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Matt Likens, President and CEO at GT Medical Technologies, on The Beni.fit

Matt Likens has been in the businesses of improving lives through biotechnology for more than 10 years now. As the president and CEO at GT Medical Technologies, Matt seeks to improve the lives of people with recurrent brain tumors. He won Phoenix Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO’s award in 2012 and was awarded an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the mountain region in 2015. With more than 25 years of experience leading companies, Matt has accumulated a wealth of knowledge about how to lead people. 

In this episode, Matt chats with podcast host and Beni.fit CEO Kate King, about why it’s important for CEO’s to be authentic, why he came out of semi-retirement to work with GT Medical Technologies, and why balance is key for leaders. If you want to be inspired by an incredible, experienced leader, this episode is for you!  Listen below.

Also, check out all of our podcast episodes featuring interviews with inspiring, respected leaders who prioritize their employees. Then, learn more about how Beni.fit does employee benefits differently. 

Show Highlights:

[1:30] Matt shares his opinion about the role CEO’s play in setting the tone for a company’s culture

[2:00] “The CEO has got to live and breathe and act that way, or there’s no chance for that culture to really gain momentum and be effective.”

[4:00] Matt discusses why CEO’s should move slowly when joining a new company and trying to affect the company’s culture

[6:00] Matt shares how he established operating principles and values as the CEO of Ulthera

[8:00] “I think the most important characteristic that a leader needs to exhibit is authenticity.”

[10:00] Matt talks about why leader’s must overcome the desire to always be liked

[14:00] Matt explains why he joined GT Medical Technologies

[16:00] Matt talks about why balance is a key to a successful life

[18:00] “My advice to people who strive to get into a leadership role is, it wouldn’t hurt to work.”

[25:00] Matt sheds light on his morning routine

[28:00] Matt talks about why he thinks people should work to fulfill as close to 100% of their potential as they can

The Benifit Interview w/ Matt Likens, President and CEO at GT Medical Technologies

Kate King: Hi, this Kate King host of The Beni.fit, where every episode we dive in and explore companies on how they enable employees to thrive.

Our guest today is Matt Likens, the president and CEO at GT Medical Technologies, which is focused on improving the lives of patients with brain tumors. He has a long history of success in both the corporate and the startup world. He shares his insights to culture and leadership and his key guiding principles to life.

Good afternoon, Matt, and thank you for joining us on The Beni.fit podcast today.

Matt Likens: Yeah, thank you, Kate. Nice to be with you.

Kate: Wonderful. So, I’ve got some, you know, few questions. One, um, is much more generic for you to get us started. Some people say that the CEO sets the tone for company culture. As someone who’s led several companies, do you agree with this sentiment and why?

Matt: I do agree with the sentiment. And I-I think that that’s one of the obligations or responsibilities for leadership. Um, and-and I think one of the biggest issues related to culture, relates to authenticity. And so I think the CEO, as the the leader of hopefully a group of leaders within an organization, um, to lead with credibility, they must be seen as authentic and truly believing, uh, in what they are espousing. And so, that’s why I-I do think that the CEO taking the lead and establishing whether there’s a purpose or operating principles or a big herodaceous goal or whatever the key elements are that define a culture of an organization.

[00:02:00] The CEO has got to live and breath and act that way, uh, or there’s no chance for that culture to really gain momentum and be effective. So, I think it’s gotta start there and hopefully, it’s something that as you’re building an organization, you’re inspiring people to join you who can relate to that culture in– and really thrive in that type of environment.

Kate: Thank you, uh Matt. Now, it’s interesting because some, um, CEOs are coming in as kind of taking on an existing culture and some are having the pleasure of kind of starting up a culture. And I believe you’ve been in both of those arenas. Um, what would you say to that CEO coming into a culture, just to how they would, uh, embrace and kinda change that take the lead and the reigns in there.

Matt: Yes. So, I would caution them to move slowly. [laugh]. Yes. And so, um, as I’m sure you know, change is very difficult for every person and certainly every organization. And so, I think it’s really important for anybody coming into an existing organization to be, uh, take your time and really understand what the existing values are, what the operating principles are, what that culture looks like, and is it effective. Is the company thriving? You know, are they achieving their goals? Is it a place with low turnover and highly inspired employees or very productive? If it is, you know, you probably don’t wanna change too much.

And if you do wanna change things, more to your way of thinking, if it’s slightly different than what’s operating there, then I think doing it over time with incremental change is probably more likely to be successful than if-if you want to establish a new operating [00:04:00] environment tomorrow. [laugh]Uh, that would be my recommendation. If-if it’s not an organization that is highly performing, then I think you-you probably have a license to still take your time and understand what it is exactly before you embark upon a major, uh, change to-to the environment. But you probably can do it much more quickly because there is more of a sense of urgency when the ship is sinking, or it’s just not achieving its goals and people are more likely to understand the need for change in that environment.

Kate: Now, I think that’s, um, some wonderful said advice. I think you have people coming into a– or CEO’s coming into a new company who want to make a kind of a quick impression. And I think that caution is absolutely required in what you should build for the long term and have that long view plan. So, thank you for that.

Now, you worked to 10 years of President and CEO of Ulthera. Um, how did you enable your people to thrive there?

Matt: So, in the early stages, I-I was the second employee, and, um, it was the first time I’d been a CEO, and so you really have a blank slate, right? So there isn’t an operating environment, there-there aren’t principles or values, uh. And-and so, I really when– in an operating room previously with Baxter Healthcare organ-organization, um, Healthcare, uh, I was able to come into different operating roles and establish my principles and see whether they would work well or not. And I-I made all the mistakes, right? I tried to change certain divisions of the organization probably more quickly than they should have been changed. Um, and-and so having learned from all that and having really been able to refine, um, what was important [00:06:00] to me as a leader, coming into Ulthera and having that blank slate, you-you establish something where nothing existed previously.

And I found that to be, um, a-a-a great way to do it. There was no change required, [chuckles] there was nothing, right. And-and then I-I established operating principles really as the foundation to the culture and I established five of those. And, uh, then as we were hiring people, I got to talk about what you can expect if you join Ulthera and or the operating principles in some detail. And I interviewed everybody, of course, because initially we were a small group of 220 employees. But even at the end, I was interviewing everyone just so they could hear from me what they could expect if in fact this was a good place for them to work and-and whether they had the skills that we needed in order to continue to grow the business. I just thought it was a-a great filter to use.

And then when somebody did join us, there shouldn’t have been any surprises if in fact, “Oh my god, you’ve got these operating principles who– I don’t agree with these two.” right? Um, eventually the five that we established initially grew to seven when the management team that had been assembled came to me and said, “No, I think we need to add a couple of more. I don’t think the five that we have really fully define what we need to be as an organization.” That’s when I knew they weren’t Matt’s operating principles anymore, but they were Ulthera’s operating principles, and-and everyone saw value in them. So that was, uh, really-really a great point in time for us.

Kate: That’s tremendous. Yeah. I love that, uh, statement, “They went from Matt’s to Ulthera’s.” I think many CEOs aspire to get that moving very quickly. Um, so you have over 25 years of experience in people leadership, what’s one lesson [00:08:00] that you’ve learned about leading people?

Matt: Again, I-I think the most important characteristic that a leader needs to exhibit is authenticity. Um, along with that, you’ve got to operate in a consistent fashion. So, I have worked for other leaders in the– it was like going to an amusement park and being on a roller coaster ride. You know, one never knew, when you showed up for work in the morning, [chuckles] you know, whether you were going to be, you know, at the beginning of the ride, either at a point of stability, or whether you were going to be, you know, plummeting down the highest decline, you know, in the roller coaster. And people don’t do productive work if there can’t be some, uh, sense of consistency, uh, in-in the work environment.

And so, consistency doesn’t mean that you don’t change, but when you do change, you change in a more controlled fashion and all the right communication is accompanying that change, and you’re explaining why we’re-we’re, you know– so, we’ve been operating this way, this way, and this way. Now, from this point forward, we’re going to change and these are the reasons why. The outside dynamic has changed, the market environment has changed, our capabilities have improved or declined or whatever. And then people move along with it because you’ve taken the time to really explain to them.

So, I- so, I think it’s authenticity. You-you-you can’t be seen as saying one thing but acting in a different way, uh, and-and if you are saying it, and you say you believe it, then you better damn well believe it because people are really smart and they will catch you, you know, if there’s anything that’s, you know, not quite true. Uh, and-and then just be consistent in the way you operate.

Kate: Fantastic. And do you believe authenticity is learned? You know, if you look at the operating principle, was that you’re authentic to the operating [00:10:00] principles and culture of the organization, or that you have a natural authenticity as a leader.

Matt: Yeah, I-I think you have to have a natural authenticity. And-and so maybe you grow into that over time and you realize that you can’t be all things to all people, you’re never going to please everyone, and it doesn’t matter. And-and also it doesn’t matter whether people like you, okay [chuckles]. I think a lot of us grow up, you know, wanting to be liked, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and it is great to people like you, but obviously much more important that they respect you, and they respect what you stand for, and they view you as operating, uh, in an equitable fashion that you’re-you’re exhibiting fairness in what you do.

And if you’re gonna-going to move in a new direction, you know, you build trust over time and you have, um, the capability to move the organization in new-new direction because you’ve earned that respect over time.

Kate: Fantastic. No, I-I couldn’t agree more around the, you know, to be- to be respected for what you stand for, it’s really that consistency that you mentioned earlier. So I think, you know, being able to align that to have a natural tendency to be authentic or have that honesty, and then to align with the company culture to live and breathe it everyday is absolutely the key to success there.

So now you’re president and CEO of GT medical technologies, what do you do to find great people to join the team? And other than authenticity and consistency, what do you look for in them?

Matt: Yes. So, um, until we get some more, um, uh, external funding, we won’t be looking for a lot more people to join the team [00:12:00].

