In the Now Podcast: Episode 19
Join Nowspeed's CEO, David Reske, as he engages in discussions with founders, marketers, and CEOs from around the globe. Delving into the realm of marketing and leadership, aiming to unravel the myths and misunderstandings that often surround these topics.
Neal Quesnel CEO | WhatArmy
Is It More Efficient To Build Or Buy For Your Business?
Should you Build or Buy? In this episode of In the Now, Neal Quesnel, CEO of What Army, discusses his decision to invest in software to improve and differentiate his website service business. He could have bought third party software to do the job, but he decided to invest significant time and resources to build a new, custom-made software product from the ground up.
While many service businesses fail when they try to create products, Neal uses creativity, innovation and discipline to create a highly useful product that helps him grow his business and retain clients.
If you’ve ever faced this difficult decision, then Neal’s experience may help you think about the best way to turn your vision into reality. Listen to his interview with David Reske now!
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Episodes
- All
- Brand Identity
- Build to Last
- Business Focus
- Business Mergers
- Business Strategy
- Career Strategies
- Content Marketing
- Customer Insight
- Entrepreneurship
- Finding your Purpose
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The Differences Between Product Placement & Thought Leadership
How Do You Get the Most Out of Your Creative Agency?
How Companies Are Marketing For The Environment
How Should Marketing Strategy Change as Your Company Grows?
Does Marketing Experience Still Matter?
How Can You Use AI to Compliment the Content You Need?
Are You Better Off With Lead Gen or Demand Gen Marketing?
Is Direct Mail Marketing Still Effective?
Grow Your Business With A Precise Marketing Strategy
How To Manage Risks & Challenges In An Organization
How AI Writing Can Make You More Productive & Creative
How Do You Decide When to Hire Vs. Outsource to an Agency?
Do Great Companies Get It Right The First Time?
Can Chat GPT Replace Your Marketing Department?
How To Get Insights For Your Marketing Strategy
How To Develop A Brand With An Emotional Connection
What Is The Content Marketing Paradox?
When Is It Time To Launch Your Product?
Do Companies Still Need Heroes?
Which Is Better? Results Driven vs Time Based Work Culture
How To Find The Balance Between Busy & Productive
How CEOs Can leverage Challenging Experiences For Greater Impact
How To Redefine Leadership Without Needing Full Control
How To Create A Winning Sales Process
Working At For Profit Businesses Vs Non-Profit Organizations
Leading With Emotional Intelligence
How Healthy Conflict Creates A Healthy Business Environment
What Is Really Important For Business Growth?
How To Create A Meaningful Brand Identity
Can You Change Your Career Focus?
What Leadership Skills Create a Mentally Healthy Workplace?
Turn Marketing & Entrepreneurship Ideas Into A Business
Should You Add More Products & Services?
Should You Rely on Humans Or Machines Translation?
Should You Build A Fan Base Or Sell To Everyone?
Is A Company Built To Last or Sell The Same Thing?
Should Your Growth Focus Be Broad Or Narrow?
How To Scale Your Business With A Sales Team
What Is The Secret To Frictionless Growth For Your Company?
How Should A CEO Grow & Evolve With Their Business?
How To Position Your Company In The Buying Process
How To Integrate Work-Life Balance
What Are Breakthrough Marketing Strategies For Non-Profits?
How Content Marketing Can Benefit Your Business
What Is Purpose Driven Marketing?
How To Promote Your Own Music
What Gives A Brand It's Relevant Identity?
What Makes A Good Leader In A Company?
Chris Stephenson Head of Operations NLP at NUIX Co-Founder of Topos Labs
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Episode Transcript
In the Now: Neal Quesnel
Neal Quesnel grew tired of using over a dozen third-party tools. So, what did the CEO of WhatArmy do instead? He built a new, custom-made software product that sets his website development and support company apart from the competition. Listen to how he pulled it off in this week’s episode of In the Now.
Read the interview snapshot and listen to the full conversation here.
Nowspeed: My name is Dave Reske and welcome to this edition of In the Now where we focus on uncovering the myths and misunderstandings of marketing and leadership with some of the world’s most interesting people. My guest today is Neal Quesnel. He’s the founder and CEO of WhatArmy, a WordPress & Shopify website development and support company. He will be talking about if it is efficient to build or buy your business. I have known Neil for many years, and I’m thrilled that you are taking the time to be on the show. Thanks for coming on.
Neal: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
Nowspeed: So a little background about Neil. He’s a lifelong innovator and a Forbes published author. He efficiently built and co-founded WhatArmy, which internally developed this product we’re going to talk a little bit about called Watchtower HQ, which helps MSPs and digital agencies save time and money while increasing efficiency by managing their clients’ websites.
So, first, Neil, I’ve always loved the extreme focus that WhatArmy has had on the business model around WordPress, maintenance and support, and I really want to talk more about that. But just to start, I’d like you to smash a myth about an agency building their own software. How does a services company also get to be a software company? Can it actually work?
Neal: Yeah, well, I think every agency has the ability to do it. It’s just kind of falling into the right niche and saying, “Hey, there’s a bunch of other tools out there. None of them are kind of the right tool that solves the problem that we’re trying to solve. Why don’t we use our internal resources to create that?” So, that’s what we did. When we created it internally initially, I think that’s one thing and it’s a kind of an easy cobbled together process just to fill your needs. When you try to turn it into customer-facing software, that’s when it turns a little bit more challenging.
Nowspeed: Yeah, it sounds like a really hard thing to do, to be honest. I’ve attempted to do this myself a few times. First, tell us what it is and how it helps your business. What is the software?
Neal: Yeah, so when we started, we were kind of a website monitoring maintenance security company. So we were using a bunch of tools like Pingdom, MxToolBox, Manage WP; we’re using all these tools together. There were probably 10-15 tools that we were using. You have to log in, set up every individual client that you have. And, then, on a monthly basis, go in, rip down information, and make sure you’re monitoring everything across this wide net of different tools.
So, we said, well, these are great. The unbundling of everything in the mid 2010s to make one niche product was a thing, right. We decided, well, we need all these things bundled back together. So that was why we created it — to put each individual tool that we needed into one place so we can manage all of those client websites within that. One login and one-click access directly to their websites to make updates and changes and access. They’re staging environments, all that fun, exciting stuff.
Nowspeed: So, this is more about internal efficiency and making life easier for your team or was it also about giving you a differentiation in the marketplace? So you could do everything better than your competitors?
Neal: I think probably both because a majority of our competitors are still utilizing that swath of tools if you will, rather than narrowing down and just utilizing one. So it definitely gives us that ability but, at the same time, I guess they’re one and the same, right, because if we’re able to be more efficient, then we’re able to execute in a more favorable light for our clients relative to our competitors. And that just kind of gives us a reason to utilize WhatArmy.
This is a conversation you don’t want to miss. Watch the rest here.
