Jared Lake’s Post

I am getting excited for these colder crisp mornings. Today, I strolled 12km through the city to work hitting 16,000 steps before 9am. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? Although the hustle and bustle hits pretty quickly (everyone's back in the office 👀) I like taking advantage, and take photos, without the masses of tourists and city dwellers in my way. 🌙 I get to see the city in a different light. Metaphorically and literally speaking! RED Global has moved to from 2 days to 𝟯 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗵𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 for the foreseeable and this excites me. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? 💡Increases collaboration between and across teams 💡Contributes to creating a strong and welcoming culture 💡Everyone has a clear understanding of what is expected, when, and why 💡We are lucky enough to have a robust infrastructure to support remotely 💡We all have the same end goal, clear expectations, and there is mutual respect and trust between us and our employees Some businesses are still in 5 days per week which is fantastic for some people, they thrive in that environment. As I always say, 𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 and that is okay. If you are wanting a move to get more 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 and 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿, get in touch. 📍 Tower Bridge #hiring #workforred #techrecruitment #getintouch #hybridworking #flexibility

I'm kicking off week 3 of my new role and thought I would share my impressions so far, as many of you had asked about going back to in-person and my experience! Let's start with in-person versus remote. I'm not gonna lie, the first couple weeks were hard. 🤣 Not so much the going into the office part, but the logistics as a working parent with 2 school-age kids in various activities there are a lot of moving parts! I'm thankful to have a spouse who still works from home, so he can still cover pickups in the afternoons since we don't have bus service options at the higher level. We've divided morning drop off duties based on school start times and who needs to be where. Most colleagues I talk to seem to have at least one spouse who works from home too in order to make this work, especially if they have kids who can't drive yet. As far as in office, so far I've loved the interaction with colleagues, the amenities that our campus offers (gym, food, coffee shop, dry cleaning, pharmacy and onsite dr's etc., easy commute for me). I do miss my home office which was huge, but I've been slowly decorating my cubicle and our campus is beautiful! I would say the most painful part of in-office to me is I had gotten used to all my home amenities (my own coffee maker, monitors, music, comfy desk blanket & shoes hehehe). I have brought a lot of these to my new "office" and I'm pretty sure my cubemates think I'm crazy but also I don't care, these are my non-negotiable requirements. 😍 I did notice the first couple weeks people here talk to each other A LOT. I know they say when you are not in-office, you don't get all the water cooler talk and I can see how that is true. There are a lot of intros/random meetups and over-the-wall cube convos that are hard to create remotely even if you are very intentional about it. I still believe that the best of both worlds can exist, so I'm not saying in-office or remote is something you need to pick a side on! Just sharing my observations so far and will continue to do so as my time here continues. #grc #compliance #security

Happy 5th and Friday. How many people have offices open today? How much work is getting done versus clock watching until people can get back to family, friends, and the fun they started yesterday? In my experience the people who are gonna accomplish something on a day like today had likely already planned to work or at least checkup on projects and clients. I’m off, or technically on call, but I’ve already exchanged a little work request and pleasantries with a client who’s on the clock. As owners and leaders it can sometimes be hard to take time off, but I promise you that real, delineated downtown will work wonders for your team. There are likely enough “always connected” in the group to bridge the gaps…even though you should encourage them to break too. Don’t begrudge employees their lives and the biggest bonus you can give them is time to be themselves. Independence isn’t just for the country.

Kudos to this CEO for trying to be innovative. Being innovative got your company free exposure on several feeds. Unfortunately, this talent strategy falls short for several reasons. Here are the main ones: - The chances of finding the best candidates for key positions within a 2-mile radius of your office (or even attracting them to move there) are insanely slim. Even if the commute was within 45 minutes of any company's office, the pickings would be slim. That reality means that you don't have top-tier talent in each position. Imagine trying to build a pro football team, but you can only use athletes who live within a commutable distance of the stadium. Horrible! - How many people would endure the insanely painful process of moving for a 5% bump in pay? You can just switch jobs to another company offering fully remote and likely get more than that. - How many would give up working from home and likely having more disposable income for the hustle and bustle of living in the city and dealing with traffic? Best wishes, but the impact will be minimal at best, and having sub-standard talent in key positions will have a negative long-term effect.