[laughter]

Yeah, and we-we have four full time employees currently, uh, but a fifth has agreed to come on at the end of this month, so we’re very excited about having, uh, having that person come on board as well. Um, two of the people out of the five that will be at the end of March, uh, I’ve worked with previously. And so having done that and having seen their work and understood who they were as individuals and how committed they are to, um, to the task at hand, you know, it does give you, um, a-a really great feeling that they will be effective contributors here. A lot of the-the risk that is sometimes inherent in hiring new people is taken out of it. So, um, but-but what you really look for is people who, um, believe in what– we-we have a purpose at GT Medical Technologies. You know, the purpose is improving the lives of patients with brain tumors.

And so, you know, one might say, “Well, isn’t that motherhood and apple pie?” Yes. [laughs] So, certainly is for people who are going to have brain tumors, if we can improve their lives, that’s a good thing. But it is something that we need to be emotionally behind and committed to because that-that’s really what it’s all about. And so I think if you can appeal to someone’s emotional, uh, being as well as their intellect– I mean, intellect is pretty easy to get. I mean, they bring that to work with them every day, but if they’re emotionally involved and committed to the cause as well, you’re just gonna get so much more out of them. The company will benefit from it, they will get more satisfaction out of the work experience, and ultimately, and in our situation, patients will benefit and hopefully patients can live much longer tumor-free as a result of the technology that we bring into the marketplace in the next couple [00:14:00] of years.

Kate: And is that why you joined?

Matt: Yeah, that’s exactly why I joined. So, I’ve been in a variety of therapeutic areas in the healthcare business in over the last 10 years, you mentioned Ulthera. And Ulthera’s business was really, uh, more aesthetic medicine. So, we had a focus ultra sound device that was very consistent in providing a firming tightening and lifting result for, um, customers, uh, not really patients, because they weren’t sick, but-but cash paying customers who were looking to, uh, improve the way they looked compared to, uh, the chronology that they represented tha-than their age. And we can do that in [unintelligible 00:14:47] and we had a very high percentage of ethicacy, uh, and-and it was fine. But we worked, um, you know– we-we weren’t curing diseases and we weren’t dealing with, uh, illness at all.

And so having been, I think pretty effectively semi-retired for about 16 months, um, I wasn’t really looking to get involved in an operating wall again. But I did feel like this GammaTile technology that is represented with GT Medical Technologies has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes, uh, with brain tumors, which is, you know, that’s just not a great prognosis, uh, no matter what type of brain tumor you have, um, and-and no matter how skilled the neurosurgeon may be if in fact you have to have that tumor resected.

So this-this feels like it’s really worth while work and something that certainly I can get emotionally behind and-and I think attract others to this, uh, where it’s quite meaningful for them as well.

Kate: Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is, you know, not just life changing for the people working there, you know, to your point the life changing of the patients [00:16:00]. Um, how do you, you know, being so passionate about it and, you know, clearly there’s lots of work to be done, how are you finding balance?

Matt: So I think you’re going to ask me a question maybe in the future about [chuckles] one of the keys to, uh, being successful, you know, and-and what drives someone. But I think balance is a key to a successful life. And-and so it is something that’s worth socializing with the team as well because if any one aspect of your life gets out of balance, you won’t be effective in the other aspects of your life. And so if you think of physical wellbeing or your spiritual being, uh, and also of your professional life, um, and-and, uh, all of that has to, uh, be, uh– you have to pay attention to each aspect of that for you to have a chance to be effective in everything. And so that’s-that’s just something that I think you learn over time. I don’t think my life was always as balanced as it is now, and I encourage anybody who joins our-our company to– We have talked about it, I have lunch with one-one of our former employees today, and that was part of our discussion of lunch because of some things that he has going on his personal life.

And so I think it was good for us to talk about it and recognize it and we’re all whole people and we always see a portion of that whole person at work, but we should see the whole person here, and we should talk about things overall and I think that that makes a better operating environment in itself.

Hey Kate, coul-could I go back to one other point on leadership?

Kate: Absolutely.

Matt: Yeah, I-I really– I-I don’t think there are, you know, ‘natural leaders’ necessarily. Um, [00:18:00] I think people learn over time what resonates for them and what style works for them if they, uh, if their desire is to be a leader. Um, and so I know that, you know, the sort of environment and the-the high tech and healthcare tech community that, you know, you have a few Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of hulled who, you know, they drop out of Harvard or some other fine institution and these are leading what becomes a, you know, global, you know, multibillion dollar enterprise and somehow they-they do it, and they lead it and they do it fairly well. But I think that’s really a rare-rare exception.

And so my-my advice to people who strive to get into a leadership role is, it wouldn’t hurt to work. Uh, you work for AmEx, right? And-and for a significant period of time, and I worked for Baxter and J&J for a significant period of time, and I was exposed to really good leadership practices, management practices, process practices, and-and-and I was also exposed to some miserable behaviors and practices and stupid rules. And-and so over time when you’re exposed to that, you realize [unintelligible 00:19:21] this is how– If I’m gonna have an opportunity to be in the leadership role, this is what I would bring forward with me, they’re really best practices, and this is what I would definitely leave behind. And this is what I would add, you know, my own twist on things to make sure it’s authentic.

And so I encourage younger people to– you know, J&J got to be $150 billion market cap company because they do a lot of things right. Uh, and at the same time, I wouldn’t want to work there anymore because they’re large, and they’re slow, and they have all those things. And, you know, AmEX put a lot of things right, but I’m sure there were a lot of things that drove you crazy.

And so as you move into a startup [00:20:00] world, then you’re only bringing forth those things that-that make sense to you as an individual and are more effective than some of the practices there.

Kate: Now, I think you bring up a great, um, differentiater between, you know, learning to be a leader in a corporate environment versus that of an entrepreneurial venture. Um, you know, I think last time we met, we spoke about in the corporation, you have many people. Many people have specific roles and responsibilities, and being a leader and, um, also being a doer, whereas in an entrepreneurial mindset, especially in a startup, you literally are doing it all and bringing the best of what you bring from this skill. Um, you’re both a leader as well as the doer always.

Um, but why I liked the-the what you said was the progression to being authentic, and that really is that personal growth and learning and really taking what you love, what inspires you as an individual to then become authentic with that. And then, if you go to a company and have that matched with the operating principles, that’s where you found your kind of like working Nirvana, so to speak.

Um, and I think that le– being able to lead authentically is absolutely the priority, but how you get there with an organization does involve that questioning learning really what do you stand for and do you have also the experience to be able to stand where you are. So I thought that was– that’s a great intro into kind of ways in which to become more authentic as a leader. Coz I think using the word is great, but a lot of times, you go and say, “I’m authentic.” or what does that really mean?

And I think having that, uh, perspective in self-development, self-perspective, self-compassion, really understand what lights you up, what inspires others, um, is a process that you have to continually work on.

Matt: [00:22:00] Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. I-I-I think you just said it very well. Um, and just, you know, we’re diverging a little bit maybe from what– where are you going next, but I was on a panel last week as you know, and, um, you know, it was from a very accomplished folks. And-and one of the folks in the panel, um, is a-a young leader of a very successful company and they’ve got an unbelievable culture.

Uh, and he was talking about, gee, I just, you know, ho-how did you develop such a great culture? He said, “Well, it-it just kind of happened and-and I don’t think you need to necessarily be intentional about it. You get the right people and voila, it just happens.” And-and I had to speak up and say, “That’s wonderful that it worked that way for you, but I wouldn’t take that chance.” [chuckles]

Kate: Yeah. [chuckles]

Matt: I think you absolutely, as the leader, you have to be intentional about it and-and-and drive what’s the right culture for you, [chuckles] you know, and-and then, you know, if it’s the right culture for the right other people, then great, but, uh– Anyway. We-we-we had a little bit of a difference on that, but I-I-I still stand by my conviction. I think the CEO has got to drive that culture and represent it and be authentic about it.

Kate: Yeah. Absolutely. Maybe, you know, he’s one of the outliers like Steve Jobs and-and-and Bill Gates, where he just, you know, was able to ins-inspire or create that as it was going. I think, you know, to a point, most people are deliberate with culture. And I think when you look to other examples in the industry, that we’ve seen in the news in the last kind of year, not having intentional culture has serious impacts to the bottom line.

Matt: Yes. Um, are-are you thinking Uber, by any chance?

Kate: [chuckles] It’s just to name one, yes.

Matt: Yeah. The-the-there are lots of examples. And again, I think a great idea, you know, and obviously a very valuable company, but, you know, it was just, uh, wasn’t moving in the right direction. So, big changes and, you know, it’s too bad [00:24:00] but in a way, it’s understandable, right?

Kate: Yeah, absolutely. When you grow that quickly, um, without a doubt, but I think it opens the doors that CEOs and the leadership teams to really think about this, and more and more this becomes really the winning formula to how successful you actually are in your industry.

Matt: Yup. Yup. I agree.

Kate: So, Matt, I have a couple of questions more personal for our listeners, um, if that’s good with you. Um.

Matt: Sure,

Kate: You know, there’s much talk about successful leaders having morning routines, and it’s really been seen as scientifically proven and critical to their success. Could you share your morning routine with us?

Matt: Um, sure. Um, I-I-I get up early, um, and-and by early, you know, it’s 5:00, 5:30, uh, timeframe, and three– at least three times a week, and four if I’m lucky.

