What is Culture?

Culture is the currency that scales companies. Since it's always Day 1 at Amazon, it is no surprise that Jeff Bezos sought non-stop innovation no matter the size of the idea.?

We try to follow this concept at My Amazon Guy. Company-wide learnings are common because someone will post a tip in Slack about how to do something cool. We urge my staff to ask questions and to answer other people's questions. It leads to this innovation.

The Amazon space is short 50,000 qualified and willing employees right now. So it falls to business owners. If you want the workforce you want, go build it.

The Culture Wars have begun for this talent pool. Stagnant cultures will die first. Cultures that grow will win by adding knowledge to everyone and treating employees so well they don't want to leave despite being more able to today than at any point in their career.

I am very public about using Culture Index as part of our hiring process. We knock out 65% of people at this stage in the hiring process. It saves us thousands of hours. I find it to be 93% accurate.?

We survey our staff every quarter. And every single time, our metrics have improved. This data source proves that using Culture Index hiring improves the satisfaction of the entire organization.

We have employees in more than 10 countries worldwide. We have no physical location, so everyone is remote and working across time zones.? With more than 250 employees we've grown a lot.?

At MAG we tell our clients we'll grow their sales. To do that, we need bright minds who can naturally be themselves. We hire for impatience, tech-savviness, and strategic communication. Our culture has developed into a highly referred network of competency. After all, skilled labor is attracted to hang out with other skilled labor.

Giving Back to the Community

I'm giving everything I can to the Amazon community. That's why we made MAG School. We're selling Amazon courses for $10-20 each at mag-school.com.?

Our information is better, easier to engage with, and will make you competent.?

I'm not trying to make money on this. I truly believe we need to commoditize education to invest in our industry's future. We need new talent. And I need the help of my CEOs and managers, help in training and giving inexperienced workers an internship.

10% of my payroll is internships. It's a sizable part of my employment strategy. It takes significant resources to train someone from the ground up. But here's the thing: The best time to plant a tree is yesterday. Next best time is today.

A speech that I give employees that hasn't changed since my first hire is: "I'm a caveman with fire. If you want to light your torch, come work for me. What you do with that fire afterwards is up to you. I hope you stay for 5 or 10 years. But I'll train you so that you have the knowledge that you could leave anytime you want."

As a company culture, I want everyone to always be improving. Both the company and themselves. The number one reason someone joins My Amazon Guy is education. You heard that right. Education. We have a special culture. People join My Amazon Guy to learn. They stay because of the culture.

Culture takes daily effort. Reinforced by core values. I've spent all my energy into building a supportive culture at My Amazon Guy. We have a company culture that puts employees before our clients. We continue to grow and have 130+ employees now.?

I just know what my culture is and what I'm building. I want to get as many talented employees as possible who fit my vision of where we are going.?

I am no longer client-facing. Instead, I focus my time on building up my leaders. My leaders train our staff and hold them accountable. We put employees first, above clients. Because we do that, our clients get better service.? We run a fun culture of impatience here at My Amazon Guy. A zeroed-out inbox means work is getting done and clients and employees are happy.

Non-stop Growth

In a time when many headlines are discussing higher unemployment rates and job loss, we have seen non-stop growth. I attribute this to several factors:

First: Amazon and eCommerce growth from the pandemic.

Second: A company culture that puts employees before our clients. Our internal Slack community is highly engaged. If that isn't proof of community, I don't know what is.

Third: A firm belief in a company's core value of #impatience to get stuff done.

Fourth:? YouTube channel with more than 800 videos sharing all our trade secrets. Many of our employees found us by troubleshooting problems on Amazon through our videos. I adamantly defend thought leadership in the space. I have interviewed more than 150 guests. I hold an advantage of also having prior television reporting experience to keep tutorial videos simple and on point.

Fifth: The adoption of the Culture Index to hire the right people for the right seats. And recently Traction.

It's hard building a honey empire. But it's freeing to authentically be myself and hire talent who values that shared truth.?

We've been tracking employee satisfaction at My Amazon Guy and continue to see improvement. I ask two basic questions: Do you have the tools to do your job, and would you recommend working at My Amazon Guy? In six months' time, we were able to increase our tools to do your job rating by 7.4% from 8.7 to 9.34. When we first surveyed this in July we dug into what tools were needed and immediately got them in motion and had an immediate satisfaction increase by September. In January of 2022, our employee satisfaction went up to 9.4.

Here’s what my employees say about working at MAG:

“The fully functional remote work culture.”

“The endless amount of support and opportunities for personal/professional growth? are big ones, along with the camaraderie I’ve built with my coworkers (despite working from home). The biggest perk, though? Working with my cats.”

“Growth Potential: My Amazon Guy is a company where you can grow. There are so many learning opportunities to improve skills and advance your career. Due to the Founder’s focus on Employees above all, this is an environment that helps you reach your full potential.”

“The Family-like atmosphere.”

“The collaboration between the teams and the team/family camaraderie that exists between the employees. I know I can get help from anyone I ask, on any type of task whether it be work-related or personal. MAG also makes it so that even though we are working remotely all over the country we still have opportunities to gather in zoom and google meets just as employees to have fun and mingle. Treat your employees well and they will treat your clients better.”

“My favorite thing about working at MAG is the work-life balance. I love that I have a great degree of control and freedom within my job. I work full-time on a flexible schedule and my boss trusts me to produce high-quality work and results. I love that MAG enables me to love and enjoy my other passions in life.”

“What I really like working at My Amazon Guy is that my colleagues are sharing pictures of their cats, dogs, and even small stories about their families. It feels like you are a part of someone’s family even though they are far from you.”

“I also like the way how Steven Pope engages and cares about our health and wellness. He created the 10,000 steps daily challenge which is a good impact for me since it motivates us to care about health”

We love hearing feedback from our employees at My Amazon Guy and joining in their journey. I'm so proud of our culture and becoming home to their mutually beneficial adventures.

My Amazon Guy is business with a plan. We know where we are going. And we need to win the hearts and minds of our staff to get there. We also need to win your heart.

What is culture?

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