People Over Pixels

The world of work has changed and so have the requirements for physical offices. With remote and hybrid working environments becoming a mainstay, employers must adapt how their physical spaces are used to accommodate distributed teams and new working styles.

This time on People Over Pixels, Sam and Giorgio round up their two-parter miniseries sharing their experiences and justifications for spending £100k to renovate their Sheffield-based office for a team spread out across the UK - from Birmingham all the way up to Aberdeen. Starting with Part 1 is highly recommended!

Part 2 shares all the details on how the gents approached the more practical elements of their grand designs - everything from how to evaluate project partners, when and how you should involve your team, and tips on how to break down and justify different project costs.

There’s also some juicy controversy as the guys take a retrospective look at what they got massively wrong about the process, and where they clashed with conflicting opinions throughout the renovation process.

-----

Enjoyed listening? Leave a rating or review and subscribe ready for new episodes.

Want to send us your thoughts on the pod? Message us on LinkedIn:

Find Giorgio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/ 

Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

Remote working is the norm for most digital businesses these days. The flexibility, freedom and general peace of mind that comes with remote-working is a huge boon to employees across thousands of businesses.

And with teams often distributed all over the country, and even the wider world, why would you spend six-figures renovating a central office HQ?

Well, it sounds insane but that’s exactly what the chaps did in 2023, and on this week's episode of People Over Pixels they’ll be exploring the rationale behind this wild (and expensive) decision!

The first of a two-parter, this episode delves into Sam and Giorgio’s thought process to renovate their company’s grade-two listed office building in Sheffield, the value physical office space still holds in a remote-first world, and discusses urban sociology concepts on why working from home is making us all more miserable than ever.

-----

Enjoyed listening? Leave a rating or review and subscribe ready for new episodes.

Want to send us your thoughts on the pod? Message us on LinkedIn:

Find Giorgio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/ 

Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

As everyone and their dog launches a new business award to enter, the industry is becoming more and more controversial. Do they represent an opportunity for teams to celebrate great work or are they simply a pay-to-win scam of industry back patting?

As the awards industry becomes increasingly commercialised; building credibility, earning trust and demonstrating transparency is key for event organisers and would-be winners alike.

On this episode of People Over Pixels, Sam and Giorgio discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of the business awards industry. Sharing real stories of what they love and what they hate from their own experiences of entering, attending and winning numerous awards, the guys talk about what they would change about the process and some big opportunities for awards companies to be so much better at what they do.

-----

Enjoyed listening? Leave a rating or review and subscribe ready for new episodes.

Got your own thoughts to share about business awards? Send us a message about the pod:

Find Giorgio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/ 

Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

Company culture is a hotly debated topic. As businesses grow and people come and go, culture changes and evolves; and while we can all agree ping-pong tables, fresh coffee and office snacks aren’t what defines your company culture; often it’s hard to pinpoint what it actually is.

This week on People Over Pixels, Sam and Giorgio share how they’ve developed their bottom-up approach to developing company culture, the positive impact it’s made as well as the pitfalls they’ve found along the way.

-----

Enjoyed listening? Leave a rating or review and subscribe ready for new episodes.

Got your own thoughts to share on company culture or the topics covered in Episode 2? Send us a message about the pod:

Find Giorgio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/ 

Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

In recent years it’s become the hottest new trend for businesses to call themselves “people-first”, with everyone from Apple to the US Military slapping people-first into their company values.

But what does being people-first actually mean? And how can companies live up to such a bold claim without it devolving into PR lip service?

In this episode of People Over Pixels, Sam and Giorgio explore the different definitions of being people-first, what being people-first means to us as business leaders and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean.

It’s far-flung from pizza-parties and empty platitudes, as the chaps discuss the benefits and the challenges of taking a people-first approach to business, the impact they’ve seen taking this stance in their own business, and how you can implement a people-first culture into your own businesses.

-----

Enjoyed listening? Leave a rating or review and subscribe ready for new episodes.

Got thoughts to share about our people-first ethos? Send us a message about the pod:

Find Giorgio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/ 

Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

Welcome to People Over Pixels, a show exploring the human side of running a digital business.

After taking over an 18-year old digital agency in mid-2022 with a strong people-first culture, hosts Sam Biggins and Giorgio Cassella will be sharing everything they're learning whilst taking the helm of a successful and growing business.

100% transparency? Check. Hilarious anecdotes? Check. Tales of success, challenge and not getting everything right on the first try? Big check.

Lend them an ear, perhaps even two if you're feeling generous, as Sam and G present the first business and marketing podcast where people come before profits.

If you'd like to get in touch, reach out to the guys over on LinkedIn:

Sam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-biggins-b88b763b/

Giorgio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gjcassella/