Um, I-I go to Orangetheory. It’s a one-hour exercise class, there are franchises all over the country.In fact, I read last week, it’s one of the fastest growing franchises in the country. And, you know, monitoring your heart rate, uh, and your metabolism, and you have an ideal, um, activity level, which is the orange level. And you should spend at least, at least 12 of the 54 minutes or so of workout at that orange level or above. Uh, and I-I just find it, um, if I devote that time early in the day and really get a great workout, you monitor your how many calories you burn based on your, uh, your body mass index as well. Uh, I have more energy all day long. So, um, so that’s a great way to start. But even before I go there, I have to do, uh, my stretching. [laughs]

I play a lot of basketball, and I run marathons and, they’re not great on your back [00:26:00] or knees. So-so I-I do that religiously as about a 20-minute program, where I’m stretching and sit-ups and moving so that I can move and go to Orangetheory and actually be on the treadmill or, uh, or on the rowing machine, or in the weight room and-and perform well. But I think that taking care of yourself physically at that time, I think sets me up for a very productive day. I also try to spend some time, and even when I’m doing the stretching, I wouldn’t call it meditation, but I wouldn’t call it thanking deeply about, you know, who I am, who I am [laughs] how far I need to accomplish, and, you know, whether-whether everything’s in balance. And so I find that to be, uh, very relaxing, and also gets my mind straight for the day ahead.

Kate: Wonderful, truly wonderful. And the last question for you, um, and it doesn’t have to be three, I just put it out there. What three rules do you live by?

Matt: Yeah, and so I-I don’t know if I live by three rules, but one thing that drives me, and always has, for some reason, is, uh, that one should strive to reach one’s potential. So and, and not to be too spiritual about this, but, you know, God has given us certain gifts and certain capabilities. And I almost feel like it’s a sin if you don’t take advantage of your God-given abilities. And so, we all have potential as human beings, along a number of different fronts.

Um, but then if-if you relate it to business, you know, so you’re-you’re starting a company, and you have a technology, and you need to hire resources, and you need to try to define the market, and you need to try to figure out how you’re going to compete effectively. And by definition, you-you-you [00:28:00] have a certain potential for that business, and it might be the number in-in health care, of course, the number of patients treated or benefiting from your product. There are– For me, after all those [unintelligible 00:28:11] there’s gotta be a financial potential for the company, uh, and that helps to measure things as well.

And so what is that overall potential? Can you try to define that? And then the goal of the company is to achieve the– as close to a 100% of that potential as you possibly can, and you’ll never get there, right? But, but I think, uh, lost potential is to me a– it’s a- it’s a big- it’s a big waste. [laughs] And so, I’ve always admired athletes who may not be the most talented, but you just know that they worked harder than anyone else and they achieve a greater percentage of their potential than a lot of other people who are more physically talented and gifted than they were. And-and that relates to for me across business and across life in general. So, I guess that’s, that would be the one driving, uh, force in my life.

Kate: Fantastic, I love it. I think that, you know, this will give many of our listeners foo-food for thought, in terms of how many of you could do strive for, uh, their potential every day. You know, as it is interesting you give the experie– the example of business, but I think from a personal standpoint, how many of us could really put our hands on our heart, and every day say I’m striving for my top potential, I’m better than I was yesterday.

Um, that probably comes to people maybe, you know, “Oh, I remember that,” “I’m supposed to do that,” or, “Oh, I remember”– Like a couple of months ago I was thinking that on the day to day, you know, when a new show gets taken over, but I think that’s a-a fantastic, you know, guiding principle with you like of, of, uh, leading your lives.

Matt: Yeah, I-I-I guess other thing is, you know, treating people the right way, right? Where any-even in a company, you know, obviously there is a CEO, uh, in a lot of companies and-and there is that person who’s, you know, just starting for the company and maybe has, you know, a-a first level role. Um, each person is equally important even though they’re at different levels and play different roles, but it does– You know, so you’re-you’re in the mail room, right? [laughs]. That’d be the traditional way-way of stereo–typical way that-to-to look at that. Well, that role is really, really important, and that person is important. And so treating people the way you wanna be treated, I mean, it almost goes without saying but, um, it shouldn’t matter the level in the organization, it-it’s, we’re all individuals and deserve that respect.

Kate: Fantastic. Matt, we’re coming up on our time today. I truly want to thank you for not only your insight but your experienced insight, uh, for our listeners today. I truly appreciate it.

Matt: Sure, thanks, Kate. Thanks for having me, and I really enjoyed it.

[music]

Kate: Firstly, thanks for listening and spending time with us. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Matt. For a transcribed version of the show, head over to beni.fit/podcast. That’s B-E-N-I.F-I-T/podcast. This is the start of compensations that begin to identify the best practices when human strived companies prosper. If you would like to recommend anybody for the show, please email me at [email protected] [email protected]

[00:31:59] [END OF AUDIO]

Kathy Sacks, Entrepreneur, Startup Consultant, and Former VP of Marketing at Infusionsoft on The Benifit

Kathy Sacks has been building, marketing, and inspiring businesses for more than 20 years. She’s done it all. From starting her own angel investing firm, to founding multiple businesses, to working as the VP of Marketing at Infusionsoft, Kathy’s gathered a wealth of knowledge from her diverse work experiences. Lucky for us, she shares it with the world on our podcast!

In this episode, Kathy chats with podcast host and Beni.fit CEO Kate King about how her time at Infusionsoft informed her perspective on HR and people leadership, why she believes entrepreneurship is the answer, and why she feels companies should invest in their employees dreams. Give it a listen!

Click here to check out more episodes of The Benifit, and here to learn more about how Beni.fit helps humans thrive, and companies prosper. 

Show Highlights:

[2:00] Kathy explains how she initially got connected with the founders of Infusionsoft

[4:00] Kathy describes how Infusionsoft’s leadership time intentionally crafted the company’s culture

[8:00] Kathy talks about Infusionsoft’s Dream Manager position

[11:00] Kathy shares why she believes it’s important to embrace employees’ whole person at work

[14:00] Kathy shares a personal story about her parent, immigrating from Hungary and making a life for themselves in America

[17:00] “The number one challenge I see is, is the ability to see past self-imposed obstacles.” – Kathy talking about challenges for startup leaders

[20:00] “I think we take ourselves just too seriously. And, therefore, we’re unwilling to make mistakes.”

[22:00] Kathy shares her thoughts on why it’s important for leaders to be authentic in the workplace

[24:00] Kathy tells a story about when Infusionsoft’s executive team gathered to come up with the company’s values

[30:00] “Ultimately leadership is about service. It’s about being of service to others, and how do you do that without your heart being a part of it?”

[33:00] Kathy shares her morning routine. (Hint: it includes journaling!)

[36:00] “What I’ve realized is, is as a woman especially and a working mother, you can have it all.”

The Benifit Interview w/ Kathy Sacks, Entrepreneur, Startup Consultant and Former VP of Marketing at Infusionsoft

Kate: So, hi Kathy, and thank you join- for joining us today on The Benifit Podcast. It’s a real pleasure to have you on board.

Kathy Sacks: Hi Kate. I’m so glad to be here.

Kate: Great. So- so Kathy, we have a few questions for you. Um, I’m really excited to- to really understand your perspective. So, you have a very diverse and rich work history. From starting your own businesses, to investing, to serving in executive marketing positions, you’re pretty much, uh, done it all. Um, you say your time as a VP of Marketing and Communication at Infusionsoft was critical to your- your view of HR, people leadership, and how companies grow. I think while you were there, you went from under a hundred employees to over 600. What is it about your time at Infusionsoft that informed your perspective on these things?

Kathy: Hmm. Yeah, it’s interesting. Um, in Infusionsoft, it is a place where, uh, having gone from worked in- working in, uh, companies that I had started. Uh, well, one I had co-founded with my husband, but they were small businesses, um, successful, but they were smaller. We’re talking, you know, 12-15 people tops. And, um, a few of them I had sold, and, um, and so moving into Infusionsoft it really was the largest, um, the largest company that I had been a part of.

And to see it moved from, before it was 30 people and the early days pre-Series A, I was a consultant. [00:02:00] So they’d hired my agency to come in and work with them and really be their first agency of record. So, I got to work shoulder to shoulder with the founders at the time when they didn’t actually even know what they had. In other words, at the time we’re talking, this is 2006, uh, 2005, um, no actually a little earlier than that. Um, anyway, doesn’t matter.

The point is, is [chuckles] that at the time they thought a big win was gonna be, “We’re gonna sell this for like 10 million dollars right?”. And- and over a period, in pretty short order there, over the course of about a year, the transformation of their vision shifted to that of a company that saw itself becoming, uh, multi-billion dollar company. It saw itself as a- as an organization that was not only out to sell software, it was out to change lives for small business owners. And also, and just as important to change the lives of their employees.

And so, my time there was really interesting, uh- uh, initially on the outside and then I end up joining the company, uh, joined the executive team, working with Clate Mask, the CEO, and, um, and the rest of the folks on the team. And I had joined there full time when we were about 100 people. And I remember him telling- telling me, “Big differences as soon as you hit that three digit number, Kate, everything changes.” And you could do things very differently and make different considerations and really put an eye on the scale.

And by the time I left a few years ago, we had about a 600 employee company. And so, it’s fascinating to see what they did right and that was at the outset focus on thinking big, and focus on making this a place that people would want to come to. That would be proud to be a part of this company, this brand. And, um, and it wasn’t just talk, they made investments. We made investments, we made, um, we made real meaning for effort, we put money, time, resources towards- towards creating a culture of winning, [00:04:00] high performance. And, um, dare I say, it sounds cliche, but fun.

Kate: Fantastic. You know, a lot of, um, companies in that massive growth- high really growing from, as you said 30 people to 600 really, uh, find it challenging on the culture. You-you mentioned that you’ve done the investments, but could you just walk us through maybe some of the thinking at the time for, uh, how you constructed the culture as an Exec Team?

Kathy: Uh, yeah. Well, for one, uh, for one we all took ownership of it. And so, one of the things that we did as a leadership team, was we would have offsites. Uh, lots of offsites. So there will be a monthly offsite of the exec, so it’s about anywhere between five and- and 10 of us as we grew. Uh, so it was the CEO level, it was– we’re VP level until we began to grow and then we moved into CEO roles as well. And, uh, and so we made investments on making culture our top priority.

