1273: 5 Tips for Managing a Fully Remote Marketing Team w/ Lori Sullivan

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.869 Welcome back to BEDB growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet fish media. Today 2 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:12.869 I'm joined by Laur Sullivan. She's the director of marketing over at Fleeteo. 3 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:15.750 Lori, welcome to the show. How's it going today? Going well, 4 00:00:15.830 --> 00:00:20.030 I mean, thanks for having me. Absolutely you and I connected recently and 5 00:00:20.230 --> 00:00:24.859 just checking out some of the content you'vein sharing. I was really excited to 6 00:00:24.899 --> 00:00:27.620 have you on the show today. We're going to be talking about managing a 7 00:00:27.859 --> 00:00:32.179 remote marketing team. You've got really five tips for success. To give us 8 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:34.659 a little bit of context, what are you guys dealing with right now? 9 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:38.729 Why is this something that's top of mine for you in the FLEETEO marketing team? 10 00:00:38.770 --> 00:00:43.329 Yeah, absolutely so. At fleeteo we are a remote friendly company. 11 00:00:43.530 --> 00:00:47.649 About thirty five percent or so of our of our entire company, is remote. 12 00:00:48.329 --> 00:00:52.159 My marketing team is about half and half, so half of us are 13 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:55.640 at HQ and half of us are remote. But of course, in the 14 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:00.439 COVID nineteen environment we are all working remotely and as a marketing team. I 15 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:07.230 think it's really interesting compared to other teams like sales, where everyone is kind 16 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:11.950 of serving one function. They're all kind of doing similar things. A marketing 17 00:01:11.989 --> 00:01:17.349 team is made up of so many different diverse roles, personalities and me you 18 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:25.859 have everyone from designers to content marketers to analytic mind collaboration is so key because 19 00:01:25.939 --> 00:01:30.140 of that diversity, and so that's definitely something that we are, you know, 20 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:34.530 getting through at the moment. Going fully remote. One of the big 21 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:40.730 projects we're working on right now and the covid nineteen, is revisiting and kind 22 00:01:40.769 --> 00:01:46.010 of shifting our ideal customer profile, or ICP, and that is a full 23 00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:51.200 team effort and often involves other teams within our company. And so that type 24 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:55.840 of projects, from the strategic to the tactical, really takes a lot of 25 00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:01.909 collaboration, and so being really good remote managers and workers is is super top 26 00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:06.030 of mine right now. Yeah, absolutely, a said. I think it 27 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:08.030 is for a lot of other marketing leaders. So with that, let's jump 28 00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:12.750 right into some of the how as we like to hear on be to be 29 00:02:12.830 --> 00:02:16.300 growth. The first tip you had was really optimizing your tools and making sure 30 00:02:16.340 --> 00:02:22.060 everybody's kind of on the same page when it comes to zoom etiquette or video 31 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:24.580 conferencing etiquette. Those sorts of things tell us a little bit about some of 32 00:02:24.659 --> 00:02:29.979 the the learnings you guys have had in recent weeks going from thirty thirty five 33 00:02:30.009 --> 00:02:34.169 percent remote to a fully remote marketing team. On this point, absolutely so 34 00:02:34.289 --> 00:02:38.090 I think it's about laying the foundation for success, and that is your tools. 35 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:45.639 It's documenting processes and making sure that managers are also good remote managers. 36 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:51.280 So it's really up to leadership to create a remote culture that will thrive. 37 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:54.400 I think we did that well before being a hundred percent that remote, but 38 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:59.509 we've really had to double down on that moving forward. So, you know, 39 00:02:59.750 --> 00:03:04.110 before even setting the tools in place, I think it's about documenting expectations. 40 00:03:04.870 --> 00:03:07.990 So we use a tool called notion to pretty much to all of our 41 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:14.580 internal documentation and there, you know, we have remote work guides. You 42 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:20.580 know, we have guides that show how to match your message to the channel. 