New Podcast, Remote Team Tips, and Losing a Team Member
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In this episode of Inbound Agency Journey, Gray and Andrew talk about a new podcast they’re launching and what it means to lose a team member and friend at your company.
Introducing a New Podcast
During the last six months at DoInbound, Gray and Andrew have been sending out a short video and mp3 message to the rest of the team called “Co-Founder Recap.” It has been popular and helps us understand and share what’s happening in different parts of the business, the success of team members, the vision and goals for the company, and building rapport.
It can be hard to feel connected on a remote team, but this recap helps bridge the gap. Rather Instead of a steady stream of Slack messages, it’s nice to have a more personal celebration of what’s happening in the business.
The success of this has sparked an idea for a new podcast we’d like to run with Andrew and Gray breaking down building DoInbound.
How We Want to Give Back with the New Podcast
Tactical Advice
We’ve received a lot of help and insights from others doing it in our journey. Listening to other podcasts from owners in both the agency and software space has helped give us ideas and tactics we’ve used. Whether that hiring tips and tricks or software that can automate a tedious task.
It’s a good chance for us to share the tactical pieces of what’s going on and happening and a week-to-week look at decisions and changes being made.
Encouragement
We want to share the other side of the business building. It can be discouraging when you’re just starting out or relatively new and building your business to the company.
We often hear the highlight reels of other’s success, but we have personally taken a lot of encouragement from hearing about other’s struggles and failings. Being transparent can be challenging, and we’ll need to figure out that balance, but we want to help those listening know the human side of building a business.
We’d love to hear from you what you’d like to hear about, what mediums you’d be interested in consuming the content (Facebook live, podcast, YouTube live stream, etc.)
Saying Goodbye to a Team Member and Friend
Finally, Andrew and Gray discuss the head of Customer Success at DoInbound, Ryan Herman.
Here at DoInbound, it’s a team of friends that have come together to build a business, something contrary to what you usually hear advised. However, we’ve also had a lot of success working with people we’re close to and care about outside the work setting and sharing the journey of building a business.
However, the downside of having such a close team is what it feels like when a member leaves. It’s a mixed feeling of happiness for them that they are chasing after their dream and confusion at no longer working with someone you were in the trenches with and thought shared the vision and destination at the business. It was a rush of feelings, and it’s been a process for the team to adapt.
From the business end, it’s hard to put it all together with your team and get the results. It’s always tricky to lose a salesperson, especially since they’re harder to automate and more relationship-based. However, Ryan did an awesome job documenting and laying a framework that we’ve been able to pick up and run with since he’s changed jobs.
It’s an important trial by fire for any process when you lose a core team member. What helped us in the transition was thanks to Ryan’s work while building a sales system. It has been smooth, and processes don’t solve every problem, but as long as the replacing team member works it, the issues and client fires have been reduced.
We use the same sales system at GuavaBox and DoInbound, and we have taught other agencies how to implement it at their businesses. We will have more about how you can build your own Agency Sales System soon in your inbox with a product we’re launching.
It’s hard to see a team member leave, especially one that was such a close friend and brought so much energy to the company. However, we’re excited for this new chapter in Ryan’s life and wish him the best!
If you have any comments or suggestions about the new podcast, please reach out to us!
