The Folklore #3: How hard is a conversation?
Updates from last week and a little bit about the art of conversation
đđ˝ Welcome to The Folklore, our weekly newsletter where we talk about our journey of building Folklory. Every week weâll share updates, wins, and learnings, so sign up if youâd like to hear from us đ
In this week's edition of The Folklore, weâll start off with some updates from the last week and then share some thoughts on why Folklory has a role to play despite the fact that having a conversation with someone, isnât really rocket science.
Updates from 17th - 25th March 2022
đ Wins
We got 2 more customers this week. That takes us to 4/100 on our #Mission100to100.
We also ran out of free space on our project management software - Notion! So we used some of the money from the sales to get us a year-long subscription for the entire team - a big commitment indeed.
đ¤ Learnings
We spent a lot of time talking to people about what they thought about Folklory and we got a ton of feedback. Weâre still figuring out ways to address them all, hereâs a list of things we heard.
âDonât know the hostsâ
âNot social media-friendlyâ
âExpensiveâ
âNot tangibleâ
âThe product is not clearâ
âThe value proposition is not clearâ
âNo guarantee of a good conversationâ
âCannot hear an exampleâ
âUnsure about audio qualityâ
Weâve managed to fix some of this over the last few days - for example, the website now has samples of different Folklories - but will continue to work on the rest. The hardest part has been explaining the product, so if you have any ideas, do let us know!
âI can do it myself, why should I pay you?â
We heard this statement multiple times - and we understand where this is coming from. After all, weâre just having a conversation right? How hard can that be?
Initially, we were confused about how to respond to this, but then we figured the best way to do is using an analogy.
Think about a chef. They cook a dish and you pay for it. You could have made that dish yourself - the recipe is online, you can buy all ingredients, you can even watch step-by-step videos on YouTube of other chefs preparing the dish. But despite your best effort, it just doesnât taste the same, and youâd rather pay the chef.
When you dive deeper, we realized that there are 2 reasons people do this
Making a great dish is both an art and a science. You can put all the ingredients together in the right proportions but still might not be able to replicate it in the same way as the chef
Even if you could replicate it exactly, given our busy schedules, making time to cook is hard, and more often than not youâd rather spend doing something you enjoy more than cooking.
The same applies to having conversations. Itâs an art that is built with practice and experience. How do we know this? Well, weâve recorded hundreds of hours of conversations, which have been watched by over 27 million people around the globe and weâve done this across multiple mediums - from Youtube videos, TV shows, to podcasts. While it seems simple, just like a perfect dish, it takes time to get good at having conversations.
But more importantly, having a good conversation also requires you to make time for it. Itâs the same reason why many people hire a personal trainer even when they know all the exercises. Itâs about setting aside time to do something you should do, but maybe don't do enough
We believe that just like personal trainers and chefs, our hosts - who weâre calling Folklorists - also have an important role to play towards our achieving our vision of every community having a shared capsule of memories and experiences.
Hope youâve enjoyed this weekâs episode of The Folklore. If you like what weâre doing and want to help, weâd really appreciate it if you could share this with one other person, who you think might like the idea. Our biggest challenge right now is getting the word out and to hear from people about what they feel is missing so that we can iterate and improve.
If you have feedback, ideas or just want to get in touch, you can always write to us at theteam@folklory.com. We would love to hear from you â¤ď¸
Until next time
Haresh