Do you have any traditions at work? Back in 2003 or 2004, this picture of Judy Garland was purchased from a thrift store on Main Street in Cedar Falls. At first, it was kind of a joke that this picture got put on different people's desks. But as time went on and we started to grow, it turned into something else, way better. When a new team member started, this would be put on their desk. It stayed there until the next new team member started and so on. There was a sense of pride in handing it off to the next person. It did become fairly challenging as we grew to three physical locations, but we did manage to get it to each office when needed. What started back in 2004 lasted until March of 2020. That's when we went fully remote due to Covid. While we still have three physical offices we now have team members in 27 states and this tradition has fallen to the way side. Last week when I was in our Des Moines office I saw this picture on a desk and it sparked a lot of memories, feelings, and one important question. What traditions can you have in a more remote team that carry this kind of cultural pride? I don't have a great answer for how to do something similar at the moment, but I think this is something I realized I miss greatly about being in person. I want to push our team to think of more ways to connect on a personal level in this environment. We have made so many amazing changes to adapt to this remote world, but I still believe we all can continue to make it better and better.

This pic is from exactly a year ago today. When we celebrated our first day in the Orlando office. I vividly remember the emotional roller coaster I felt on this day and prior to even making the decision to open the office. You see for me I had worked remotely for over 15 years. Traveling to offices all over the world for work but working from home when in Orlando. I wondered “what was it going to be like to have a office to go to?,” “Would I want to show up?,” “Would I be less productive?” And for our staff that was fully remote at the time, I grappled with thoughts like, “How will we recruit for in house positions?,” “Will anyone get their work done or will it be loud and distracting?,” “Will our existing employees hate the transition?” These questions mixed with the financial burden of opening a brand new space, plagued my mind. But despite all that Thomas Aronica, convinced me that this was the right move. And although I hate to admit it, boy was he right. This move alone catapulted our growth. We were able to train faster and better. Our teams could collaborate to find solutions to issues quicker than having to schedule a call. We built a culture that is based on incredible people doing incredible things. Our values are clear and our entire team wears the “BG way” proudly on their chest like a badge of honor. We have upskilled our entire team, quickly identifying those who don’t fit and building up those who do. It has been one year since this picture, and we have gone from 12 employees in this office to over 30 and growing. We have fully outgrown our space and are actively looking for our next home. In the past year we have surpassed every milestone we set for ourselves and signed the biggest agreements of our lives. I attribute the majority of this success to being together in one place. One team one dream. We will be a unicorn. We will disrupt our entire industry. We will continue building a company full of the best and brightest. For those out there wondering if being in office is the way to go, I can tell you from experience that it was the best decision we ever made. I could not be more proud of our team and where we have come in just twelve months. Onwards and upwards from here. 🚀🚀 #believeinthegenie #billergenie

For years, I’ve dreamed of splitting time between the US and the UK and I’ve made it happen. Here’s how. It’s been nearly 20 years since I came to Arizona to complete my Master’s degree. I’ve built a life that I love here, and at the same time always long for more time with my friends and family in the UK. And as more time passes and I (and my family) get older, this sensation is growing stronger and stronger. It’s from the constant push-and-pull that I feel between these two countries that I love that the big idea was born a few years ago: What if I can split time between the US and the UK? The vision developed of always counting Phoenix as homebase, but spending significantly more time in the UK to be able to have more time with people I love. To do so, I knew I would need: 1. A job that allowed me the flexibility to work remotely and across an 8 hour time difference. 2. A stellar team that could run the business with less involvement from me. 3. Clients that understood that I wouldn’t always be geographically local but was always committed to their projects and success. 4. A life that was flexible to spending prolonged periods of time out of the country. From that starting point, me and my husband embarked upon a multi-year plan to make it happen. I shared this vision with my business partner and team at Javelina so we could build a business that didn’t depend on my physical location. I started a second business that is fully remote and flexible from the start, less dependent on specific time zones to get work done. My husband and I committed to not having pets when our current fluffy-loves passed on - something we’ve stuck to. And this summer, we started the first experiment. 6.5 weeks working fully remotely, including 2 weeks of vacation. This photo is of me and my Mum in the beautiful Peak District. I just got back to Arizona this week, and am adjusting back to my regular routine and reflecting on what I’ve learned. I’ll be sharing my lessons learned in my next post - so come back then to find out! #bigidea #arizona #uk #remotework

