🎙️Lunch & listen: brand new podcast "Angles & Insights" by ActiveCampaign

Thanks for sharing @Grace just devoured this one. I enjoyed this chat. It always feels a little deflating when wise marketing heads like this say stuff like “there’s no magic bullet” or to just focus on producing “quality content”. At the same time, it’s a home truth that can save folks a heck of a lot of time and money. 

I agreed with the concept that different people like to learn in different ways and that it’s crucial to find out how and where your audience spend there time (typeform surveys are obviously great for doing that hehe)

Like Jason I also love OpusClip - one of the coolest AI tools for marketers out there and something I wanna use way more. 

Keen to know what others think about the chat (and if anyone has any magic bullets :P)

If only there was a magic bullet @James haha! 

I really enjoyed this too, I had no idea Zapier was fully remote from the start - there are definitely pros and cons to remote work (as we well know at Typeform!) being able to build connections remotely is very tricky but also very rewarding! 

Tagging a few folks in here that might be interested in giving it a listen - @Darnell @john.desborough @Harsh @HC Marketing @Liz @Baptiste Jacquemet @Gabolino @Ash.NZ 

I think one of the biggest challenges today can be getting out of our echo chambers and getting balanced views on the issues that impact our day to day.

The idea for this podcast was seeded when I saw Wade talking about the future is remote, and then Lemkin talking on social about how only the top 5% of folks can pull off remote, for everyone else it kills productivity. I respect both of them as top SaaS leaders, so I thought it would be brilliant to hear diverse perspectives on issues like this.

I look forward to continuing to explore big topics with industry leaders in this format. 

This was interesting for me as well! I’ve been at ActiveCampaign now for 6 years, 2.5 years working in person at our office and 3.5 years now working remotely. 

The insights shared here around productivity and ways to stay connected to the company vision and team gave me some new tactics to bring to our team. 

I’m curious for customers of Typeform - how are you staying connected to your customers or team while working remotely / not supporting customers in person? Are there ways you have scaled as a business in a remote world, or do you see the full value in working in person? 

Thank you for sharing, Typeform team! 

Added to my watchlist ✅; thanks for the tag, @Grace !

@Emma Dow What I have found most effective is to bother your colleagues who host BBQs without you in another country until you’re finally all in person, and thus, can have a BBQ. @James @Grace ahem.)

On a more serious note, I actually use VideoAsk to be more efficient and reduce meetings with clients for my side gig. I swear, I’m not just saying that because I work here! But there was a point during the pandemic in which I was getting so tired of being on Zoom all day, and sending questionaries through VideoAsk made it much easier on my head but also something innovative that customers loved.  It also reduced Zoom burnout on our clients, too. I keep searching for little innovative ways to stay connected with clients like that -- still on the hunt for more!

Anyway, I definitely need to watch this!

Thanks for the tag @Grace I will definitely check it out and add my thoughts 

haha @Liz you are always welcome for a BBQ, now we need to come to Chicago! 

@CaseyjHill I think it can be really validating knowing other companies are going through similar struggles and sharing what works and what went out the window, so looking forward to more of these! 

Looking forward to hearing what everyone else thinks

@CaseyjHill I already know you and I are very aligned in our thinking and approach, so ya wanna be friends? 🤓

But really though, I’m huge on advocating for diverse views on a variety of topics, including ones like what hustle is, creative entrepreneurship, workplace culture, etc.

I think our subjective vantage points can add to the prism of professional life to arrive at a more objective reality because there’s no (human) omnipotent observer who can see all sides of all things. I also believe in challenging my notions often so that I’m always growing, ya know?

Anyway looking forward to checking out your pod!

@Liz THIS! ☝🏾 Like you, I’ve reduced meetings by using VideoAsk. Speaking of this, the next version of the onboarding flow for Forge will include a videoask sequence that guides new members based on the cadence in which they like to engage in communities.

This will then segway into a short 5-mins or less Loom that tours them through the areas of our ecosystem that make the most sense for them based on where they go in the videoask.

