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Harnessing AI for Remote Sales Success: Insights from Zinnia's CEO Lauren Goodell - ep. 086

• LAUREN GOODELL, RICK HANEY, KALEEM CLARKSON • Season 1 • Episode 86

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In the latest episode of the Remotely One podcast, co-hosts Rick Haney and Kaleem Clarkson welcome the incredible Lauren Goodell, founder and CEO of Zinnia, an AI-powered sales preparation tool. Lauren's journey is fascinating, from her Nebraska roots, with a marketing degree from the University of Nebraska, to her current residence in Charlotte, and all the achievements in between.

Lauren has had an ever-changing professional journey with significant roles in major tech companies: After over five years as a Strategic Engagement Manager at Microsoft, she transitioned to Salesforce, where she developed a deep understanding of remote work and sales, recognizing the importance of human connections in sales processes. While Microsoft is a stable environment where employees often stay for many years, focusing on long-term growth, Salesforce, in contrast, has a younger, more dynamic culture where innovation and rapid changes are the norm.

Since her early days at both Microsoft and Salesforce, she has appreciated the flexibility and the opportunity to work with talented people from across the country. This prepared her well for the shift to remote work during the pandemic! Now, her new venture, Zinnia, leverages AI to synthesize vast amounts of personal and professional data, creating holistic profiles to help salespeople connect with clients on a personal level.

So, how does Zinnia work? The tool gathers and summarizes information from various online sources, such as LinkedIn, company websites, and social media. This provides sales professionals with conversation starters and relevant insights, facilitating quick rapport building, which is crucial in sales where personal connections can significantly influence buying decisions. Zinnia aims to make these connections more seamless and efficient, saving time for salespeople by automating the information-gathering process.

Yet, the elephant in the room is still there: the common fears surrounding AI, particularly the concern that it might replace human jobs, remain strong! The role of education in alleviating these fears cannot be underestimated. Drawing a parallel to the early skepticism her parents had about online shopping, Lauren argues that AI, when used correctly, can enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. 

Diving into our classic question: Where is remote work going? It’s clear that Lauren's experience at Microsoft, where impromptu social gatherings were the norm, reinforced her belief in the importance of human connection for workplace satisfaction. Many companies now invest in in-person gatherings instead of corporate real estate, providing training and strengthening team bonds. This shift supports Lauren's view that remote and hybrid work is here to stay, but maintaining connections in a remote environment is essential!

You can find Lauren and her amazing Zinnia online; connect through the links below! Treat yourself to a wonderful episode and gain her valuable perspectives on the evolution of remote work, the importance of social connections in the workplace, and the role of co-working spaces in urban revitalization. Thank you, Lauren, you are a great guide for companies navigating the challenges and opportunities of a remote-first world!

Learn more about Lauren:

Rick:

Did I see that you're a, you're a stand up comic? Is that true?

Lauren:

Um, I did my first stand up routine a couple weeks ago, but

Rick:

Congratulations. How are those nerves now?

Lauren:

Listen, so the whole thing was I've always wanted to do it just like for fun. I was like, my friend and I decided we're going to do this at like an open mic night at a brewery where there's like six people and no one actually cares. And ended up doing it in front of 250 people at Comedy Zone instead, which was not my plan, but it was, a lot of fun, so.

Kaleem:

Wow. What was your opening? Uh, what was your opening joke? I mean, like, let's hear it. Let's hear it.

Lauren:

You guys want to get real personal real quick?

Kaleem:

Yeah, why not? I mean what the hell what the hell I mean

Lauren:

Well, I mean, I made a lot of jokes about like family stuff coming off of the holidays, how, you know, families are crazy, but I recently changed my name back to my maiden name and they introduced me as my you know, old name. And I said, no, you know, and he was like, Oh shoot I forgot the MC. And I said, it's okay my ex used to forget we were married too so, um, it was

Rick:

improv too, that was not scripted, am I right? Oh, you're a natural, you're a

Lauren:

It was nice, but

Rick:

Welcome back, everyone, to Remotely One. I am your co host, Rick Haney, joined by my esteemed colleague, Kaleem Clarkson. Hey, buddy.

Kaleem:

fly

Rick:

Oh, are we doing the Happy Hands Club?

