Learn How Managing your Team and Scheduling Posts can become Hassle Free | The Ask Avi Arya Show

How should they know that their curiosity can lead to something big. Because looking back, things are clear when you're going forward that time, everything is hazy. You don't know what to do.

I was very. I'm very visual, so I like. I also like programming because it's. It looks like you're solving puzzles all the time.

Hey guys, this is Avi Arya, father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar racer turned hotelier, now social media marketer and founder of Internet Moguls. Welcome to my channel. Hi guys. As promised, we have Erwin here from Poubler. And we always say the shortest distance between two human hearts is always a good story. You tell a perfect stranger a good story and you win hearts for life. So, Erwin, I'm going to tell you my story and then I'm going to request you to tell us yours.

Sure.

So my name is Avi Arya, father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar racer turned hotelier, now social media marketer and founder of Internet Moguls. Arvind, over to you.

Okay, so I don't have any kids, first of all. And I mean I can tell you a little bit about Publer. By the way, it's pronounced Publer, so it's short for publisher. Because that's what he basically does. He publishes post on social networks. I started Publer many years ago when I was still in university. My brother had just started travel agency and he saw that Facebook was very, very big back then and he wanted something to automate posts on Facebook. So he gave me this idea. How about to build like a scheduler for Facebook? So that's how Publer started. And eventually I saw that many people or many businesses had the same issue. And over the years it grew and now it supports all the major social networks.

Awesome. Great. So tell us about your story a little bit. Where are you from? What background? How were you as a child? Did you think that you're going to have a startup like this or what was happening growing up?

Sure. So I'm from Albania and we're also located in Albania. As a kid, it's not that I had. I was very interested in computers. I did like graphic design. I liked playing with. I remember when my father got the first computer, I would go on paint and draw like a very, very simple picture. And eventually I liked the design. But it's not that I had a talent in design. And then I went to the United States for university and because I did not know what to study, I chose advertising. Because it was very related to graphic design. And when I went to the university, I noticed that that wasn't my field. And I think after one year I changed major. I took a computer science class and that's when I really found my passion. So I started programming and I really enjoyed it. And after graduating is when I started building like apps. I was focused on Facebook because it was very simple to build something on Facebook. Back then, Facebook apps were, I mean, even right now, they're very big, but back then were very popular. And because you could build like a very simple app on Facebook, it gave me a way to experience or like to gain experience.

Awesome. So you got that, your father got your computer, you went into class and you saw all of that. So what is your advice? Firstly, to young startups, young, young kids who are studying and doing all of this stuff, what is your advice to them? How should they know that their curiosity can lead to something big? Because looking back, things are clear when you're going forward that time, everything is hazy. You don't know what to do. So what would you tell youngsters? What should they do?

Let me see. I know it's very cliche when you say, like to follow your passion, but that's what, what I did. I kept doing things that I really enjoyed doing. I did not do anything that I did not enjoy doing. And it just happened that what I did could give me like a profit. I was very, I'm very visual. So I like, I also like programming because it, it looks like you're solving puzzles all the time. So like web development is like the perfect combination. And that's what I did all the time. I was experimenting with myself. I was trying to build something that was visual or appealing as well. And I didn't do anything that was outside of my interest. So all I did was something that I really enjoyed. And then I learned, I think this comes with experience. I learned how to monetize it. So I usually start with a free version. I wanted people to use what I was building and eventually I had like to monetize it because otherwise you cannot move forward.

Lovely. So tell us, in today's day and age, you know, with the, you got a beautiful publishing tool. Tell us, in terms of social media, do you believe that social media is all about lots of content or just little bit of valuable advice? Because some people, like, I don't have the time, but do you think you should take the time out because it's a big opportunity or you like, doesn't matter if you don't have the time. Post once a month, once a week. What is your social media strategy?

