplies, facilities, or Proprietary Information of CLIENT or result from or are suggested by work performed by you for CLIENT or are conceived or reduced to practice during your contract term with CLIENT and relate to the business and products, or to the actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of CLIENT. Example of Prior Inventions Clause Prior Inventions - It is understood that all Personal Inventions, if any, whether patented or unpatented, which I made prior to my employment by the Company, are excluded from this Agreement. To preclude any possible uncertainty, I have set forth on Schedule A attached hereto a complete list of all of my prior Personal Inventions, including numbers of all patents and patent applications and a brief description of all unpatented Personal Inventions which are not the property of a previous employer. I represent and covenant that the list is complete and that, if no items are on the list, I have no such prior Personal Inventions. I agree to notify the Company in writing before I make any disclosure or perform any work on behalf of the Company which appears to threaten or conflict with proprietary rights I claim in any Personal Invention. In the event of my failure to give such notice, I agree that I will make no claim against the Company with respect to any such Personal Invention. Example of Background Technology Clause The parties acknowledge that certain intellectual property developed, acquired, or otherwise obtained by Contractor prior to, or independently of, this Agreement (collectively, “Background Technology”) may be used by Contractor in the performance of Services. Contractor shall not include Background Technology in any deliverable or Work Product without Company’s prior written consent. Contractor unconditionally grants to Company a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, fully-paid right and license, with the right to sublicense through multiple levels of sublicensees, under all of Contractor’s intellectual property rights in any Background Technology incorporated into or necessary for Company to fully utilize and capitalize the Work Product, (a) to reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, digitally transmit, and otherwise use the Work Product in any medium or format, whether now known or hereafter discovered, (b) to use, make, have made, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise exploit any product or service based on, embodying, incorporating, or derived from the Work Product, and (c) to exercise any and all other present or future rights in the Work Product. Guest Information Mark started his own law firm, Tyson Law PLLC, to help entrepreneurs and small businesses with their legal issues. Twitter LinkedIn Website Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group,...

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview In this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn interview Matt Liberty. Matt shares his experience with finding contractor work and how you should go about referrals and selecting the best candidate. Listeners will hear his advice as Matt discusses his company, Jetperch, and their tool, Joulescope. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics List of Resources Website - Jetperch LLC. Website - Joulescope Website - Contextual Electronics Forum Website - Shopify Website - Upwork Website - Fiverr Website - Freelance congruentgraph on Fiverr Guest Information Matt Liberty is the creator of Joulescope, the easy-to-use, affordable test instrument for low-power design, and also the founder of Jetperch LLC, a software and hardware engineering consultancy. Matt was the primary inventor of Hillcrest Labs' Freespace® motion control technology, and he was granted 27 US patents. Matt has a broad engineering background encompassing digital signal processing, PCB development, FPGA development, and software development in C, C++, and Python. Twitter LinkedIn Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guest: Matt Liberty.

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview In this episode of the Hello Blink Show, Harris and Shawn interview electrical engineer, Mihir Shah. Mihir shares his insights into the success of his latest startup and his acquisition by another firm. Listeners will hear his advice as he shares his experience with selling inspectAR to Cadence Design Systems. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics List of Resources Website - InspectAR Website - Cadence Design Systems Website - Royal Circuits Website - Y Combinator Website - Autodesk Website - Transistor FM LinkedIn - Justin Jackson Website - Paul Graham - Don’t Talk To Corp Dev Website - Axon LinkedIn - Luke Larson Website - LaBarge Weinstein LinkedIn - Colin Wrynn LinkedIn - Alicia Grant Guest Information An EE who grew up in a PCB Fab. The rest is history! Previously designed hardware at Tesla and Taser. Joined family businesses to help grow and get schooled in how to build an ultra profitable business that scales. Took those teachings to a couple failed startups, and ultimately inspectAR, which I helped co-found and operate as CEO. inspectAR was successfully acquired this month by Cadence Design Systems, just 18 months after being founded. Twitter LinkedIn Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guest: Mihir Shah.

Sponsor We want to thank Cyber City Circuits for sponsoring this episode! Cyber City Circuits is an electronics shop and contract manufacturer based in Augusta, GA. Use the coupon code HELLOBLINKSHOW to receive 10% off your order of electronics or mention that you heard about them on the Hello Blink Show for a 25% discount on the assembly costs of manufacturing. Overview We chat with Lisa Lewis Miller, career coach, owner of Career Clarity, and author of an upcoming book about changing careers (or starting fresh!). Lisa describes the four pillars for career fulfillment that make up the framework she has been using throughout her coaching practice to assist many clients in their journey. She also discusses the importance of finding a good lifestyle fit (even if that means working for a company rather than entrepreneurship) and how a “bridge job” can help make a career transition smoother. Lisa runs her own career coaching service and is releasing a book, Career Clarity, which is due out on November 17, 2020. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics https://getcareerclarity.com/order/List of Resources Career Clarity by Lisa Lewis Miller Good to Great by Jim Collins Pivot by Jenny Blake Guest Information If there’s a job out there, Lisa Lewis Miller has probably done it. Lisa is a career change expert and the founder of Career Clarity, a company helping individuals step into the careers they’ve been dreaming of. Her path evolved into coaching after working in digital marketing for nearly a decade at companies like 2U, Edelman, the American Cancer Society, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and CBS College Sports. Lisa has been featured in Business Insider, US News and World Report, Fast Company, Refinery29 and more, and received her coaching certification as one of only 7 coaches in the world trained in the Pivot Method. Clients praise her ability to see through their excuses, champion their possibilities, and give resume reviews that are like “purifying hellfire.” Lisa is based in Westminster, Colorado and received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Barnard College in New York City. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook Podcast Website Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guest: Lisa Lewis Miller.

Overview In this episode, Harris and Shawn chat with David and Chris, owners of Cyber City Circuits. David and Chris are working to expand their contract manufacturing (for electronics and PCB assembly) business and need help reaching new customers. As a result, Harris and Shawn perform a live consultation with them to give advice on how to approach marketing and sales. In particular, Harris gives his thoughts on best ways to set up a sales pipeline, and Shawn helps brainstorm marketing ideas. Both Harris and Shawn agree that marketing and sales must be approached with a scientific mindset: experiment and learn from the experiments. One Powerful Quotation Key Topics Hubspot’s tutorialsPropagate serviceShopifyList of Resources Hubspot’s Buyer Persona tutorial Shopify Guest Contact Information David Ray and Chris Williamson started Cyber City Circuits to bring our passions for electronics and education together in an effort to make it our full-time job. We bought a full production line worth of equipment to try to pay our bills with and it is kind of working out, but slowly. We would like to find new and innovative ways to contribute to the electronics and makers communities while being able to earn income. We started our store (CyberCityCircuits.com) at the beginning of May and have had several products with varying degrees of success. Twitter Website Host Contact Information shawnhymel.com kennyconsultinggroup.com LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel LinkedIn - Harris Kenny Twitter - Shawn Hymel Twitter - Harris Kenny License Information “Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0 Special Guests: Chris Williamson and David Ray.