We finished season 2 of Hamburger Business Review after a run of eight episodes. There was no direct shareholder vote the new season, but it was related to the McJob vote that passed with 72% approval. In the after action review of season 1 I said “I feel a growing expertise about the fast food industry, somewhere right on that edge of realizing how much I don’t know,” and that remains true, but now I am starting to feel a growing expertise.
What is an AAR?
The after action review is a terrifying concept in business. I learned the process in the Army and I’ve tried to use it in every work setting I’ve ever been a part of. But the idea of trying to learn from past experiences forces people to think about what went wrong and what they could have done better, and I’ve never had a boss who wasn’t 100% allergic to this idea.
But KmikeyM is a “Company of One” so I can look at my own projects without having to appease the ego of fragile leaders!
I use a simple version of the AAR that asks:
- What happened?
- What worked?
- What about next time?
What Happened?
What was supposed to happen?
I set out to tackle season 2 with a mission to make something better than season 1. My co-host Zach Rose was on the cusp of his annual McTrot and I was approved to apply for a job at McDonald’s, which gave us some new perspectives to incorporate. We planned on returning to the concept of talking about Harvard Business Review case studies but wanted to add in more personal experiences. We were aiming for 8 to 10 episodes.
In the Season 1 AAR I listed the following as things I would do the same:
- Get shareholder support for the podcast creating greater stakes ❌
- Set the goal for a single season or specific number of episodes (not an ongoing project that never ends) ✅
- Have a co-host ✅
- Ensure some ability for paid support from the start ✅
And in terms of things I would do differently I said:
- Batch record episodes and then edit to the schedule ✅
- Create and document a repeatable process and schedule ✅
- Write more in the Substack, give links and context and conclusions and make it a more fun read and not just a vehicle for the audio ✅
- Build out better internet presence (social media, web site, etc.) to create a better funnel that would lead people from our personal accounts to HBR-specific accounts and then to the podcast and then to becoming supporters ✅
- Create merch for sale (I still want an HBR mug) ❌
- Host occasional virtual events to get some audience feedback and share ideas and have a little community ❌
- Create more value for paid supporters, highlight them, have them tell their stories, etc. ❌
What actually happened?
We first recruited Chris Higgins. I wanted an editor and producer to help us make the show better. We also got Chris to come on as a co-host, which was terrific. I told Chris to track his hours and I would pay him in shares of KmikeyM.
We were also incredibly lucky to get Kriss Knapp to come in and make us a new logo and also custom editorial illustrations for each episode. We still have a very fun private HBR text thread with everyone on it.
We started off pre-recording a number of episodes, which gave us the slack to be able to meet our goal of a weekly schedule.
I expected the growth of new subscribers to be greater. We ended season 1 with 48 subscribers and ended season 2 with 129, which I was a bit disappointed with.
Financially we had $130 in annual subscriptions and a $500 sponsorship deal.
What were the differences?
Working at McDonald’s and working on the podcast was hard! I wanted to do even more in terms of educating myself, but I barely made a dent in my McD reading list. The time it took to record, edit (well, this was mostly on Chris), post, and then make clips was way more than I expected and I felt constantly behind and like I was doing enough.
This is essentially exactly what I said about episode 1, so you’d think I would have learned a lesson there. Nope.
The quality of our work kept getting better and better as the season went on, and adding guests in the latter part of the season was so much more fun than I expected! Those are some of my favorite episodes.
Without this being an ongoing forever project the growth comes in spurts, but I did really expect more listeners and supporters than we got. I believe there is a real and sizable audience for semi-dry business talk about McDonald’s and what it says about the world, but I am still not sure how to find them.
What Worked?
What worked?
Chris worked! Having a producer and editor really changed the game for us. I wish that McDonald’s or the Beef Council or someone would just pay us to make this show as our full time job. If we could all get paid for this we’d just keep better at it.
Guests worked! Initially just adding Chris’ voice was huge, but then as we talked to Kathryn, Brian, and Cabel I think we really found new ways to look at all the ways McDonald’s touches everything. Perhaps we have exhausted most of our own thoughts about it, but there was something so exciting about diving into what the golden arches mean to others.
Like last year we did find a pretty good process (at least for an almost entirely volunteer effort). We had plan for each episode, a run of show, and questions and ideas lined up to talk about. When Chris switched us over to Riverside it also was a big improvement for the social clips.
Oh yeah, and social clips worked! I didn’t do as many as I would have liked (and will continue to make more) but it was really motivating to see thousands of people watching clips of the show and figuring out what worked and what didn’t.
What didn’t work?
Trying to do as much social media as I wanted wasn’t feasible. We also really taxed Chris with the edits! It’s just such an all out effort to make the show that I think everyone was putting in a LOT of work.
Process was improving but we never quite got there. And that meant we sometimes had bad communication with each other. This meant we didn’t always give Kriss the best indication of the focus of the show for her illustrations, or we didn’t consider the lighting and images of the clips enough, and other little things that end up mattering.
I didn’t think to go back and actually read my old AAR! That was a mistake.
Why?
Being an all volunteer effort makes it very hard. This endeavor feels like it should be a full time job, and it was especially hard to combine this with working shifts at McDonald’s.
We were also a completely remote group operating mostly thru text messages. That’s just hard. It was easy to lose a link or forget to read something or be waiting on feedback someone else missed. (Also, i’m historically bad at texting.)
What About Next Time?
What would you do the same next time?
- Hire Chris!
- Do a limited series for the season.
What would you do differently next time?
- Have way more guests (maybe every episode?).
- Do more pop culture episodes (Monopoly scandal, The Founder review, etc.).
- Launch with sponsors in place (and only launch with a plan to make money).
- Create merch ahead of time.
- Plan an event for launch or finale. Or both.