Onboarding Done Right, with Cynthia Gumbert

WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:16.760 Conversations from the front lines of marketing. This is B tob growth. Today 2 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:21.079 I am joined by Cynthia Gumbert, who is stopping by BB growth. She 3 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:25.000 is this Cmo at smart bear and, Cynthia, we're so glad to have 4 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.679 you here on the show today. I'm glad to be here. Thank you, 5 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:32.039 beny, for having me. Yeah, we're gonna have a fun discussion, 6 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:36.719 but let's provide some context as to your daytoday. Cynthia, just tell 7 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:41.479 us a little bit about your job as Cmo at smart bear. Yeah, 8 00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:46.359 so chief Marketing Officers Smart Bear. I've been at this company for nearly three 9 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:50.799 years now and my day to day is it's different every day. So that's 10 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:58.159 my first we're growing very quickly. We've got worldwide team. We have over 11 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:04.799 twenty products were marketing and selling to developers, software developers, that is, 12 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:11.959 and I've got a team that's managing that and in in many different countries, 13 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:17.840 and we're hiring all the time as well. So it's kind of fun growth. 14 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:22.799 Then always something new and something different every day. Yeah, I want 15 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:26.760 to talk to you today really about that, the hiring process, because we 16 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.560 know it's complex. In Two thousand and twenty two on boarding is this piece 17 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:34.599 of the organizational structure that I know you like. You just said, your 18 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:41.840 hyper focused on it right now. So let's talk about what's made this to 19 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:47.799 you such a pressing topic. And even you said growth. Like paint a 20 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.640 picture for what that kind of looks like and why you're focused on this right 21 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:55.159 now. Yeah, I mean we're a company that's growing in both products and 22 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:00.760 customers and and the market interest, and with that comes the need for more 23 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:06.280 people. Were also growing and different countries and adding you know, we sell 24 00:02:06.280 --> 00:02:12.120 through channels and sell through direct sales and sell through ECOMMERCE, so we were 25 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.360 growing on all those areas as well. And you know, with tiring growth 26 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:23.120 it's along multiple fronts and lines and each marketing team is slightly different. So 27 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:27.639 we're not just tiring twenty of the same kind of people with the same skills. 28 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:31.120 We need people with particular skills to help us in all of our avenues 29 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:37.039 to growth, which makes it more challenging and and more interesting as well. 30 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:42.199 Yeah, I know we've seen these kind of waves of change and people leaving 31 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.800 organizations. They're finding homes and new ones. You're mentioning just the growth in 32 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:50.840 the need for more hands I know a lot of things are maybe outside of 33 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:53.319 our control, but obviously not everything is right. So today I really want 34 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:58.360 to focus on what is in our control. What can we do to sort 35 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:05.280 of sure up the onboarding process and do our best right to create brand advocates 36 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:07.240 from day one? And that's some language that I'm actually stealing from the first 37 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:12.080 conversation we had, and I so I want to talk about being a brand 38 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.800 advocate. Let's start there. What what, in your mind, is this 39 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:21.199 ideal employ this brand advocate? What does that look like? Well, a 40 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:25.840 lot of it starts long before we even have a conversation with someone were interviewing. 41 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:31.199 And you know, are we showing up as our brand when somebody's researching 42 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:36.360 smart bear, any company in the first place? How are we showing up 43 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:39.639 and how are we talking about ourselves? And then every touch point that we 44 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:46.240 have with the potential candidate is it getting them excited about the possibility of working 45 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:51.840 at the company? So we are creating and posting and and just I think 46 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:57.639 this week posted a new video of our sales development team talking about why they 47 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.520 doing smart bear, and we're doing more and more of these things and just 48 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:06.319 sharing employee stories of people who are here telling the stories and getting them at 49 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:11.159 that out to the world. So anybody WHO's looking at coming to work for 50 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:15.360 US gets a sense of the company before they begin. And then part of 51 00:04:15.399 --> 00:04:19.000 that, you know, once we start talking to them, do we sense 52 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:24.879 that excitement in them? Are they bought into our story? You know, 53 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:30.120 this is growth. Is Not easy, but yet we've done on extremely well 54 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:36.879 and have a phenomenal place where at now and a phenomenal story to that's unfolding 55 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:41.920 over the next few years. So do they see that? Do they share 56 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.480 that vision with us? And you know, we can tell if they're getting 57 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:50.000 excited as we are beginning to talk with them. So I want to think 58 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:56.560 about the onboarding process specifically. There's definitely ways that things could sort of get 59 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:00.120 lost in translation or there. If you're thinking of it as a baton in 60 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.680 a relay race right, like there's right several spots where maybe you could fumble 61 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:11.560 that baton. Where do you feel like organizations are often maybe, I don't 62 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:15.639 want to like there's a chance right that the baton isn't handed off right where? 