Trust your mom
Justin Gignac on what made Working Not Working the home for 30.000 of the world’s most talented creatives.
When I recently interviewed Justin Gignac for my podcast we had a long conversation on life as a founder, artist and leader of a creative community. Justin shared his learnings of growing Working Not Working from a Facebook post to a global marketplace where companies such as Google, Apple, The New York Times and Airbnb recruit their creative talent.
Here are five of the most important learnings I took home from Justin:
1. Trust your mom.
Justin is not only a designer and entrepreneur, but also an artist that sells garbage from New York’s streets for hundreds of dollars and raised $375.000 by selling t-shirts for charity. When I asked Justin about his secret sauce he said:
“If you put something on the internet and your mom doesn’t share it, it probably won’t get a lot of traction”
In other words: use your mom, your friends and the internet as your soundboard. Share your project as soon as its ready and see what they say. If it doesn’t resonate with the people who are close to you, it probably won’t take off with others too.
2. Solve your own problem.
Working Not Working started because Justin wanted to solve his own problem of being a freelance designer: he either had too much work at the same time, or too little. He then created a simple Facebook page that indicated whether he was currently Working, Not Working, or looking for clients.
“The reason why we’ve found success is because we solved our own problem. And then we solved the problem of our friends, their friends and our community. Unless you solve a problem, you’re doomed.”
A lot of companies fail because they follow an opportunity when there is none. Working Not Working became successful because it solves a problem that many freelancers have.
3. Start small.
Working Not Working is known for being highly curated. Only 10–15% of applicants get approved for membership. The reason for that was that Justin and Adam Tompkins (his co-founder) wanted to grow their platform slow in order to build trust amongst their clients and creatives.
“We intentionally kept it small. We started with 300 of the best freelancers we knew in NYC, LA and SF. And they nominated their friends and it grew from there. This allowed us to build trust amongst our client and our talents, because they knew that only the best were on our platform.”
Today Working Not Working has over 10.000 approved members and more than 2000 companies working with them.
4. Serve your community’s real needs.
Working Not Working takes a lot of effort into getting its community together through events and meetups around the world. As an example, one of their event formats gets 25 creatives in a room, sit in a circle and talk about whatever they’re struggling with right now.
“When we decided to go freelance we didn’t realize the isolation we were signing up for. Sometimes I was working from home for 14 hours straight and forgot to put music on. So to be able to get people together and support them beyond just getting them work is really important to us.”
Here’s a founder that truly listens and cares about the people on his platform. It’s what makes Working Not Working a community instead of a marketplace.
5. Follow your heart, not your wallet.
When I asked Justin about who inspires him this is what he said:
“I think I’m always drawn to sincerity. The human part of it. To really connect with people and to give a shit. I’m drawn to people who give a shit. And who are trying to do right by people as opposed to doing right by their wallets and their shareholders.”
Of course money is what keeps a company alive. But how do we do it in a way that’s fair to our members?
If you want to listen to the full interview with Justin Gignac you can do so on iTunes, on co-matter or straight below. Lots of learnings for anyone who builds, manages or leads a community today.
Thanks for reading.
Severin
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