43 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:24.659 What should you put in a project management tool versus a quick communication tool 44 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:30.810 like slack? When is it easier to do a video sink rather than writing 45 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:37.090 feedback and a sauna? You know, how can you be understanding of different 46 00:03:37.129 --> 00:03:40.009 time zones? I mean you're collaborating with people across different times as well, 47 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:46.080 and remote work also, you know, brings a lot of flexibility, and 48 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:51.400 so what are kind of expectations that the company has or your manager has around 49 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:55.990 that flexibility that remote work offers. So I think setting those expectations a lot 50 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:01.430 of times through process documentation is really helpful. And then the tools are, 51 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:06.509 of course, as you mentioned, are incredibly key to success. I mean 52 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:14.900 we use everything from slack to zoom to a Sauna for project management. Are 53 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:18.459 creatives on the marketing side use a tool called pigma. We also use a 54 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:25.769 tool called envision, which allows us to really collaborate and give quick feedback in 55 00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:30.329 a design file rather than pulling that into a project eachment tool like a sauna, 56 00:04:30.529 --> 00:04:35.290 which is super helpful. And then we also integrated tool called status hero 57 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:41.759 into slack where we do daily stand ups for each team. So every morning 58 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:46.920 I see what each member of my team is hoping to focus on that day 59 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.920 and what they're hoping to achieve. That really helps us all stay on the 60 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:55.949 same page and I know if I'm expecting feedback or, you know, a 61 00:04:56.069 --> 00:05:00.709 certain piece of a project from someone that day, I can kind of set 62 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:04.310 my own expectations right you know, and understand what you know they're hoping to 63 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:11.019 tackle that day. So the tools are incredibly important. And I think a 64 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:15.579 couple more kind of foundational elements of working remote. You know, are really 65 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:24.209 encouraging the team and studying your own focus time. So uninterrupted blocks of time. 66 00:05:24.449 --> 00:05:28.009 We all need this. When we're working a synchronous Lee with tools like 67 00:05:28.129 --> 00:05:32.490 slack and a sauna, we it can kind of feel like a lot of 68 00:05:32.569 --> 00:05:40.639 information always coming into you, right, and so setting those uninterrupted blocks of 69 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:45.720 focused on I think is really important. Actually use a tool called at clockwise 70 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:51.550 to integrate into just integrates into Google will calendar and it actually will find the 71 00:05:53.189 --> 00:05:58.949 larger blocks of time that I have open and automatically set focus time and that, 72 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:04.300 yeah, I like that. That's very cool. Yeah, and that 73 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:10.980 notification will actually populate as my status in slack, so my team members can 74 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:15.259 see if I'm heads down in my focus time as so that has been really 75 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:20.769 interesting. And then I think when it comes to foundational elements, meetings and 76 00:06:21.490 --> 00:06:26.370 zoom or, you know, the teleconference tool of your choice. It's really 77 00:06:26.449 --> 00:06:30.529 important to set the foundation there as well. You know, have the right 78 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:35.000 meetings, not a lot of meetings. We, for instance, have a 79 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:41.759 weekly team marketing meeting on Mondays where we get together. We talked about metrics 80 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:46.279 from the previous week or the month has closed out the month and then we 81 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:51.230 pretty much run that meeting on an Okur framework or we look at our objectives 82 00:06:51.230 --> 00:06:57.629 and key results for that quarter or month and we see how we're tracking against 83 00:06:57.670 --> 00:07:01.060 those. It's also a great opportunity for collaboration. But we have that standing 84 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:05.899 meeting and then we have weekly thirty minute one on one with managers and direct 85 00:07:05.980 --> 00:07:10.459 reports, which will get into a little more and a little while. But 86 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:14.779 I would say when it comes to meetings, don't be afraid to cancel meetings 87 00:07:15.100 --> 00:07:18.009 that are no longer needed and if it's not worth everyone's time, get it 88 00:07:18.089 --> 00:07:23.569 off the calendar. Yeah, and then, obviously, working remotely, meetings 89 00:07:23.610 --> 00:07:28.689 are going to be facilitated using zoom or another teleconference tool, and I think 90 00:07:28.970 --> 00:07:32.560 the for me, the kind of etiquette that I would suggest is more around 91 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:39.800 making sure you don't waste people's time. So someone should always run the meeting 92 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:43.399 most of the time, not to whoever called the meeting, but they should 93 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:48.430 really be in charge of the agenda time keeping, involving everyone