63 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:19.040 Where do you see organizations fumbling that that on boarding process? Yeah, 64 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:25.480 and we've done a lot of just oversight on what what the onboarding is from 65 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:31.040 the employee experience perspective and it's been a multi year process of getting it updated 66 00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:33.920 and, you know, getting it as right as it can be. And 67 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:42.040 I think you know one fumble point is that onboarding is considered really, you 68 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.319 know, a systems checklist to maybe a first day lunch with your manager and 69 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:50.800 then you're kind of off on your own to figure it out. And you 70 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:57.560 know, once once you have the the you know you you have your email 71 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:00.519 and you have your laptop and you're logged in and sign up for your benefits 72 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:04.160 and you get a whole flew of here is where to go to get all 73 00:06:04.199 --> 00:06:11.639 the company information, you're considered on boarded and and that's really maybe the first 74 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:16.360 three hours of your onboarding. But on boarding takes really months. You have 75 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:21.000 not years, if you're doing it right. So you know, don't mistake 76 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:29.000 that the system's checklist for on boarding, which I think many of us would 77 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.560 be guilty of. So with that in mind, yeah, because the it 78 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:35.680 does present some like key pain points. We wish it could be a systems 79 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:39.920 checklist and then we were kind of done. But if you especially if you 80 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:44.680 want culture to translate. There's so many ways we can set people up to 81 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:48.480 win. So I guess on the flip side of going here's the potential pain 82 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:53.279 points or the potential this is where you might fumble the baton. I wonder, 83 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:58.079 what do you imagine when you say this on boarding process went well? 84 00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:01.240 What are like the marks of a successful on boarding in your mind? Cynthia? 85 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:05.560 Yeah, I mean it's so a manager has to invest quite a bit 86 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:10.480 of time. But what what we've done to make that as easy as possible 87 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:16.199 for managers in our department is we've got the almost checklist for them, which 88 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:25.120 is get through the all of the overviews of how we operate as the department. 89 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.639 WHO's who? Share these, you know, it's presentations and some videos, 90 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:32.920 but just go through a whole set of material. That's baseline. We 91 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.639 consider it. You know, this is baseline to get into the Department of 92 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:44.120 Marketing at the company and then, on top of that core all the people 93 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:48.040 you need to be working with within the department, outside the apartment, people 94 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:54.199 who are good just there's some every company has sort of a go to hub 95 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:59.000 that knows anybody and everyone you know meet with them. So we have a 96 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:05.160 very systematic process of cure. Thirty people to meet with. It could be, 97 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:09.879 you know, Fifteen, twenty or thirty in your first three weeks and 98 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.879 we'll help you just get those meeting setup so you have all the right oneonones. 99 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:22.720 Then we're going to share our sub department's goals and objectives and key results 100 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:26.199 and start to work on yours as a new hire, you know, right 101 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:30.839 from day one. So it's getting to know the right people and then beginning 102 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.799 with the objectives and key results for that individual. And the other piece is 103 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:43.159 really integrated with our core values as a company and we are our specific core 104 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:48.159 values are smart, open, driven, accountable and curious. And with onboarding 105 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:56.360 we focus in on openness and curious and encourage every new hire, no matter 106 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:03.080 the department, to ask anybody any thing, because we are very open right 107 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.440 for about everybody is very, very willing to share and help and provide information 108 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:15.159 and think some folks who are new sometimes are a little bit shy or scared 109 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:20.159 to ask anybody anything. But we make it a real point to encourage everyone 110 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:24.360 at the company to be available on answer questions of new hires. And there's 111 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:31.519 no question that's like to basic or you know too dumb that that people won't, 112 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:37.399 you know, want to answer. So we really do encourage that interaction 113 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:41.399 from the get go as much as possible. Hey everyone, if you've been 114 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:45.480 listening to be to be growth for a while, you know that we are 115 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:50.840 big proponents of putting out original, organic content on Linkedin, but one thing 116 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.159 that's always been a struggle for a team like ours is easily tracking the reach 117 00:09:54.159 --> 00:10:00.799 of that linkedin content. That's why we're really excited about shield analytics. Since 118 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.440 our team started using shield, we've been able to easily track the reach and 119 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:09.000 performance of our linkedin content without having to manually log it ourselves. It automatically 120 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:16.879 creates reports and it generates dashboards that are incredibly useful to determining things like what 121 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:20.720 content has been performing the best, what days of the week are we getting 122 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:24.360 the most engagement and our average views per post. Shield has been a game 123 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:31.879 changer for our entire team's productivity and performance on Linkedin. I highly suggest checking 124 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:37.200 out this tool if you're publishing content on Linkedin for yourselves or for your company. 