No, I would say you have to be consistent and you have to post, like, quality over quantity. But you have to be consistent. Like, you cannot post like once a month. Even if you post, like, the greatest article or photo or whatever. Once a month is not enough. On my LinkedIn personal profile, I usually post twice per week. So I try to be consistent. And like, when I prepare those posts, I do spend, like, hours. Even, like a simple status update will take me like, maybe like one or two hours because I want to curate it. And, you know, LinkedIn has its own tricks. Like, you have like to write in paragraphs. You cannot, like, write big text without, like, separating the paragraphs. You also have, like, to catch your audience. You have to be correct. Like, you cannot make typos or anything because LinkedIn is professional network and you cannot use abbreviations or emojis. So that's why it takes me, like, hours to create the post. But on the other hand, like, the return of investment is very high. I don't have many followers on LinkedIn, but yet my post, they do get a lot of reach or an engagement.

Got it. So you're saying doesn't matter what you do, but do it consistently.

Yes. You have to be consistent and you have to put effort into it. It's not just, hey, I'm just going to share an article, like, tomorrow and I'm done for the week. That's. That's not it.

Got it. Got it. So tell me a little bit about you as an entrepreneur. What is, what are the few things that are important for an entrepreneur? Do you work out? Do you meditate? Do you do yoga? Do you read books? What is important?

Working out is something that I do consistent as well. To be honest. Like, I haven't. The last book that I read, I think it was like last year. I know, like, someone that reads books, but I do read a lot. But most of the stuff that I read are related to social media or, like, to business in general. And even, like the book that I read last year, it was, I think it was Elon Musk's book. So it was about business as well. I tried to, like, the thing is, when you do something that you're passionate about, it's not that you need a break or something from it because what you're doing is like, you're really enjoying. So I don't consider what I do working. So for me, like, taking a break is getting away from something that I Enjoy doing so. It's the opposite.

Nice. What about teams? See we work with in house teams, we work with outside partners. How do you manage the friction or the misunderstanding or the frustrations? You want things done a certain way and it doesn't happen. How do you manage that?

We do like daily stand ups. So even though not every day but three times per week, we do have like daily meetings or like our morning meetings. So we go over what we did whether we're stuck. So you have to do meetings in order for everyone to present what they're working on and in case like you don't like something that you can discuss it and then you can like come into agreement and like the more meetings. Even though meetings are annoying, you have to do that because otherwise you won't be on track and then it's very hard to recover what may have been done like in months work instead of what you have done yesterday. So if you did something that is not appearing yesterday, you can fix it right away. But if you wait for like a month then it's going to take a long time to recover.

Got it, got it. Makes a lot of sense in terms of an entrepreneur, you know, raising funds or doing it on their own. What is your advice?

So even when I was in, when I was a student and you know like students are not very rich, I never like, I never borrowed money and I never used credit cards. So I'm not a big fan of like lending money. And because of that I've never like raised funds because it's feels like someone is giving me money and then I have like to pay him back and that's like a feeling that doesn't like make me go to sleep. This is just a personal thing like other people and because of that I've tried and it has worked. So Publer is a fully bootstrapped project and I never got like funding or anything. I simply focused on the customers and eventually as more customers were coming in so like the team kept growing and so on. So you can do it. It's very hard but I think it teaches you a lot in the long run. It teaches you like consistent how to be motivated.

But tell me how much do you think should, how do you have like one year worth of money reserve? 2 years, 3 years when you start, when you bootstrap and you know money is not coming from anywhere, how do you plan your cash flow?

So this is what I did. So I was living in the United States. I worked there for three years as a software developer in another company. So I did save some money, like in those three years, and I decided to move back home to Albany in order to start Publer. I mean, not start Publer. Publer was the side project back then, but I wanted to dedicate my full time to it. So I had like, some side money. And in order to not spend them, I just moved in back with my parents. So this is like something that you can or anyone can easily do, just moving with your parents so that you don't, like, spend money on, like, rent or, like, living expenses. And then eventually I was just working nonstop until I got like, the first customer and then like the first 10 customers, the first 100 customers. And, like, the more money that came in, the more it gave me, like, freedom to, like, expand it.

Just tell me.

It just takes time, but.

