A stranger said the company where I worked was a "piece of sh*t" (ft. Collin Crowell)
The VP of Growth shares the humbling experience that led to a career reality shift.
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“A stranger looked me in the eye, then told me the company I worked for was shit and the product was garbage.”
Imagine getting poached from your current job and offered the opportunity of a lifetime: relocate to Beijing China to manage a portfolio of titles for a Swiss media company.
You say yes to the adventure! The company makes a big deal about your arrival and give you a ton of responsibility. You’re stoked! You really feel like you’ve made it.
Then, one day you’re making small talk with a local. They ask what you do. You tell them where you work, and they say - “oh, that company is a piece of sh*t and their product is garbage.”
That’s the situation Collin Crowell (now VP of Growth at Kameleeon) found himself in.
“My first response was to think, ‘Whoa. What? No. I’m important. I’m somebody,’” Collin recalls of the awkward moment. “I thought I was working for a successful company. It was very humbling to realize that wasn’t the case. It was actually a brand that needed a lot of help.”
It was a tough blow to Collin’s ego.
“The feedback blindsided me. I really had to digest it,” says Collin. “That evening, I went through the cathartic process of writing down my feelings. I wrote myself a letter, and told myself, ‘you can give up, or you can roll up your sleeves and help prove them wrong.’ I proved them wrong.”
Collin now leads go-to-market for all of North America as head of growth at Kameleoon, a conversion optimization and experimentation platform. Looking back, he sees this harsh moment was a blessing in disguise. “It was a huge relief that I learned what I did so early on,” Collin says.
“The worst thing is operating in ignorance. That can be disastrous.”
Collin and I covered a ton more ground in our conversation, including:
The time a boss told him to “slow down,” which turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice he’s ever received
The two important lessons he learned after doing a crappy job of delivering bad news to leadership
Collin’s Linkedin FOMO and how he focuses on just being human
Watch or listen below 👇
Things to listen for:
[03:04] Being known as the “odd ball”
[04:08] The big leap moving from the US to alone in China
[08:25] Being told he worked at a ‘piece of shit’
[13:00] Flipping the switch to ‘I want to kick ass and take names’
[16:41] Knowing he lost before he even got in the game
[24:10] Major FOMO on LinkedIn
[34:05] Being told by his boss to slow down
[37:45] Most crucial advice
Before ya go
I'm super fired up because my new miniseries project launches next week!
(you can watch the trailer here)
Back in March, I rented a ton of camera gear, booked a sick studio in Boston, and filmed an 8 episode video interview series with the Navattic growth team.
We explored how they think about growth, how they set growth strategy, how they operate, what they track, how often they share, and explored some of their biggest challenges, fears, and speed-bumps along the way
The series will have short eps (7-11 mins each) featuring interviews with Natalie Marcotullio and Raman Khanna mixed with my commentary.
It’s something I would have binged when I was in-house.
I never could learn/collaborate with other growth teams as much as I wanted to. I always wondered if were missing something obvious that everyone else was doing.
And I know I'm biased. But I honestly haven't seen this type of "inside baseball" content before. So I'm super excited to share it with ya’ll next week!
Interested in sponsoring the pod? Let’s chat! sponsor@deliveringvalue.co