And so what that look like was, um, we had a team would discuss, um, goal setting and how we make goal setting and accountability, and your focus on metrics. Something that not just execs were- who were rallying around, but the entire organization. And we would empower people to, uh, take ownership over their departments, or over, um, let’s say director or manager level. People would have an opportunity to rally and organize others around accomplishing goals, that may actually be outside their purview, but that they wanted to get involved in.

And, um, each quarter we would have these, um, these ‘TOPs’, Top Operating Priorities. And then we would have annual priorities. And, the TOPs on each quarter would roll up into the annual priorities. And then, there will be rewards around that, and we had smart goals. And so, there was this culture of, um– You know, it’s interesting. When- when- when you hear the word culture, you think of– especially in a Venture-backed company. [00:06:00]

This is a Venture-backed software company, you think, “Oh, it’s fun”. It’s Ping-pong tables. It’s–” You know, we had a football field, we had Nerf guns, we had a Coke machine, you know, uh, soda machine. We had, um, unlimited supplies of cereal. Yeah, that is one part of, o- one part of that makes it casual and- and, um, it sort of it normalizes it. But really culture is founded upon high per- creating high performing teams that can collaborate, respect each other, treat one another with kindness, and with um, and hold on to another accountable, but doing it in a way where you grow from it, right?

And that’s I think what we were able to do by engaging in and iterating on this culture around how we hire people, how we fire people, how we invest in them, um, and there’s so many examples of- of investments that we made. You know, one- one that comes to mind is our Dream Manager. You might have heard that at one point, um– I’m trying to think about how soon into this. It would have been when we are about, probably somewhere between 115-250 people.

We ended up creating role called, the Dream Manager. And the dream manager’s, the dream manager’s job was to help our, um, employees, we call them Infusioknights to- to dream, and to create goals for themselves, and to work towards those goals. And so, your dreams could be paying off your mortgage, taking your family to Disneyland, uh, losing 20 pounds, learning Spanish. You know, playing the violin, it could be anything. Um, doing a triathlon, or it could be, “I wanna start my own business.”

And so, I think it was really fascinating as we were, we were not afraid to invest in people, and- and support them in identifying dreams, and then picking a dream that they wanna go after. And then, on a weekly basis, or actually weekly to monthly basis, you had access to this coach, your dream manager. Who would work with you, [00:08:00] and support you in moving through the necessary actions in order to attain, um, that dream.

And, you know, when you’re- when you’re managing people, and you’re working with anyone, especially in a coaching type of relationship, you wanna help them get small wins. So often the dreams were small, you know it’s like “I want to, uh, take my family into a two-week vacation, uh, in two quarters,” right? And so, or it could be “I wanted to lose five pounds this month.” So it’s like what can you do to create small wins but then build confidence.

So the reason why I share this is- is, I think what’s so different about what we did at Infusionsoft, Kate, is that; if people had a dream of starting their own business, which could become to others, to other companies maybe this is threat, like we might lose this person. We knew that when we made investments in that person, we encourage those because our customers are entrepreneurs, we encourage our employees to be entrepreneurs.

So I think 80% of the people inside the company have some kind of side hassle. We gave everyone a free app, a free Infusionsoft app to use and we wanted them in the app in software using it. And they will build their own businesses, selling products, information products, doing services, whatever it might be. And so, we knew that at some point, you know, either we’d have them for several years, or a decade, or for two years.

Whatever the- whatever the amount, we knew that we wanted to make investments in our employees. And- and the trade in return was for them to make- make a high contribution to Infusionsoft. So as a result, I point to the deliberate decisions that we made to allow people to grow, to invest in them growing. Uh, it paid in dividends and what that look like was, the ability to, uh, get to 100 million dollars in revenue. Or- or frankly at this point the company is well over that, uh, to be able to raise over a 150 million in- in, uh, in venture capital from the likes of Goldman Sachs, or Bain Capital. [00:10:00] Yeah, I’m gonna stop and like, ask another question. [laughs]

Kate: You know, I- I- I’m blown away. I think that is probably one of the best examples of somebody explaining culture that I’ve ever heard. And I think you’re absolutely right, in terms of– most people think about culture in terms of, “How do I grow this fun family environment?” And they don’t really link it to business performance which is so critical. and I think what you said high performing teams that collaborate with each other, who bring kindness, um, was so eloquent.

Uh, what I loved though is this ‘Dream Manager’. Because when people are truly inspired themselves with their dreams, they come to work so much more purposeful, and so much more intentional. Um, so I- I think that probably is one of the best examples, um, I’ve heard in terms of a company who really embraces the individual, uh, to be part of the collective pulse. So, thank you. I think that’s amazing.

Kathy: Hmm, yeah. Well, and I– if I could- if I could share on that. Consider this, people come to work everyday as a whole person.

Kate: Yeah.

Kathy: Ideally. They come as a whole person. And so they don’t come as a work person. They come as the whole person. A person who is a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, husband or wife. Uh, you know, whatever. And add all the other roles inside of that. And they’re a dreamer. And, if people– If you think that anyone on your team isn’t dreaming about what they might do beyond this role, or how to enrich their lives or what experiences they want to create for themselves, then you’re kidding yourself.

And so, I think when- when leaders ignore that aspect, then the consequence of that is you get a quarter, a half, three quarters, whatever it is. But it’s going to be sub-100% of that person. So, let’s– I- I think the- one of the- one of the keys as a leader is to embrace, identify, expose, allow that person to understand what their whole person- what the wholeness really- really encompasses. Uh, but here’s a thing. It takes time. It takes some effort. [00:12:00] Um, and- and oftentimes especially in– I- I- I don’t know.

I- I guess anyone that worked at Infusionsoft Kate, myself included, really got spoiled, because a lot of corporate America does not work this way. [laughs[ And so I’d like to say that anyone who came into Infusionsoft always left a better person. And, um, with any luck would land at another company, or that would be, you know what, in some way, um, at the same level. Or candidly they most likely would go off to start their own business. And that was the pattern that we would see. Which is exciting.

Kate: Yeah. There’s definitely the exciting turn I feel with– so very small moves to turn this huge ship of what was corporate America into this, um, a person is coming to work. And I think, you know, forever we’ve seen the stats of 86% of people disengaged from their jobs. The trillions of dollars it cost in absentee and lack of productivity, ’cause people just are truly not inspired. Um, I truly love that dream manager.

I think that if more companies did that and embraced that whole person to a point; yes, it does take time. Yes it does take investment, but what a tiny investment to make in terms of the actual bottom-line impact you make. Fantastic example, Kathy. Thank you. Um, I’m gonna switch gears a bit to you as an entrepreneur. Um, and a- a business owner, investor. Um, On your website you say that you believe in entrepreneurship, and that’s really the answer. Can you just give us what is– wha– You know, the answer to what? What do you mean by that?

Kathy: Hmm. The person that comes to mind when I think about what you’ve just asked. Whenever I think about entrepreneurship, I envision my- my dad. Um, my father was– Both my parents are, uh, immigrants. They escaped communism, uh, communist Hungary in the ’60s. And they came here with– They came separately. My father actually, physically escaped. [00:14:00] My mother happened to come here, visited an uncle, and at the time was easier to just stay than it is, you know, now.

Um, and so they both have their own approach. They came to the US-wide for a better life, right. Um, and my dad came here with $20 and they both had eight grade educations, and he had one skill and that was as a mason. And so I grew up watching him- watching him as an entrepreneur. Um, with his broken English, you know, with his gruff, gruff, sort of, demeanor. And he built the business. And, um, I’m really proud of how hard he worked.

And, uh, so I- I– To me, it was very normal growing up. Pre- predictable income. That was not common. He’d have seasons growing up in New Jersey. Snow, couldn’t, you know, couldn’t work. Um, and my mother, on the other side, cleaned houses when she was– when I was, uh, you know, two year old. She’d take me with her to work in a lipstick factory. I mean, you see, you’re talking about, you know, really, uh, blue collar.

And, um, and so as a consequence of that, I’d like to think positive, I learned to appreciate uncertainty and, um, the uncertainty that comes around entrepreneurship. And so, I find that exhilarating. And, as a result, um, the people that I spend the most time with, um– You know, today I coach entrepreneurs, hmm, more- more particularly women, around how they can- how they can up level their leadership, lead themselves more powerfully so they can lead others more powerfully and grow their businesses.

So, for me that theme around taking risks, that theme around believing in yourself, um, believing in others. Making investments in yourself and in others, and growing something special around, um, something that is capitalistic, of course. There’s a measure. You know, does this work? If it doesn’t make money, then how’s that gonna work? Uh, but then, also, through that exercise, can’t you get to do something really great.

And I was working with people to collaborate and making something out of nothing. [00:16:00] Whether it’s a service or a product, you- you’ve constructed, um, something that didn’t exist before. So, to me, entrepreneurship is, is creation. Um, this- this- this successive moment of- of, um, of taking a chance and really not knowing what’s on the other side. And I find that just so interesting and, um, just very sexy.

Kate: You talk about the, um, coaching startups. Um, what challenges do you see and face when it comes to people leadership?

Kathy: The number one- the number one challenge I see is, is the ability to see past self-imposed obstacles? So, what I mean by that is– As an example, there’s a critical conversation that, let’s say, uh, CEO needs to have with a person on their team that isn’t performing at a level that they need to. And- and they’ve been managing and- and coaching and trying to get this individual who if it’s a small startup is- is their- their- their key, their key role.

And, they’re trying to sort out why they can’t help this person, either get more motivated or get more capable in their role, so they can be more successful in the role. And everyone knows that there’s something that’s off. And here’s what I find. The obstacle that they put in front of them, the CEO as an example, is how to have the conversation in a way that exposes the truth. And how to do that is for you to have truth about yourself, and about what your expectations are for example, in this role.

