Ben what's your backstory?

Before becoming a founder, I had two accidental careers. I started off working in radio after going to radio school, where I found myself at a radio station working in integration and content solutions. This experience evolved into becoming a brand or a marketing strategist. I worked in tech start-ups in growth roles and at content agencies as a strategist before venturing into freelancing and consulting.

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When I first applied to radio school, I had always imagined being on the air because I’m a talker and I like music. However, when I applied they told me that I was too young and needed to pursue a degree first. So, I enrolled in a communications program at university but dropped out after just five weeks, realizing it wasn’t for me. The other path into radio school was to be interesting, so I took that to heart. I worked on a potato farm and trekked to Everest Base Camp. I embraced strange and unique experiences and, two years later, returned to radio school and said, “Hey, what about now?” Thankfully, they accepted me.

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My other accidental career that I've had was in a mental health project in 2000. In 2018, after some personal experiences, which uncovered the fact that people don't know how to check in on their friends or ask if they're okay. We often avoid these conversations because we feel uncomfortable. So, I started a project called 'Two Minute Mates', promoting the idea that it only takes two minutes to check in on someone. I realized that many people didn’t know how to do this, which led me to become an advocate for mental health. From there, opportunities unfolded. I found myself speaking at schools, sports clubs, and businesses. I even flew out to mine sites across the country to deliver a well-being program for miners and teach mental health first aid—a course designed to help individuals respond to others experiencing mental health challenges or crises.

The way I combine the worlds of mental health and marketing is fundamentally about people. I believe there are three key needs for connecting people—whether you’re a brand or an individual: communication, connection, and community. When you effectively address these three elements, you foster happier individuals and, in turn, stronger brands.

While the application of these principles may differ, what I've realized is that the core realization remains the same: it ultimately comes down to our innate need to connect with each other and the world around us.

What does your company do & how did you come up with the idea?

The word "adroitly" means to do things cleverly or skilfully. And so, when Wade and I started the business, we wanted to work with businesses that were scaling up but doing it differently from just being freelancers, consultants, or starting an agency. What we looked at in the market was the fact that no one seemed to be solving the problems or providing some sort of training or coaching support. And we thought, is there a way where we can do both and bring those together? So our model is to solve and coach, which means we usually come on and work on projects or solve problems. But we also work with the people in the business and coach them through how we're solving it or provide them with the frameworks and the upskilling so that ideally, they can solve that problem themselves.

We felt like a lot of freelancers can bring a singular skill set or solve a singular problem, and then they kind of disappear. The IP sits outside of your business. Or you have an agency that provides an ongoing and consistent service that they can kind of, you know, productize or put on a retainer. And we didn't quite like the idea of just building another agency.

How did you get your first 10 customers for Adroitly?

I think a lot of people when they start a business, underestimate the power of their existing network. When you have a new concept or idea, just put it out there and share it with people. You’ll be amazed at how many people support you, come back, or show curiosity.

In this day and age, you have to create content for your customers. That sounds simple, but there’s so much noise out there when it comes to content. Most of what people create does one of two things: it’s either too broad or general, just creating stuff for the sake of it. While people might find it interesting or grow an audience around it, you can’t necessarily commercialize that audience. Or, it’s too self-centred, focusing only on the creator.

We find LinkedIn to be our most powerful channel because that’s where founders looking for solutions are. Our whole approach to marketing and acquisition is really about being useful and being seen.

How did you establish product market fit?

We're still refining our model. Honestly, I think you always need to tweak and adjust to the market. Since we started, there have been a lot of changes; many industries have less money to spend, and the ways people work and approach projects are changing. We’ve trialed a lot of messaging to see what resonates with people and what doesn’t. Sometimes, got in our way and became too confusing, which is ironic because that's often what we're helping others to solve.

It comes back to the adage or old saying: just talk to customers. Figure out what they want, and the more conversations you have, the more common threads you can identify. When building a product or service, you’re looking for those common threads. That’s the key to being niche yet scalable, rather than being too niche and not appealing to enough people.

‍How did you acquire your first 100 customers for Adroitly?