Kaleem:

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Rick:

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Since you know how to find us now, do us a huge favor. Go to RateThisPodcast. com forward slash RemotelyOne and just leave us a review. That's all we ask. Again, RateThisPodcast. com forward slash RemotelyOne. If you could do that, we would be ever so grateful. Since 2015, RemotelyOne is and continues to be one of the largest communities of remote work professionals with over 3, 000 Slack members. And 5, 000 email subscribers. And if I'm not mistaken, that, that number is growing by the Fifth. fifth, We're having fun already, folks. It's free to join. So go and check it out at remotely one. com. And with that out of the way, Colleen, please do us all a favor and give us a teaser to about today's esteemed guest.

Kaleem:

Today, I had to change them out before I got on because I was nervous. Yes. Yes. Nervous about today's guests. Got a fresh, fresh shirt on to be all smooth. You know what I

Rick:

Put on the extra antiperspirant.

Kaleem:

Mmm, I feel great. I smell great.

Rick:

Oh, you smell fantastic.

Kaleem:

Yes. Yes. I, you know, you know what Rick? Thank you, man. I've been really trying to work on my fragrances,

Rick:

And you are properly moisturized. You're good and shiny. That's

Kaleem:

yeah, yeah, feel good. But I, I took the sheen down a little bit. I didn't want to be too shiny. I didn't want to be too shiny. But today's guest Rick. They grew up in Nebraska. Okay. Currently reside in Charlotte. Why Rick in the queen city, kid, come on in the queen city. We're definitely bringing this guest back so that we can do an onsite episode. Uh, Rick, they're corn Husker. They went to the university of Nebraska and they got their degree in marketing. Is it really that much corn out there though? Guest.

Lauren:

Um, yeah, pretty much more corn than people.

Rick:

There it is.

Kaleem:

many corn parties? Did you have growing up in high school?

Lauren:

To find corn party here, Kaleem,

Kaleem:

Okay. Okay is corn party a term?

Lauren:

I would say probably not, but we could make it one.

Kaleem:

Okay. Okay. So I just figured you know, you're in the middle of a cornfield keg. And you know, fires that space

Lauren:

Definitely bonfires, maybe some barn parties, for sure, yeah.

Rick:

Oh, I love a good barn

Kaleem:

parties.

Lauren:

Uh huh, oh yeah.

Kaleem:

makes sense. Wow. Okay. Well, Rick, our guests, they worked at a little company for well, over five years as a strategic engagement manager. And that company is Microsoft Rick. No big deal.

Rick:

Ah, well, I've heard of them.

Kaleem:

Yes. I love our guests. They come on this show and just make us feel so confident in our abilities.

Rick:

Mm.

Kaleem:

after that, Rick, our guests went on to work at Salesforce another small company. You might have heard of I mean, you know,

Rick:

heard. Yes. Good

Kaleem:

and um, you know what? Something most people don't know about a guest. Rick.

Rick:

Lay it on me.

Kaleem:

They did their first standup recently. They are standup comedian. They did their first comedy show. So the pressure, sir, the pressure

Rick:

find out.

Kaleem:

Yeah. Yeah. Our guests. Is the founder and CEO of Zinnia, which is an AI powered sales preparation tool, listeners and viewers, please give a warm welcome to Lauren. Oh, let's go. Let's go. Take that Roger. Take that. You

Rick:

Settle down, folks. Hey, down in front. Settle down Thank you. We're supposed to be professionals here. Welcome, Lauren.

Lauren:

Listen, I want you guys to walk into every room before me and introduce me that way, that's great.

Rick:

it done.

Kaleem:

Lauren, we will hold you to this. When you do your next Ted talk,

Rick:

Yep. When you come

Lauren:

Yeah, let's go

Rick:

gonna come up here and we're gonna have, like, confetti falling from the windows and uptown and it's gonna be like a parade. It's gonna be amazing. I

Kaleem:

Yeah.

Rick:

Alright.

Lauren:

and wait. Let's do it.

Rick:

Welcome to the show, Lauren. It's so great to have you here. I'm happy to connect. I'm happy to connect with somebody new in Charlotte. This is great.

Lauren:

I know. Thanks so much for having me.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got a lot of questions and I'm excited to learn a lot from you but the one, one thing that really caught my attention from your profile is that Xenia is heavily focused on human connection, right? But it utilizes artificial intelligence technology, which I find to be a very interesting contrast. Can you talk to us a little bit about the importance of connecting with one another, especially, you know, while working remotely and how does Zinnia embrace it all using AI?

