Recording In A McDonald’s

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Well, well, well.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Are we are we recording? We are. Are we live? The little red light. We're not live, but we're live. We're not live. This is gonna be weird because our YouTube is completely aligned by um Live is live. And this is just gonna be the one random non-liver. So this is this is breaking all kinds of new ground.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Yeah. This is gonna be fun to explain and for everyone to figure out. The only other video that we have that's pre-recorded is our Memoji Cells. Where it's a little meme or a little emoji thing for our face. That's like the last one we've done. People hate that video.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Do they really? Oh yeah. And this is also gonna be great because uh the audio feed for this, I have no idea if Maroon 5 Animals is gonna be coming through as well. I'll be honest, this song's a banger. Is it really? I love this song. I hate maroon 5. If there is one band I could like physically pick up and throw into a volcano, this would be the one. This would be well, it'd definitely be one of a bunch. Why is this one on the list? I know. Any particular characteristics? There's something, let me tell you, there's something about Maroon 5 and Fallout Boy. Specifically, they're like insistence on holding these high notes. Yeah. I just want to punt them into a volcano. Right into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

I mean there's like rapidness too, and I don't really know what's going on, to be honest with you. It is weird. You want to tell them where we are? I mean, you may or may not have picked it up already by if you're on the podcast. I mean, you should be watching the video, it's on YouTube. Uh, based on the colors, based on this little fake background of wood, based on the giant drink in front, based on the ambiance, if you've paid attention to all the background noise, we're in a McDonald's. We are. And a Mickey D. This is the second time we've recorded at McDonald's. Yeah, this is not the first time. This is not a unique scenario for us. And we are perfectly positioned inside the restaurant, right next to the restrooms. It's where we did our last one, too. It's an it's an insistence almost. You know, but this is different because we are at a different McDonald's than last time. Yes, we are. Alright, give me your initial feedback on this McDonald's versus the last McDonald's.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, I gotta say, um, just from a what you can see on the screen here, I'm loving the vibe. The mixture of the black and white texture cow print with the panel slats and the yellow table. It's a nice location.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, these chairs are awful. They're not great. That's my initial impression. Like, I'm just trying to get comfortable in this thing and it's it's not it. It's not gonna happen. Yeah. But you know, the convenience, uh, last time we ate our McGriddles live on the show. We did. But there was no video. No. This time we already ate our McGriddles to really grease the skids for us to be better at podcasting.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Well, it's it's a wait for us to grease the skids in this episode and make sure it doesn't run long, because we're gonna be greasing some skids in in 15, 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

That's part of the reason why we go next to the bathrooms, because you just you never know when the urge is gonna hit. If we have to run out, if one of us has to run out in the middle of this after eating a McGriddle, we just gotta leave again. We have to leave. Like unfiltered, yeah. Whoever's left here on their phone.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Do you remember that one time we were doing a pod, and uh for some reason I had to leave? Yeah, you just ran away. Just ran. And I just had to filibuster it.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

It had something to do with my dog. I don't remember what happened. Oh, I think she was sick. So it's like I gotta take her out. Yeah, yeah. You've gotta run. Yeah. I'll be honest, uh, after a McGridd has settled in, my stomach is a little gribbly. Well, I'm telling you, you maybe left on your own here in just a few minutes.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I was telling you yesterday, uh, me and capitalist correspondent Alex Restreppo went to Buffalo Wild Wings, aka the B dubs. B dubs. And we both did the blazon. And like I said, going in, it wasn't that tasty. I mean, it was hot, but it wasn't that tasty. But once it hit the stomach and the intestines, I was feeling it the rest of the day. And this morning has been, let's just say, a spicy rim.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

A spicy rim. It sounds miserable. It sure is. I'll be honest, my stomach feels like what it feels like when you eat something too spicy right now. But it doesn't feel like the burning sensation. No. But it feels like that feeling. So it's not good. The skid's been in Greece. We are, we are right on the edge of either glory or absolute misery.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

When we showed up at the McDonald's, the McADs, if you will, uh we checked the touch menus and they said no McGriddles. Yeah. They said none. So then a very kind woman behind us said, Hey, what are you looking for? And Michael was like, McGridddles. It's like, let me see what I got. And she's like, I got McGriddles. She was so kind. And they were like, Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah. We're buying from you then. We were so happy. I'm like, you can't. I can't believe they had breakfast before 10:30. It's crazy. Yeah, I thought they would at least go to 1030. Millions of Americans are still asleep. Yeah, how many people still want McGriddles? I want a McGriddle at 1 p.m.

McGriddles And Bad Decisions

SPEAKER_01 4:35

in the afternoon. I'll be honest, right after eating the first one, I wanted another one immediately. Yeah? I was like, let me get a second. But the way my stomach's feeling right now, no. I do not. I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

This is actually the second breakfast. I already had uh baked uh uh salmon on toast. Well how salmon on toast for breakfast? I had to meet my parents this morning. Oh gotcha. So you've had a productive morning? Dude, my life has been, I have seen three different live musical acts in the last seven days.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And movies on top of that? And movies family, and running a podcast and a successful corporate career.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

What else can we throw all that? Basically every night for the last like two weeks, I've had something going on. Oh my gosh. I saw Weird Al on Friday. Wow. Uh we got we got like last minute invited by capitalist correspondent Alec Tristrepo to go check out a musical called Six. Okay. Have you heard of this? I have not. Dude, so not culture with the art stuff. For for the viewerslash listeners, if Six is in your area, I highly recommend get tickets, go see it. Oh look, the thumbs up symbols on your face. I love when that just pops up. The endorsement. It is a it is a musical, it's like a Broadway musical, but not really. Okay. It's actually more of like a pop concert about the six wives of Henry V.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Oh, okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

So each wife is a different musical style.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

And it is so much fun. Really? It's like an hour and thirty minutes, no intermission. You will just be like clapping, screaming. These women are some of the best performers I've seen in my life. But it sounds like a lot of fun. It's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Is it like is this like a known thing that many groups do, or is this like a particular group?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

This is a show that started in Broadway in New York and is now touring.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

And we got last minute invited by Capitalist correspondent Alexo shout-outs, who like literally just had two extra tickets. He's like, You want to go? Like, I have no idea what this is. Sure, why not? Sure, why not? You had a great time. Like when it turned down, oh, we had a great time.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Live events. There's something about it. I love going to live sporting events. Live anything. Just is always so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Uh two nights ago we went to Henry Mancini at a jazz club. Yeah. Henry Mancini's not alive, but the jazz club still play is tracks. Fair enough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Dude, you're so popular. This every night. I I am not that busy. You know what I've done every single day this week? Worked and I mean, yes. That did happen every day this week. And could happen right now. Right now. We'll see what happens in the next few minutes here with this Mick Riddle, which may have been a mistake. We'll see. We'll figure that out in a few minutes.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