So when you have your first customer and you do for all the people who have, you know, SaaS products like yours, should they first go to a B2B big client so they can get good monthly recurring income, or should they go to 30 small B2C clients? What's your strategy?

So we have, like a few big clients at the moment, but most of the customers that we have, they're either like small businesses or solopreneurs. And this have been like the target market from the beginning, because you cannot target, like, big businesses when you're like a solo person running the whole show. So what they did is just tackle, like, small businesses or even like people who are passionate about social media, but social media managers who are, like, working on their own. This were like, this was the easy target. Now we can target, like, big businesses. But back then it was like, no big business will trust their social media, like, to one person running the whole show.

Erwin, do you have co founders?

No. Right now, it's just me.

When you created your founding team, what did you look for in those human beings?

What do you mean, the founding team?

When you started and you had the first few people, did you look at specific qualities?

So the first employees were, of course, developers, and I was looking at their skill set because when you're like a small startup, you're more interested into the skills that they have instead of the character. I know that there's like a big debate on LinkedIn whether you should hire for character or for skill set. But when you're a small startup, you don't have the privilege to hire someone and train them. So you have to hire someone that already knows what they need to do.

Okay, so it's for the skills, but then over the Years. What is your advice to people who are watching and listening? What kind of people make good teammates? Like, people who have. Are they introverts? Are they extroverts? Are there people who have families? How do you look for signs that this person is going to be motivated?

I don't think it matters. In our team, we have introverts and extroverts. And I would say me, myself, I'm like, somewhere in the middle, so I don't think it matters what kind of person you are. Like, when it comes to work, everyone can be a professional.

Everyone can be a professional. But tell me about motivation. How does everybody find their motivation? Or do you need to. Do you have conversations with your teammates on what is their motivation?

Yes, I've been trying to. So I've started, like, 20% of the yearly profit will go to the team as a yearly bonus as long as we, like, meet the goals for the year.

And like, for example, 20% of the profits of the company every year will go to the. To the founding team or everyone.

To everyone. And, like, depending, like, how much they have contributed or how long they have been with the team, they will get, like, the bigger cut.

As long as you're meeting your sales numbers.

Yes.

That is fantastic. Does that motivate a lot of people?

Hopefully right now I started, like, another strategy, but I will wait and figure out whether it works or not. And then maybe we can do another interview, because I just started it.

I would love to do that.

Yeah. So maybe we can do another interview, because I don't know whether this one will be successful or not.

You're buying everybody a car.

We're not that big yet. No. Okay.

Sorry, you were saying something?

No, we're not that big. So I cannot afford that. Okay.

All right. All right, great. So moving forward. So for all the audiences who are listening and they want a scheduling tool, tell us about your tool and how it helps people.

So I did look at our competitors back when I started Publer, and most of them were not very intuitive. You had to figure out where to click and what to do. And like, right now in Publer, as soon as you sign up, you end up on the page that is just a composer. So right there you can figure out that, hey, this is where I can type my post. This is where I can upload media. And then on the left, you see the social accounts that you have connected are also like an add account button where you can connect the social account. So the workflow is very easy. You connect your social accounts and on the create page, you select where you want to post or schedule a post to and then create your post, click on schedule or post and that's it. So I try to make it publer as simple as possible. So even someone that does not have the expertise or does not know that much about social media, it would be very easy for them to understand.

Got it. So what is the next five years looking for? Irvin and Bubbler.

So the goal is to stay around for as long as people use social media. So I don't think people will stop using social media in the next five years. With that in mind, we hope and we aim to become one of the leaders in the industry. We're very, I mean we're behind buffer Hootsuite later. They're very big compared to us. But I think, I think we can, we can compete with them.

And I'm in Vancouver, Canada. I know that Ryan is from Vancouver as well and so is Hootsuite. And we all hear in Vancouver the story of foodsuite and how they started and their amazing journey. And I want to definitely take you up on the offer of interviewing you maybe after one year and seeing where Irvin and Pablo are in their journey to growth. And I definitely want to know what is that new incentive policy and how that's working.