I think many people starting a business don’t realize the power of their existing network, when you have a new idea, just put it out there and share it with people, and you’ll be amazed at how many will support you, come back, and want to know more. Today, creating content for your customers is crucial—it may sound easy, but there is so much shit out there when it comes to content, and most of the content that people create does either one or two things. It's too broad in general. It's just creating stuff for the sake of creating stuff. People might find it interesting, or you can grow an audience around it, but you can't necessarily commercialize that audience. It can feel too self-centered and absorbed, and it's just about you as a person. We find LinkedIn to be our most powerful channel because that's where founders looking for solutions sit, and our approach to marketing and acquisition is simply to be helpful and be seen.

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What distribution channels did you try that didn't work?

We tried what I guess you would call display or out-of-home media in co-working spaces. I think it was a good branding exercise, but it didn't necessarily convert to work. Part of the challenge with that is that because our offer is different.  It's not the kind of thing that you can advertise in a billboard-style message. That was something we did just to play around with as a bit of a case study for the person who ran that business. We haven't tried a lot of channels because we haven't felt like there's been anything worthwhile spending time or energy on that's gonna return greater than us. Just having conversations with the right people and putting ourselves in front of them. I think events can be a valuable strategy for us but again, they can be quite time-consuming.

‍What specific tools have been most helpful in growing your business?

Probably one of the most underrated things we use for the transfer of information or communication is actually Voice notes. Wade's based in Melbourne and I'm in Sydney, so we don't spend a lot of time together, but you can get people up to scratch to speed on things really quickly with a voice note versus an email or using a Loom recording to talk through a document or a presentation or a concept. I think asynchronous work allows you to work a lot more efficiently. We like to get together and sort of discuss things and go out and do our own things and then come back. And so you can have a light sort of text stack of obviously your emails, learn maybe a Slack channel, a Miro board and away you go.

How did you make the transition from a side hustle to full-time entrepreneurship?

Wade and I both have a series of, I guess side projects or other revenue streams as facilitators or consultants or kind of whatever comes up, to be honest. So it's been a transition period of balancing the different parts of work that we do. But I think what's great about the way that people are comfortable working now, is that you can have a bit more flexibility in what the week looks like. If I were to give someone advice about making the transition to full-time entrepreneurship, I would say in my experience going all in is a terrible idea, particularly if there's financial risks involved with that.

I'm much more a believer that you should hedge your bets and take on a part-time contract or part-time role in something and then use the rest of the week to build your thing, until it gets to the point where it's demanding more time or it requires more time to scale beyond the level that you've got it to. I've taken this approach several times as I've transitioned through different roles or opportunities. And I feel like it's a great mitigator of stress, which is the last thing that somebody needs as a founder or entrepreneur.

What drives you to do what you do?

I fucking love helping people. I love connecting with people. I love everything that it means to be human.

I think more and more we're living in a world where we're losing our understanding of what that means. Sure, automation and technological advancements are great, but I think many of them are like slow diseases that make people miserable and unproductive, among other things.

So one of my big drives is to enable or empower people to do things, but do it humanly. For me, the most exciting part of any work is when we get to share it with people or engage with them. Those are the moments you look forward to in projects or in creating things. Doing more stuff for people, those are the best businesses to work with, they are the ones that are not just about doing more, they're about making great things that help people or doing fun things with others.

Any quotes you live by?

As a strategist, I feel like my life has been a series of collecting quotes and anecdotes for relevant moments. So without broader context, it's hard for me to nail down a quote that I would live by. But if I were to draw on one now, I think something that I'm constantly reminding myself of or encouraging others of is the kind of knowledge that comes from the book Essentialism, which talks about the fact that in life, there are a few truly essential things, the things that matter and hold importance and the rest is just noise. It's trivial fluff.

I live by this because I try to seek out I guess, a simple yet fulfilling life myself. But when I look at people at work, I constantly see people trying to do too much, stretching themselves, too thin, not achieving things as a result, and putting immense stress and pressure on themselves. Most of the things that I see people worrying about are just trivial when looked at through the right lens.

So the quote that I would leave you with is to think that sometimes or tell yourself that sometimes life is in a coal mine. It's not about how much you can shovel. It's a diamond mine. It's about finding those precious gems and holding on to them.

Any promotions you would like to add for Founderoo readers?

If you want a free one-hour workshop with Wade and me, just shoot us a message and let us know that you heard about us on Founderoo. We can do a one-hour session on your current problems where we will give you some different perspectives, suggestions, and recommendations and just kind of throw as much value at you as we can. It tends to be one of our superpowers that we can understand people's problems or relate to them quickly and then come up with solutions or ideas that founders should explore.

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