Catatan podcast dan tautan ada di https://show.empirecode.co/jessica-casey-jaya/
Diana: Selamat sore semuanya. Terima kasih sudah hadir hari ini di podcast weekly kita seperti biasa. Tapi, hari ini special karena kita kedatangan guest speaker namanya Kak Jessica Casey Jaya. Beliau adalah CEO Apiary Academy and Coworking .. senang sekali kita, bisa menghadirkan Kak Jessica hari ini. Tanpa lama-lama, mungkin kita sambut dahulu Kak Jessica. Halo Kak Jessica..
Jessica: Halo, Hai Diana and Tri. Nice to be here today. Thank you for inviting me.
Diana: Oke, the same thing goes to us too.
Tri: True.
Diana: Hari ini host kita ada Kak Tri. Welcome back!
Tri: Hai, everyone.
Diana: Apa kabar semuanya?
Tri: All good, actually.
Diana: Kak Jessica kabar baik?
Jessica: Very good.
Diana: Very good. Right. Mungkin buat starter pengen tahu nih Kak Jessica. Sebenarnya, apasih yang buat Kak Jessica akhirnya building di Apiary Academy and Coworking dan ada akademinya. Menarik, ada unsur educationnya kah atau could you please tell us more?
Jessica: Iya. So, it’s actually a very long story. It’s started with Apiary Coworking, so it’s family business. Terus, Apiary Coworking itu dibangun di 2017, sudah cukup lama tapi pas pandemi, it’s was run by my sister. Terus pas pandemi, she wants to focus more on her design studio. So, I took over Apiary dan pas pandemi itu coworking sulit banget. So, everyone is afraid. Jadi, we tried different product throughout that one and half year, kita coba event organizer, we want to be community for business owner, we want to be pokoknya a to z, kayak business solution. Apapun orang perlukan untuk membangun business, kita sediakan. Tapi, setelah kita mencoba ratusan event, we realized something like I realized like something. That I am quite passionate in education and I feel happiest when people get something out of the events that we help. Terus, kalau kayak mereka ada hasilnya, seperti dapat kerjaan atau insight dan orang-orang passionate in learning in the event compared to kalau pas kita bikin event yang kayak tax. You know like the feel dan kita dapat sponsorship dari Mixpanel. Mixpanel itu salah satu produk analitics company di dunia yang lumayan OK banget. That’s when we decided to why we don’t just make an academy. It’s a very smooth transition from event langsung ke academy karena basically what we have been doing educating the market anyway kan. Tapi, Mixpanel lah alasan kenapa kita memilih produk management. So, we are currently like product ecosystem, where still community ecosystem ya, karena we grew from Apiary Coworking. Tapi, basically kita mengajarkan skill training, education about all things about product management, gitu ceritanya Diana, yeah.
Diana: All right. Ada pandemic contribute di sana ya. Tapi, mungkin dari Apiary karena memang tadi kakak mentioned juga soal community. Aku curious what is community and collaboration mean to you, karena coworking space masih involves that a lot I believe.
Jessica: Yeah, I think community and collaboration itu go hand in hand, kind of like complement each other. Jadi, community itu adalah sebuah kelompok yang memiliki interest yang sama atau ingin mencapai tujuan yang sama. Contohnya, kayak as simple as arisan ya kan ibu-ibu mau menabung sambal have fun ngobrol bareng-bareng atau kayak komunitas agama yang berkumpul untuk mendalami imam bersama-sama. Kalau collaboration itu it’s when two or more people work together to achieve a greater good. Everyone is contributing their own strength to benefit, everyone else to achieve the same mission. So, in Indo it’s like the spirit of gotong royong.
Tri: Waw. True. Very nice.
Diana: Right.
Tri: Jess, tadi kan mentioned ketika pandemi datang itu sudah kayak terombang-ambing, karena kita harus nyobain A, kita harus nyobain B, nyobain C, nyobain D, di moment itu pernah stress nggak?
Jessica : Oh yeah, I was kind of handling it alone and karena kan kakakku lagi focus di studio design-nya and I don’t want to, like you know, trouble all of my family. Yeah. So, of course there’s stress every moment until today. I still am and I am better at managing stress but of course there will be stress every day.
Tri: Right. Biasanya ngapain kalau lagi stress gitu? Apa yang bikin nggak stress?