Yeah, true. Yeah, we can do that. I think we're going to need more than just one year to compete with the big guys, but eventually, yes.

Okay, so let's do one thing. Let's next four years, let's spend 20 minutes together every year and let's document your journey on for the next five years.

Sure. Yeah.

I will block my calendar for 2022 today with you.

Yes, yes.

Awesome. So what did we have just time for? Just one last. What is your message for our audience? We have about 125,000 people who follow us on different channels. They're going to be listening to this. What is your message to people and how can they find publer or Publer and your message to the audience, Anything you want to say.

So regarding like what they want to.

Achieve in life or like anything about your tool? We want, we want you, we want actually people to try out your tool, go to your website, actually do make an account and you know, really become your customers. So your message to them.

Do you want me to share my screen or.

I mean, sure, whatever, whatever, however you want it.

Okay. I mean I'm not going to share my screen. So finding publer is, is very easy. You just go on Google search for Publer, it will show up. But if you want to go straight to the website, it's Publer IO and you can easily sign up using email and password or using like your social networks that you use. And like, once you, once you're done, you can like set up your social accounts and you can start scheduling your post. This is like the easiest thing that you can do. But Publer is very, very powerful. Even though it looks simple, it's very powerful. Kind of like a superhero, because superheroes are powerful. And we offer several integrations. One of the most used integration is the one with Canva. So if you use Canva, you can go on Canva, you can design your illustrations and then you can export them directly to Publer where you can finish scheduling them out. We also offer the browser extension. So if you want to share content that you find on the Internet but you don't want to copy and paste, you can simply install the Publer browser extension. And if you find a picture of a cat, for example, you want to show it on Instagram, you simply right click on the picture. It will show the option to share using Publer. Publer Small Composer will show up on the website that you're on. You can finish your post and then you can schedule it without having to download the photo on your computer. So everything that we do in Publer is to help you save time while creating and scheduling content. The more time that you have to focus on your business or on your business, the better it will be for you. And on the other hand, the more content you post on social media, the more traffic you will gain.

That was fantastic. I love that. So Erwin, this was fantastic. This was short and crisp but really powerful. I really loved how you told us everything about yourself, your, your business, your team and the 20% opportunity and all of the other things. I am going to inform my team right now at the end that every year for the next four years, we are going to book 20 minutes with you. Hopefully in the next four years you will have time once you become a large company. But we are going to hold you to your commitment. Thank you very much. This was fantastic. We are in Vancouver, most of our audiences in India. Anytime you have a product or a book product launch or an upgrade or a book launch or anything that you want us to promote for you, we'll be happy to do it because this has been fantastic and we love to support you anywhere we can from our customers.

Like the most of our customers are from the United States and then the second country is India.

Lovely.

Yeah.

So anytime you need any kind of promotion, we do webinars. We do webinars of about 500 to 1500 people every second weekend.

Okay.

And every time we bring in somebody. So my webinar is about knowledge and training and teaching people on digital concepts. We have different teachers and trainers and tools coming and talking for doing 20 minute sections on how they can use their tool. And then we give out affiliate links to people. You know, 4, 500 people take it and about 40, 50 people sign up and that's how we promote and help our partners get the word out there. So if you want to plan something like that, we're happy to do something similar so that our audience also gets a benefit from all these new tools like yours.

Sure. We also have an affiliate program, so maybe we can, we can try to, to figure out a collaboration. I'll be more than happy to do that.

Yeah, sounds good. I will send you an email very soon. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Irvin. Irvin, thank you very much. My dad always says the most expensive thing you can ask from people is not their money, but it's their time. Thank you very much for giving us your time. Anything that we can do for you in the Internet moguls of the world community. I want to be, I want to stay connected forever. Look forward to talking to you. I'll send you an Instagram DM right after this. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen. This is Avi Arya, father of two girls, six dogs, husband to a superwoman, a streetcar racer turned hotelier, now social media marketer and founder of Internet Moguls. This was my conversation with Irvin. Let me know how you liked it and don't forget to watch the next video.

Thank you everyone. Bye.