I hope it's a mistake.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, I've worked and I've stayed at home. Which has been really nice. Yeah. I'm not I'm not upset. It's been great. I could use some home time. Yeah. I could I could honestly use some home time. There is something about that, like when you're really busy for a while and you're really social, like well at night just doing nothing. And sitting at home is the best feeling in the world.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah. Hopefully you'll get there. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you're doing well.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

I'm doing revive check-home.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I need a break.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Is what I need. I mean, McDonald's is the perfect place to start your break.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

I think so. I think so. I've got a nice, it's Saturday, Saturday morning. I've dealt with my parents. I've dealt with you. Yeah. And I've dealt with the corporate strategy, the podcast could have been an email. I'm Anthony. The rest of the day.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Oh, I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Uh, and now I'm ready to uh get this over with, as they say. Yeah, this podcast could have been an email.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Relaxing. Yeah. After this. So do you have plans for the rest of the weekend or are you just chill?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Rest of the weekend is chill. We're gonna try and see He-Man tomorrow. I am a big fan of the He-Man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

So you have a little uh stature sculpture thing. Some might say I have a collection. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

You've got a couple of couple of 50 figures of He-Man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Just a couple 50. Just a couple 50.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, one two fifty. What's it? One two fifty. Who's counting? You get a couple Master Universe figures, you get 50 Master Universe figures.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

There you go. Well, good. Everyone needs a trap jaw in their collection. I still can't believe you had salmon on toast and now you're eating the griddles.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

I know. It's crazy. I don't eat breakfast. This could be bad. And now I've had two. This could be bad for you. This could be really bad. I didn't eat dinner yesterday, though, so I'm I'm just balancing it out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Very cool. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing. Yeah, yeah. We went on a trip. We went on a little destination wedding last weekend, which was really nice. Where were you destined to go? We went to the Virgin Islands. Oh. St. Thomas. So it was really, really nice. It was beautiful. It's pirate country. Is it pirate country? Yeah, pirates used to like raid them. Yeah, well, good thing we took a plane in. Well, no, I mean that's more. It's a really cool place. So it's obviously, you know, we live in Florida, very flat land. You go there, it's very hilly, not mountainous. Mountains have to be like over a certain elevation and it doesn't hit that threshold. So it's really all just hills. So all a bunch of hills. And the interesting thing about it is one, you drive on the opposite side of the road, but the steering wheel is still on the right side of the road. And you also love that people are just walking by the road. That's great. Just going on their way to do their business. But yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the other side of the roads. The infrastructure is not amazing. And it's very inconvenient if you live outside of the main area to do anything. Because they don't have like Uber or anything like that. So you basically have to find like a taxi service. And the taxi service is just to do with the minivan.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And what I love about it is you call these numbers for the taxi service. Hey, is this a taxi service? And they're like, can be. Like, well, well, what else do you do? They are handymen, they fix pools, they do all these different things, and

Trips And Live Shows

SPEAKER_01 9:45

they're just trying to figure out how to make a living.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

You know? And I kind of respect it. I was gonna say, I could actually dig this job. Yeah. Like, because at least you know, hey, you know, one day you're fixing a toilet, next day you're driving somewhere somewhere. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

That'd be kind of fun. Right. Yeah, yeah, it's super interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, just kind of like a gig, whatever you need. Yeah, we we went a few years ago and we met our friend's friend who now is a friend of ours. A friend's friend is a friend. Yeah, a friend's friend is a friend of mine. Oh, he he does like a fishing charter, he does like boat tours, and then he's just like a mechanic handyman on the side. Like it's just he's like, it's just kind of what you do on the islands. I love that. Yeah, the thing you gotta get used to is everything's on island time. So they'll tell you a time, and then it's probably 30 minutes late. So you really just gotta plan ahead. And sometimes they just don't show up. So you gotta backup plans. And it is just really funny when you call them and you're like, oh, sorry, I forgot that was at that that was now. I'm gonna show up 30 minutes later.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Could you actually live on an island?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

I think I was telling actually my wife and I were talking about this while we were there. I think I could do anything for six months.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Well, maybe permanently. Could you permanently live on an island?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I don't know if I could permanently live on an island. Like just the convenience of everything we have, even though we kind of live out in the country.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I was gonna say, you're not the most convenient looking.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah. We kind of live out in the country, but it's not inconvenience. Dude, I'd like to slap a cow to get to your house. But it's not like on the islands where it's like you literally can't walk anywhere. You can't drive on your own. Well, I mean, I guess you could if you had a car, but a lot of people don't. So I don't know. It just seems very inconvenient.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

The thing that's compelling to me about an island is you're you're remote, but also you're completely encapsulated.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Right? Like, there's everyone's kind of in this little sphere. So there's there's island community, but also you can just take a motorcycle anywhere you want. Yeah, you really could. Like, there's you don't have to worry about like the traffic and the cars. Like, I don't know. Island would be cool, but like hurricanes, yeah, volcanoes.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

And sometimes you just lose power to the island. Yeah. Yeah. It just happens. And they're just like, oh yeah, we don't have power today.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

But the the counter to that is people have been surviving on islands for Oh yeah, absolutely. Like an island gives you what you need to live. Right. Coconut, crab, fish, spear, gun. Yeah, I mean, guns just show up on island. If there's anything I've learned about playing survival games, you will find a gun in a crate. It's very true. It probably left there by the pirates. And then you gotta craft the ammo by using like coal bits and sand.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And then you have to have lightning strike sand to make glass. To make the glass, of course. Of course. That's how it all works. But yeah, yeah, it was a really good time. It was relaxing. We really didn't do anything outside of the wedding activity. So literally we're just like hours of the city. I think you've been married now. Uh I've only been married once. Oh, but you just keep going to weddings. I just keep being invited to weddings. Okay, yeah. Yeah, my wife and I were talking really like all her friends are mature and got married years ago, and now all my friends are getting married. So it took them a while to mature and get ready for marriage.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

So You know that the male brain does mature slower.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Exactly. That's kind of what I told her. I'm like, listen, we're done. I mean, it hasn't been a long time.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