Lauren:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually I was so excited to chat through this because obviously your mission is when we're all remote, wanting to bring people together and connect. Well, we're remote first and Zinnia's whole mission is to keep human connection at the center of every organization. And so as a recovering sales executive, you know, we know that people buy from people they like. And people like people who are similar to them. And so I always call it like for serendipity, you know, when you're sitting at like a dinner party and the person next to you, you're like, I click pulling teeth, having this conversation and like an hour and a half into it, you realize you both hiked to Machu Picchu and all of a sudden you have like an easy conversation and you're so excited to be chatting with them, but it takes a while to find out where your commonalities lie or where you both are excited about something. What Zinnia really does is uses AI to create the holistic view of. and Rick and Lauren and layers all those things kind of on top of each other and says, Hey, here's things you guys are all passionate about. Easy to talk through, and areas for you to connect. And, you know, it helps everybody have that kind of aha moment without having to wait an hour and a half into a conversation to find that connection point.

Kaleem:

Interesting. Interesting. So how does that help you in sales preparation? Cause that's kind of one of your taglines. How does this help salespeople be better salespeople?

Lauren:

Yeah, I mean, like I said, people buy from people they like and people like people who are similar to them. There's tons of research about that, but we help from every single step of the sales journey. So from a very first call with somebody being able to say like, Oh, hey, Lauren. Here's a conversation starter. You and Rick both live in Charlotte. You have both done stand up comedy, right? So we can automatically right after that, maybe have a warmer introduction. But then later on in the sales cycle, we have much more in depth things besides just connection points like Hey, instead of reading that 180 page 10 K or annual report that that company has, it will transcribe all of that and say, here's some specific things out of the annual report out of the 10 K that are similar to the product that you're selling. So here's how you can actually start entering into these conversations and how it affects the bottom line or the company's overall strategy as a salesperson.

Kaleem:

So where does it actually pull kind of information, um,

Rick:

Does it like scour profiles and,

Lauren:

Listen, anything that ever goes online, it stays there. You know, one of the things that I would do when I was in sales at Microsoft was I would say, Okay, well, I'm meeting with Rick today. I'm trying to sell something to him. So, of course, I'm going to go to his LinkedIn profile, see where he's worked, what's important to him. I'll look on his company website, see where they're hiring. Oh, they're hiring people in sales, so they must be investing in that area. But then I take it even further and say, okay, you know, where is Rick on Facebook? Where is Rick on Twitter, on Instagram? Oh, it looks like he just traveled to the Bahamas with his family. Well, I love the Bahamas. We can talk about that. But then I would go and listen to every podcast that Rick has been on, which apparently there's a lot of those. So, uh, you know, that's a lot of time, um, pulling all of these different data sources and pulling it together into a single place, but also summarizing it And not just giving you the data, but also how to use that data. So for example, Oh, you know, instead of listening to all of Rick's podcasts, we actually transcribe them and pull out talking points from them. So, Hey, on that one podcast that you were on, you know, on the seventh podcast you were on, I listened to all seven hours. I actually would be able to just give you quick talking points of things that may be relevant to us or the conversation

Rick:

Unbelievable. You know, since we're talking about AI, I think. And this is where I'm interested to hear your thoughts. So many people are terrified of AI. Oh, AI is coming for our jobs. You know, the robots are going to be doing the things that we're paid to do. We're going to get rid of us. You know, how can we shift that perspective and focus on things like what Zinnia is doing. How do we kind of change that narrative so that people are becoming more faithful in AI and not so scared of it.

Lauren:

You know, I think there's just a big gap in education. I always laugh because you know, I share with my parents about, you know, what we're building here at Zinnia, what we're doing. And my mom called me one day and was like, Lauren, everyone is doing AI. You need to be really careful. I'm like, what do you mean doing AI? She's like, yeah, everyone's doing AI. Like you need to do this really quickly or somebody else is going to do AI before you. mom, it's so comical.

Rick:

It's the phrasing of it all like, you know, they warned us about those kids who smoked drugs When we

Kaleem:

Yep. Mother, they're no longer on the Facebook.

Lauren:

I know. But I say the same thing to with that of like, you know, back in the day, my parents refused to buy anything online because I didn't trust it. Oh yeah, like, Oh, somebody is going to steal my credit card information. I'm not going to do this. But of course now my parents are probably like the top user of Amazon Prime. And so I think it truly is just like an education piece of, you know, AI is not going to take over the world. It's not going to turn around and turn into, you know, Terminator and kill us all. But it is an opportu Kaleem is like, I don't know, man. Like, you gotta be careful.

Rick:

He's on the fence

Kaleem:

mean, y'all are some curious people historically. So I'm pretty sure somebody's gonna do something ridiculous because

Rick:

Oh,

Kaleem:

help it.