And about how this person perhaps isn’t measuring up. And how perhaps the answer is, is, “This isn’t gonna fit,” and they need to replace this individual and hire someone else. But obstacle they place in front of themselves is- in this example is, they’re afraid. [00:18:00] They really like this person. They, um, they think they have what it takes but, you know, just with a little bit of effort, they might get them to the place that they need to be so they can be performing.

But at the end of the day everyone knows, and the CEO knows that they just need to sit down, have the conversation, get them to place of- of understanding that this is the right decision and- and moving forward. And, um, and- and I- and often in these cases, what they- what they’re trying to avoid is that critical conversation. And, um, they don’t wanna let someone down. I find that to be the case often with first time startup entrepreneurs.

Um, and it’s about making decisions and trusting their judgment and doing it swiftly. Um, that’s- that’s one example but, uh, i- in my, uh, there’s- there’s- there’s probably others but I really think it’s, we get in our way. You know, another one is, “Am I good enough? Do I know enough?” Right? And so, it’s sort of death by a thousand cards. They hold themselves back in, uh, in critical moments. Uh, they don’t speak up. Um, they don’t– They don’t believe in themselves in that moment.

Or they don’t raise their hand to go and speak at a conference, or to- or to weigh in on a topic, or to go after a large amount of- of capital. Um, you know, those are those moments where you must see yourself at a level of greatness and potential. And also be kind to yourself knowing that you’re gonna miss- gonna make mistakes. We don’t have to take ourselves so damn seriously. [laughs] That’s the issue.

I think we take ourselves just too seriously. And, therefore, we’re unwilling to make mistakes. We’re unwilling to see ourselves perhaps not, uh, you know, on flattering moments. And at the end of the day though, that’s where the growth happens. So, I- I think the pattern that emerges is how to push yourself and force yourself to grow each day through the uncomfortable, you know. [00:20:00] 

I mean think about yourself like how uncomfortable do you get each day. Have you been uncomfortable yet today, yesterday, the day before? And, uh, each day the richness of that level of- of discomfort should grow otherwise you’re plateauing right. And so just, sort of, going after bigger and bigger challenges, um, because that’s where the self-betterment happens. I see it all the time. We, sort of, allow ourselves to live smaller than we know, uh, we should cause it feels safer.

Kate: What I love about this whole dialogue and what you’re talking about, and both the- except three of the examples and the, um, answers you’ve given, is that whole person that you’re bringing to the forefront. Uh, i- it- it’s very inspiring to hear you talk about that, because many leaders, successful leaders really don’t talk about the whole person. They talk about to your point earlier this is the what person, this is the parent, this is the- the partner, this is the friend, and they very never bring the whole person.

And I love what you’ve mentioned about failure, because getting in your own way and your belief system, um, your own personal emotional set. Or how you think how you process that thinking into emotions and actions, never really is truly embraced in corporate, right? You need to put on that hat, or put on that coat and play that role. And I think many people do, especially with entrepreneurs who maybe are on the second goal, their first goal was in corporate. Now they’re the age where they want to start a company and they go in. First of all they get the shock of, “Uh, I have to do everything,” right ? I used to have tea-

Kathy: Right.

Kate: -while doing this in the past. But they perhaps don’t bring in– you know, in corporate I think it masks a lot of the leadership training your given in corporate to be authentic. Actually is to be authentic in the workplace not be authentic as a whole person. [00:22:00] And I’ really, really I’m inspired by what you’re saying in terms of, typically it’s how you-how you’re creating and growing through that discomfort, but knowing you are the only one creating that discomfort. It’s not because people are seeing you like, “Get out there embrace yourself.”

Um, so both all- all three of those I think from that Dream Manager, to how you just go get, go do. You know, you have- may have nothing, but go do it anyway and really getting out of your own way. I think three tremendous examples of a new face I think to business. I- I’m excited about what you say, because I think if more and more leaders can embrace this, the productivity and the enjoyment people have whether you spend 8, 10, 14 hours of their latter day um, will-will be mind blowing, I mean it will be groundbreaking.

Kathy: Well, what I think is that– and I love, I mean it sounds, um, I love- I love having this conversation with someone who gets it and sees that, um– That the power is really in the human. And, you know, one example from Infusionsoft, but I think is really interesting as well for your listeners and I think this- this shuttles both the personal and the work, and that is what is your value system?

Right, so what is your personal value system, and what do you- what are the values that you uphold that keep you focus, and also keep you honest, right. And keep you- keep you able to say no to the things that don’t align and then- and then- and then by virtue of saying the nos it- it opens a space for the- for the yeses. And I don’t mean just like yeses, I mean, “Hell, yes,” right. And so, the same applies I think for organizations, whether it’s at the company level what are the values?

And we’re not talking values that are, sort of, marketing yourself on the wall and then no one ever pays attention. And you put them on the website cause it looks cool, [00:24:00] but it’s whatever values that you live by? And one of the things that we did, uh, that was really exciting in fact, as an executive team had spent three days at the Phoenician. I’ll never forget, it was like really long. And, um, uh, really well worth it.

But when you have it smart people in a room they’re all passionate there’s a lot of debate and debate takes time. And at the end of it the donuts that we made was a complete rewrite of our- of our vision, which is your purpose, your mission and your values. And about half of the team, half of the- of the leadership team was new in the last year, to three years, and then the other half were, you know, founders and- and really-really, uh, full time employees.

Um, and so- and so there- there was this- there was a vision that had been written previously but it was time to update, it was time to make it, uh, one that could- one that could travel. You know, one that could be easily understood and didn’t require someone to explain it to you. So I’ll give you an example. Out of this came, uh, our vision and the vi- and our- and our- and our purpose was to help small businesses succeed.

Now that sounds pretty okay, simple well, simple is way harder to get to, way harder and longer to get to. And if I told you [chuckles] it took us I think about, I mean it took us a day and a half just to land on that, right? This is an expensive meeting if you think about it. I mean not only expensive ’cause it’s at the Phoenician. But expensive because you’ve got eight highly paid, you know, execs who are all, you know, uh, going at it. Um, then the other was our values.

And- and my point about values that sit on a website or a wall, versus values that are in execution day to day and one that people adopt. In fact, when- when we would hire people at Infusionsoft, it’s likely still the same today, is you have to be able to memorize and you have to- you have to- you have to, um, share the values from memory. And you walk into meetings and- and, [00:26:00] let’s say you see someone who is just not thinking about not going outside of themselves in a moment, where a decision has been made, and you see an ego show up.

And you would have- you would have permission in the organization to say, “Hey, are we all really checking our egos at the door?” Well, guess what that was one of our values, we check our egos at the door. And so we made this simple to- to understand true to our soul and spirit of the company and the um, and the ideas it was founded on. In a way that, uh, I think at the time it was 10 but it’s since been a thing reduced to seven.

And I always think you know shorter, uh, shorter list is always better. But as an organization, you can even extend this to your department. You know, I don’t know how many of your listeners are within larger organization versus small. But let’s say you have the- the technology department or you have, um, or you have the marketing department. What are the values of your- of your- of your team? Right.

And when each of the individuals in- in your department can be a part of giving birth to those values, they see themselves in it, right? They’ve made a contribution and those- and that value system lives on. Um, and there’s something really I think powerful about that that creates leaders at all levels of the company, at all levels. And, um, and on the other side you know what are your values as a- as a person um, outside of work.

Um, I think it’s a question that we all, um, sort of, kind of, like flossing. Like, “Yeah, that be good,” but how many actually put into practice? I think that’s the difference between successful and I mean monetary necessarily. But successful meaning happy, joyful, fully expressed people who feel like they’re making a difference versus those that are– I don’t know. You know victim, lost, drifting. I think the difference is, is [00:28:00] identifying articulating and living the values.

Kate: That’s great. Um, I truly– I’m sitting here and I’m writing, because all of the things you’re saying, um, really you have to write a book. [laughs] You have you know you have to write a book on this because I feel that you know just this even the words you’re using victim, lost, drifting that is most of people in their day to day jobs.

And really espousing values of the organization, to your point ‘upon the wall’, um, is many times where they stay and they sit and you- you know at your annual review, or your half review you start talking about values. But it’s really the heartfelt. If I’m heartfelt of about the values of myself and the company and my team imagine the possibility.

Kathy: Doesn’t that make you sad to think how many people are just showing up?

Kate: Yeah.

Kathy: And right– Um and you’re– By the way we’re talking like privilege at this point. I mean you know my heart goes out to a single mom who, let’s say, works at a convenience store who’s trying to raise three kids right? And is having a hard time. And I mean like what we’re talking about is, um, and- and their values being aligned, um, can be useful right? But- but I think you know what we’re talking about is- is a level of efficiency, as one example there’s still many other examples.

It’s my one- it’s my one reference, um, that I can point to where we made really big investments, and- and so the return on that. Now it’s not all roses, uh, at the same time too. There’s also challenges to this as well especially as you begin to scale. But, look I mean ultimately leadership is about service. It’s about being of service to others, and how do you do that without your heart being a part of it. I don’t- I don’t know how that how that happens and so. [00:30:00] When you have people that are just showing up think about it, you know, think about it as a lot from a logical perspective Kate. How expensive is that for me, if I’m running 100% organization and 20% of my workforce is just checked out. Okay, that’s super-expensive, really expensive think about that. Um, in productivity in the impact of that 20% on my other, uh, my- my other 80%, and how it’s dragging on the 80% that it should be high performing.