Jessica: Something that I also found during the pandemi is habits. Jadi, dulu itu aku orangnya go big or go home. Kayak misalnya, kalau gue nggak lihat para fasting itu kayak crossfit setiap hari, ya gue nggak mau ngelakuin apa-apa. Tapi going through pandemic gue jadi belajar kayak setiap hari itu kita harus mensyukuri dan living day by day, step by step. So, that’s what I learned. Jadi, since the pandemic I learned to walk 10.000 steps a day, terus kayak yoga, tried to do it three times a week. Terus kayak, even I make a coffee atau have a peaceful breakfast, meditation. All of that, I think the daily routine help manage my stress and also knowing when to stop, you know sometimes like kalau orang sudah into the work banget, mereka kayak yaudalah lah terusin aja sampai checklist gue semuanya sudah kelar. Tapi, work will never end. So, you need to know the boundary, for me usually kalau sudah kayak pas lagi kerja itu sudah mulai lihat Instagram atau procrastinate, that’s when I know like I need to stop.
Diana: Good point.
Tri: Berarti memang harus flexible, ketika tadi di awal-awal mempunyai idealisme tersendiri, bahwa kalau nggak A, ya nggak usah aja sekalian. Tapi, seiring berjalannya waktu kayak ada yang berubah di sana. So, in a sense the pandemic brought you something else in positive way. Right.
Jessica: For sure, I would say the pandemic changed my life.
Diana: My life too, I think most people live.
Tri: True, that’s true.
Diana: Baik, tapi Kak Jessica ini terkait pasti banyak hal yang perlu untuk di update untuk keep up the company right. Kak Jessica ini termasuk orang yang suka update nggak sih sama perkembangan teknologi dan bagaimana impactnya ke company? Ke Apiary.
Jessica: I would say I do try to stay update. Tapi, I wouldn’t consider myself an early adopter. Misalnya, kayak baru muncul metaverse, langsung nyobain masuk ke metaverse atau kayak NFT langsung beli, invest. I’m kind of like wait and see dan melihat teknologinya diperlukan atau nggak, karena menurut aku, it’s not all only about the technology. It’s about the people who run the technology. Misalnya, nih kalau di Apiary kita sudah invest platform atau software yang canggih banget, tapi orang yang misalnya produk analytic tools as easy as that, kita sudah bisa mengolah data, sudah keliatan datanya wow banget, kita sudah gather the customer data A to Z what do they want in life, tapi nggak ada yang mengerti caranya. OK, gimana caranya kita transform data into actionable insights for the company. Nah, itu sama aja bohong kan artinya. So, that’s what I believe we better train the humans first behind the technology, baru kita adopt the technology according to what we need.
Diana: Oh. That’s good point, benar, dan mungkin selama pandemi ini ada nggak teknologi atau hal baru yang di adopt Apiary untuk support the company?
Jessica: I would say Zoom, of course. Itu sebelumnya kita memakai Whatsapp dong, terus sekarang pakai Slack dong. Apa lagi ya, banyak kayak instead of building our own website. Now, we use like a drag and drop website. Jadi, lebih gampang kita bikinya dari platformnya, we trying HubSpot and we trying those kinds of like PandaDoc kayak apps for signature like those things, making our life easier and the business is easier.
Diana: I see, and other things about pandemic, kita jadi nothing to lose dalam mencoba hal baru termasuk teknologi. Karena, di situasi kayak gini, nggak ada hal lain yang harus dilakukan selain mencoba untuk survive.
Jessica: Yeah, that’s true.
Tri: Jess, ini kan kita bisa bilang bahwa Jessica ini adalah orang yang woman entrepreneur, right. Kalau misalnya aku penasaran ini nih, apa sih sebenarnya menariknya atau kesenangannya atau kebahagiaan menjadi seorang entrepreneur di mata seorang Jessica?
Jessica: I would say honestly, I’m not 100% like an entrepreneur, karena kan ini family business, I was privileged enough to like to take over and didn’t start from zero. Tapi, I joined the company from co-working jadinya ke academy. Jadi, gitu sih. Sorry, what was the question?
Tri: Apa hal menarik menjadi seorang entrepreneur?
Jessica: Ah, yes, I see. I would say for me, what I learned is you need to be a problem solver, like entrepreneurship is not just business. It’s like you need to solve a problem that a lot of people have. Jadi, misalnya you’re only solving a problem for one person, misalnya kayak kita melihat waffle, eh kayaknya menarik tuh, kita bikin bisnis waffle karena kita suka waffle. Tapi, ternyata 90% orang Indonesia nggak suka waffle. Then I don’t think that’s kind of like entrepreneurship though. So, it’s like solving big problem in Indonesia.
