Celebrations, Ideas, and Where I'm focused: Our first team letter

Team Letter | March 13, 2023

March 13, 2023

Good Morning Team! 

I thought since I’m out of the office today and will miss the staff meeting, I’d start the week out with a letter to you all! I’m trying something new to help us frame our week a little - and you know I have a love of writing letters. 🙂 Let me know your feedback - I’d love to hear it! 

Let’s start with a little recap of last week!

Sales

Last week was such an exciting week!! From a sales standpoint, we saw three really amazing partnerships emerge. Fusion Medical Staffing’s visit to Alpaca got my brain buzzing big time about how we work with corporate partners. CUES School System is going to be thrilled to have Fusion as a sponsor. Pro Med Care committed to the three month trial in support of St. Robert Bellarmine, bringing us a new school AND a new sponsor! And then Julianne made her FIRST SALE on Friday with a corporate sponsorship to sponsor Alpaca at St. Margaret Mary for the 3 month trial. GO JULIANNE! 

That is some big sales momentum, and it’s totally where we need to be - let’s GO! 🎉

Marketing

We saw some great work on the marketing side, notably some really lovely storytelling around our new schools, our new team member, our packout operation, and our impact! We brought in a few new individual subscriptions for the CUES Schools last week, and many more nominations. I’m excited for us to figure out a strong system for working with those nominations and turning them into introductions, sponsorships, and new districts!

Operations

HAPPY PACKOUT WEEK! This week, Alpaca will fulfill packs for 2,760 teachers – a new record! 

Marina and the crew have done an amazing job getting the office ready for a colorful and delightful packout this week! We’ve got friends coming in to help from Fusion Medical Staffing (hello, marketing oppties!), and a truly gorgeous pack going to teachers, almost completely shipped! (The process to get that working last week was challenging! But we got through it and we’re ready to ship now!)

One challenge I have for us here this week is to think about how we can use packouts to further our marketing and sales efforts. Could we create some hype for Crayola this week in our posts? (Should we ask Bones Co to help?) Create some content to show future brand partners? Create content to show prospective corporate sponsors? These packouts are a feel-good-fest, and we should use them to create opportunities for new partners, whenever we can!

Value of the Week - Tell Stories

Last week

Thank you for living out our Value of the Week and “Telling Stories” last week! I think Julianne’s welcome post, the visual storytelling of the newsletter, and the glimpse into the packout were awesome. I’m excited as we grow to increase the focus on our “heros” in our stories: TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS, and SPONSORS. I’m challenging us to think about where we could tell more of their stories this week.

This week

This coming week, I’d love to highlight the value Bring out the Best. This value is all about the quality of the supplies and the experience of the pack that we provide to our teachers. But, it’s also about celebrating the best in the profession of teaching. So the challenge this week: look for examples of our team or our partners “bringing out the best,” and find a way to celebrate them, internally or externally. See an Ops Team member taking special care with the packs? Celebrate it! Get a teacher in house to talk about how much they value Crayola! Find places where we are bringing out the best, and shout them out!

Where I’m Focused

In previous jobs, I’ve always found it really helpful to know where our leadership’s mental energy is focused - what’s getting them excited, what’s keeping them up at night, what they’re reading or listening to in order to learn more. I’m offering a bit about what my brain is working on this week here - no action needed from you, just here for sharing and transparency!

This week, my focus is on a few key questions for our business:

• How do we align marketing and sales around an ENGINE for GROWTH?
  How do we ensure that every social post, every sales call, every dollar spent on our website, is going toward growing the business?
  

• How do we leverage technology to create lasting value for our customers and teachers?
  Right now, we have an opportunity to make use of some funds from State of Nebraska to build out technology that will further our business. We need to use it quickly, and I want to use it very WISELY. Not just to make something easier, but to create something valuable and lasting for our business.
  

• How do we begin a process for securing brand partners and district partners for Alpaca? 

We’ve got a great engine started on the corporate sponsor side – built a lovely deck, got Hubspot rolling, started making calls. Now, time to figure out how to do the same for brand partners and districts. Exciting!

From a learning perspective, right now, I’m reading Scaling People, a book by the former COO of Stripe, about how to build companies by building teams who are highly aligned and deeply in support of one another. Sound familiar?! 💟

One of the things she talks about is the importance of each team member knowing their own core values that they’re bringing into the company, and how those personal values align with our company values. Because we are onboarding Julianne and helping her learn her “pitch,” I think about how we each tell Alpaca’s story and mission through the lens of our own values. I encourage you all this week to help Julianne hone her pitch by telling her yours! Hearing the way you talk about Alpaca will help us each hone our story a bit more.

I’ll leave you with one last thought (long letter! I’m sure I’ll get more concise with these, right!?). 

Keep Growth in Focus

You’ll notice from this that I’m SUPER excited to see the extraordinary work we’re doing, the gorgeous packs we’re building, the team we’re growing, the brand we’re cultivating, and the stories we’re telling. AND, you’ll notice that I’m challenging us in many places to ask “How does this support growth for Alpaca?” 

I want to ask us all to make growth our focus whenever and wherever possible. When I say growth, I mean revenue: new sponsors, new districts, new parents, new brands. And revenue is everyone’s job! Throughout our day, we should be asking of each of our actions: “will this action be worth the time/energy/expense for how it helps the company grow?” Please keep pushing me back to this focus, and I’ll do the same for you.

I’m excited for a fantastic week! I know my participation will be a bit asynch since I’m getting some time with my family, but I am excited for all that we have ahead of us! 

I am so grateful for you choosing Alpaca as the place you put your time, energy, and creativity each and every day. Happy Packout Week, and let’s Bring out the Best! 

💛, KB