So I think this is the number one problem, um, and a number one opportunity to address. Um, I think the challenges is- is- is it has to be somewhat customized, you know, because not every– The same thing doesn’t light everyone up. So ultimately it has to start at the outse, which is your recruiting. You know, how are you, what is the- what is the brand, what is the message, who are the leaders that are out there waving the flag for this company that is then–

What is the purpose, mission, vision, you know values– what are you up to doing in the world that’s going to attract the kind of people that can be lit up and excited to be getting on the ship and at point say, “Yeah, I wanna go there, you know, I wanna go there. And, uh, and so within recruiting it’s a matter of making sure you’ve got the right people on the bus. Different kinds of people.

I don’t mean the same people that all look the same and act the same and have the same level of its– of life experiences, diversity so- so- so important. That’s something that we really I think missed the mark on at Infusionsoft, especially in the early days. Um, and, uh, you know we see this in the headlines. So many companies are- are, “Challenged by it”. I’d say that’s really more code as in too lazy to do anything about it to be honest, but that’s by another topic.

Kate: Yeah no absolutely. And I think, you know, riding that ship, um, is to your point it’s- they see it as a huge agenda. Um, perhaps isn’t laziness to it, but, uh, you know I also think that is a must do. [00:32:00] And-and your example earlier of 20% of 100 people are not productive. You know, when you look to the stats in the marketplace where people aren’t really intentionally in fuse with what they want to do on a daily basis, it’s almost the reverse, right? That 20% of your people are the doers and 80% are just showing up.

Kathy: Mm-hmm.

Kate: So in- in- incredible examples there. Kathy I could literally talk to you all day on this stuff. I think that, uh, you know we share a lot of the same passion about the whole person. I do-

Kathy: That might be fun, but I don’t know if everyone would wanna listen all day.

[laughter]

Kate: I’m sure they would, you know. Um, I have two other questions for you and they’re much more to do with you personally. Um, you know there’s much talk of discipline morning routines, uh, for leaders as a key to their productivity or even their success. Um, can you describe your morning routine to the listeners.

Kathy: You know, I could make up something that sounds very Tim [Ferris], like, “I’m very disciplined.

Kate: [laughs]

Kathy: And say, “These are the things I do,” and that- that would represent who I was about a year and a half ago, no try really more like. A year and half to two years ago. Currently- currently, uh, it’s a great day if I can get 20- a 20 minute meditation going in the morning before my one year old gets up. And um, I think that for me has been the biggest– And I would– So what I used to do was meditate for 20 minutes then I would journal.

I have this gratitude journal, I’m actually looking at it here. Oh, it’s a five minute journal, um, you can get it online. There’s– I mean today there’s so many journals, but it asked these questions of, “I am grateful for–“, and then you list the three things. “What would make today great?” And then you list the three things and then daily affirmations of I am and then you can list that. And then at the end of the day three amazing things that happened today and you would know that. [00:34:00]

And then the final question for the night would be, how could I have made today better? And you do this every day. And, um– I don’t recall who I heard that said this but, “You can’t be grateful and angry in the same moments.” In other words you- you can’t be grateful for– You can’t feel just gratitude for something, for your life for whatever it is and then also be mad at the same time.

And so while being someone who lives a more great full life is- is a path I’ve been actively choosing to, um, to live on. And I say the last five years have really been an exercise in that and I just– I like my life, um, so much more. But um, ever since having my- my baby, we have a nine year old, and then we’ve got a, um– She’s just turned one few months ago. And so, like I said I’m winning if I can meditate about three or four times a week like that’s a really great week.

Kate: Fantastic. You never leave the door with both– with the same pair of shoes on right? I think sometimes-

Kathy: Yeah.

Kate: -in the mornings it’s, “Did I put an actual pair of shoes on, or- or did I ever got– Because I don’t know if you’re like me, if you find a pair of shoes you like– I buy every color. Um, so you- you will walk out the door with one red, one blue shoe on like, “Okay,-

Kathy: Oh, yeah.

Kate: -this is for every morning. [laughs]

Kathy: Yeah-yeah. Well you know actually my latest life hack was I got rid of all my socks, I did this with my daughter as well. I got rid of all the socks that required you to identify pairs.

Kate: Yeah. Right, right.

[crosstalk]

Kathy: And we ordered- we- ordered into a block, a bunch of just black. Black low, you know, like a little low no show socks on Amazon. Her and I are now the same size, and so I ordered like three dozen. Split in half she’s got and so there’s never an issue and surprise event at time.

Kate: [laughs]

Kathy: Number one. Number two, when I’m gonna grab socks I can just like done they are there. Um, so that’s been really key. And the other thing I do, which be careful you don’t wanna be driving behind me, or in front of me. I don’t text while I drive but I do- but I use Siri, uh, but I put my make up on the car. [00:36:00] So for me it’s like getting somewhere and then putting the makeup on in the car like that’s how I make it all work, and you know, it’s interesting Kate.

What I’ve realized is, is as a woman especially and a working mother, you can have it all. What I’m realizing is you just can’t have it all now. And so- and so this level of like impatience and it all has to work right now, and all has to happen by the time I’m– insert whatever age, you know, you like made up. I am learning, I think this new education that I’m- that I’m moving through is called the, School of Patience. And it’s not my natural- it’s not my natural way.

Um, and so it’s the way I’m trying to be uncomfortable is just like slow down and just be more patient with myself. Uh, three rules, uh, okay, so one is growth that’s pretty obvious from what we’ve been talking about. Uh, and growth is just possessing, creating, cultivating, fostering this internal motivation to constantly improve as a human being. How to a better friend, a better wife, a better mother, a better- a better- a better fan of myself, a better just humans others.

Um, and I think contained within this idea of growth is to like the highest level is purpose. Um, I don’t mean like this one purpose it’s been emblazoned on your forehead when you were born, and your role is to, sort of, rub it, you know rub at it until you figure out what it is. I mean more of like a higher purpose that’s guiding you. And I am not religious um, but I’m certainly very spiritual. And so I think growth- growth is a function of, um, of growing to be the most- the greatest possible human being that you can be. [00:38:00]

Um, number two is- is– What is that? That’s, um– It’s presence. So it’s finding how do I- how do I find peace, joy, fulfillment and appreciation for this current moment, you know. How do I– like right now here talking to you, how do I enjoy this and be here with you and not think about my 1:30 meeting. And not think about, uh, what I gonna have for lunch after this. You know, like how- how- how I can actually and fully be here and when you’re not there me think about of yourself, we all do this.

Maybe reading a book to your kid at night and you’re not actually think– the words are coming out of your mouth, but are you really there, you know. Um, I admit it happens to me often and so it’s living every day, living every moment and being detached to the outcomes, um, and just being there. And then I’d say the third is contribution. Contribution. How can I be of service? What will you have me- what will you have me do today? I don’t say to myself to this higher purpose, call it God.

My God is not a dude um, but it’s you know sort of a universal power that is out there and, uh, doing its thing. How can I contribute and make a difference and take my talents, my-my resources and my effort towards activities and towards people and communities that are making a difference in the way, um, that I think needs to happen. Um, where we’ve created something better than what we had before. And uh, creating sustainability. So yeah, those three growth. Growth, presence and contribution.

Kate: Thank you very much Kathy. Thank you so much for your time today. Um, incredible insight, um, and an incredible woman, mother and entrepreneur, uh, that you are. Truly inspiring, to me personally and I know to our listeners. 00:40:00] Um, so I really wanna thank you for your time today on our podcast, truly.

Kathy: Okay. Oh, okay. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I- I too enjoy you and I- and I acknowledge you. It’s like, “Right back at you, girl.”

Voice-over: Firstly, thanks for listening and spending time with us. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Kathy. For a transcribed version of the show, head over to beni.fit/podcast. B-E-N-I.F-I-T/podcast. This is a start of conversations that begin to identify best practices of when humans strive, companies prosper. If you would like to recommend anyone for the show please email me at [email protected]/fit, [email protected]

[00:40:56] [END OF AUDIO]

Kelly Fitch, Culture and Events Manager at Weebly on The Benifit

Kelly Fitch was hired as Weebly’s 60th employee. Now, nearly 4 years later, the web-hosting service has more than 300 employees around the world and Kelly has been an integral part of building the startups innovative and inclusive internal culture. Serving on the People and Culture team, Kelly plans events and implements policies at the company’s San Francisco headquarters that help employees connect to the company’s values and have fun.

In this episode of The Benifit, Kelly chats with podcast host Kate King about how Weebly makes sure job candidates are a good culture fit before they’re hired, how company culture  differs from office to office and how Weebly does perks differently. We could all learn a thing or two from Kelly’s experience at this successful global company. Listen to the full episode below!

Show Highlights:

[01:10] Kelly talks about how Weebly has grown since she started in 2014

[02:55] Kelly explains why Weebly does “on-sites” to show job candidates the company culture

[04:29] Kelly shares Weebly’s mission and why radical respect is central to the company

[06:17] “There isn’t just a one cookie cutter culture stamp that you can put on every office”

[08:46] Kelly talks about Weebly’s sidekick program

[11:00] “Inclusion is a huge part of Weebly”

[15:14] Kelly talks about internal communication best practices

[18:10] Kelly shares some of Weebly’s employee perks

[22:00] Kelly talks about Weebly’s incredible company trips

[25:28] Kelly shares her morning routine.

[27:47] Kelly talks about the three rules she lives by

The Benifit Interview w/ Kelly Fitch, Culture and Events Manager at Weebly

[background music]

[00:00:05] Kate: My guest today is Kelly Fitch, manager of people and culture at Weebly. Weebly is a web posting service that features a drag and drop website builder, enabling entrepreneurs to start and grow an online business.

We discuss the values within the Weebly culture and the different perks and initiatives that happen to connect their global offices. Kelly also shares with us her three rules to live by, which include make it happen and appreciate people by going above and beyond.

Good afternoon, Kelly, and welcome to The Benefit podcast where we talk to real progressive enablers of culture employee well-being and benefits. Thank you for joining me.

[00:00:49] Kelly Fitch: Thank you for having me, Kate.