Lauren:

I know, but there's ways to utilize it for good, right? So at the end of the day, it's just an education as to, okay, what is AI actually? And how can we actually harness it for good?

Rick:

Yeah. Wow. That's an excellent viewpoint. You know, AI is nothing new, but neither is remote work. So talk to us a little bit about how you discovered remote work. And was there a moment where you were like, Oh, wow, I'm never going back to an office. This is what I want to focus on now. Was there a moment like that?

Lauren:

You know, what's kind of wild for me, I have a little bit of a different journey with remote work because I started at Microsoft right out of undergrad. And I moved to Dallas where the Dallas campus was. And I had an office on campus. What I realized was that nobody ever went to the office and everybody worked from home, traffic there is awful. So, you know, that's one thing. But right out of the gate, my first, you know, professional career job at Microsoft was remote. And that was way before the times of being remote first.

Rick:

Wow. So you were well prepared when the pandemic hit.

Lauren:

Yeah, that was 2013, so I've actually never had a job in my entire career path that I've had to go into an office every day. Yeah.

Kaleem:

you graduate, you're all excited. You move your life. You're like, I'm working for Microsoft. I mean, people throwing quorum parties, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, I mean, you're getting down at barn parties and corn parties, and then you show up and you go to your office and you notice that people aren't there. Was that articulated to you by your supervisors that, hey, you can come into the office whenever you want, or was it more of a situation of, it was just a culture that naturally kind of grew organically. And it was one of those unwritten rules type of thing.

Lauren:

You know, it was interesting because I knew that my hiring manager that I was working for, it's still one of my favorite bosses I've ever had sat in Chicago and, you know, my role was to cover a certain territory. It was, I moved into sales immediately. And it was a field sales role. And so he sat in Chicago, but all of my other team members were all over the country. And so there was nobody on my direct team or in the, in my direct leadership chain that sat in Dallas at all. And so for me, it was like, okay, well, I'm moving from Nebraska out of the state for the very first time to Dallas and moving to a city where I literally don't know a single person. And all of a sudden, I'm like, well, I can't even really meet people through work, but Microsoft did have a really awesome college hire program. So people that weren't in my direct org or even anybody that I would ever overlap with, there was a handful of us that luckily we got to kind of navigate, you know, early twenties life together in Dallas.

Kaleem:

that's pretty cool. Yeah. Kind of like a new hire cohort type of thing where you're able To reach out to people. That's really neat. That's really neat. So You know you work for microsoft You stick there for a little while and then You head to another a more sales specific organization salesforce. you talk about what the difference in the dynamics were like? I'm very curious of like, what was it like at Microsoft? And then what was different when you went to Salesforce?

Lauren:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would say I absolutely loved my experience at both companies. I truly thought that I was going to stay at Microsoft forever. Like I loved working there. I loved my teams. I learned so much. The caliber of people that I worked with, I was constantly learning from the people around me. It was just an incredible organization. I had a mentor of mine that went over to Salesforce and brought me with. So that was why I ended up going and it was completely culture wise, completely wildly different. Microsoft is like the old reliable, right? Like people are there and they stay there forever. And Salesforce is a very young culture. Everyone there is like age wise, much younger. But it's also not a lot more kind of like lively, like throw things at the wall and see what sticks, not like. Hey, this is how we've been doing it forever. But my team at Salesforce was also fully remote. I didn't have anybody in Charlotte either when I moved over there. But, Salesforce also travels a lot. We had so many different conferences where I got to get together with my team. And the beauty of remote work is my direct team, like, I have friends in every state, I feel like, with Salesforce and Microsoft because of that. And so anytime I travel, I'm like, hey, I'm in Washington, and I get to catch up with an old friend, which just doesn't happen with the same, you know, going into the office everyday culture.

Kaleem:

Talk about connection,

Lauren:

Mm

Rick:

Yeah.

Kaleem:

Yeah. You know, you can build connection first virtually and then person. That's amazing.

Rick:

Where do you see remote or even hybrid work uh, are they here to stay? You know, do you see that, the future of that realm?

Lauren:

Yeah, you know, now, moving out of corporate into the startup world, What we care about most is I always say like the number one skill that I look for and other people that we're hiring is do I want to work with them every day? Do they have the skill of being enjoyable to be around? And being around means maybe being on a call like this, right? And remote work I think allows us to bring the best possible person for the job on and not care about where they are. allows them a lot more flexibility. I also am very passionate about women in the workforce and I think remote or hybrid work allows women a lot more possibilities to continue their career with childcare and things like that. So I do think remote remote and hybrid work is here to stay, but I think it's super vital to make sure that you're empowering those connections and not just kind of like throwing people out there. So love what you guys are doing to continue to bridge that gap for sure. Yep.