that's there as 94 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:53.230 well. You know what, we're remote. It's easy to kind of just 95 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:58.699 sit and listen on a zoom call instead of participating. So when someone kind 96 00:07:58.699 --> 00:08:03.259 of heads that meeting they can really grab that participation from everyone. And this 97 00:08:03.420 --> 00:08:07.779 thing is really obvious, but not everyone does this well, and I think 98 00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:11.699 in zoom as well, anytime you can share your screen, especially if you're 99 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:16.449 talking about data or some sort of workflow or on the marketing side, you 100 00:08:16.529 --> 00:08:22.490 know, design projects, show rather than tell when you can. You know 101 00:08:22.529 --> 00:08:28.560 that functionality is there in zoom and it really just helps everyone understand, come 102 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:33.559 together and map out next steps as best I can. Yeah, absolutely, 103 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:37.440 man, Lori you covered a lot of just good ideas as well as tools. 104 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:39.759 Will have to go through and make sure we'd linked to a lot of 105 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:43.230 those in the show notes as well. You know, it's hard for me 106 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:48.070 not to chime in and kind of layer on to what you've just said. 107 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:50.029 They're because, you know, amidst all of this and everybody kind of talking 108 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:54.389 about work from home and remote work content, it's like, should we share 109 00:08:54.549 --> 00:08:58.539 some of this stuff where it's kind of you know, I don't want the 110 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:01.820 it to be just noise right now, but the truth of the matter is 111 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:03.820 I've been on the sweet fish team for two years, for a half a 112 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:07.779 decade we've been a fully remote team. We have never had a physical office 113 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:11.529 of physical HQ. So some of the things that you were saying we're just 114 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:15.730 kind of reminding me of some of the things that we've been doing. You 115 00:09:15.809 --> 00:09:20.129 know, those expectation settings. I would just encourage people to just set an 116 00:09:20.250 --> 00:09:24.289 expectation to have your camera on. That doesn't mean that like you're going to 117 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:26.240 get your wrist lap or you're like hey, if your cameras off, but 118 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:31.120 that that's the default and it's not the exception. There to every rule or 119 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.840 policy. We call him blueprints because we hate the word policy over here at 120 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:39.389 sweet fish. We're just too casual for that. But set the default for 121 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:43.309 cameras. On the other thing that I've found we've recently switched a lot of 122 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:48.389 our internal calls from Google meet or Google hangouts to zoom strictly because of gallery 123 00:09:48.429 --> 00:09:52.110 view. Speaker of you just doesn't when you have more than two people on 124 00:09:52.230 --> 00:09:54.419 a call, like a one to one podcast recording like we're doing right now, 125 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:58.779 it's tough to kind of read the room and see, oh, they 126 00:09:58.820 --> 00:10:01.299 might have had something to say on that. So to your point of WHO's 127 00:10:01.299 --> 00:10:05.259 leading the meeting and making sure that people are engaged. So like when you 128 00:10:05.379 --> 00:10:09.649 and I are talking right now, Laury, I'm able to kind of simulate 129 00:10:09.649 --> 00:10:13.049 eye contact and I can still kind of read your reactions while I'm making eye 130 00:10:13.090 --> 00:10:18.169 contact. The other thing you talked about I love, whether you're a fully 131 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:20.720 remote team, a remote team for now or whatever, the case, is 132 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:26.000 setting kind of a hierarchy of channels, and what I mean by that is 133 00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:30.720 kind of similar to what you said, matching the message to the medium. 134 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.000 Right. Is this a slack message? Is this and a Sun a notification? 