The one way to escape the unproductivity loop

When I launched HeroBot.app, the initial excitement was palpable. The web3 space was burgeoning with innovation, and it felt like a new frontier. However, maintaining that momentum required more than just showing up every day; it required a strategic approach to… — Max

Following up on my interview with Max Williams (the founder and CEO of HeroBot app), he revealed how building a web3 brand was quite daunting and challenging. While consistency is often touted as the key to success, he discovered more to it.

You see it’s the conventional mantra to show up daily, put as much content daily, and whatnot. What if it was doing more harm than good?

You may have seen this quote a thousand times. However, we’ve seen a lot of brands rather unproductive.

What if there was more to it than just being consistent, what if there was something these brands were missing that could have made up for running in circles?

even if it’s just a teensy, tiny, little bit of tweak

I was in talks with Adhip Ray (the founder of winsavvvy), the other day and he broke the ice when he said

It’s important to show up every time, but building habits within your team can help them grow in a way that lasts and works better.

It’s in sync with Smith et el’s theory in his paper “When Challenges Hinder: An Investigation of When and How Challenge Stressors Impact Employee Outcomes”

He proposed that employees exhibit higher performance and well-being when they face a stable level of challenging tasks over time. In contrast, inconsistent levels of challenging tasks lead to poorer performance and increased anxiety.

You see, It’s not just about showing up and doing the same thing over and over, you’ve got to up the game for your brand to be productive.

Some brands are okay with taking the easy way out which is doing the same thing repeatedly with no challenge or difficulty to conquer. That’s why building habits can be like pushing a rock up a hill.

I came across this snippet from Atomic Habits by James Clear

Maybe pushing yourself (and your team) to show up consistently isn’t the way to go because you or they might get burnt out and lose the drive especially when there are no results.

But building habits to tackle challenges can make being consistent fun and ultimately attain productivity

It’s just like Max said, “…However, maintaining that momentum required more than just showing up every day; it required a strategic approach to building sustainable habits that align with our long-term vision.”

According to Max, one of the first habits he instilled in himself and the team was the practice of continuous learning.

It made the whole journey fun and challenging because every Friday during “Knowledge-sharing sessions” team members would present what they learned, discuss its implications, and brainstorm how to integrate these insights into the brand.

Another habit Max injected into the team was setting and reviewing clear, measurable goals. They implemented OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to align their daily activities with larger strategic goals.

These provided a clear metric to help them track their progress, analyze setbacks, and celebrate wins each quarter.

Personal development was another area of focus, in Max’s words;

As a founder, I realized that my growth was intrinsically linked to the growth of my team and the company. I committed to habits that enhanced my leadership skills, such as regular reading, attending industry conferences, and seeking mentorship. Sharing my learnings and experiences with the team inspired them to pursue their personal development journeys.

Adhip Ray also shared his experiences in building habits within his team

He noted that it can be tempting to put out as much content as possible. But they eventually found that it worked much better to make it a habit to carefully review and check the quality of the content to ensure it’s high-quality and well-researched.

And that earned them a reputation in the web3 community for being trustworthy.

One of his approaches to building habits was finding out his teammates' strengths and creating habits around that.

For example, people on the team who were good at analytics were told to make it a habit to do weekly performance reviews, while people who were good at coming up with new content ideas were to do that every day.

that way, work challenges become FUN for them

I was scrolling past YouTube videos some days back when I came across this interview with a popular actor.

There he narrated how he refused to do a kissing scene in a movie because he made up his mind not to kiss any other woman besides his wife and it goes against his principles

He ended up losing his role in that movie, and his job and got turned down by other producers. He later got back up (I know this may have been a little out of context).

But I said that to show you that the beautiful thing about building habits/behaviors is that they help you stay self-motivated even when it’s tough.

You see, looking to build habits rather than being consistent is not enough on your road to productivity

Look at it this way, you don’t need to be told to be consistent in brushing your teeth because it has become a habit, rather you look at your mirror and say, how do I get whiter teeth for a better smile

It’s like Carol Dweck explained in his paper on “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”

He pointed out that a growth mindset can foster consistent effort and resilience, leading to greater productivity and success.

In other words, you’ve got to make these habits/behaviours create a growth mindset for you where you no longer think “How do I become consistent in this?” but rather, “How do I improve in this?”

So you see, focusing on consistency can be detrimental to the health of your brand like Smith et el proposed in his paper.

I’d like to cap with these final words from Max

To any web3 founder or enthusiast looking to grow their brand, I would say this: focus on building the right habits within yourself and your team. Consistency is important, but it’s the habits you develop that will sustain your momentum and lead to long-term success.

Cheers from my screen to yours.