Kaleem:

Appreciate that. Yeah. So looking at your career. There's definitely kind of a point where you made a decision of, you know what, I'm done with corporate. Then you move into startup. You become a CEO at a company. Is it, is it tyranny, tyranny, ternary? Um, you actually were in atlanta where i'm at for a little bit well Part of the entrepreneur and resident program from atlanta ventures is great program. Can you talk about what your experience was like in the atlanta ventures like startup program? Like what made you make that change too? Like what was the exciting thing that said, you know I'm gonna try this other completely different space

Speaker:

We'll be right back after these words. 2020 was no joke. It changed the game for everyone. Workplace flexibility is no longer a perk, but an expectation. In fact, a recent study showed that a flexible schedule is more important than salary. Yeah, you heard that right? Employees want choices over cash. If you're a startup or a small business that doesn't have a remote work strategy, stop what you're doing right now and complete our free tree assessment at blendmeinc. com. Since 2013, BlendMe Inc. Has been helping small businesses improve the remote employee experience. Let's stay local, but compete global. Visit us at blendmeinc. com. That's blendmeinc. com. Ever wonder how certain ads catch your attention or get stuck in your head? It's because the person voicing it knows how to tell the story. Maybe they're telling you to stumble over to Sullivan St. Patrick's day for green beers, Irish car bombs, and con beef all freaking day. Don't miss the deal of a lifetime this President's Day at Callahan Ford. Savings like these should be unconstitutional. Or maybe Come wash away your troubles here at Cooters Car Wash. We ain't no soap opry, but you'll be singing high praises. Hoo wee, Cooters! Or, here at Brooks Brothers Mortuary, we put the fun in funeral. Everyone is just dying to join us. Alright, well that's a bit much, but for you, I'll do it. I'm Rick Haney, and if you're a business owner looking for a creative voice in your marketing, look no further. I'll tell your story the way you want it told. Follow along at Remotely We Are One, or visit my website at rickhaney. me for more information. And now, back to the show.

Lauren:

Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, love Salesforce and Microsoft, but my last year at Salesforce, I created some goals for myself. I was like, I want to close the biggest deal this year. I want to make seven figures and you know, I. Want to be the top rep and I realized I closed the biggest deal of my career. I hit all of my goals and I was like, I'm no more fulfilled or satisfied and I'm completely burned out. And I'm not, you know, I don't feel challenged. Like I remember closing one of the biggest deals remotely. Playing candy crush on my phone. Cause I'm like, I can do this in my sleep. And I was like, this is a problem. Like, this is a problem. I don't want to be in a role where I'm no longer growing and learning. And so, at the time I started working on kind of a side project with one of my engineers from Salesforce and that was Ternary, and it was kind of in the web three space, so Dow governance, NFT whitelisting, and, and, and, and, You know, discord monetization. we just kind of started doing it for fun nights and weekends and it grew exponentially fast. And so I quit Salesforce to do that full time. We learned a ton and through that is actually where I'm at Atlanta ventures. And they were like, we don't invest in web three, but you know, we want to support you. So I started kind of getting to know them, having mentorship with Atlanta ventures in general. And then we decided to exit that last company. And Atlanta Ventures, I called him up and was like, do I go back to corporate? Do I start another company? Like, what do I do? I'm just trying to figure out, you know, my next step. And they said, Hey, we have this entrepreneur in residence programs, the Atlanta Ventures studio, where we just pick entrepreneurs we like working with, and then we build companies alongside them. Do you want to do it? So if you're familiar with sales loft or terminus, you know, Greensy, in town golf clubs and the other ones that have come out of the Atlanta Ventures studio. So I said, heck, let's do it. But they're incredible.

Kaleem:

That's pretty cool Hmm.

Rick:

and then you start to team up with Ventures, and you're working or you're collaborating with other idea people, and was there a moment where you had this spark, or like this light bulb over your head that kind of led you toward creating Zinnia? And When you got to that point, what was the problem you were going to set out to solve?

Lauren:

Yeah. So, you know, what's so funny is I came in and really wanted to stick in the web three space and thank God I didn't, right? Like we got out of crypto right before the crash. Um,

Kaleem:

Crypto. I mean, it was crypto everywhere. People doing SeaWalks, you know, and videos just,

Rick:

yeah,

Kaleem:

yeah, broke people,

Lauren:

Oh my gosh. I was like all in NFT world, like let's go and thank you.