135 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:37.909 And so there are some nuance things there. But also, you know, 136 00:10:37.029 --> 00:10:41.070 I've turned all of my notifications off on my phone except for texts and 137 00:10:41.269 --> 00:10:45.909 phone calls it, so I'm not getting where. We use Strello, we're 138 00:10:45.950 --> 00:10:48.789 moving over to a sauna. We obviously use slack like everybody else. Email 139 00:10:50.100 --> 00:10:54.779 linkedin all that sort of stuff. It merging that with time blocking like you've 140 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:56.899 talked about, and I really want to look into clockwise now, because we've 141 00:10:56.940 --> 00:11:01.179 been big on on time blocking, but then letting people know, hey, 142 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:05.090 if you send me a slack message, I'm not going to get them notification 143 00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:09.129 right away. Kind of my hierarchy is like if you need it this week, 144 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:11.970 email me if you need it today, slack me, if you need 145 00:11:11.049 --> 00:11:16.009 it right now, text me and just just kind of talking about that. 146 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:18.720 And it might be different from person to person. It's definitely going to be 147 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.240 different from team to team, but having a conversation about what sort of message 148 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:28.039 goes in which medium and which one is kind of viewed as an expected kind 149 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:31.440 of response. Time again, not to just set up policy because you need 150 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:33.990 more policies. I don't think any of US need that. But but you 151 00:11:35.149 --> 00:11:41.509 can work without distraction and not feeling like with all this digital communication coming at 152 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:46.070 you from eight different tools, everything feels urgent right, and so setting your 153 00:11:46.110 --> 00:11:48.460 team up for success there. The other thing I know you wanted to talk 154 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:54.460 about that I'm really big on is not just relying on written communication in remote 155 00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:58.299 environment. Tell us a little bit about how you guys manage this as a 156 00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:03.370 team. Yeah, so I think when you are working remotely you're naturally going 157 00:12:03.529 --> 00:12:09.649 to do a lot of communication in written form, in a project management tool, 158 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:13.769 email and in a tool like flat. That's just naturally what's going to 159 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:18.840 happen because you are at a distance. But I really try on my team 160 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:24.759 to focus on making sure that we don't only communicate in written form. Again, 161 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:28.639 I mean it's really difficult, like you said earlier, to pick up 162 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:35.230 on nonverbal cues when things are just written and it can often cause issues. 163 00:12:35.830 --> 00:12:41.590 You know, if someone sends you feed back through a project management tool, 164 00:12:41.110 --> 00:12:45.340 it could be taken the wrong way. And so not to say that everything 165 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:50.740 should be a video call, but I think quick flat calls or zoom video 166 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:54.379 stand ups can be really helpful, especially when you're collaborating on a project or 167 00:12:54.419 --> 00:13:00.129 giving some sort of feedback other ways. This would be really helpful, as 168 00:13:00.129 --> 00:13:03.929 if you're talking about data or analytics, to walk someone through that, to 169 00:13:05.090 --> 00:13:09.809 screen there and be able to point at certain things. That's crucial communicating bigger 170 00:13:09.850 --> 00:13:16.960 picture ideas like vision or strategy. If I'm a kind of setting up a 171 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:22.679 project to my content marketing manager and I have this vision of the outcome, 172 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:26.309 it's going to be a lot easier for me to look him in the face 173 00:13:26.629 --> 00:13:31.870 and communicate that and for him to understand and really just go back and forth 174 00:13:31.909 --> 00:13:37.590 with questions and thoughts and idea sharing. So any type of conversation like that 175 00:13:39.029 --> 00:13:45.299 were I find a lot of creative conversations happen better in a visual medium. 176 00:13:45.860 --> 00:13:48.740 You know, no surprise. They're my the two designers on my team. 177 00:13:50.580 --> 00:13:54.059 One is so gus, more on content, once more focused on Web, 178 00:13:54.659 --> 00:14:00.529 but they actually do a working session together each week through zoom where they'll share 179 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:05.490 some of the progress on some of their individual projects and actually work on some 180 00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:11.799 of those design tasks in that zoom session, and that's really helpful for them. 181 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:15.679 But that being said, we're naturally going to do a lot of writing, 182 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.200 you know, and we're communicating with remote workers. So my biggest piece 183 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:28.389 of advice there would just be to be more intentional than ever and overcommunicate at 184 00:14:28.429 --> 00:14:33.269 all times. That would be to be the biggest take away, especially when 185 00:14:33.269 --> 00:14:39.980 it comes to giving feedback to direct reports. Yep, absolutely, which is 186 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:43.539 going to lead us into our next conversation, or next part of the conversation, 187 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:46.340 around one on one's. Before we move there, just a couple of 188 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:50.059 things I wanted to to share. You know, you make a really good 189 00:14:50.139 --> 00:14:56.289 point about written communication and when it needs to be facetoface, synchronous video. 