Aaron Orendorff is a chaplain turned writer turned digital marketer. He was the first editor-in-chief of Shopify Plus and then VP of Marketing at Common Thread Collective, an e-commerce agency.
He is now responsible for marketing for Recart, an SMS platform. Her passion is to empower her colleagues and clients. He told me, “I find joy in encouraging others. »
The full audio from our recent conversation is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.
Eric Bandholz: Tell us who you are.
Aaron Orendorff: I am the marketing manager for Recart. We are an SMS app for Shopify businesses. My fame comes with Shopify Plus. I cut my teeth with Shopify in the early days of e-commerce. I remember writing how-to guides and articles explaining why you should trust the cloud for e-commerce.
I then joined the agency at Common Thread Collective. Now I text.
I had no experience in this industry, no clients, pedigree or connections. My life changed dramatically ten years ago. I will celebrate my 11th year of sobriety in early February.
At the time, I was unemployed and unemployable in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I created a website and wrote 10 blog posts to make it seem like something was happening. I purchased a traffic course from Neil Patel. It is said to buy your first 5,000 followers on Twitter. So I did it. I think it screwed me over for quite a while, but it helped me look like I was a legitimate business.
Bandholz: You have a large number of followers on Twitter.
Orendorff: Yes. My production rate is much lower than what I see happening in the world. I am relentlessly enthusiastic. I find joy in encouraging others.
Basically, I am a writer. I warn people when I start working with them and say, “Look, I’m going to enlighten you in this Google Doc more than you ever have in your entire life. My doing this is an act of love. I wouldn’t invest in this if I didn’t believe in you.
Criticism is a gift. Criticism is love because it requires energy and emotional risk. It’s much easier to repair and ship an item than to tell someone where they went wrong. You run the risk that they will misunderstand or think badly of you. And that means a lot to me.
Bandholz: There is a line between criticism and hatred.
Orendorff: This is an important point. I’m fascinated by how to find someone; How can you side with them and disagree with them? How to quickly build trust? What are the clues? What are the shortcuts to access it? What are heuristics? The basic rule?
Bandholz: It’s just authenticity, right? You have to be authentic. From there you build trust. Where can people follow you?
Orendorff: @AaronOrendorff on Twitter or find me on LinkedIn. If you need help with text marketing, visit Recart.com.