There is a there is a whole I wouldn't even say it's a thought experiment. They've done research basically saying if they held men back one year, so like basically all of the women are a year older than the men in grade, men would actually fare much better in society. Just because they we don't retain information and can't pay attention generally as well as women do. I could totally see that. And we're about a year under emotionally and mentally mature compared to women.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

I think it's more than a year. I think we're like three years younger.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I mean, maybe. I don't think they're gonna be holding men back three years, though. Yeah, it'd be a little weird. It'd be a little weird.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

It'd be a little strange. Yeah, but I think maybe that's something we need to do.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

I mean, I've thought about this. Like, I thought about this even before I saw that research. Basically, like, man, I would have loved to have gone to college now. Right. Versus when I did. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I'd be taking notes, I'd be learning, and I'd be like, oh, this is great. I want to learn. Yeah. I want to learn. But when I went, I didn't want to learn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

We did an entire episode on this. We did. Yeah. Yeah, go back and listen to it. It's great. Go back and listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

We've done what? How many of these now? 250.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

570s, 606.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

693. Yeah, something like that. It's like, yeah, go back to 50s. They're great. 250s? So since we're at a McDonald's, should we broach into our topic? Let's broach it.

Why Onboarding Matters

SPEAKER_01 14:00

What better to talk about than onboarding? Onboarding. So why is this important? We've never talked about this before, by the way. I think we may have touched it. I don't think we have. I don't know that we have a full episode.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

We've never really hit.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

We've talked about your first 30, 60, 90. Yes. We've talked about like what you do when you start a job, but we've never talked about like crafting the perfect onboarding.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

We've only had to admit that. So that is weird. That is weird. That is like something we haven't talked about. But we've been so established in our careers, it's something that we haven't really had to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Well, I deal with it all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Because I am I'm one of the people who onboards new employees. Oh yeah. You're an onboarding buddy. I'm an onboarding buddy.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

That is kind of in your culture. Yeah. Like you're kind of obsessed with onboarding people. You onboarded me. I sure did. You were my buddy. I sure did. You literally said, Anthony is your buddy on my documentation for onboarding. I know. Isn't that funny? They forced us to be friends. Now look. They did. Now look what they've done. They've started doing that that we do in McDonald's right next to the bathrooms. Would you say that's successful looking back 10 years ago? Wait, way longer than 10 years. 13, 14 years ago? 15 years ago. 15 years ago?

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Well, I mean, I started 15 years ago. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Mine would have been a little bit under that's hilarious. So why is this pertinent now? So I announced uh on one of the last episodes the company I've been starting.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

You never posted in the Discord, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Oh yeah, I didn't. Shoot. I failed completely. I will, yes. I can't do this for you. I will post it in the Discord. It will be put there. I need to catch up on Discord anyway. Got a lot to talk about. Um yeah, if you haven't joined it, uh link down in the description link. Link in the description. It's free, great conversation. It's been awesome so far. I think there's even been some like job postings there that people have posted to say, hey, there's some jobs open, they're all remote. Like you should look into this. So a lot of good stuff. But I am working with a company now that I'm consulting for, helping do a little bit of product management stuff. And so I'm kind of going through onboard. Yeah. And I remember when I started Universal, it was rocky. It was messy when I started. And so much so. And this is one of my favorite stories when I first started at Universal. Uh, my boss, the dude I was gonna be working with, basically said, Hey, I'm gonna be busy and out for the next two weeks. Here is a PowerPoint slide deck because I don't have your laptop. Good luck. And that was my initial onboarding. And I'll be 100% honest with you, I loved it. Was it helpful? Well, the PowerPoint deck wasn't helpful, but I just loved being thrown in the fire.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Oh, yeah, you just getting through the walls.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, he just sat me in at a desk location because we were in person at the time. And I literally was like, okay, like there's no rules, there's no jurisdiction. I'm just gonna start talking to people. And so literally, I was like guy next to me, I turn around, what do you do? And like that's how it all started.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So, you know what's funny is I even though my company got acquired by a much bigger company, and I still very much work for a startup, it's just how we operate. We still operate as sort of an independent business. We've had a complete onboarding program since I think six months after I joined. Yeah. Like we had it, so there was an entire system to onboard people. I have been part of the onboarding experience basically since day one. Right? Because when I joined, I was employee number four. Right. So there there was nothing to onboard. It's like, here's the product, here's the company, go market it. Yeah. Right. So uh from my experience, it's been really fun because I've got to help build it. Right. And I every, well, it used to be every month I would actually help with a new hire orientation. And that was cool because I get to meet the new batch of employees every time I do it. But I have also built my own content and I run training courses. Onboarding is probably one of the most important things you can do as an existing employee for other employees, but it's also one of the most important things you can receive because had I gone through our onboarding, I would start to pick up the culture, I would start to learn the things the company wants me to know. So, as much as I think Universal gave you an opportunity to really learn how to fish, onboarding can really be a molder, yeah, a shaper to kind of say this is the employee you are going to be at this company, otherwise you will not make it.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Well, let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

So being thrown to the fire, and I guess the question that I have is like, why don't companies invest in this? Because I see this at a ton of companies that I work with where it's like there is zero onboarding. Which is wild. And I think the reason why they don't do it is because it's such a short period of time. Theoretically. It's like, hey, you got 10 days, like set up your laptop, get connected to all the systems, but then after that, it's like you're just doing the work. So why invest in you know a 1% part of the job or potential career? So what why would you want to invest in it? Why is it important?

SPEAKER_00 18:37

So one of the things we do, and you know, at our big corp, we had no onboarding.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

You know, like you said, I was your buddy, and that's why.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

That's why I had a buddy, which was honestly great.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

So looking at no onboarding versus what we do currently, the first course that I run people through is actually a history of our industry. Okay. Of the industry. I've built a 30-minute explainer course. Yeah. You know, I work for a data protection company and I do basically a 30-minute intro to data protection. So before we even talk about our company, before we talk about the product, any of that, I level set. I assume everyone knows nothing, and I talk to them about what is data, I give them a history of information, like all the way from cave paintings to the Gutenberg press to the early computers to the cloud, right? Like I cover an entire span of this. But what that does is it level sets everybody. I know by the time they get to actually learning about our company and what we do, they understand the why we exist and why they are here. And like I think that spurns and motivates an energy to then bring that why to the stories they tell to their customers. Or if they're in HR, they understand, like, hey, why is this company doing business the way it does? Even if I don't have to deal with the product day in, day out, everyone's on the same page.