190 00:14:56.970 --> 00:15:01.210 The big medium that we found to be really effective that you can use kind 191 00:15:01.210 --> 00:15:05.090 of in between those two is asynchronous video. So I send you a video, 192 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:09.399 you watch it when you need to and then you can reply. And 193 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:11.720 so the two tools. I know any regular listener of this show knows that 194 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:16.320 I'm a big advocate for bombomb, who also happens to be a customer of 195 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:18.480 ours. But I would I use their tool daily as well as loom for 196 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:22.789 screenshare recording. And so it might be something like this, like we use 197 00:15:22.789 --> 00:15:26.950 Strello, we're moving to US aunt. But Hey, you've got some feedback. 198 00:15:26.269 --> 00:15:30.309 It makes sense to not have a meeting about it, but you need 199 00:15:30.389 --> 00:15:33.190 to deliver some feedback with some nuance. Maybe it's going to take a while 200 00:15:33.269 --> 00:15:35.940 to type that out and you also want to be careful that you don't just 201 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.539 like come down and say your work is crap. Right, if you've read 202 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:45.340 radical candor, you know why I'm saying you're crap. I'm tweaking that quote 203 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:48.860 from Steve Jobs just a little bit. But you could record a video in 204 00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:54.769 loom or bombomb, put the link there in a sauna and have them watch 205 00:15:54.889 --> 00:15:58.169 that three minute video without saying we need to schedule a meeting three days and 206 00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:03.370 then it delays things, or just relying on written communication, which is going 207 00:16:03.370 --> 00:16:06.600 to take you a long time to write as well, and you miss it, 208 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:11.279 you might have some issues with misscommunication. Our design team does a lot 209 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:15.320 of that. I'm working on projects together. Let's set some coworking time. 210 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:18.789 Another thing you can do is, you know, some of our team has 211 00:16:18.830 --> 00:16:23.389 been saying like the word overcommunicate is being overused right now, but it's so 212 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:27.950 true, because when you are fully remote, there's no watercool or conversation, 213 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:32.110 there's no Laura, you and I passing each other in the hall and saying 214 00:16:32.470 --> 00:16:33.620 Hey, where we at with that right, and so you have to find 215 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:37.740 a way to replace that. One interesting way we actually got from Patrick Lindsay 216 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:44.220 one is to simulate and open office with zoom or another conferencing tool, and 217 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:47.929 so away. This might work. It could work for like a design team 218 00:16:48.090 --> 00:16:51.690 or a content team or a specific team work, or it might just be 219 00:16:52.090 --> 00:16:55.370 hey, I'm going to be on this zoom line for the next two hours 220 00:16:55.809 --> 00:16:59.450 doing kind of some heads down work, probably not super deep work because you're 221 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:02.559 going to be more distracted, but we can all hop on here and be 222 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:04.240 working on our own thing and that way, if we have hey, I 223 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.119 want to ask a question, or hey, did you guys know that you 224 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:11.519 know this, Dada, Da Dada. You have some opportunity there. So 225 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:15.390 we actually recorded an episode on how you could simulate and open office environment via 226 00:17:15.390 --> 00:17:18.869 zoom. Will Link to that in the show notes. Let's go to that 227 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:21.509 next thing you wanted to talk about, Lorie, and talk about one on 228 00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:25.990 ones. These are just so crucial, especially when you're working remote right now. 229 00:17:26.750 --> 00:17:29.789 Yeah, absolute really. I mean I think they are. They're always 230 00:17:29.829 --> 00:17:33.940 important, but with everyone being a hundred percent or bote there, they're more 231 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:38.660 important than ever. So ours are weekly thirty minute meetings and obviously that's not 232 00:17:40.380 --> 00:17:45.809 a long time, but I think it makes such a difference and it's most 233 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:48.970 likely that people are doing some version of this. But I would say just 234 00:17:49.130 --> 00:17:55.089 my my recommendations would be that that is the time to pick up on those 235 00:17:55.130 --> 00:18:00.400 nonverbal cues. If someone is, you know, having you know issues or 236 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.480 they're not sharing something personally and professionally, I think that's the time to pick 237 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.319 up on it, to really have those real conversations. It's a great time 238 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:17.470 