[00:00:51] Kate: You’re very welcome. Before we get started on culture, I understand you were the 60th employee at Weebly and now there are over 300. Can you share with us and the listeners the reason for you joining Weebly and what you’ve learnt to date?

[00:01:10] Kelly: Absolutely. I started at Weebly in 2014. I was the 60th employee at our San Francisco headquarters. At that time, we were growing our offices. We opened up an office in Scottsdale, Arizona about the same week that I started. So I was seeing growth early on. It was exciting to see an office that really invested in culture early.

When I started, it was a very small, close-knit company. It still is today, which is really unique. What was interesting when I started was because it was so close-knit, we wanted to start that culture in our Scottsdale office too, and also in New York. I was new to Weebly, I was new to tech. This was my first job out of college. I was really learning from day one what Weebly was, what the values were and how we can grow that in our offices across the world.

It’s been interesting to see it grow from 60 to 300. There are new challenges every week, every month, and just trying to create that culture that still has that vibe from the beginning, and then also is being changed as we grow in creating new values, creating new things that are important to the culture here.

[00:02:41] Kate: Fantastic. Talk to us, if you would, about the building blocks of culture at Weebly and some of the initiatives you put in place, so that everybody lives and breathes those values on a daily basis.

[00:02:55] Kelly: Some of the things that I think really get people in the mindset of what our culture is early on is that we do on sites, which is pretty unique to Weebly. We start this in the interview process where we have a normal interview routine with phone screens, face-to-face interviews.

Then they actually come on site for a few days, ranging from 1-5 days, where employees or candidates get to come in and actually work as if they were a full-time employee for a day or two. This really gives them the opportunity to see what Weebly is, what our culture is, what it would it be like to work here.

Investing in a company is a huge thing since it is a big part of your life and your time. So we want employees, once they join, to already know what it’s like to work here. Candidates, we find that they have a really great experience with this. We get to know them pretty well before they actually join and there are no surprises on either end. Because I think it’s really important that we not only join or choose the company– I’m sorry. We don’t choose the candidate, but they also have to choose us. They have to really be aligned with our values, our mission, and be as accredited as we are.

[00:04:22] Kate: Could you just maybe highlight for us the key values and mission of Weebly?

[00:04:29] Kelly: Yes. Our mission is for to help entrepreneurs succeed. That’s something that’s huge. We really want to help entrepreneurs have an easy way to create and build a website and e-commerce store. One of our main values is radical respect plus honesty equals trust. That’s been a value that has been around since day one. As our company has grown, the values have also changed, which I think has been really interesting and something that we work on [inaudible 00:05:02] here as we have to realize that our values change as we grow bigger and the people change as well.

Realizing that you have to iterate on the values is super important. The radical respect one is huge. I think if you ask anyone that works with the company, this is something that they embody everyday. We really trust each other to get the job done, and you know the person sitting next to you is doing just as much work as you are, if not more. It creates this culture of just excitement and passion. It really makes you want to do your job better every day.

[00:05:44] Kate: You mentioned earlier that you’ve had rapid growth and you’ve got multiple offices and you’re really invested. One of your mandates is really the culture and the people outside. You mentioned challenges, maybe could you outline a couple of challenges that come along the way with that fast growth so some of our listeners can feel some empathy and, “Yes, I got that. I totally see that in our company too.”

[00:06:17] Kelly: Absolutely. One, this is an example of just realizing with the different offices some of the challenges is, something that works for our San Francisco office doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for our Scottsdale office or our New York office or our Toronto office. There isn’t just a one cookie cutter culture stamp that you can put on every office. Keeping the culture similar but realizing that there’s always going to be its own twist for each office is huge.

One way we realized this was when we were figuring out how to get people to bond in our Scottsdale office when that was growing and becoming bigger. In San Francisco, we have lots of team-building events, lots of events to gather the team. For instance, we’ll all have dinner together one night, or we’ll all go bowling. But for our Arizona office, it’s much different because they have different set schedules and it’s really hard for someone who has to go in at 6:00 AM to be at an event at 6:00 PM in the evening.

That was a challenge. We didn’t understand why people didn’t want to go to these team-building events or these happy hours. We realized that’s not [inaudible 00:07:36] we’re going to have our Scottsdale office get to know each other and bond, because it wasn’t going to work that way. It’s going to just be a different way of getting the team together.

We realized that instead of after work activities, we’re going to do this during lunch. We’re going to have a Halloween event during the different lunch shifts, different contests, and have that happened during the day when everyone’s there, instead of expecting people to have to stay after work when they perhaps get in at 6:00 AM.

That was a challenge that took us some time to realize it doesn’t need to be the same in every office, and figure out ways that each office can have their own little twist on the Weebly way of doing things.

[00:08:19] Kate: How do you handle a challenge then, or do you have any challenges? If your core pillars are radical respect plus honesty equals trust, do you see any challenges of people not honoring that? Perhaps everybody comes in with the assumption of honoring that. But when you see somebody not honoring that, what kind of activity is everybody empowered to do?

[00:08:46] Kelly: We actually don’t find that people have a hard time embodying that value. Again, this is, I think, thankful for on-site, we really find out who people are during the on-site. If they’re not going to embody those values from their on-site, it’s probably not going to work out. It’s very clear, we’ve definitely had people for on-sites that we realize they don’t have that value in them.

That’s not necessarily something you can teach. People should have radical respect. people should respect each other and come in, and I think that’s clear. It’s something that our CEO definitely makes clear. We have a handbook that’s really fantastic. It’s called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Weebly. It outlines everything for candidates and new hires what it’s like to be a Weebly. Lots of information about our values, and it really gets them up to speed with the Weebly way, as I mentioned earlier.

Then another thing that’s also fantastic for our new hires is we pair everyone with a sidekick This started with our first employee nine years ago, and it still happens today, which I am so thankful that we are able to keep this going.

The sidekick program is every new hire gets paired up with an employee that’s been here for a while. They write a handwritten note, it’s on their first day. When they get to their desk, there’s a little note from their sidekick, and it just says, “Welcome to Weebly. I’m going to guide you in your first week here.” They get lunch together, and the new hire is able to ask this Weebly employee really anything about the company. The sidekick’s there to get them up to speed, show them all the little ins and outs of things here.

It’s not just even the first week, it’s ongoing. So a month in, the sidekick will say, “Hey, how’s it going? Do you want to grab a smoothie? Can I answer any questions that you might have?” That’s been really helpful for our people ops team because we’re not the only ones guiding them and helping them. It’s not also just the manager, it’s a whole team effort here to get everyone to be a part of the family.

Speaker 2: Just talking about that, like creating that family culture, can you talk about other initiatives that you do or you’ve implemented that continue and expand that? That was a great example, perhaps you have another?

Speaker 1: Inclusion is a huge part of Weebly. We started a diversity committee about a year-an-a-half ago that I lead. We really are always thinking of different ways to make Weebly more diverse and inclusive, and it’s an ongoing thing for us. It’s always going to be something that’s top of mind. As we grew, that’s something that had become really obvious, that we need to think about all the different people that work at a company. How can we make this a place that people of all types, all backgrounds, want to be at and want to stay at.

So we created this diversity committee, and people from all different teams are on it. Engineers, product, designers, recruiting, basically someone from every team is a part of this. We meet once a month and discuss ways that we can be more inclusive, and that’s really been a huge driver for different events here. I think that creates a culture just of belonging.

Some of the events that, again, we probably wouldn’t have done when I started, because families and all these different things were not really top of mind for our really young founders.

We have different family picnics. We have women’s events. This is a huge one that I really love is we have women’s power hours. The women of Weebly meet once a month, and we get together, discuss different TED Talks, different topics that are really relevant to women in a workforce, and especially in Tac, and that different women lead it. For instance, our CFO, Kim Jabal, led a session on negotiation. We had another someone from finance lead one on body language and different things that women can change or just be aware of. It’s just a community of women here that share personal stories and we offer support to each other.

So that’s an example of something that came up out of the diversity committee. We also have a parents group, that was new. The parents get together. They were going to be planning a movie night for the parents, because sometimes it’s hard for parents to get together for an event after work, they have to go home. So instead of having them perhaps miss out on some of these things that we’re doing, we’re going to start doing more events during the day or at lunch.

These are just simple things that have been really great to make sure that everyone’s a part of the culture, and that it doesn’t feel like they have to pick and choose like work-life balance. “Hey, if I go to all of these events, I’m missing out on my child,” or, “Hey, I don’t want to personally go to a gaming marathon,” and things like that. We just want to make sure that we have all these different events for all different types of people.

Speaker 2: Talk to me if you would. I know you have many offices. You mentioned Scottsdale, New York, Toronto, San Francisco. I love that Weebly have instituted local look and feel of the company. With any multiple location company, there’s always that challenge around communication. Can you just go into that, how you tackle having consistent communication across. the offices even though you may have individual or local events, that real culture push and the values that Weebly has? How do you communicate and keep consistent across the offices?

[00:15:14] Kelly: That’s a great question. I think that’s something that we are always looking to improve. Something that works really well for us is– well, for a lot of companies: Slack is a great way to communicate quickly. I have a direct rapport in New York and we’re on different time zones. I communicate with her on Slack all the time. I communicate when I’m on my bus ride to work with her on there. It’s just a really quick and easy way to get things done with people from all over the world working for Weebly.

I think another one is just to be very aware that we are on different time zones. For instance, even at Scottsdale and San Francisco, for half the year we’re on the different time zone. Just being very aware that, “Hey, if you want something done, realize we’re on different zones here and to plan ahead.” For All Hands we do a company-wide- All Hands that get streamed through YouTube and we record it so if people want to watch that weren’t able to, for instance, in our Berlin office, they can tune in the next day and watch it again.

