Kadion Preston of Carib Shopper on when to let go of a marketing hire

Kadion Preston

You're welcome, it's a pleasure of mine to be on your show. We've known each other for a good while now, a year as well.

Kadion Preston

Thank you so much for those warm words, and happy to learn a bit more about you and about your journey. Hi, my name is Kadion Preston, and I'm the CEO of Carib Shopper. Carib Shopper helps make Caribbean-made accessible for businesses and consumers. We're currently in the US and Canada. Today we're starting [to expand] to the UK. [unclear @ 01:41] finding your Caribbean [goods] internationally is a challenge. The market is extremely fragmented, and what we're [working on] is making this market [simple and] less [complicated], like I said before. And so my journey started from seeing my mom in Jamaica, and she started manufacturing [unclear @ 02:14] in the 80s. And seeing the ups and downs of that, and the triumphs, certainly gave me the [drive] to want to be [an entrepreneur], and that ignited something in me. And fast forward to 20-something years later, [I] see that the same challenges my mom faced in 1986 and onwards is the same challenge as it is today for Caribbean manufacturers, across over 16 different countries, in scaling their products to consumers.

Kadion Preston

Absolutely. I think accessing culture, in the world we live in today, we're all over the place, we have [diaspora], we have people who traveled and settled in different places. Being able to access your culture, being able to impart that culture where you are, is important as humans, and I think that's very important to me ever since I became a father, and I'm sure it's very important to a lot of families who've settled in different countries, to be able to [access their] culture and way of life in these different arenas, areas of life that we've all expanded to, in a world that's fully diverse. It's very important. I love it.

Kadion Preston

Well, KPIs [for the] marketing team, you know, I see [it] at different areas, whether it is the beginning, and it's, you know, figuring out all the why. [Asking] across the room, why did they do this? We [want] to take that information, how we use that information for more customers in the future, is critical. So understanding the why became very critical at [Carib Shopper]. It's why, why. And I think once we, once we started figur[ing it out], that was probably [KPI] number one, you know. We started, we did the US market first, [figuring out] product-market fit. That's the first thing you're doing, and then [you] figure out [how to] get as close as possible to [understanding] the different stages of your marketing. So in the early days it was [testing] that, [seeing what worked,] and then of course getting [feedback from] these customers. And what [we] learned [is] why [we'd] be successful is that the infrastructure behind you, providing the service and the experience, is what all lear[ns] to be successful. So now, in the early days, [our] KPIs were around all of the key points for us to track....on retention today, a lot [is about] retention, it's a lot [about] the experience, it's a lot [about] making sure that we are mutually aligned, and making sure that that alignment [continues, is this]

Kadion Preston

Well, again, in the early days it's about communicating the vision, and once you communicate the vision clearly and constantly, constantly communicate the vision, you're going to go through multiples of iterations of that as you get signs from the market, as you start to see your [work land]. And that requires you to have a very [close] relationship, I love [that,] founder with your marketing team.

08:33 I mean, you end up being like one of the staff members, you know, reiterating the vision, reiterating the challenge, understanding the metrics that they're receiving, looking at the data, being [across] the [longer-term areas] you have to [tweak], areas you have to [own], areas you have to [set], definitely necessary changes along the way. [You] work[ing] with your marketing team and your overall team, the greatest chance [comes] because everybody's in the mission, and in early days you're figuring it all [out]. To work today, marketing is there, so many things. I think marketing on a whole is probably one of the hardest positions [in] the company, whether you have a good product or [not]. Calling a good product, it's still hard, because you're figuring out what works, and it's easy for anybody to say "let me do a bunch of paid ads," but it's not easy, because you've got to figure out [whether] these ads and everything, all the stuff you're doing, converts, what's working best, iterate quickly. It's a lot of guessing in every [thing]. It's a lot of figuring it out. And then, figuring it out, you're going to see the costs associated, and based on your content and based on your finances, how does this work in your

Kadion Preston

So how do I measure the effectiveness [of] my marketing team, truthfully? Um, in early days you're going to be [buying] for [fit], figuring out what's working. It's the marketing team, or marketing lead, that is really, um, diving in, being a part of the whole customer discovery process, talking to the customer, figuring out from the customer where we could be [at our] best. It's the person that takes a streamlined hustle mentality in the beginning, because everybody wants to do [this and that], and you've got to start somewhere. But in starting somewhere, you have to keep the [focus].

11:06 [unclear @ 11:06] ...figuring the why. I love it, that you always go back to this why. I personally know how important that is.