to give feedback. It is the safest time to give feedback and making sure 239 00:18:17.509 --> 00:18:22.829 that those meetings are facetoface is very important. I would say one of the 240 00:18:22.910 --> 00:18:26.660 things that was a game changer for me is this sounds simple, but I 241 00:18:26.740 --> 00:18:32.700 guarantee you a lot of managers don't do it because these meetings are weekly, 242 00:18:32.940 --> 00:18:37.579 they're short, they're often really tactical. I about a year ago really made 243 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:45.089 a dedicated effort to spend more time preparing for my oneonones, carving out some 244 00:18:45.250 --> 00:18:49.769 time earlier in the day or the day before to prep for the topics of 245 00:18:49.849 --> 00:18:53.329 that meeting. What I wanted to cover, maybe the things that were more 246 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:56.960 personal. All that I wanted to check in on if the person has kids 247 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:02.680 or, especially during covid nineteen, you know, if people have kids at 248 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.920 home and they're, you know, having to take on that role of teacher 249 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:11.430 as well, this is the time to check in on people's head space and 250 00:19:11.710 --> 00:19:18.069 really understand how they're doing. And so when I started to dedicate preparation time 251 00:19:18.349 --> 00:19:22.309 for one on one, so that was a game changer for me. Again, 252 00:19:22.390 --> 00:19:26.140 these are quick saints are often really tactical, but I would challenge people 253 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:30.220 just to get outside of that tactical and dig into personal things. Talk About 254 00:19:30.299 --> 00:19:36.980 Strategic Vision. We fall into that tactical because we're trying to get things done 255 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:41.009 and it we're trying to be efficient, but it's one of those things where 256 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:45.849 oneonone to have, I think really taught me to be a good listener as 257 00:19:45.930 --> 00:19:49.609 well. Make sure you're getting out of the tactical and make sure you're listening. 258 00:19:49.650 --> 00:19:52.839 See you know how to react. Yeah, a couple of things there 259 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:56.720 that you know might be useful for folks, but at least it's something that 260 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:03.039 we're doing. Is Abel, our director of customer experience, kind of started 261 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:08.109 this with our producer team and literally created a trelloboard for everyoneonone, and so 262 00:20:08.230 --> 00:20:11.589 you have different lists. You could do this in a sunner or even Google 263 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:15.630 keep or note or something like that, but basically like hey, here's some 264 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:19.630 urgent things, here are some questions I have, and so manager and direct 265 00:20:19.710 --> 00:20:25.059 report can add stuff the air, which also eliminates that hey, Lorie, 266 00:20:25.099 --> 00:20:26.859 I got to ask you a question and it's a slack message that you've got 267 00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:30.900 to switch look at. No, that's for our one on one, right, 268 00:20:30.220 --> 00:20:34.339 and so you're both kind of trained to add to what some people have 269 00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:37.849 called like your yellow list for a person, which comes from like if you 270 00:20:37.890 --> 00:20:41.369 have a legal pad and like Oh, I've got my sheet for Lori. 271 00:20:41.529 --> 00:20:44.210 This is something we need to talk about but it's not urgent. I can 272 00:20:44.250 --> 00:20:45.730 put it on our one on one list. So add that to your yellow 273 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:48.650 list on your one on one board, if you use Trello or a sun 274 00:20:48.730 --> 00:20:52.880 or something like that. So it can kind of clear your head space and 275 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.759 also add some structure to those one on ones to make sure you're not losing 276 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:00.599 things. The other thing I'd recommend, I love your your point about adding 277 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:03.910 the personal touch. It might feel like, Hey, if I'm going to 278 00:21:03.990 --> 00:21:07.150 do this, then I need to open up with it. I need to 279 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:11.349 show hey, how are the kids doing? It might seem counterintuitive, but 280 00:21:11.509 --> 00:21:15.109 I talked about this via email. When we get emails saying Lori Hope you're 281 00:21:15.109 --> 00:21:18.019 staying safe and well in the family's great. By the way, when are 282 00:21:18.019 --> 00:21:21.539 we going to schedule that next meeting? It feels like a pleasantry. It 283 00:21:21.579 --> 00:21:23.259 feels like you're just doing it to do it right. But if I say 284 00:21:23.660 --> 00:21:26.220 hey, here's the things we need to do or we need to talk about. 285 00:21:26.539 --> 00:21:30.740 By the way, how are you doing or how are the kids or 286 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:33.930 whatever, when you save that to the end, it's showing that you're investing 287 00:21:34.049 --> 00:21:37.809 the time even when you don't have to. So feel out the situation. 