unknown 20:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

They'll then go through an executive

A Five-Day Onboarding Model

SPEAKER_00 20:05

QA, so they get to meet all the executives, questions, answers with them. They go through product training, they go through company training. Uh it's a it's a five-day course and it's just full. Every employee has to do this. And the last thing we make them do is a pitch test. And I recommend everyone, every company should do this. Yeah. You have to record yourself doing a one-minute pitch of the company and include all of our core message. Uh, you have to be able to explain a technical thing about our product. Interesting. And you have to do it in your own words, no reading. Huh. It's gotta be your words telling it. But that's how you graduate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

That is, I have a million questions for you. Because I I love this. Yeah, I've only ever had buddies who is like, it's usually the most recent person that's on board to be like, hey, uh, tell them the things you wish you knew when you started. And that just trickles down and down and down. Where it's like, I just started 30 weeks 30 days ago. Am I really qualified to do this? Like, yeah, absolutely. But the thing you miss is exactly what you're saying is starting with like, what do we do? Why does it why do we do it? Why do we do it? Then what do we do? Like, I don't think that's ever been part of an onboarding for me.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

It's why, what, how. Yeah, it's basically our order. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah, because I think if you were to take a step back and look at the macro, it's like to have an effective employee, they need to understand what you do. Because in a large corporation, you're gonna be siloed into small little pieces. And I'll be honest, you usually never understand the full picture of the company. It took me years at Universal to understand, oh, we're owned by Comcast NVC. Right. And they do all these things. We do uh network, we do internet, we do obviously all the live TV and everything. Like we do so much in our world. I didn't even know that was part of like the company and what we do.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And while it probably wouldn't help you do your day to day job all that much, it certainly would help you understand where your budget comes from. Yeah. Uh who your customers are. Like that information, it's not going to help with 99% of what you do, but it is going to be 1% in the back of your mind. It's going to help you realize, like, hey, I need to focus on this, not that. Absolutely. Right?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah, it's great contacts. And I think where it would have helped at Universal is just knowing we have contacts in other places, it's product management specifically, where it's like, hey, we're running this challenge. Oh, part of our company does that. Like, I'm just going to try to figure out if I can find a contact within our company to see if they can help us figure this out. Because obviously they figured it out. Right. And like, if you don't understand that, you don't think like that. Yeah. But I think to be honest, you know, to everybody here, like as you rise the ranks, leveraging connections and relationships you've made, especially if they're in trouble of a company, makes you a very valuable player. Yes. Because as you get up the levels, that's what the C level does. That's what your senior directors and VPs do, is they basically help connect dots and people to help accomplish goals that overall help the company. So understanding that makes you a key player already.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

So, you know, in in my company's onboarding, one of the cool things is you get to meet a lot of people. You get to meet me, you get to meet our executives, you get to meet a bunch of my team. Like everyone's doing a different part and piece. And you're learning like who I go to for certain things. Right. So I don't really have much to offer in terms of like, hey, if you don't have onboarding, you know, you can't do what we're offering because you're just missing componentry, right? So what do you do when you're in a situation where your onboarding is literally, here's a slide deck, here's what I wish I knew. Like, I'm sure a lot of people are in your shoes. Yeah, 100%. What are the best tips you have for a lack of onboarding?

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah, it's it's honestly, I I have to put my own lens on things of, and you and I are the same. Like we're outgoing, we can meet with any, I could talk to a rock. Right. And like that plays to our strengths.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

We talked about this in our one of our last episodes.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

But if you're an introvert and you're being thrown into this, like, good luck. Like you're probably gonna be sitting on your hands. Like, I don't, I don't feel comfortable doing any of that. So I'm just gonna try to like sit on my computer in a corner and like message here and there and hope I get some guidance from somebody or somebody tries to help.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

I see this as a risk though. Yeah. Right? Because you're not, when you're not onboarded, you don't know if you have the right heading. You might know what your job is. Like your job might be chief widget inspector, and you know, like I have to inspect the widgets. Yeah. But when you get beyond the how of like, okay, yeah, a widget turns right, right. And that's what a widget does, and I make sure it turns right every time, like that's beneficial to you for your day-to-day. But I would argue without onboarding, you're not gonna know why the widget turns right, and you're not gonna move up.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Because you don't have the context you need to get to that next level. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah, I think the best tips that I could give is like, even if it's uncomfortable, if you're thrown into a situation, one, you need to make sure you and your manager have a touchbake, a touch point to understand what do I need to focus on. And so, like, that's something I'm always adamant on is like I even schedule meetings with the person who I'm gonna be working for to be like, am I doing the right things? Like, help me gain some contacts. I also would say, usually your manager is very busy. So you need to figure out who can be a buddy for me, even if you have not been designated a buddy. Find some key contacts either from your manager and then find people you can trust and work with. And that's kind of what happens, is like it's almost like a pyramid scheme where it's like your manager gives you three days, you talk to each individual person, and then you're like, okay, I've got some contacts. I think this person likes me the most. I'm gonna work with them a lot. And you just shoot them every question you can. Really start building that relationship.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Here's a question: Should your buddy be on your team? Ooh. Or should your buddy be on a different team?

SPEAKER_01 25:43

That's a good question. Yeah, with some of the companies I'm working with now, they're actually on different teams, but it's because I need to help kind of bridge the gaps between them. But for me, it's just by it's finding an ally, finding somebody that's willing to help you. I'm brand new.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

I'm brand new. I just started at Widget Corp. I see you from across the aisle. I'm like, this is a handsome young sir. Oh, thank you. How do I ask you to be my buddy?

SPEAKER_01 26:06

I think you start by just walking up and introducing yourself. Be like, hey, I'm the new guy here. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. And hopefully that person will respond back and be like, oh, cool. Like, who's who are you working with? And then you'd be like, oh, I work with John. And it's like, oh, John, he's the chief widget inspector. If you're on his team, you must be inspecting widgets. That must be your job, right? Yeah. And so they help connect those dots for you and be like, oh, I am the uh widget builder. I build the widgets, so we're gonna be working together and figuring this out. Yeah, if you don't mind, thank you very much. So I think that's the way I would do it is reaching out to them and just being like, try it again, getting some context. I love this so much that our trail we just picked up. We just got a special guest podcaster who came on and just gave a little tidbit. You may or may not have been able to hear it. We didn't like him up. We didn't like him. We didn't like him up. That was our podcast rookie mistake. I should have mic'd him up for that little excerpt.

