I am the Inbound Marketing Manager at CommunityCo; I specialize in developing multi-channel inbound marketing campaigns for bringing in new members for Forbes Council, Young Entrepreneur Council, and FastCo Executive Board communities.

How big is it?

We’re an ever-expanding team of nearly 100,  and we are rapidly growing. On the marketing side, specifically, we are a close-knit group of specialists in content development, design, UX, etc.

Where are your teammates located?

We are dispersed across the United States, with our design team located in South America. We really value the flexibility of CommunityCo; we’ve been remote since inception!

What does your team do? What are you responsible for?

My team is responsible for attracting and inviting entrepreneurs, business leaders, and innovative thinkers to our online communities, which include Forbes Councils, YEC, FastCo Executive Board, Rolling Stone, and more.

I develop the inbound campaigns for reaching these unique movers and shakers, develop our engaging content strategies, manage and optimize our paid media campaigns, and own the analytics in each of these areas.

Communication is key to establishing and maintaining a strong remote culture, and ensuring all team members feel they have a stake in the success of the company is critical.

Moreover, it’s important to recognize accomplishments and to clearly articulate the value add of each person’s strengths and skill sets.‍

Lastly, I recommend setting up a variety of non-work-related Slack channels. It’s great to be able to chat about your favorite sports team, or your new favorite band, throughout the work day. It engenders a type of connection you might not otherwise have while working remotely.

Everyone should feel that they matter and that they are valued. Being seen and heard is human-centric in a world where data points and technology have become all the more omnipresent in lieu of real human interaction.

The biggest challenge is finding new ways to innovate remote work; discovering what the team needs to do their jobs more efficiently is an important discussion. Leaders should be receptive, and the team should be transparent.

We schedule monthly Zoom “town halls,” where we discuss the state of business affairs, show off our new pets, and ask questions.

While we don’t play remote games, we do have several Slack channels dedicated to the gamers among us.

We don’t typically start our meeting with icebreakers; on the marketing side, we are an Agile team, and our daily stand-ups help keep us focused. That said, it’s not all business; we do enjoy sharing our goings-on before getting into the nitty gritty. It’s all very free flowing.

Again, I think making full use of Slack is a great way to build culture in a remote environment. It helps the team communicate across departments and find shared interests!

I am a fan of Jocko Willink, David Goggins, and anyone who has experience with leading teams outside of the “business” world. I find that drawing inspiration from resources outside of my trade has helped me to grow as a leader.