288 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:41.170 It's definitely more art than science, but it might be something worth kind of 289 00:21:41.529 --> 00:21:45.450 flipping the script on to see if it changes the feel with your director reports 290 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:49.599 and your one on ones. Yeah, absolutely, and I I definitely echo 291 00:21:51.079 --> 00:21:56.720 setting up a project or a place in your project management tool to be able 292 00:21:56.759 --> 00:22:00.319 to throw things during the week until you meet again. We do that as 293 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:04.670 sauna and it is hugely helpful. Yeah, absolutely. So the four and 294 00:22:04.789 --> 00:22:08.349 five on your your five tips for managing a remote marketing team, Laura, 295 00:22:08.509 --> 00:22:11.430 kind of want to group together for the sake of time and have you touch 296 00:22:11.549 --> 00:22:18.299 on avoid the tendency to micromanage and set up the opportunities for Social Connections Amongst 297 00:22:18.339 --> 00:22:22.019 your team? They both kind of speak to, I think, the softer 298 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:25.579 skills, although the softer skills, I think, get a bit of a 299 00:22:25.619 --> 00:22:29.579 misnomer being called soft skills. As a manager they're often the most important things. 300 00:22:29.819 --> 00:22:32.769 But can you touch on these as we kind of wrap the conversation today? 301 00:22:33.569 --> 00:22:36.849 Absolutely, I mean I think it makes sense to group these together because 302 00:22:36.930 --> 00:22:42.369 ultimately it results in employee happiness. So when it comes to micromanaging, you 303 00:22:42.450 --> 00:22:48.519 know, remote work brings flexibility and so managers can often, you know, 304 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.920 feel the desire to micrimanage. But you know, if you hired the right 305 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:56.920 people you shouldn't have a problem. I mean not everyone is built to work 306 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:02.269 remotely. So I would say just really dig into that and that people in 307 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:06.589 the interview process. You know, have they worked a hundred percent remotely before? 308 00:23:06.829 --> 00:23:10.309 What was their experience? Did they struggle in any areas? But of 309 00:23:10.390 --> 00:23:14.380 course in the current situation many people are working remotely who didn't choose too. 310 00:23:14.539 --> 00:23:18.900 So as a manager you have to build and give them the tools to succeed 311 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:25.339 and really help them through that if you know if they if they are struggling. 312 00:23:25.460 --> 00:23:30.170 But I think ultimately I'm definitely a manager who likes to give as much 313 00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:36.930 autonomy as possible. I think that foster's trust, builds rapport and ultimately makes 314 00:23:37.009 --> 00:23:44.039 people happier in their job and feel the ability and encouragement to innovate as well. 315 00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:48.400 And I think creating social connections on your team and throughout the company as 316 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:53.400 a whole is really similar. It creates better retention among employees, better productivity. 317 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:59.589 You know, people feel more comfortable collaborating if they do foster those social 318 00:23:59.670 --> 00:24:04.390 connections and fostering connections between remote team members. Is Super Hard, but it 319 00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:08.549 can be done. And so a few things that we do. I think 320 00:24:08.630 --> 00:24:14.859 one you mentioned earlier making it the norm to put your video on if you're 321 00:24:14.900 --> 00:24:18.259 on a zoom call. See each other's spaces. You know, I feel 322 00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:22.059 like one of the things that I know so well about my team is their 323 00:24:22.099 --> 00:24:25.890 pets. You know, if someone's dog is into the background, I'm wondering 324 00:24:25.930 --> 00:24:29.250 where he is. And so, you know, we get to know each 325 00:24:29.289 --> 00:24:36.569 other's settings and and kind of environments. Create Non Work Related Slack Channels. 326 00:24:36.609 --> 00:24:38.480 I'm sure a ton of people do this, but if you haven't, definitely 327 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:44.599 do. It. Fosters conversation and connection among different people. One of the 328 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:51.960 other flat integrated APPs that we use is called donut and it actually matches random 329 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:56.549 people in our company up to do one on one quick fifteen minute coffee chats. 330 00:24:56.950 --> 00:25:00.549 So I might get matched up with an engineer or someone on the product 331 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:06.470 team, someone on the sales team. That has really fostered social connection among 332 00:25:06.509 --> 00:25:08.980 our company. We've done that for a long time. It has really allowed 333 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:14.099 me to get to know some of our fully remote people. We've recently been 334 00:25:14.180 --> 00:25:18.859 holding zoom happy hours. We've been doing zoom trivia during covid nineteen and really 335 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:23.410 trying to kind of amp up that social connection. And then since the the 336 00:25:23.970 --> 00:25:32.250 covid nineteen situation has started, I also have been doing a quick fifteen minute 337 00:25:32.369 --> 00:25:36.319 zoom stand up on Friday mornings with my team, just a time to see 338 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:40.079 each other spaces while we're having coffee. We often don't talk about work. 339 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:44.440 We often talk about the current state of the world, what our plans are 340 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:48.359 for the weekend. But again it's an extra time that we now have to 341 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:53.109 build that connection now that we're fully remote. So again, it really just 342 00:25:53.269 --> 00:26:00.549 results in better collaboration, better productivity, happier employees. Yeah, absolutely. 