Rick:

my Dogecoin!

Kaleem:

What NFTs did you have?

Lauren:

So I, um, I was crypto coping was really my favorite. Um, but it's fine. It's fine. We're not talking about that. It's embarrassing. Um,

Kaleem:

fine.

Rick:

No, I was, I was within seconds of purchasing Dogecoin because one of my best friends was like all about Elon Musk. And every time Elon posted something, the stock went up and he's like, this is it. You got to do it now. And I'm like, I can't do it, dude. Sorry.

Lauren:

that funny? No, I mean, I definitely think that there's a future in web three, but I think it's gonna, you know, it's going to right size over time. So, I am very formulaic. I took a couple of different ideas that I had and really tested them. Did a lot of market research, discovery and really landed on this future of workspace. And, with that, I called up couple hundred of my old colleagues at Microsoft sales force and was like Specifically managers like what is keeping you up at night? Like what is hard for you? What stresses you out? and the biggest thing was how do we retain our good employees and The biggest issue they kept coming back to is now that people are remote first We're having this great resignation people are going off and starting their own companies. We just don't have the same You know, connection and people don't have the same loyalty as they used to.

Rick:

Hmm.

Lauren:

went down this, you have a whole of research of like, okay, so what can retain people and these in person moments of human connection, like off sites, retreats, QBRs, sales, kickoffs, all of those things, kept coming up in these conversations and I was the token female and many of my teams where I got stuck planning those sales kickoffs and I'm like, I'm trying to deliver on a hundred million dollar quota. Yeah. Why am I the one planning this 200 person sales

Kaleem:

Because you plan weddings, obviously. Because you're a wedding planner, you plan your weddings. So you must be able to plan events. Come on, people. It's ridiculous.

Lauren:

Yes. And so, I mean, it was one of those things where it's like, nobody likes doing it. I can promise you, nobody enjoys it. Nobody has time. And so we launched Zinnia under the premise of how can we bring remote teams together in person? For these sales, QPRs, things like that, and automate it using technology.

Kaleem:

Okay.

Lauren:

what we learned, so we launched that and basically I'm manually planned off sites for companies and they paid me to do it and I hated it. It was horrible,

Kaleem:

So then you became a wedding planner.

Lauren:

basically, yeah, I was like, this isn't the worst. This is,

Rick:

Wow.

Lauren:

making good money and people were like coming back. Hey, we want to do this again. So we built our first version, an MVP around, okay, automating this process. And what we quickly learned is while people are willing to pay for it and they need help, there is no automation of events ever because so much nuance. And so we switched to doing customer facing events, more like RBEs or relationship building events. Hey, a one off happy hour is very different than a five day offsite with 200 people. Right. We started planning them around the affinity profiles or demographics. So, hey, if we're going to try to get CMOs together in a room, do I really want to bring CMOs to a football box or a basketball box? Because 70 percent of them are female. Maybe we should rent out a dry bar salon and get them all there instead. And we're going to have a higher attendance rate. We're, you know, playing to their affinities. And our clients loved it, but what they cared about was like, Hey, we don't actually want the events. We just want the data on the people and how to better relate with them. And that's why we made this major pivot into where we are today.

Rick:

They didn't want the events.

Kaleem:

Crazy. You started as an event company, and people were like, this is cool. We want you to plan events. And then they saw that you, you were running profiles to figure out what would be the best type of events for them. Well, was it for their employees or no, just for any type of event?

Lauren:

Most of them were for prospects. So, yeah, just trying to get, you know, potential prospects leads into a room.

Kaleem:

Yeah. Wow.

Rick:

is insane.

Kaleem:

That is insane. See people, you have to put your product out there as an MVP and then see what happens.

Lauren:

yeah.

Kaleem:

to do. That is unbelievable.

Rick:

in terms of remote first companies having events and getting together, in your experience, and you could talk a little bit about, you know, public speaking and even stand up comedy if you like, but what is it that people are looking for both on the employee side, but, on the employer side, where can they meet in the middle to have really effective in person events?

Kaleem:

Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren:

Yeah. So a lot of the companies that we were working with actually got rid of their corporate office space. So any corporate real estate people listening? I'm really sorry, but that's just the reality is a lot of companies started using what they were spending on office space on these in person gatherings. And actually, Andrews podcast about specifically off sites and remote work, and they said that they recommend doing it every three months for remote teams.