Tri: Right? Nice. So when you’re solving the problem, then you feel happy and happier.
Jessica: Yeah, when you’re making an impact on someone else’s life then of course you feel like oh, there is the meaning of what I do.
Tri: True. That’s true. Really nice. Diana, you have other questions?
Diana: Of course. Then, tadi menarik ketika Jess bilang coba banyak hal. Sebenarnya, pas mencoba banyak hal dan mungkin beberapa ada yang nggak berhasil. Apa sih yang sebenarnya pattern challenge yang terjadi dan yang dihadapi selama trial and error, bahkan in general running the business. What is the challenge?
Jessica: First of all, I was a first time leader. Oh man, like leadership is really hard, like many people, is one of the hardest things and that I continually seek to improve my skill. Secondly, I didn’t like that I was too ambitious. What I learned from the Business Model Generation book, we cannot scale up a business while trying to improve the process while trying to build new products all at once. We need to do it one by one, focus! Jadi, makanya Apiary Academy niche market banget, kita fokusnya satu bikin komunitas dan bikin skill training untuk community ini. So, we learned so much from that.
Diana: Wow. Sangat inspiring dan menarik banget ya, sambil learning as well. Yeah, it’s challenging.
Tri: Jess, tipe yang suka baca buku kan, tadi selain buku yang disebutkan, buku apa aja kira-kira selama pandemic ini yang bikin uh ini bagus banget bukunya.
Jessica: Yeah. Honestly, I love podcasts more than reading. I like walking. So, when I walk, I can listen to the podcasts. So can I recommend podcasts?
Diana: Yes, yeah.
Jessica: So, I think two of the most influential ones are masters of scale by Reed Hoffman. And then the other one is how I built this by Guy Raz. Itu dua yang a super inspiring, kayak itukan dia panggil entrepreneur atau business owner dan dia itu ceritain bagaimana cara build business from zero atau kalau masters of scale itu kayak specific business yang diajarin. I always look to podcast to learn like new skills too.
Tri: Right, right. Kalau movies atau shows, nggak? Jarang?
Jessica: I think, I type of movies itu lumayan unique sih, yang ada moral of the story. Tapi, I also like yang ada businessnya, kayak Itaewon gitu.
Tri: Oh, Itaewon Class
Diana: Aah, Itaewon Class
Jessica: Iya, itu sih..
Tri: Nice, nice.
Diana: So, mungkin buat teman-teman audience kita nih Jess, mungkin ada beberapa dari mereka pengen juga memulai bisnisnya baik dari bidang apapun dan ada anak muda in general. Ada nggak sih tips atau dari Jess sendiri. What’s three innovative skills yang penting untuk dimiliki considering di masa seperti apapun?
Jessica: Yeah, I think yang lagi kita ajarin sekarang product management, itu kenapa kita pilih juga, karena I’m a person who is a generalist, I cannot do technical kayak coding. Jadi, kenapa we pick this, karena banyak banget skills di dalam product management. Product management needs like hundreds of skills dari making the product vision, product strategy, lalu research, market research, interviewing, terus dia harus tahu marketnya gimana sambil dia harus membangun communication skills sama technical timnya. Jadi, I would say is just one skill. Product Management. I think it’s a good skill to learn. If you want to try innovating in your company.
Tri: Right. Jess, dalam waktu dekat kira-kira inovasi apa yang akan dilakukan oleh Apiary Academy. Apakah akan fokus disini dahulu sampai establish atau mungkin sekitar 5 tahun kedepan atau akan mulai mengembangkan bisnis yang lain ?
Jessica: I think going with what I just said like we really want to focus the building product management dahulu. Kita nggak mau banyak topik yang lainnya, mungkin ditempat-tempat lain langsung banyak digital skills yang reliable. So, we just want to focus on product management, tapi kan didalam product management as I said, banyak banget skills-nya gitu. Ada yang kayak product designer, ada yang product marketing, ada yang growth product management. So, that’s what we are trying this year, sih. Karena, yang tahun lalu kita baru bikin one cohort of the skills training, hopefully this year kita bisa bikin cohort-cohort lain, kita bisa bikin class yang lebih advance, terus banyak many courses yang tadi aku bilang, kayak marketing, terus ada design juga, gitu.
Tri: Kalau boleh tau, coursesnya berapa lama ya sekali orang daftar, 1 batch itu berapa lama?
Jessica: Tiga bulan.
Tri: Cara belajarnya gimana? Setiap hari? Senin-Jumat?