125 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:41.080 You can get a ten day free trial at shield APP NOTT AI, 126 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:46.639 or you can get a twenty five percent discount with our Promo code be to 127 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:50.799 be growth. Again, that's shield APP DOT AI and the Promo Code is 128 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:56.720 be. The number to be growth. All One word for a twenty five 129 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.559 percent discount. All right, let's get back into the show. There's no 130 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:05.919 question that's like too basic or, you know, too dumb that that people 131 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:11.360 won't, you know, want to answer. So we really do encourage that 132 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:16.480 interaction from the get go as much as possible. HMM. I remember I 133 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:22.559 had a director report at a previous employer and one of the things that I 134 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:26.399 found so great about department meetings was when you were a first time staff member 135 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.039 in that room, they would lay out like the ground rules for the meeting, 136 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.440 in that they gave people permission to disagree. They talked about how we 137 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:39.120 come here to like disagree and we always leave unified, and setting the ground 138 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:43.120 rules even in that way allowed new hires to feel that sense of openness and 139 00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:46.039 that sense of like, Oh, I can be curious here or this is 140 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:50.279 a good room to push back in. They have this core value of like 141 00:11:50.919 --> 00:11:54.919 not fighting in a bad sense, but like fighting for the best idea to 142 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.679 win right. So and laying that into the groundwork of a company is so 143 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:03.000 valuable. I love what you said. You said material is kind of the 144 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.799 baseline, right, but you still have to provide it and then you let 145 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:11.080 them know who to connect with. That's the people aspect of it, especially 146 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:15.360 in a virtual world where you're working with teams all over the place. Setting 147 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:18.720 up and helping people set up one on ones is so important, and then 148 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:24.639 share goals and help them build their own. And then this core values piece, 149 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:26.399 which is probably at the very heart of all of it, right. 150 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:31.600 So I'm in. This is great. That's in a perfect world. Now 151 00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:37.799 take me to like maybe it's an example. We know the things we wish 152 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:41.639 would happen, but is there like a successful on boarding that you've had and 153 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:46.159 the last few months we're going, man, this one really worked or signs 154 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.039 that you're going, we're on the right track with this, like how does 155 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:52.519 it play out in real life? Yeah, I have one. One of 156 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:58.639 my direct reports just started a couple of months ago and that we followed pretty 157 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:05.000 much exactly that that process, and I'm not usually the one hiring personally a 158 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:09.840 CMO. It's usually, you know, there's several layers and a lot of 159 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.759 teams in a lot of managers who are hiring more frequently than me. But 160 00:13:13.879 --> 00:13:20.039 I took the playbook that's been used for more than a year and use it 161 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:26.279 with her and she created, you know, a pretty tremendous twenty page slide 162 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:31.279 deck of all the different possible goals she was thinking of after only two weeks 163 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:35.440 and after meeting. She spent her first two weeks often meeting. I met 164 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:39.960 with her one on the first day and center on her way to meet with 165 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:46.120 people and really didn't check in until a little bit later to go go get 166 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:50.440 to know everybody. And then our next check in was twenty pages of care 167 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.000 of the things that I think we can do, and we went through that 168 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.399 spend a couple of hours and and you know, she's kind of off into 169 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:01.320 the races working on some of the most critical projects. But you know, 170 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:07.919 I also found myself, you know, week or two later, introducing her 171 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:13.240 to people in larger meetings and they came back and said, oh, we 172 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.159 already met, we already met. Well met, and I'm like, okay, 173 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:20.639 my Dob's done. I don't need to do any any more of that. 174 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.279 So she had met people through people and her first couple weeks, you 175 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:30.320 know, on boarding and and just they took the initiative to connect, you 176 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.120 know, without me needing to interfere too much, so that that was great 177 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:39.639 to see. Yeah, that's always the the dream, and so I appreciate 178 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.320 sharing that. I know one sore spot that I wanted to touch on is 179 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.440 this lack of documented process, because you could hire a great person and they 180 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:52.240 could come in with a lot of ambition but not knowing like exactly where you 181 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:58.159 fit or where you get tools and resources, that all the stuff that adequately 182 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:01.320 helps kind of lay out their stuff for them. So what have you guys 183 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:05.519 done the kind of streamline and help make that process a bit more smooth. 