No Onboarding? Build Your Network

SPEAKER_01 27:00

But I think that's what you do is you you just go up and you kind of explain whatever you know. And then I think you just be vulnerable to. I think the best thing to do is say, I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing, but I think we should be working together. Can you help me understand?

SPEAKER_00 27:14

So one thing you said that I really liked was you you you met someone new. You said what you do, they told, they told you, your your boss or your department, what their responsibility is. And now you're gonna learn what this other responsibility is. I think if you don't have onboarding, if you don't have any kind of onboarding, doing what Michael suggests not only networks you, but it helps you see all of the inner workings of the business. And I would almost say, but if especially if you're in an office, a really great opportunity is every time you're in the break room and you see someone new, introduce yourself to them and say, Hi, I'm Anthony, I'm chief widget inspector here at widget co. What do you do? Yeah. Now the thumbs up is on your face.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah.

unknown 27:58

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

I love when you throw it on the floor. Yeah, it really was. I think that's actually great. Like I think that is a fantastic alternative to onboarding when you don't have it to really help you learn what your company does and what the inner workings of it are.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah. I think one of the biggest things too is to not feel pressure to be productive when you have not been given guidance. Like you can't, I think a lot of people are like, I need to be doing something. Like, I gotta be doing something productive, I gotta be doing what I'm supposed to be doing. The reality is when you're getting started, you need time. Yeah. You need time to understand the context, you need time to understand how you actually do your job. What are the inputs, what are the outputs, how how does the sausage get made? Like, if you don't understand that, you can't be productive, and being productive is having conversations like break room. Let me let me just ask this nice gentleman, what do you do? Who are you? This is day three for me. So try to be vulnerable. I'm trying to find who can help me with things. Or I learn this from this person, you do that, and just try to connect the dots in your head.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

So this is great if you're just getting started, you're 3060-90. Let's say, and I'm assuming a lot of our viewers and listeners might be stuck in this situation, you've never been onboarded, you've been at this company six years, you're listening to this episode, and you're like, dang, I kinda wish I did this thing Michael's suggesting. How do you do it as an elder employee?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Yeah. I don't think it's much different.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yeah. You just walk up to a random and be like, hey, I've been here 18 years.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah. I I think so. I think just being friendly and a good corporate person is good for the culture. Like a good person that just reaches out to each other. You're not wrong. I think you build a culture of we're welcoming, we're helpful. And like that is a thing that will be good for you, will be good for whoever you're talking to to help build that culture. Okay. But it is really hard if you're not extroverted like us. And that's what I was gonna touch on too is like unfortunately, if you're getting started in this scenario, in this situation and there's no onboarding, you have to be extroverted. It's gonna be uncomfortable. If you're not that type of person, you have to go do it. You have to get out of your shell. That's the only way you're gonna thrive. Otherwise, your manager is gonna come to you in two weeks and be like, what have you been up to? And you're like, Oh yeah, I've kind of just been sitting around doing nothing. Like, you'll have nothing to say.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

If you come to them and you're like, hey, I met like these six people, they walked me through their process, then guess what's gonna happen? Your manager's gonna sit you down and say, I love that you met with this person. However, we never work with them. Why don't you talk to this person instead? And so the coaching comes in, the direction that you need. Well, I would I you're not I don't think that.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Hit me. Give me the feedback. So not actually. I can't imagine a scenario where a team member of mine would go to someone and say, hey, I met Juanita, she's in finance. Uh, really helpful conversation. I had no idea that's how the budget worked.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Right? Like, at the end of the day, all parts of the company intersect in some way, shape, or form. Like, as much as we don't want to acknowledge sales, like sales, sales is the most important arm of the business.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

It's how you make money.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

It's how you make money, it's how we all get paid at the end of the day. Sales is how we get our benefits package, it's how HR can make sure that we're all getting paid. Like, it is a crucial arm. So if your manager says, hey Michael, yeah, I know you met Juanita in finance, but we're development, we don't work with finance, that's not true. It's true. That's not true. I would argue it helps you understand, again, that underlying framework of how everything fits together. Now, if you're only talking to Juita, that's a problem. Yeah. Right? But let's say you have been in a company six years. You you have what we did when we were at Big Corp, all I did was code and build for a product I didn't understand. Yeah. And you know, at the end of the day, I closed my laptop, walked home. I finally want to learn. It's been six years, but the culture sucks. Yeah. I'm in a remote company. Yeah. Culture sucks, remote company. I don't know why we do it. I just know that every day I code the thing that I'm asked to code. It's not really been an issue. I get a 3% raise every year. Yeah. But I've finally decided I want to get involved.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Where do you start?

SPEAKER_00 32:02

What do I do?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Yeah.

Documentation As Instant Value

SPEAKER_01 32:05

It's interesting. I think honestly, one thing you could do. This is like the worst case scenario. Yeah. Like this is truly the worst case scenario. One thing you could do is volunteer to be a buddy and you hires. Ooh, I like that. And I think that just goes full circle. How do you do that? I think you have to talk to your manager and be like, hey, you know, I've been trying to learn more about the company. I've been here for a while. I got a lot of deep knowledge into certain aspects. I would love to help the next person that we bring onto our team onboard to the team. And I think that forces you to have to do exactly what you did. Yeah. Which is you then have to build the material. And I'd say this is a pro tip for someone that's just starting to, like, in a situation where there's not a lot of onboarding, to find value that you can do quickly is you can start documenting your process and how to improve it. To be like, hey, I realized I needed access to these seven tools. No one told me I needed access to these seven tools. Here's who I talked to, here's the process I went through, so that the next person who comes on board, they just know exactly what they need to do.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

I love this.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

That is immediate value that whoever hired you is gonna be like, I am so happy I hired this person because they're thinking bigger than just themselves.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

No one has ever been fired for producing documentation. Yes. Let me tell you, I think that is like the safest tip we could ever give anyone on this podcast. Like if you get fired for making documentation yikes, like you you've actually been granted a gift. A company is going to burn to the ground.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

That is a blessing.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

You are blessed by the firing. But like, truly, I think that is a really good tip.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Because documentation is so important and no company does it to the extent that they should. Because I don't care if you work for Documents Co. You probably don't document as well as you should. Absolutely. And to take that on and say, hey, you know, I'm gonna document this to make it easier for new hires. That's a really great idea. Absolutely. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

A lot of people don't think about that, but to be productive, and if you want a shiny gold star, right, when you're starting someplace, that is the best place to start. Just be like, hey, I had some friction. Like I'm gonna document this so that way the next person has it, I'll put it on whatever our shared repo is, Confluence or whatever you store docs, and then you share that out broadly, like that immediately makes you look awesome.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Yeah. Yeah. And also promotable. Yeah. Because when you document something, you're basically saying, hey, I'm making it easier for people to do my job. Should they come in? Yep. Uh you know, that can free me up for responsibility of maybe managing a team in the future.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Absolutely. Yeah. I I actually want to go back to what you were talking about of like you said a week. You do a five-day orientation.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

It's a five-day orientation.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

And your company is fully remote. You're fully remote.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Fully remote. So And my company also has the best culture of any company I've ever worked for.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

So I want you to walk us through like what does that look like? What is day one? Who sets that a lot? Do you set it up as well?