I think we’re always trying to figure out ways to communicate better. One thing, it’s kind of related to communication or just bringing the offices together and to understand each other better, we have this program called the Customer Experience Program where we send people from our San Francisco office, from our New York office, basically all offices, to our Scottsdale office to understand what goes on there every day.

Because they are the one office where they’re doing something a bit different than the others. They’re the ones that are chatting with our customers every single day, seven days a week. They’re helping our customers with different issues. We actually get our engineers, our executive team, everyone on the phone with our customers, helping them through different bugs that pop up or different questions that they have.

That’s been a really great way to understand each other better. That also helps with communication, because for our teams, they can understand what is needed from each role. I think that’s really helped with communication between our Scottsdale and other offices.

[00:17:40] Kate: There are some great examples there. Thank you. You and I were talking briefly before and we were talking about perks. You’ve mentioned a few perks that Weebly offers, and that whole well-being of employees is really critical on the agenda right now. We always talk about when humans right companies prosper. Talk to me a little bit about the perk program at Weebly for our listeners.

[00:18:10] Kelly: We always try to do our perks a little differently, as you know. I mentioned, it is very competitive, and there always are these standard regular perks, which I still think are incredible. We offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. We offer two 30-minute massages a month for employees. We have gym, yoga, boot camp sessions. We do a company trip every year. We have unlimited vacation.

Again, those are unfortunately the kind of standard for Tac these days. But we also do offer several unique things to Weebly, which I love. One of them is the Wanderlust Program, and we implemented that this year. We are able to retain our employees for many years, which is incredible. Again, we still have our first employee, who’s at 9 years.

Sometimes, at that time people need a break and people need to stop doing work for a bit, recharge. Even with the unlimited vacation, it’s hard to really, really unplug sometimes for a big amount of time. This Wanderlust program gives those employees that break instead of having them feel like they need to change a job or take a huge chunk of time away from work.

So once employees’ at their five year, they get to take five weeks paid time off. They can use that to recharge, focus on personal or professional development or just travel. We actually help fund those adventures, and it’s a really fantastic thing that I’m really excited that we implemented.

Another one is– this is kind of how we grew. We realized that the two floating holidays that we gave every year. We used to give random days off, like the day after Halloween off and National Beer Day. We realized those aren’t really connected to our values in any way. They don’t really have any value to our company. So instead of giving those days off, we decided that we were going to dedicate two days where employees could take off to volunteer. They can either volunteer on their own, or go to organized events that I plan.

For instance, we actually have a group today that is helping out at Glide, which is- they’re making food for homeless. People would really enjoy the fact that they’re allowed to take those days off. It’s not vacation days, it’s just really days where they can go do what they want to help the community.

Another great perk that we offer is we gift every Weebly a $100 to spend on a Weebly customer every year. I love this one because not only does it support our customers, but it really helps us understand who our customers are, because we’re sifting through a ton of different Weebly sites, figuring out what gifts we want to get people for the holidays, and we can see our product in real life. I love that. I actually got a portrait painted of my pug from a Weebly customer called Portraits For Pets. I think it’s just a really unique perk that, again, gives back to our customers.

[00:21:41] Kate: You mentioned the Wanderlust, you work for five years and then you get five weeks paid off?

[00:21:49] Kelly: Yes, in addition to unlimited vacations.

[00:21:51] Kate: Wow, that’s fantastic. I love it. Talk to me about your company trip. What goes on– is everybody in the company?

[00:22:00] Kelly: The company trip, this has been going on for years. What we do is we have our New York, Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco offices all get to on a trip. The Scottsdale office does a staycation which is super fun.

Again, this is iterating on what works. Being able to leave the office has worked for other offices, but we can’t step away from our customers, they still need our help. It’s really hard to get everyone to stop working in simple way because we, again, want to support our customers and be there for them. Instead, we created a staycation and did a full week of really fun activities in our Scottsdale office.

But for the actual trip, we get to go to different destinations every year. This year, we went to San Diego. It’s just a great way to step away from the day-to-day, and reconnect, get everyone together from all offices. We have a meeting where we discuss our values, and we have different team building activities that we do. It’s just also a great way to get to know each other with different activities unrelated to work.

People went off and went jet skiing, some people went on a hike, and we all shared our photos together. It was really fun to see the different people just doing their own thing but with each other. It was really helpful for me, I was the event person, to have people kind of create their subgroups. Again, these aren’t cliques. People created Slack channel saying, “Hey, I want to go on a food tour, who wants to join?” A random group of people joined and they made it happen.

It’s been a really unique thing that we do every year. We’ve been to Hawaii, we’ve been to Monterrey. Again, a very special perk. I am very lucky that we get to do that.

[00:24:13] Kate: What I love about it, I think there’s lot of stories about company trips where you sit in a conference room for many, many hours reading over powerpoint decks and presentations. Being able to actually be part of something bigger that that human connection and the human well-being of your colleagues is something that Weebly embraces, I think, is phenomenal perk to everybody.

I think to your point when you see your attrition numbers, they’re probably a lot lower in a very tough competitive talent industry. So I take my hat off. I think those are wonderful, wonderful perks. Now, Kelly, if you don’t mind I’m just going to switch to a couple of questions which I love our listeners to have some insight into the guest we have on, and that is two questions. One, about your morning routine, if you have one, or maybe an evening routine that really sets you up to be productive and gives you that human thrive feeling to go get your day. What did your morning routine or your evening routine look like?

[00:25:28] Kelly: Yes, it’s a good question. I actually don’t have really anything related to– I know a lot of people do meditation, or they do kind of mindfulness things. I love waking up, I check my phone, I see what notifications I get in. Since we do have offices around the world, I do get notified at all hours. So I like to take care of anything that is urgent or put out any fires that I can before I get ready for the day. That helps me get set up. Even if it’s an hour before I would normally get into the office, I’m happy to take care of that before I actually leave my house.

Once I get ready, I walk to work. That’s my mindful meditation time, and it’s just so I get to do two things at once. I get exercise, I get to clear my head, but I also get to work. So I love using that time as productive time. Sometimes, I take the bus and that’s, again, where I start doing emails, I start checking at Slack. I use that time to get things done.

I also like to go in a little bit earlier than most people to the office. It just helps me get a head start on the day where if there is something that pops up, I can take care of it before the majority of folks come into the office. That helps so much with stress, just getting it right for everyone for the majority of folks to come in and everything is running smoothly.

Then at the end of the day, I really just check my calendar so there are no surprises the next day if there’s something I perhaps forgot about. I check to see what’s going on and prepare a little bit if there’s something that I need to get done before I go to sleep, I will.

I think, all of the time, some people really like to disconnect from work, but I love what I’m doing. This is, again, what my passion is. Sso I don’t mind doing this. It’s not expected of me, but this is how I really like to get set up, is kind of always be connected to what’s going on, because people are constantly going to me for certain things and I like to be there for everyone.

[00:27:41] Kate: What’s three rules you live by?

[00:27:47] Kelly: One of them is just something that my mom always said to me growing up when I had crazy schedules, or a lot on my plate was, it’s very simple, it’s make it happen. It could be really interpreted however you want. It’s very, again, simple. But this has really helped me focus my energy in the right place. Some days I, again, will check my calendar that night before and realize, “Oh, my gosh, I have to do XYZ. I don’t know how I’m really going to get all of these done tomorrow.”

This really just help me realize to take one thing at a time and don’t worry about, “Oh, you have a presentation at this time, at this time and then you have to speak at All Hands.” Instead of looking at all of these different things that might intimidate me or something I might be nervous about– speaking at All Hands, no matter what I’m always nervous.

So I think just taking one thing at a time really help me focus my energy, and made intimidating situations more approachable for me. So make it happen as just simple thing that we always joke about, my mom and I, still today.

Another one that I really like that my team really embodies, I make sure I do whenever I’m giving information to the team, I constantly send emails, newsletters, FAQs. I think answering questions before people ask them, for my role, is super important. I like to set my team up so they are best prepared for anything that’s going on.

For instance, getting everyone on a flight to Hawaii, you need to have everyone knowing what’s going on. Instead of having people wonder, “Oh, well, what would should I pack?” or “What do I do? Should I print out my ticket?” People have the most crazy questions which I love to hear, but I think answering those questions, preparing them for what’s to come and what they need to do is really important.

That’s something that my team and I are always thinking about before we send emails, before we put something on our HQ site. We’re always trying to figure what questions people will have, and just get that information to them before they even ask that question. It really helps with time management too. Less of people are reaching out with simple questions that we can answer in advance.

Then the last thing that I always live by is write thank you notes. I always write thank you notes. I think, in a digital world, handwritten notes are not really common anymore, but I love to do that and I think it really goes a long way. I do write email thank you notes whenever I can’t do a handwritten. But handwritten notes, we actually do a lot of that at Weebly. That’s something that when I started I realized we should do hand write notes for different celebrations.

For instance, we do handwritten notes for birthdays, anniversaries, welcome cards on their first day. As I mentioned, the sidekicks write notes to their new hires on that day, and then even the founders write thank you cards and sign the anniversary cards. I remember I got a note from three founders, and it meant a lot seeing that in handwriting and not just be a email. So writing thank you notes, something I love to do.

[00:31:03] Kate: Great. No, that appreciation that somebody took the time, I agree with you, it’s very elegant and well-meant and well-received. Kelly, thank you so much for your time today. Its been a really great insight into Weebly and the phenomenal things that you’re doing, not just from a parks perspective but maybe aligning up the culture and having everybody live and breath it every day. I truly want to thank you for your time and joining us today.

[00:31:31] Kelly: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

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[00:31:34] Kate: Firstly, thanks for listening and spending time with us. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Kelly. For transcribed version of this show, head over to benifit/podcast. B-E-N-I.F-I-T/podcast. This is the start of conversations that begin to identify the best practices of when humans thrive companies prosper. If you would like to recommend anyone for the show, please email me at [email protected] [email protected]

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