Kadion Preston

I remember, early days, we had a designer design [things] for our platform, and [they] were very strong there, but they were focused on design. I think once we [moved to] email, and eventually text communication, we found [there was] less desire on the email, [and that] more straightforward text works [better]. And then, you know, you play with different things, whether you're doing ad creative, or you're doing videos, there [are lots of] forms of marketing. In some cases [one thing] works best, in some cases [another does], on some platforms it's just different. It's just different, and it really comes down to understanding your audience: who is your audience, how do they like to be [spoken to]. You have an idea, a champion, or a strategy, sometimes you have to test three, maybe all of them, and see which one really resonates the best. I'll show you one of our ads that we have iterated on, probably about 40, 50 times, to where we believe we've gotten it right, and [I'll] show you, the viewers, that [the] marketing team [did] a great job about it, because it hits. Over time we figure out what was the key driver, key word, key feeling, key emotion. I mean, [we] pull from this in order to [capture] people's intention, because that's the hardest thing for marketing teams today.

Kadion Preston

They're expecting their marketing team to have a silver bullet and execute in isolation, and do everything with[out] their input and a collective input from the team, especially [at] early stage companies. For later stage companies, there'll be so much data accumulated for marketing teams that they're able to work less cross-functionally, but in an early story you're going to need to be very cross-functional.

16:18 You're going to be needing to talk to different teams, in order to [understand] what's seasonal, [what] the [forecasting] team, the packing team, what's selling the most. And looking at the data, we're trying to understand the reasoning behind it. As we talk about why, [we] can really [key] in on the strategy. I think founders need to work very closely with their marketing teams. Those calls should be, if not daily, [regular] sit-downs, and talk about what [they've found], what they see, the changes that need to be made. It should be often enough that everybody's aligned on [the] process, on the strategy. I think [founders have] made a mistake all the time, thinking that a great marketer, [that] the great marketer will be the [sole] [holder] to [carry] their business. It doesn't work like that. There's no silver bullet when you're hiring for your marketing.

Kadion Preston

For me, as a startup founder, that's very [key]. [A] startup founder [should be] looking for a marketer [who's] comfortable [with] the process of what it takes to bring a product into market and make a product market-ready and market fit, and be comfortable with us not having it all together.

17:53 [Being] voracious and bold enough to be comfortable with where it's going. [unclear @ 18:00]

Kadion Preston

There's so many misconceptions. I think the biggest misconception is expecting reward[s]. A lot of [founders] come to the game, and they [start to] build a product, or they're building a solution and solving a problem, and they expect to be rewarded sooner [than] they should be rewarded. They figure their reward [is] funding and capital, the reward [of] funding, partnerships. The truth is, your reward as a founder [is] in the success of the business, and like any other leader in any other situation, true leaders eat last. And in eating last, that means you have to suffer through some pain. You have to make sure your team is fed, you have to make sure your product is fed, and the first person to take a sacrifice is going to be you, as a founder. That needs to be critically clear, because we went through a time, 2018, 2019, 2020, when founders were [getting] historic raises. [There was a] lot [of] sizzle. A lot [of] sizzle, [but it's not always] steak. It's great to be a founder if this is truly what you want, [if] you're truly committed to your vision. Founder[ship] is very [hard], and you have to [know] your [range] of success[es. It] is something that you're going to have [to be] sacrificial [about].

Kadion Preston 21:52

Yeah, it's going to always be this. It's going to always be this: make the hard decision sooner. Make the hard decision sooner. As founders, we get indications, right, if something's not working, if somebody's not the right fit, if even your business model is not the right fit.

22:08 Because when we [started], my business model was totally different from what it is today, and I think it took up until 2019 for us to make a complete pivot. That was a hard decision, if I'm going to be honest with you and everybody else listening. I think by the end of 2018 I knew it was the wrong business model. I knew the business model was a challenge. The big thing about it is, as a [founder,] you will have to be optimistic, but you have to take some time to look at that optimism and see what the reality is telling you. And the sooner you make decisions, especially [as] founders, the sooner you get clarity.

And I've seen it, I made that mistake, where you find the excuses, because "yeah, the [marketer] isn't working out, but you like them, you keep them," and you're hoping that it turn[s] around. I mean, you don't have infinite time [unclear @ 23:14] to make something work. And you have to be swift, and you have to [decide]. Now, I'm not saying that a founder, if he feels like somebody should be gone or changes [are needed] should [act without thought]. Of course they [should] think [it] deeply. But you're going to get to a point where you know [it's the] right decision, and you're going to delay that decision, like most founders do, right? Because you think, "wow, I'm going to have [to] start, it's over, I'm [going] to start looking for somebody new, uh, I'm going to have to start," and all of those things. Once you start thinking "I'm going to have to start over," [that becomes the reason to stay]. You should be [acting on it].

Kadion Preston 24:14

Um, what is the question that you need to ask me? [It's:] who [do] I have [on my team] today. I honestly think, in different stages of a business you need different skill sets. And I think today, um, I think today we're still at the state of the business where I think we're [looking for] the right person. We are in search for the right person for the stage of the business. And that's, as you've gotten more experience you will understand what personality, what skill set is needed when your startup grows. And if that person that's in that position is able to provide that, then, for me, I think we are, when we need a different skill set, [back] at the table for our [team].