SPEAKER_00 34:34

We have ahead of enablement. Okay. Um, gentleman has been with the company for a couple years now. So he basically has set up a program. And the program starts usually on like a Tuesday. Now, it it's a collection of people. So some people have been at the company two weeks, three weeks. Yeah. But because it happens every month, it's a it's a collection of people who've been at the company in less than a month. First course, I think the first course they get to meet him and you know the enablement team. A little bit of intros. Right? Everyone goes through this: sales, development, tech support, marketing. It doesn't matter who you are. Everyone who joins the company goes through this. So it's a collection of all new hire.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Um, it doesn't matter what industry you come from, it doesn't matter what you know, you have to go through. Everyone must go through this course. The first course I'm involved with, which I know is one of the earlier courses, because it's like Tuesday at 10 o'clock my time. So I know it's it's one of the earlier ones. I do the history of data protection. Uh, then they go through things like learning about the sales team, how sales works, they go through an overview of the company itself, understanding what the company is, who founded it, yeah, why it exists, who we serve, who our customers are. Love that. Then they get into product demonstration. So usually one of my teammates actually will go run them through a technical demo of the product, answer any questions they have so they understand like here's what the product does. Yeah, here's why we're you know selling this thing, what questions can we answer? They go through executive QA, and uh over the course of these days, like I don't know every course they're in because I don't help with them all. I've helped I help with mostly the product-oriented ones and the the uh history of the company or history of data protection. By the end of it, they go through the pitch test and I I used to evaluate the pitches, thank god I don't do that anymore, because it just kind of became a burden. Uh my teammates do that for me, but uh by the end of it, I've never seen a person come out of our our company onboarding and fail.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah, right? Like that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

You are set up to be able to succeed in the company.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

What comes after that is can you do your job we hired you for? Yeah. Right? But no one will fail on the culture side. Yeah, no one will fail on the value side.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Right. So it's kind of just setting you up in frame of reference for the company. It's a general onboarding for anybody, regardless of role.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

You understand why we exist, what we do, how we do it, what our values are, what our culture is. Yeah. And you know all the people you need to talk to. Yeah. You've been introduced. Because they they see us, they know who we are, you know, they get to ask us questions. Right. There's like there's a familiar. I, it's always funny when people go through onboarding, I will occasionally get uh requests for one-on-ones afterwards. Yeah. Just to meet me, talk about you know what I do. So there's a lot of intersection between what I do and what the rest of the company does. Right. So a lot of people want to meet with me and talk with me just to kind of understand, like, hey, how can I use your team stuff? How do I, you know, get you on a call? How do I, which is totally fine. And that's part of the point, right? Is to make them comfortable to come up to anybody and basically request time, energy, support, whatever they need.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Absolutely. That's awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

I I think this is probably the best way you could do it. Like coming from big corp does nothing to where we do it at my business. So much. I can't imagine doing it better. Yeah, what it really can't.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

So you mentioned some of the benefits. One, it obviously establishes the culture. It gives you the background to the company, why it exists, what the industry is all about, what the different product sets are. So think about like everything that you learn as an employee. Yeah. If you're just throwing to the fire, you have no clue. You just gotta figure that all out. It's tribal knowledge, right? Like you just gotta

Remote Culture And Team Onboarding

SPEAKER_01 38:15

hope you figure that out all on your own. You will be so productive coming out of that because you're set up for success. I know things that I would have never known if I went through this, and now I can be a more effective employee. So, like retention-wise, this is so good for a company too. Like, if you're a manager, you have to have this. Yeah. Because your employees will be more effective if they understand the bigger picture.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Now, I will also advocate, let's say your company doesn't do what we do. Yeah. You can be the change. Yeah, right. Like you be the one. You can say, hey, I was listening to this podcast called Corporate Strategy. The podcast could have been an email. I'm Anthony. And Michael. And that and I heard about this really cool onboarding system that they do. I think it would behoove us to start something similar. Yeah. Like you can start this, right? If you know about your company, if you know why, what, and how you're doing, this would be a great way to like really shine. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Janice. Janice listened to this stupid podcast and now it started this entire onboarding system. And uh now that everyone who joins the company is better off for it. This is the kind of initiative you can take to really escalate your leadership. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

I think there's two things, like from a manager side, or if you are the one setting this upside that you need to keep in mind. One, I love the idea of the test at the end because it puts the onus, like you retain information so much better if you know there's going to be an evaluation at the end. Yes. Or if you know you're gonna have to teach someone else. And so I think the best way to learn is to actually say, hey, you're gonna have to be responsible for teaching the next person all this, or you're gonna have to take a test, or you're gonna have to self-promote exactly what this is at the end. People are gonna pay attention. Yeah. Having onboarding that just checks a box and like is just, yeah, it's information. Like everybody is just gonna zone out half of that and it's just gonna go right over their head. By setting the expectation up front that that will be required, people will be much, much more engaged. So I think it's awesome that you do that. The second thing is, and you slightly touched on it, but I think it's important to think about if you're the one that's actually setting this up, you have to establish the right process around it. Head of Enablement sets these things up and sends out the invites. Like, you have to think about the infrastructure to this. You can build the best 30-page, 30-minute video overview, whatever it is. No one's gonna read it. Exactly. If it never gets distributed, if there's no process around it, it doesn't matter. You need to establish a way that it can scale. Because you might send it to your manager, like, this is amazing, like we should totally do it, and then it just will fail at the implementation step. And so I think it's really important that you know either it's me, the one that's gonna do it for our team, or there's gonna be someone like HR or whoever that is responsible for getting the invites on this person's calendar, ensuring that they're there, and doing basically the process for onboarding.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

So I think those two things, keep those in mind. If you're the one setting this up, if you want to be successful, putting together content is great, but you have to have the right process around it, otherwise it's just gonna fall flat on its face and no one will ever use it.