184 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:11.519 So when I came in I was fortunate, you know, many years ago 185 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:20.000 we had some very, very organized brand creative brand director at the company who 186 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:28.600 was a big user of wikis tool and the on wikis are checklists. That's 187 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.360 one of the formats you can create. So there were he'd he had done 188 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:39.600 this for brand on boarding and we took that and really morphed it into it's 189 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:45.919 evolved a ton over the few years, but he had come into rebrand the 190 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:50.200 company many, many years ago and created an onboarding to learn. You know, 191 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:52.879 how we talked about our brand and all the assets and all that, 192 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.960 and then I hired a program operations lead who loved that format and just took 193 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.519 it and said, I'm going to extend this checklist to become, you know, 194 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:08.480 the like do not forget these things, and it's not so much a 195 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:15.320 row a rote checklist of like just check the boxes. It's like, don't 196 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:21.960 forget to learn all of our products and here's link and it and it winks 197 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.000 to all of our sales training. You know, don't forget to meet with 198 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:29.840 these people, and so it's really a great jumping off point for everybody to 199 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:34.039 kind of access everything, and that's been building up over over a few years. 200 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:38.240 So we've got a couple years under a belt of that working, you 201 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:44.360 know, pretty well for us and it manages, you know, really they 202 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:48.840 don't really miss a step without on boarding. So that's it's been working pretty 203 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:52.000 well. One thing that you guys have the unique about you, because of 204 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:55.639 the size right, is that you have this place that sort of acts as 205 00:16:55.679 --> 00:17:00.639 the hub for marketing program operations. What types of things are they kind of 206 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:07.920 running and overseeing at this sort of hub? Oh my goodness, so outside 207 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:15.200 of onboarding, our head of marketing program operations runs every major cross departmental projects. 208 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:23.119 So integrations, mergers and acquisition. So onboarding isn't just hiring new people. 209 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:30.680 When we acquire a company, we just announced last week and new acquisition 210 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:34.960 of smart acquiring pact flow. So there's people. It's not just a were, 211 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:40.319 you know, acquiring company. There's a lot of people that come into 212 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:45.799 our teams with that and we use the similar, you know, process to 213 00:17:45.960 --> 00:17:49.240 on board them and also just on board systems and everything else we need to 214 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:56.640 when we're integrating somebody and through that operations team we run. But a lot 215 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:03.200 of cross departmental product launches and and you know in major industry reports and surveys 216 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:10.039 that we do and then publish that require every department within marketing to coordinate and 217 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:17.559 facilitate big announcements that we're doing around analyst reports and things like that. So 218 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:25.000 it's just really great to have somebody who's really keeping all the trains running a 219 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:30.240 time. Yeah, across areas and, you know, making sure there are 220 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:38.000 isn't really a misstep in any of these large projects with many moving parts. 221 00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:41.599 Hey, B tob gross listeners, we want to hear from you. In 222 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.279 fact, we will pay you for it. 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Yeah, the reason I bring that 229 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:22.799 up because I know we're talking primarily about on boarding, but that word coordination 230 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:27.400 is so vital as things scale and I know we're talking to marketing teams that 231 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:32.119 are all over the map, but a lot that are in this growing growth 232 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:36.799 cycle where you're thinking, not only are we consistently on boarding and having new 233 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:41.680 people show up, but like we got to have that coordination piece really locked 234 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:48.640 down so that communication stays good and can continue to like man cross departmentally, 235 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:52.279 like no one's getting siloed. Things know how they flow. Like I like 236 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:55.880 the analogy you gave there of trains on the track and letting know who can 237 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.039 go right now and who needs to stop. So I think not only is 238 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:03.079 this on boarding, but this is going okay. We have this way of 239 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:07.759 ongoing coordination that everybody should be thinking through and always looking to optimize, and 240 00:20:07.799 --> 00:20:11.119 so I wanted to point that out for a second. All right, as 241 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:15.480 we start to wrap up here and we we're thinking of onboarding, what do 242 00:20:15.559 --> 00:20:22.359 you see as the procedures or the meetings that are like most necessary to really 243 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.480 make that beginning thrive? I know we talked about some of what you guys 244 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:27.720 do, but if you're just talking to those that are in charge of this 245 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:32.240 process, what are those procedures, are meetings that we should be focused on? 246 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:37.160 I think it's the ceremonies that we have on a regular basis in our 247 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:42.599 department or very important we have. We make a point of having a weekly 248 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:49.519 all team stand up. No matter what's going on, everybody comes together every 249 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:56.960 Wednesday morning and it might be sometimes a very short ten minute meeting, sometimes 250 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.680 it's forty five minutes with a formal preson patient, but every everyone knew who 251 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:07.119 comes in, you know, starts to join those weekly team meetings and just 252 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:11.079 see. And there's some things that are ceremonies we provide. We give awards 253 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:18.240 every two months to, you know, the best of different marketing programs and 254 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:22.880 best, you know, brand advocate, and that's been very inspiring for New 255 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:26.920 People coming on board who see like Oh, I can win one of these 256 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.359 one day, and we have a lot of people who've been here less than 257 00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:34.720 six months winning one of those awards. So I think that's been really important, 258 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:41.240 just to create really brand advocates, people who really like our culture and, 259 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:47.480 you know, are looking for ways to shine and go above and beyond. 260 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:52.759 Something new we're doing this year that we feel is very important is we're 261 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:57.920 celebrating biggest mistakes, bigause marketing mistakes like that. And you know, one 262 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:03.079 of our goals is to at least twenty percent of our time and budget spent 263 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:07.640 on experimentation and eighty percent spent on tried and tru things that work well. 264 00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:14.039 And with experimentation come things that don't work sometimes. So right, making a 265 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:17.400 point of one of our awards is around, you know, the best mistake 266 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:22.240 you want to share and sharing that it's okay for something not to work. 267 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:26.519 It's not okay to never try anything new. So I think that's really going 268 00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:32.799 to point to our culture. Also on especially new hire. Seeing who I'm, 269 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:36.200 it's okay if I make a mistake, they're not gonna, you know, 270 00:22:36.440 --> 00:22:40.440 be mad at me. They're in fact, they'll celebrate it. So 271 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:47.279 I'm excited about kicking that off this year. I think more teams could implement 272 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:51.119 something like that, even if it's just, you know, on a slack 273 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:52.799 channel. We have a winds channel, but we also have, like our 274 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:59.160 team, our core team, marketing channel where we're always highlighting things, whether 275 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:03.000 good or bad. But I always talk about the shininess of marketing and how 276 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:07.680 easy it is to think that everybody's marketing is just on point because it's meant 277 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:10.880 to be shiny most of the time. But in reality, when we highlight 278 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:14.680 those tests that didn't go so well, man, how many times is that 279 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:17.960 like where we learned the most as marketer? So right, you'll have to 280 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.440 report back on that one. I will another hour on that. And on 281 00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:27.119 slack channels. Lots of slack channels are a lot of our process happens around 282 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:33.599 slack too. Slack and Lookay, as we start to tie the bow on 283 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:40.079 this this episode together, anything else you kind of want to leave with us 284 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:44.759 on on boarding? Any final thoughts that kind of can can take us home, 285 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:48.480 Cynthia. Things to be considering as people are listening to us, as 286 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:51.279 there may be doing the dishes right now or they're running and they're thinking. 287 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:53.319 When I go back to my marketing team tomorrow, I want to be thinking 288 00:23:53.359 --> 00:24:00.319 about whatever fill in the blank. Yeah, I think just because as you've 289 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:07.119 done it once successfully doesn't mean everybody will remember know how to do it the 290 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.359 next time, because we have so many new people coming on board, documenting 291 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:15.119 what worked and rettrowing, you know, if it's a big project, for 292 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:19.519 a big announcement or lawn to be retro everything as well after the fact and 293 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:22.680 say what worked well, what didn't, what we need to change, and 294 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:30.279 then you can't document enough just for the next time because there might be different 295 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:33.440 players. If it's something that happens only once a year, you've got that 296 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:37.920 to go back to and be able to use the next time. So that 297 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:45.720 certainly helps. My other point to I think, especially for marketing, is 298 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:49.880 get together in person. You know, a lot of companies are still highly 