Kitchen Side: Working In the Business, Founder Mode, and Avoiding the Traffic Trap

In this Kitchen Side podcast episode, David, Alex, and Ali, co-founders of Omniscient Digital, discuss the nuances of working in vs. on a business and how both are essential for growth. They explore the concept of "founder mode," reflecting on both the benefits and risks of hands-on leadership. The team introduces the "traffic trap," a phenomenon where businesses prioritize traffic over meaningful conversions, and the importance of aligning organic growth efforts with broader marketing strategies. Through personal anecdotes and insights from client work, the discussion highlights how businesses can bridge the gap between goals, strategy, and execution for sustainable growth.

Key Takeaways

• Working In vs. On a Business: The conversation explores the tension between performing day-to-day operations and strategizing for future growth. Both are essential, and success lies in balancing these roles rather than separating them entirely.
• Founder Mode and Leadership Nuances: Founder mode, popularized by Paul Graham and Brian Chesky, emphasizes a hands-on approach. However, the hosts warn that it can justify both good and bad behavior if not applied thoughtfully.
• The Traffic Trap: A common issue where businesses focus excessively on increasing traffic without aligning it with lead generation and conversions. The episode discusses the importance of optimizing content and organic programs to drive meaningful business outcomes beyond just page views.
• Creating Systems Without Losing Flexibility: SOPs and processes can streamline operations but require continuous iteration. The team emphasizes the need to stay close to the work to ensure systems evolve with market changes.
• Multi-Channel Alignment for Organic Growth: Organic traffic should not be managed in isolation. Effective programs require alignment with paid campaigns, email nurturing, and retargeting strategies to maximize results.

Show Links

• Connect with David Khim on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Alex Birkett on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Allie Decker on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Omniscient Digital on LinkedIn or Twitter

What is Kitchen Side?

One big benefit of running an agency or working at one is you get to see the “kitchen side” of many different businesses; their revenue, their operations, their automations, and their culture.

You understand how things look from the inside and how that differs from the outside.

You understand how the sausage is made. 

As an agency ourselves, we’re working both on growing our clients’ businesses as well as our own. This podcast is one project, but we also blog, make videos, do sales, and have quite a robust portfolio of automations and hacks to run our business.

We want to take you behind the curtain, to the kitchen side of our business, to witness our brainstorms, discussions, and internal dialogues behind the public works that we ship.

Past guests on The Long Game podcast include: Morgan Brown (Shopify), Ryan Law (Animalz), Dan Shure (Evolving SEO), Kaleigh M