343 00:26:00.589 --> 00:26:06.500 I cannot stress enough just how important that different tactics that you were just talking 344 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:10.460 about, Lori, have been for us, in our own mental sanity, 345 00:26:10.579 --> 00:26:14.460 in our own productivity as a remote team, doing it for half a decade 346 00:26:14.460 --> 00:26:18.019 now here at Sweet Fish I. I want to encourage anybody who's listening to 347 00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:23.369 this who wants some ideas on kind of structuring those those structuring those unstructured times 348 00:26:23.490 --> 00:26:27.289 to get together. We've done remote baby showers in the last few weeks. 349 00:26:27.289 --> 00:26:32.690 We've done remote parties, remote happy hours. Our director of culture and people 350 00:26:32.690 --> 00:26:36.480 ops. Ryan draughty is just fantastic at doing this. If you have any 351 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:40.920 questions about tools he's using, different ideas he's had, email him, Ryan 352 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:44.200 at Sweet Fish Mediacom. Sorry, Ryan, I just offered you up as 353 00:26:44.279 --> 00:26:48.109 tribute. Lori I. I love your ideas here. It goes back to 354 00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:51.910 what we were talking about earlier. There are things that naturally happen in a 355 00:26:51.990 --> 00:26:56.430 physical office that you need to be intentional about trying to replicate in a different 356 00:26:56.430 --> 00:27:00.269 way in a remote environment, because those things were important right, knowing, 357 00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:04.339 knowing your co workers, dogs and kids names and those sorts of things. 358 00:27:04.740 --> 00:27:10.059 We have a random channel where we ask a question of the day on slack 359 00:27:10.140 --> 00:27:12.259 and we've had people come on and say, man, the culture here in 360 00:27:12.299 --> 00:27:15.970 the connectedness is greater than any culture I've been a part of in person. 361 00:27:17.049 --> 00:27:21.410 There are things that you can do. Being remote is not just this death 362 00:27:21.490 --> 00:27:25.049 sentence to every extrovert you have on the team, but you have to be 363 00:27:25.170 --> 00:27:27.769 intentional about it and Laura, you've given some great tools that will try to 364 00:27:27.849 --> 00:27:30.960 link to as many as we can here in the show notes. Definitely some 365 00:27:32.119 --> 00:27:34.440 great ideas. I encourage people, however many times you need to hit the 366 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:38.279 back button to go back to some of Lori's tips today differently. Do that, 367 00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:42.519 Lori, if anybody listening to this has become a fast fan and fast 368 00:27:42.599 --> 00:27:47.230 friend of yours with all the value you've been adding today, with the best 369 00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:49.150 way for them to stay in touch with you. Last connect with me on 370 00:27:49.230 --> 00:27:53.190 Linkedin. It's Lori Sullivan and if you want to check out more about fleetio, 371 00:27:53.309 --> 00:27:57.269 go to fleteocom. Awesome, Lori, thank you so much for being 372 00:27:57.349 --> 00:28:00.259 our guests on the show today. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much 373 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:04.140 for having me Logan. Awesome. And just for listeners, before we sign 374 00:28:04.220 --> 00:28:08.980 off today, we did a previous episode on replicating an open office on zoom. 375 00:28:10.500 --> 00:28:12.250 Will Link to that episode in the show notes, and also James and 376 00:28:12.289 --> 00:28:17.569 I did one talking about how we've tweaked our okay, our structure, because 377 00:28:17.650 --> 00:28:19.650 we're not only a fullame remote team, we're a very fast growing team, 378 00:28:21.049 --> 00:28:26.369 and so we've kind of done annual objectives and monthly four by fours, just 379 00:28:26.529 --> 00:28:29.960 going into how we do that remotely in those sorts of things. That might 380 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:33.079 be a couple of follow up resources in the show notes for everybody listening. 381 00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:36.400 As always, thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. 382 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:41.190 I hate it when podcasts incessantly ask their listeners for reviews, but I get 383 00:28:41.190 --> 00:28:45.829 why they do it, because reviews are enormously helpful when you're trying to grow 384 00:28:45.869 --> 00:28:48.269 a podcast audience. So here's what we decided to do. If you leave 385 00:28:48.309 --> 00:28:52.109 a review for me to be growth and apple podcasts and email me a screenshot 386 00:28:52.230 --> 00:28:56.140 of the review to James at Sweet Fish Mediacom, I'll send you a signed 387 00:28:56.220 --> 00:29:00.900 copy of my new book, content based networking, how to instantly connect with 388 00:29:00.019 --> 00:29:03.059 anyone you want to know. We get a review, you get a free 389 00:29:03.099 --> 00:29:04.339 book. We both win.