299 00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:56.839 virtual. We are hybrid with a lot of flexibility to work. You know, 300 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.119 come in whenever, but a lot of people come in three, four 301 00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.880 or five days a week and we're seeing those that do want to be in 302 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:10.599 our headquarter office or one of our offices love it. They're just like, 303 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:15.440 this is what we've been missing for two years. And encourage it without saying 304 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:19.519 you know, thou shalt come into the office, but have a meeting, 305 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:22.799 have a reason to come in, have a lunch together, and then we 306 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:29.039 found people just want to come back. They really do like together, especially 307 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:33.920 the marketing team. They get noisy and starting to have a little too much 308 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:38.079 fun, but it's good. Well, this has been a great episode, 309 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:41.920 I know, for so many marketers listening to this. As marketing leaders, 310 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:45.640 were thinking about on board and we're thinking about how our teams are growing, 311 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.559 thinking about the fact that even in this great resignation time period where we're seeing 312 00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:53.200 so much transition like this is stuff we need to shure up. We need 313 00:25:53.240 --> 00:25:59.200 to have systems around document so you've laid out a lot here that I think 314 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:03.160 people can go back to. Think my main takeaway from our episode was that 315 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:07.359 list of just those few material as the baseline, making sure we know who 316 00:26:07.400 --> 00:26:10.759 we're connecting these people with, sharing our company goals and helping them with their 317 00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.640 individual goals, locking in early on that the core values are instilled in these 318 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.599 and those that are being on boarded. I think that's worth the whole price 319 00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:22.160 of the episode, which the price was zero. So she gave away a 320 00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:26.720 lot of value today everyone. So, Cynthia, thank you so much for 321 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:30.559 being here today for sharing your wisdom with us. Tell us a little bit 322 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:33.519 more about the company, what you guys are up to, and then also 323 00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:37.200 how people can stay connected with you. Yeah, for sure. SMART furst 324 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:45.880 off where we sell to software developers and development teams who are trying to create, 325 00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:55.119 you know, anything from Mobile APPs, two games to airline bookings to 326 00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:59.440 some of the biggest banks in the world, and we provide them with tools 327 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:06.440 to just get a little bit above their development environment and make sure they have 328 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:11.880 it well documented, that they have the quality tested. Were automating their tests, 329 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:18.079 were managing their tests, were managing their Apis for ensuring their working and 330 00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:22.160 then all the way through to tracking bugs out in the wild. If they 331 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:26.079 do really software and it has a bug, we can feed that back to 332 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:32.079 developers. So we're really visibility and quality and to end, and with our 333 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:36.720 twenty plus tools that all kind of work work together in that sense. So 334 00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:41.000 we sell to very technical audience. It's a lot of fun because very dynamic 335 00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:48.400 groups of people creating software these days and we're in twenty seven different countries around 336 00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:52.359 the world right now, so we're all over the place. Half our customers 337 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:56.319 are in the US, half our all over the place. So there are 338 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:02.440 people creating software anywhere right now. Nice. For those that want to connect 339 00:28:02.519 --> 00:28:04.119 with you personally, how would how would they go about doing that, as 340 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:10.119 linkedin usually best for you. I'm on Linkedin. Cynthia Gumbert, on Linkedin. 341 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:15.119 You can find me there, and I'm on instagram and facebook as well. 342 00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:21.400 So and twitter, so all the socialist of them. Yeah, that's 343 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:25.880 so good. Well, thank you for being here on BB growth today. 344 00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:32.039 Thank you for sharing your wisdom around on boarding and man for listeners listening to 345 00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:34.720 this. If you have yet to follow me to be growth, be sure 346 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:38.200 to do that on whatever podcast player you're listening to this on so you never 347 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:42.240 miss an episode. We are wanting to have conversations just like this one Cynthia 348 00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:45.079 and I just had, because we want to help fuel your growth, your 349 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:52.559 innovation, your company's continued work around things like on boarding, but then specifically 350 00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:56.079 right within marketing as well, and what our teams are doing. So thanks 351 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:59.400 for listening to today's episode. Keep doing work that matters. Will be back 352 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:03.599 real soon with another episode, and Cynthia, thanks one more time for being 353 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:18.200 here with us today. We're always excited to have conversations with leaders on the 354 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.400 front lines of marketing. If there's a marketing director or a chief marketing officer 355 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:26.920 that you think we need to have on the show, reach out email me, 356 00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.599 ben dot block at Sweet Fish Mediacom. I look forward to hearing from you.