Like everyone, I am seeing the tidal wave of posts about returning to work and the unhappiness most people are feeling with it. I’ve had conversations with friends who find themselves travelling long distances to offices only to sit in teams calls with people, also in offices, but different ones! I think a lot of this stems from the fact that we have put just about as much thought into returning to the office as we did with starting working from home! But what would it have looked like if we had put some thought into it? First we need to establish what we are trying to gain/improve with the move back to the office. What is missing from the current situation? Some things I have seen people talk about are: • Grads and new starters not getting the training/onboarding that they need to feel fully included. • Lack of creativity and collaboration when people are working from home. • Team bonding. Now, I don’t actually think this is why organisations are bringing people back into the office, I think it is just the reasons they are giving. But it is a place to start. Does moving back into the office solve these problems for us? And more importantly, is it the best way to solve them. Lets look at the second one, creativity and collaboration. Are our offices set up to support creativity? Are the right people in the office at the right time? Are we all in the office, but stuck on teams meetings. What if we had one day a month in the office together, no meetings allowed unless they are social chats, with a goal of solving a particular problem the team have been having. Would this make people more willing to come in? How would you design your perfect day in the office? #WFH #RemoteWork #Office #BusinessPsychology #OccupationalPsychology #GoodWorkForAll Image description: The image is of an empty office, with 7 desks and chairs.

Last week's trip to New York, where I attended the Airtable Builder Connect in Brooklyn and met clients face-to-face, was a wonderful full circle moment for me. Reflecting on the past 13 years, the evolution from our humble beginnings to our current success is truly remarkable. In 2011, with a newborn in tow, I launched my agency by cold emailing prospects on LinkedIn and visiting real estate offices in California's South Bay. Those early days involved juggling parenthood and pounding the pavement to build a client base—a challenging but rewarding time. By the time my second child was born, the demands of in-person meetings began to wear on me. The logistics of childcare, commuting, and managing time-constrained office visits became overwhelming. Thankfully, the rise of remote work tools like Zoom allowed me to shift nearly 90% of my work online, a change that proved crucial as our family grew and we moved across the country in 2015. This move marked a significant pivot in how we operated, transitioning from in-person client interactions to an entirely online model. This shift not only accommodated my growing family but also expanded our reach as we maintained California clients from our new base in New Jersey. Our full commitment to being location-independent was tested and proved successful during our 2020 move, which coincided with the global shift towards remote work. This transition was seamless, affirming our business model's resilience and the benefits of our online approach. Today, with three children and a business that has thrived through multiple relocations, the chaos of managing work and family life has transformed into a balanced routine. Visiting clients is now a delightful change rather than a necessity, and our distributed team across multiple states is stronger than ever. Looking back, it's astonishing to think that I once walked into offices handing out business cards, compared to how we operate now. Our journey reflects not just changes in my personal life but also the broader evolution of work dynamics over the past decade.

Love seeing how team offsites and team retreats are growing in interest on Google Trends - here's a quick snapshot 👇 Search for these in-person events dropped off dramatically in April 2020 - which makes sense as many digitally-enabled jobs shifted to remote. However, since then, search interest is at or above pre-pandemic levels. The top related queries focus on what happens at the event (team building, ideas, and activities) and show how people are still coming to understand them (meaning and general). Fascinating to see how, in world of work that is more remote, more flexible, and more distanced than prior to the pandemic - team offsites and retreats are growing in interest. When you search for offsite and retreat resources, what are you looking for? #offsites on #google #search