Kaleem:

basically.

Lauren:

Yes. The things that we really learned through the process is yes, sales kickoffs. It's important to be able to train your people in person on the new products on how to sell on value proposition, but the most value came from the hotel bar. Right. So after the end of the conference where all these people are here, the most value that people said is I got to connect with my colleagues over a drink or dinner or whatever, because at the end of the day, everyone's tired and they're like, I don't want to go anywhere. Let's just go hang out in the hotel bar. And it becomes the moment of human connection

Rick:

That's it.

Kaleem:

Damn.

Lauren:

that's it.

Rick:

That's the word. Yeah.

Lauren:

yeah. And we didn't have, you know, we would always plan little outings and events, you know, ropes, courses, things like that. But everyone said the serendipity of just meeting there and the casualness was exactly what they were looking for. Yeah,

Kaleem:

Yeah.

Rick:

I feel like we're living in a time where more people are starting to connect the dots. It's becoming more and more important because people are moving away from one another.

Kaleem:

Yeah. And not only that, you know, back to your whole point of, even when you started at Microsoft. And you went there and none of your team was there, but you were able to connect with other humans that weren't even part of your team. So I imagine once you started making those connections, you probably went in a little, a few more times here and there just to like, not even go in maybe you just went into town around four o'clock just to go to the bar to hang out, right? It's just really interesting that you got into this space through kind of events Seeing the human connection, but then the company's like, nah, I don't even want it. But then now I'm assuming we're probably seeing some of those companies saying, yeah, we probably do need to connect. So what do you think about the concept of employers having some sort of social connection strategy, like, is, should that be, especially if you're a remote first company, should that be top of mind? Because it feels like a lot of leaders are trying to force people back to the office, and force this type of connection when it sounds like to me from what you're saying, even at those outings and all these cool events, rope climbing, you know, rope courses, cared more about just hanging out at the bar and just talking. I

Lauren:

I mean, I think the number one thing for employer retention is truly loyalty to a company and it's never to the company. It's to the people, right? And, I left Salesforce, my boss that I had, my last boss at Salesforce loved him dearly. I consider him a friend. He's incredible. But I remember when I called him to let him know I was quitting so I can, you know, go all in on my company that we had started on the side. I literally cried on the phone with him because like, I loved him so dearly. And I literally scheduled a zoom call with my team that I was super close with. We still have a group text two years later and we're all at different companies now. But I called them and was like, guys, I'm leaving. And everyone, you know, it was like, we're like a little family. So the thing is, is that the moments that we had were, we were, that was 2020 and so my team, we would have happy hours where we would drink too much champagne on Zoom calls sitting alone in our home offices, right? Like those like social moments were what made me want to stay. So I think that has to be part of every company's culture.

Rick:

Well yeah, and I think it's really important too that it's widely said and believed that rarely leave a job because of the job. It's, there's no connection either with their co workers or with the management.

Lauren:

Absolutely.

Rick:

the job, they, they leave the people.

Lauren:

Mm hmm.

Rick:

So you were very fortunate to have the opposite experience.

Lauren:

Yes. I was very lucky. Good people for sure.

Kaleem:

So you're in a kind of happening city. Charlotte's Charlotte's pretty dope. It's new. It's fresh. You know, lots of great restaurants, a lot of cool spots. Um,

Rick:

breweries.

Kaleem:

never enough breweries, right? You can never have too many kind of looking at some of the flip side of remote work. Obviously your company is remote, but you know, you like to go into spaces. Where do you see the impact of remote work having on downtowns and cities in that vibrant space. And you were talking about commercial real estate, sorry, out there. Where do you kind of see the transformation of the city happening? Like what, what's next for cities, you know?

Lauren:

Yeah, you know, I think a lot of these co working spaces are becoming people's true home. A lot of us saw the documentaries about we work spaces and, um, you know, the cult like aspects of that. But I do think that there's a lot of other ones that are popping up that are truly creating this new culture. I have a home office, but I am a co working space today and I love bouncing around and getting together. To connect with other people when I want to. So like industrious, or if you're familiar with switch yards, we're super excited for switch yards to come to Charlotte, but some of these that are really community based co working centers, I think, is really going to revitalize the community building, the human connection between companies or between remote workers across company lines.