I’m already doing a version of all this but it’s in the form of a DM and series of posts. Every new member gets invited onto a demo call, but not many folks are taking advantage of that, although optimistically, it could mean that the platform is intuitive enough and they don’t need a demo. Still it would be good to know see if they engage with a videoask version of this since I can get notifications of the interactions.

And yes, @Grace, I’ll be sure to share it here in the TF community upon completion! 😁

haha you read my mind @Darnell! Will be interesting to hear the results of switching it up to VideoAsk and Loom, I’m sure adding that level of personalization to the onboarding experience will have an impact 😎

@Grace yep, I agree! You have certain new members who are very shy and/or are trying to reduce meetings, so even getting them to pick a date and time from my calendar can be one step too many.

I think using VA in this way, in particular, will add a spectacular flourish to the onboarding flow b/c it’s interactive, I don’t have to tour them live, and it’ll be less intimidating for folks, lol.

I’m really looking forward to producing this actually and I need to do this very soon in prep for a possible flurry of new members flowing in after we celebrate our first bday next month just before doors close to the public for the rest of the year.

Anyway, let me not derail this post, ha! We can discuss this more in the appropriate TF community area.

@CaseyjHill @James @Grace @Liz @Darnell @Emma Dow - thanks for your comments and insights about how this has/will impact our work lives. 

As someone who managed and grew a global consulting practice from 2003-2008 solely based on email and conference calls, remote work is nothing new for me. Either as a solopreneur or as manager of remote teams. 

I agree with the comments on getting the right resources/team who are willing to coordinate across geographies and time zones using the necessary tools to realize the goals and objectives that have been set. It’s not easy to manage teams in the office (read The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) but then take the same dysfunctions and manage them in a remote structure! All the tools we have today actually make it harder …. 

How many ‘interrupt channels’ can any one person deal with on a daily basis? Phone and email management were things that got taught to managers in late 80s and 90s. Now add in all the various social streams that we might have to deal with on a daily basis - especially if we are in a remote or hybrid environment where you can’t walk across the hall and have a face-to-face chat with a colleague. 

We all work and learn differently and have our own set of tools we like to use to manage our info streams. But I have actually just cut 15 different ‘connectivity apps’ out of use within a ream of 50 people I am managing for a client: people were spending so much time trying to keep track of everything on all the various channels that it was consuming about 3.5 hours of their time per day to make sure they ‘saw it all’ …. Teams and email are the only two ‘acceptable methods’ of communicating within the team - maybe not ‘your’ apps of choice but simplifying the tools means less searching and more ease of comms. 

I may be old school but i was taught that when you leave a message for someone, don’t say “hi it’s des. call me” … you leave a detailed message (as much as you could when there was only 30 seconds on the tape to record the message lol) so that the person at the other end has the context and can come back to you with a fulsome response. I do the same today - even in email: I try to lay out what i am seeking so that the reader can understand and can reply with a full response .. Tools like VideoAsk (or a Loom video) can make the visual connection instead of just words and have a place in the asynchronous world of the future. (Yes @Grace i will get started with VA lol) 

email and voice/video comms are probably the two most useful and enduring technologies that will be used 2, 5 and 10 years from now. sound bite social media tools will come and go. 

AI will play a role in content creation and process automation/mediation - i am seeing that now in some of the work that i am doing for a bunch of my clients. I think we are still a ways away from more than 80% perfect human impersonation but then again, i probably resemble that myself lol.. 

my tools day in and day out: Google Suite, Typeform, Document Studio, Trello, ConvertKit - Active Campaign and Mailchimp for clients. Notion and Zapier are in the toolkit and i need to start using them more. 

des

Wow love this @john.desborough thank you for sharing your experiences, it’s so true that we have a lot of noise to deal with and trying to find the right format of communication to suite your team is no mean feat.

Trying to remember where a conversation was taking place can often slow me down, especially as I work on different projects with similar people, so then you have to remember if that was happening in Notion, or in a Slack thread, or a comment on a Google doc etc!