SPEAKER_00 41:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

I've done that. I've done that a few times where I was responsible for putting together onboarding, we put together something awesome in Confluence, and then there was zero process around it, and no one ever used it. Yep. Just died. So keep that in mind. This also, I wanted to touch on something that um as you're setting up onboarding, so you have that general company onboarding, and then it's like up to the teams for role-specific onboarding. Right. What does that look like for you and your company?

SPEAKER_00 41:30

So the problem with my team is we're so subject matter expertise driven.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

If you get hired to join my team, you already know what it is you know what you do.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

And really it is going to the company onboarding to understand why you're doing this, right? Then you're able to kind of, it's off to the races, right? Like, I hired you to go build a community. You're good at building communities. That's what you do. Here's the commun here's the company for the community you're building. Now go build your community. I don't know what to tell you what to do, right? Like, I can't onboard you because I hired you because you're an expert. Yeah. Now, for sales teams, right, with with selling, it's you need a little more hands-on time because you probably just came from selling either a similar product and technology or you came from you know, Best Buy where you've been selling washing machines, right? Like, your knowledge might not be the same knowledge of the other guy that just got hired. So, with that kind of thing, you go through the company onboarding, it's a five-day process, and then as a sales manager, you then go through whatever kind of sales onboarding my team needs to go through. Same with HR, same with tech support, right? Like there's individual onboarding that they own and manage themselves. And I don't, I can't speak on behalf of how well that works. But what I will say is I've never seen anyone really struggle to do their job at my company. Yeah. Usually it's more of a, hey, we're gonna go somewhere else because we got a different job. But I think letting the team teach the team how to do the job and letting enablement teach the group why we're all here, I think that's a good trade-off. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

Yeah, I feel like after you go through the general company onboarding, you then need a buddy that's on your team. Right. Somebody that you're gonna be working with, someone that's gonna be in the trenches with you to be like, hey, Anthony, this is your buddy. You will sit and shadow them for the next two weeks. You will ask questions, you will be on every call that they're on, like setting the expectation for that person to be like, and the person that's gonna be their buddy, to be like, you invite Anthony to everything. Yeah. Like make sure they know what they're doing, make sure they get the background, make sure you're there to ask questions. And at the end of that, like I think, as a good onboarding, you also need to set an expectation to be like, after that, you will be on your own to do X, Y, or Z, whatever it is. Like in product management, it'll be like, after you do this, you will then sit with your own Scrum team and you will start to build the backlog and write stories and you know, basically do what they're already doing today, but they're gonna be going to do something else. So there will be like a handoff period where you are now the person who's responsible.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Here's a question. Yeah. Does onboarding ever stop?

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Ooh. I think there's a point where you're just in the groove of your job.

Continuous Learning After Day One

SPEAKER_01 44:10

So you're not onboarding, but you might be responsible for onboarding someone else. But does things do things change? Things do change.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

You gotta stay up on the changes.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

How do you stay up on the changes? What's the life cycle of things that how do you update onboarding to be reflective of if your company got acquired?

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Well, here is here is my solution to that. If you are a team that produces content that other teams might need to consume, you might be tech support, you might be product development, you could be sales. It is important to offer at least monthly or quarterly optional check-ins. Oh, I like that. Right? And and I do this. My team actually does the product marketing team, does a monthly check-in where we showcase here's all the new things we've built. Here's where you can find it all. Any questions on anything? Any feedback you can give us? What should we be doing that we're not doing? These syncs are great because one, it ensures that everyone knows the knowledge they need to know. But two, we know the struggle, and we also know who's using what they know to come back to us. Maybe they've forgotten who the marketing team is. It's just one more way to continue the process of I wouldn't even call it onboarding, we reboarding. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 45:23

It's almost like just continuous learning. Yes. What we did at Universal and even at Big Corp, we did lunch on learns. Where, as part of the company culture, each department would be responsible for doing a lunch and learn at some increment of the year. Yeah. And so they would say, hey, somebody on my team who wants to volunteer to do a lunch and learn about like what we do, who we are, and all that good stuff. And then they would send out the invite, and everybody in the company would be invited. It's like, show up if you want, if you don't, it's all good. And it gives you an opportunity to learn about what they do, what that function is, and so on. I was responsible for a product management one, and I was literally explaining to like theme park operators, this is what product management is. And they were like, they had no idea going into it. And so it was really cool because they got to like talk about you know, what is product management? Why is it different than project management? What are we actually responsible for? What does a day-to-day look like? What is an output that we actually have? And so it's really cool because a lot of people that come on are like, I've never even heard of what this is before because I do attraction operations. Yeah. But now I get to learn about what product management is. And what's interesting too about that uh lunch and learn um and just culture philosophy in that is people then get to branch out and realize I actually kind of really like that. Maybe I want to do that. And I had a lot of people reach out to be like, hey, like, are you hiring on your team? Like, I'd love to like be considered for a role because of my expansive knowledge here. I don't know what product ownership is, I've never done it, but I think with my knowledge I could be really good. Yes. And so it was really cool because people just come out of the woodwork to be like, that looks awesome. I want to go do that instead.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

I think one of the things you and I both learned at Big Corp early days, not even early days, middays. Middays at Big Corp. You know, the middle of the days. Mid days. Middays. Knowing specifics about your job, your role, your team will never get you to the bigger pay ranges or the bigger leadership opportunities. And taking the taking the time to learn about what everyone else does at your business and why they do it and why it's important. Yeah. When you understand those things, that's really when you start to move up. 100%. Because you have to connect with these teams in order to be successful. And yeah, I mean the the earliest tip you gave on this was like go in the break room, introduce yourself, say hi, my name is I do this. Yeah. What do you do? That's the first step to getting promoted, getting that pay bump, moving up into leadership. So many of your peers will not do this. So even if you're an introvert, even if you're like, I don't want to do this, taking that leap of faith and learning, I promise you, it will help you move up.