Kaleem:

Yeah, I agree. And a lot more local. Um, you know, those that you mentioned were pretty, pretty big coworking companies, not as big as we work or whatever, but it seems like to me, when you go into each town, like you go to Austin or you go to East city, it seems like there's a lot more local coworking spots. That were that, popping up. So I agree with you. I think we are going to see a shift. I think downtowns will become revitalized at some point. Hopefully I, I hope that, Government leaders help people, you know, revitalize those buildings and people can maybe move into some of these high rises But I agree. I think co working spots are a big big part of community and what could happen next

Lauren:

Yeah, right there in Atlanta too, you know, Atlanta Ventures, David Cummings, one of my investors, and John Birdsong, another partner on Atlanta Ventures is revitalizing South downtown Atlanta right now, bringing in coworking spaces with Atlanta tech village and making kind of almost like mini cohorts for different types of business focuses and trying to revitalize that in itself. So lots of that happening across the U S and I love seeing Atlanta. Mhm.

Rick:

The term downtown is actually going away. A lot of these big cities are using psychology and changing the narrative from downtown to uptown. Meaning we need to put a positive spin on this particular area by calling it uptown. It's like more of a positive note. Like we're moving up, we're going places, you know, we're revitalizing and it's worked very well for Charlotte.

Kaleem:

Yeah. Yeah. I like all the cool

Rick:

Yeah.

Kaleem:

neighborhoods.

Rick:

Yeah, it's a lot of fun here. So we got just a few minutes left, Lauren, and I've got to ask the one question that I know the audience is waiting for. I know Colleen is. Can you share with us a comical or inspiring moment that you've had while working remotely?

Lauren:

Yes. Okay. So I have a really embarrassing story from right when 2020, you know, everything shut down. Salesforce was like, listen, we're not traveling for customer meetings. I canceled all of my in person customer meetings and, the world kind of shut down for a little bit. And so I was one of the people that, adopted a COVID puppy. So I have two dogs. I love them dearly. But it was a little rescue pop up at a grocer. It was like, Hey, we're running out of space. And I was like, yes, please give me that adorable puppy.

Kaleem:

Cuteness now.

Lauren:

so cute. And now he's 120 pounds and he's amazing. But yes, big, big great Pyrenees. Um, he's a he's a small horse.

Rick:

a

Lauren:

I, you know, I was like, Oh, I'm working from home. It's fine. And I had a customer call and he was sleeping underneath my feet and I was obviously very distracted. And sweet baby puppy, without me knowing, walked behind me and just squatted and peed on the floor on the customer call. And she was like are you, uh, and I was like, what? Like your, your dog. And I turned around and I was like, I am, I just need a minute. I am so sorry. I was so embarrassed, but at the end of the day, she was laughing. I was laughing. It was like this true vulnerability, human connection,

Kaleem:

Human connection,

Lauren:

is but

Kaleem:

right? Right. Was it the whole like one leg up type thing to like really really getting it?

Lauren:

Yeah, he was, it was very obvious. Yeah. It was like, okay, well, I'm, I'm going to need a pause for a moment. Can you just give me a bit? But

Kaleem:

Oh man.

Rick:

The whole time he's giving you the side eye, like, what are you going to do about it? You're on camera right now.

Kaleem:

They always look to what was he looking like? Really looking back at the camera like yeah, I got this

Lauren:

staring straight. It was like, mom's not giving me attention right now. So I'm going to show her what's up. Yeah.

Kaleem:

Oh my gosh, that is so good

Rick:

That is amazing.

Kaleem:

is so good. Yeah, we don't I don't think we had the dog I don't think we've had the dog pee in the background story yet. That's the first

Rick:

That's a new one. That's a new one for sure.

Kaleem:

Oh, thank

Lauren:

First time for everything, guys.

Rick:

That's for sure. For sure. Well, listen thank you so much for joining us today, Lauren. It's been an absolute pleasure. It's been a great conversation and hopefully our pass will cross here in town. I'm so excited to meet someone from Charlotte.

Lauren:

Heck yeah, we gotta

Rick:

Yeah.

Lauren:

in town and we

Rick:

Oh yeah.

Lauren:

get together in person.

Rick:

Yeah. As soon as that weather starts to get warmer, we'll all get together.

Kaleem:

Definitely, definitely.

Rick:

can our viewers and listeners find you, Lauren?

Lauren:

Yes, you can check me out on LinkedIn, under Lauren Goodell, or my company website is getzinnia. com. G E T Z I N N I A dot com.

Rick:

Awesome. Lauren Goodell, thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on today. This is great.

Kaleem:

Thank you.

Lauren:

Thank you guys so much for having me.

Kaleem:

All right. Peace.

People on this episode

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Kaleem Clarkson

Co-host
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Rick Haney

Co-host