This is Part 2 of a weekly series on my growth and development at a software startup in Austin Texas. Click here to view the full series or to start at Level 1 click here.

Level two began a lot like level one did. A lot of uncertainty and getting oriented with my company’s system. As the level progressed though I started remembering the moves better and moving more quickly through the tasks in front of me.

Level Two Stats

As I mentioned, I got off to a slow start this week but was able to pick up speed part way through the level.

Weapons gained:

    • Ability + 10: Created sales cadence in Salesloft
    • Knowledge + 6: Integrating Google calendar with Gmail and Salesforce to offer availability to clients
    • Discipline + 6: Up before 6am every day (working on bed by 10pm [as I write this at 11:30pm])
    • Organization + 4: Created rules for incoming emails in Gmail to maintain inbox zero
    • Strength + 4: Biked 10+ miles, ran 5+ miles

Kills:

  • Sent over 100 emails to clients since Thursday
  • Converted over 10% into scheduled phone calls with even more in the process of scheduling

Deaths:

  • Upwards of 5 hours spent on figuring out a Gmail/Salesforce integration
  • Laptop sent in for third repair this year – everything I do for work I do on my laptop

Outside the Game

I’ve been walking or biking (or both) every morning before work and it has been instrumental in my sanity. I’m not used to sitting 8-10 hours a day at a laptop and part of it kills my soul. I look forward to having more conversations with our customers to really dig into the relational side of this job because the book work side is slowly draining me.

I’ve explored so much of the city during the morning hours before work and the evening hours after work and I’m growing to love Austin and the various cultures within.

Final Takeaways

Praxis Wednesday call had fantastic lessons to be learned. I wrote a blog post about some of it. Check it out here.

The need for setting weekly goals has become apparent to me. Most of my tasks currently are multi-month-long projects and it is hard to boil those down into achievable short-term tasks. Conversation with my supervisor is in order. Stay posted on this.

This is my last week sleeping on the office floor before I move into a real house.

Level three is where I want my kill count to exceed my death count.

Let’s do this.