SPEAKER_01 48:02

Yeah, a hundred percent. I can't tell you how many times, like working in a megacort, like I did, where I'm talking to my manager and they're like, we need to go do this initiative, whatever this is. And I'm like, oh, actually, this other part of the company did a lunch and learn where they had this thing, they already solved the problem for us. Like doing that, your manager's like, holy cow, they're paying attention to what the company is doing. We can be more effective by pulling in what that team did, and we can leverage that for us too. And like that alone is like, you just saved our team three months of time.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

One of the things I've learned, and one of the things I love as a leader, is when I see my team working with other teams without me having to tell them.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

100%.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Oh, you're able to connect and communicate without the need for my middlemanship. You're the best. Thank you. Love you. Like, truly, you will make your manager and your manager's manager so happy when you understand how the company interconnects and works. Now, good onboarding can make this process a lot easier, but I think with the tips Michael's given specifically, you can now go execute this on your own even without onboarding and creating onboarding, my god, you're just setting yourself up for promotions and pay ranges.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Yeah, there's nothing better than like being a I'm I was a manager of managers of people. And so there's nothing better than like someone from a different team and group entirely being like, hey, this person is awesome. They've been working with my team non-stop trying to figure this piece out. I loved that feedback. I was like, holy cow, this person's a rising star. We need to consider them for the next pay race. Yep. Yep,

Keeping It Updated And Supporting The Show

SPEAKER_01 49:30

couldn't agree more. I've got a hard one for you to end it on. How do you keep onboarding up to date as things change? Well, it's a life cycle.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

In our case, because it's something we do so often, I'm I my presentation has changed. Yeah. I've been doing it for over four years now. So like it has evolved. One, I use Simpsons memes. The entire thing is just full of Simpsons references. I love that. So I gotta make sure those references stay up to date.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Absolutely, it's timeless.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

Uh you know, it's true, but jokes aside, when you're responsible for it, you want to make sure it's the latest, greatest information, because otherwise you look bad. Right? So when you're an onboarding leader, uh obviously check your material, run through it before you present it. Even if you've done it a hundred times, run through it before you present it, because I guarantee you every time something changes. Yeah. This is the nature of business. Businesses grow, businesses change, strategies change, so make sure your strategy's up to date. Yeah. Always. Uh the other thing is just if you see someone onboarding, or if you know someone's onboarding, and you know something you know they don't know, reach out. Yeah. Just be like, hey, I know you're doing onboarding. Uh did you include our latest feature in your section? Yeah. Just curious. Like, be the proactive outreacher to make sure that things are okay, not only in your own training, but in other people's trainings as well.

SPEAKER_01 50:50

You gave three really good tips. One is you have to have accountability or ownership for somebody. Like if nobody owns it, it will never be updated, it will die. Correct. It'll die on a vibe. But because Anthony is responsible for this video, the history of you know data protection, he is responsible for keeping that up to date. And everyone who sees his shining face on that video, if something drastically changes the industry, it's not up to date, they're gonna be like, hey, do you realize your stuff's out of date?

SPEAKER_00 51:17

And he's gonna be like, Your face ain't shining no more.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Yeah. Your face ain't shining. It's covered in turds. Yeah, you're like, this is outdated, it becomes irrelevant, no one cares. But because you're responsible, you're accountable for that piece, you know you have to keep it relevant. I also think you you mentioned something important around the same lines of like a community of continuous growing and development and recognizing, hey, you're struggling with this, or this is something new, or you didn't have this, you should go back and put that in the onboarding. That's a great thing of like a culture to build where people recognize, oh, this feels like a gap that should be an onboarding. And creating that thinking for people when they realize, hey, we just launched a new feature, I should go and update an onboarding. Like that culture and establishing that culture and you as a manager reinforcing that culture will keep everything up to date and it will keep it you know strong for whoever's just coming out.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

One last tip. And then it's night night forever. If you are someone who is proactive, if you're someone who's constantly thinking, like, hey, uh, you know, we could be doing X, Y, and Z thing, maybe you don't take it on yourself. But if you know someone who is like, hey, you know, you know who would be great to teach this course? Actually, Michael like taught me how to do this really cool thing. Yeah, we should bring him into the program and have him teach this thing. The best kind of growth is when everybody grows. Yeah. So if if you are aware of someone who knows something that maybe you know because they taught you, but not everyone knows because it was a very one-on-one experience, encourage them to get involved. Yeah, also. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Yeah, those are great tips. Also, I just love doing this in the McDonald's. The stares we get, and it's so hard, you guys probably see on the video because this is where everyone's walking right in front of us. People walk by and they kind of stop for a second, they just stare. And they just stare at us and we're sitting there, like, I'm gonna try not to make eye contact. And then they walk to the restroom over there, and you're just like, I just watched you walk into the bathroom. This is so awkward, and I love it.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

It's uh it's what we do best.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Hey, we do it for you. We do it for the people, we do it for you, and I hope you were entertained.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Speaking of do it for the people, hey, you mentioned earlier we have a Discord. We do. So if you think this is valuable, if you like the kind of tips we offer on this show, join our Discord and join the conversation. We're never there, but other people are, and they're way cooler than we are.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Oh yeah, they're way smarter, way cooler, they have way more tips. Capital monitoring tempos there. I mean, we've got everybody. Yeah, really, we're just the front of this. We do nothing. The speaker's just jamming out right now. We're probably gonna get copyrighted on this, you think?

SPEAKER_00 53:46

YouTube is gonna copyright strike. Well, one, we're not monetized, so we're fine.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

We're safe.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

We're safe. But uh someone's gonna make money off this. It's not us. Something will. Hey, but you know how you could support the show if you wanted? Uh we have a Patreon, and uh we are cash flow positive. Shoutouts to all of our patrons for helping us pay for the show, which does cost money, believe it or not, to cost you money. Cost me money. Well, not anymore, because y'all are taking care of it for us. So thank you for that. That money goes right back into the show. Yeah, so thank you for everything you do. And if you want to help support the show and get us more cool features and more outings and things like this, you can do so by joining the Patreon, click the link, get you access to the Discord, get you access to our Patreon, get you access to our website, our merch shop.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

Shareable links you can share with your friends.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Share.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

Share it. If you're onboarding to a company, you should share this with your onboarding buddy. Please be like, hey, maybe we should build something like this. These corporate strategy guys might be, oh, thumbs down. Who did that?

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Thumbs down.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

I don't even know where that came from. I wasn't even raising my hand. But yeah, I think that's it. It's like share it with somebody that you think should be helpful. Establish a learning culture in your company. Help onboard the new person. Everybody will be better from it. And with that loud, blaring, flushing of the toilet, and blowing of the hand dryer. I think that's where we ended.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

I think we ring it in, we ring it in with that. Thanks as always for watching and listening to Corporate Strategy. You know what we want you to do. As always.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

You're always first. I'm Anthony. And I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

And you're on mute. We will see you when we see you.