Life at a Startup: Level One

This was my first week of — well, of a lot of things. For starters, it was my first week ever working at a startup.

A few other firsts I’ve experienced this week

• Living in a downtown
• Shopping at Trader Joe’s
• Auditing accounts in Salesforce
• Playing cello on the side of the road
• Creating a sales cadence
• Sleeping on a wooden floor for more than two nights in a row
• Eating jalapeno Ranch with chips
• Taking the HIPAA test

And probably a lot of other things, but that’s what’s coming to mind.

A new kind of post

I’m going to be doing a weekly wrap-up post each week for the next six months. How is this different from the daily blogging I’ve been doing? COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!…Okay, not really, but these posts are going to be the best place to follow my story specifically as it relates to my professional journey.

With my daily blogging, I generally just write about whatever first comes to mind, these, I’m really going to focus in on my growth working at a new job. To showcase the things I’m learning and who knows, maybe even give some advice for people who go through after me! The weekly recaps will help me stay accountable in keeping track of where I’m growing and what I still need to work on.

Why “level one”?

I’ve decided to think of each week like a new level. This week felt very much like I was on level one of a game. Where you don’t really know what’s happening, you just kind of follow around someone who does so you can figure out how to win (this is coming from a non-gamer, so if that’s not how it works for you professional gamers, feel free to use your own analogy to compare).

I know that if I put the effort in each week, by level 26 I’ll have mastered the game and feel confident in my abilities. I’ll have to work daily to get better and I’ll certainly have my setbacks. Some days, it may feel like I’ve died 100 times, but as long as I can respawn and keep on working, I’ll eventually learn and become the best there is at the game…

Okay. I might be going overboard with the game analogy, but you get the idea. I want to purposefully work every day to be the best possible worker I can be. I want to create value in my company.

Level One Stats

My stats for this week are, understandably, not through the roof. It was a lot of getting oriented with the system and learning the tech stack for my company.

Weapons I gained and will be learning how to use throughout the rest of the levels:

• Salesforce – just logging in to Salesforce made me feel like a professional
• Salesloft
• HelpScout
• UberConferencing

Weapons already brought into the level that will be used:

• Google Drive
• Slack
• Google Calendar

Kills:

• Audited 73 of our biggest accounts for utilization of our product in their practice
• Designed a rough outline for a month-long sales cadence consisting of 12 touch-points

Outside the game

It’s important to get outside the game every once in a while to clear your head and stay fresh. Social and fun activities play a huge role in overall quality of life.

I got here late Saturday night and Sunday morning I went to church at one of the big churches in the area and then played ultimate frisbee with 40-50 people out at a crowded park in the afternoon. It was the perfect mixture of rest and social stimulation.

I’m living in my company’s office for the next two weeks or so, so cooking has been difficult but manageable and living downtown has given me the opportunity to walk around the area a lot.

I’ve been walking every morning for about an hour to an hour and a half just exploring, praying, and taking pictures. It’s been a fantastic way to start my day off. Go outside, get some fresh air, clear my mind, people watch a little. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts of the day and it gets me in such a good mood for the rest of the day.

The end of the ramble

It might not have been the case for this post, but in the future, I plan to have these posts pretty short and concise. I want to be able to quickly assess what I’ve been doing and communicate it in an easy way.

And with that, it’s time to push start on level two.