Jessica: Actually, it’s quite intensive, karena kita itu hybrid gitu blended on demand learning, dia nonton sendiri ada kuisnya juga. Terus, yang kedua live Q&A sama trainer-nya langsung, terus yang ketiga ada start-up project. Jadi, dia itu kayak internship style gitu, ngerjain what’s the startup wants to launch. Misalnya, new product atau new feature. Jadi, dia bisa langsung apa yang dipelajari, di apply langsung.
Tri: Diimplementasikan ya?
Jessica: Iya, betul. They apply it in eight hours per week.
Diana: Oh, Okay. Apakah memungkinkan untuk orang yang sudah kerja atau lagi kerja untuk take a course atau yang benar-benar fresh graduated misalnya harus fokus. What will you recommend?
Jessica: Sebenarnya 90% of the trainees itu professional yang di cohort 1 ya. Jadi, karena kita semuanya after work hours dan banyak yang on demand juga buat startup projectnya on weekend, itu masih do-able banget.
Tri: Nice, tapi sebenarnya siapapun deh ya, yang tertarik ikut belajar dan mengembangkan dirinya, nggak harus jurusan yang sama, nggak harus jadi S1 dahulu, lulusan SMA pun harusnya bisa ikutan, karena skillnya itu applicable untuk dunia kerja. Nice. Really nice. Excellent
Jessica: Betul, kita lumayan dari basic banget sih. Jadi, no prior experience needed, kita ada introduction classnya dahulu. Jadi, benar-benar digandeng tangannya.
Tri: Jadi, kalau ada pendengar yang mau daftar. Bagaimana caranya nih Jes?
Jessica: Uuh, ke academy.apiary.id, kita baru buka batch 2 di Februari.
Tri: Nice.
Diana: Wow, sudah dekat, nih kita bisa daftar lagi nggak?
Jessica: Diana sama Tri boleh nih, hehehe.
Diana: Iya, boleh kan? You’re meaning to us because who knows.
Tri: I’m actually interested in something related to product management, right? Yeah, it’s pretty cool actually. I know there are a lot of things that we should learn whenever we want to jump into that field. Karena, memang nggak simple, nggak cuma bikin product dan berharap productnya laku di pasaran. It’s not as simple as that. We also need to understand. Yeah, the whole thing is what the competitors are doing. The appearance of our product, the color even, I really like a lot of things right.
Jessica: It’s a lot of right.
Diana: Jess, ada yang mau di promote nggak dari current activity di Apiary selain yang course tadi? Who knows you want to promote anything?
Tri: Hehe, Intinya you can promote anything.
Jessica: Yes. Thank you so much. For the experience, so the opportunity, so get that actually the free community product community for any product enthusiast yang mungkin dia mau jadi product manager atau sudah jadi product manager tapi pengen improving his or her skills. So, we do weekly events, and it’s usually free dan eventnya ada yang kayak workshop, ada webinar style, ada yang networking santai aja. So, yeah, do join the community if you are interested to learn, we welcome anyone yang really eager to learn, we love those type of people yang pengen belajar banget, kita suka banget sih.
Tri: True. Thank you.
Diana: Actually, one more question.
Tri: Yes, Please Diana.
Diana: Yes, mungkin ada satu sentence terakhir, before we end the sessions untuk our audience in general.
Tri: Pesan kali ya hehe.
Jessica: Okay. Apa iya, mungkin. There are so many technological advancement nowadays, throw so many information, new data every single day, especially with the social media. Just take it one day at a time. You don’t need to learn everything. As long as you learn it consistently like what I say step by step day by day, you’ll be good to go. Karena, kita kan kadang-kadang bisa anxious kalau kebanyakan informasi, kita yang mana dulu nih harus dipelajari? Kita akan ketinggalan nggak ya? Nggak sih. You don’t need to learn everything.
Tri: Alright, Thank you so much Jessica.
Diana: Thank you.
Jessica: Thank you for having me
Tri: I know we are so happy actually to have you here. Because yeah, a lot of new insights actually. And again, guys pesan terakhir dari Jessica, focus one step one thing at a time. Jadi, nantinya kita bisa melakukan banyak hal, ketika satu sudah selesai, nanti berkembang yang kedua, ketiga, keempat, dan seterusnya. So, Thank you so much for being here, Jessica again, and thank you so much for all the audience’s that we have for listening to our podcast, dan kita akan ketemu lagi minggu depan. Saya pamit undur diri, Diana juga pamit undur diri dan Jessica juga pamit undur diri. Bye everyone.
Jessica: Thank you, bye-bye.
Diana: Bye.
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