Remote Well

Today, my guest is Meaghan Williams

Meaghan is the Remote Work & Inclusion Program Manager at Hubspot, ranked #1 best place to work in 2020 by Glassdoor and is quickly scaling their remote workforce.

Meaghan’s role is a relatively new one at HubSpot and she’s been tasked with creating company-wide guidelines and training at all levels related to remote work.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

The creative ways that HubSpot combats the trap of “transactional” communication among remote teams

The office upgrades HubSpot has made to better connect co-located and remote team members

What Hubspot is doing to squash the “Social Media Effect” of Remote Work

And with that I give you…Meaghan Williams

Today, my guest is Laurel Farrer

Laurel is the CEO and Founder of Distribute Consulting, a consulting agency that’s empowering governments and businesses to leverage a distributed model.

Her work focuses on strengthening virtual communications, streamlining digital processes, and developing long-distance management strategies.

She also writes about remote work for several educational platforms and online publications such as Forbes.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Laurel’s experience operating a remote company of 500 distributed employees

Laurel’s unique take on the isolation crisis that disproportionately impacts remote workers

Tactical advice for training middle management in a distributed model

How remote work is helping Economic Development in Rural America

And with that I give you…Laurel Farrer

Today, my guest is Tammy Bjelland

Tammy is the Founder and CEO of Workplaceless, a startup that provides learning and development programs to remote professionals.

Tammy has a deep background in developing educational programs and she is a highly-sought after keynote speaker at remote conferences around the world.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why companies are reluctant to advertise job openings as remote

What kinds of companies should consider a transition to a distributed model

The skills to look for when hiring for a remote position

How the remote employment model is providing opportunities for refugees

And with that I give you…Tammy Bjelland

Today, my guest is Amy Spurling

Amy is the co-founder of Compt, a startup that creates fully-customizable programs for perks while eliminating the administrative burden on HR.

Prior to founding Compt, Amy served in a variety of executive roles for Boston tech companies, having raised over $200M and managed two different acquisitions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

* Amy’s experience in a company that scaled from 100 to 650 employees

* How diversifying your employee benefits will help diversify your team

* The current state of work culture, and its evolution from authoritarian, to paternal, to autonomous

* Why Amy says the future of work is complete compensation transparency

And with that I give you…Amy Spurling

Today, my guest is Hiten Shah

Hiten is the co-founder of several software companies, including Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and most recently FYI.

He is an early stage investor and advisor for over 120 different startups, including famously distributed teams like Buffer and Automattic.

In this episode you will learn:

How to manage your distributed team’s workflow at scale

Why being spread out over multiple time zones becomes a massive strength for remote teams

Why Hiten would actually avoid making in person team meetups about work at all

Hiten's thoughts and predictions on future VC investment into remote companies

The never before shared story behind Hiten’s Twitter handle

And with that I give you…Hiten Shah

Today, my guest is Zack Gould

Zack is the co-founder of BobbleOn and G&N Insurance, one of the fastest growing insurance agencies in Massachusetts, regularly outgrowing their peers by 10-15x every year and winning multiple Inc 5000 awards.

G&N recently went through the process of transitioning from a co-located model to a distributed one in an industry where this is FAR from the norm.

The single decision that he credits for creating explosive growth in his business

How to define your core values (this is not what you’d expect)

The decision making process for transitioning to a distributed model

Why Zack intentionally excuses himself from the hiring process

And with that I give you…Zack Gould

Today, my guest is Michael Ly.

Michael is the founder and CEO of Reconciled, an online bookkeeping service for Entrepreneurs.

In this conversation we cover:

-How Michael creatively funds his in-person company meet ups

-Important tax considerations for hiring employees in different states

-The power of transparency and vulnerability, especially with a remote team

Michael is a talented entrepreneur who is building a really solid foundation for scaling a services company with a distributed model.

And with that I give you…Michael Ly.

Today, my guest is Justin Cooke (https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwcooke/).

Justin is the Co-founder of Empire Flippers (https://empireflippers.com/).

Empire Flippers is a global marketplace for buying and selling online businesses.

It has grown to truly global team of 50 employees, spanning virtually every timezone.

Justin and his team have seen virtually every side of the remote work model and have some really unique approaches to operations.

We dive deep into their employee onboarding process, which involves 4 months of in-person apprenticeship.

We talk through their twice annual, two week company meet up.

And much, much more.

These guys are constantly innovating to make sure that their business works optimally for their lifestyle.

And with that I give you…Justin Cooke

Today, my guest is Beau Lebens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/beaulebens/).

You guys are in for a real treat.

Beau is the Head of Product Engineering for Jetpack at Automattic (https://automattic.com/). Automattic is the company behind WordPress.com, which currently powers 1/3 of the web.

Beau was employee #35 at a company that is now a staggering 855 team members and counting. Automattic is valued north of $1B and operates as a 100% distributed team.

Beau started coding back as a teenager while growing up in a small town in Western Australia. But as his skills & experience continued to grow, his travels brought him to Hawaii, San Francisco, Brooklyn and now Denver, Colorado.

He oversees what I believe to be one the most dynamic product teams in the world. And in this episode there’s a ton of takeaways, from understanding the seemingly “unscalable” hiring process all the way to what is arguably the most robust tech stack I’ve ever seen for a distributed team.