Remotely One - A remote work podcast

Kendall Wallace’s Guide to Strengthening Distributed Teams with Remote Offsites - ep. 097

• KENDALL WALLACE, RICK HANEY, KALEEM CLARKSON • Season 1 • Episode 97

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In this engaging episode of Remotely One, co-hosts Rick Haney and Kaleem Clarkson sit down with the multi-talented Kendall Wallace, Founder and Lead Facilitator at Executive Offsites, to discuss her transformative career, her approach to building strong team connections, and her insights into customer and user experience. With a career spanning leadership roles in customer experience, user experience (UX), and remote team facilitation, Kendall brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation.

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, and a proud University of Virginia graduate, Kendall began her professional journey in sales before transitioning into the tech world. Her first significant role came at Park Jockey, a startup where she eventually rose to become the Global Head of Customer Experience. It was in this role that she realized the power of user experience in creating more intuitive and efficient digital platforms. One of the key takeaways from Kendall's journey is her passion for building meaningful team connections, especially in the context of remote work. As the founder of Executive Offsites, Kendall designs and leads in-person retreats aimed at fostering communication, trust, and collaboration among distributed teams.

Her retreats emphasize the importance of blending work-related goals with opportunities for personal connection, helping remote teams build stronger relationships and tackle the challenges of maintaining trust and communication.

A highlight of this conversation is the in-depth look into Kendall’s transition from customer experience to UX, a move driven by her role at Park Jockey. As the head of customer support, she noticed recurring issues that could be solved through better UX design. By identifying patterns in customer inquiries, she saw how user-friendly digital experiences could prevent problems from arising in the first place.

Kendall shares her confidence that remote work is here to stay and reveals why in-person retreats are set to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of distributed teams. She dives into how these offsites can build trust and connection, emphasizing the need for personalized approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. Expect valuable insights on designing meaningful team experiences that truly impact dynamics!

Her passion for fostering meaningful relationships in both personal and professional spaces shines throughout the episode. Kendall’s mix of vulnerability, leadership wisdom, and enthusiasm makes this a must-listen for anyone navigating remote work or looking to strengthen team dynamics. Whether you’re leading a remote team or simply navigating workplace challenges, Kendall’s story offers valuable lessons on growth, self-awareness, and the power of human connection. With her holistic approach to team-building, Kendall provides a roadmap for creating stronger, more resilient teams in an increasingly remote world.

Learn more about Kendall:

Rick:

We're not cutting back to Katie Couric or anything.

Kaleem:

Can you say Katie Couric's name? Does she do something weird? I don't know who you can say anymore.

Rick:

He's so afraid. That's what makes the show fun.

Kendal:

Katie Couric is a legend, okay?

Rick:

She is a

Kaleem:

a legend. I, you know, I, I've always liked Katie. You know,

Kendal:

Funny thing, uh, my mom and her went to the same high school.

Rick:

Oh, cool.

Kaleem:

Was Katie a nerd or was she cool or did she do anything weird?

Kendal:

Did

Rick:

He does, she doesn't

Kendal:

weird? Dude, I don't know. All I know is she would, she did also go to my alma mater, and uh, she's super cool. Like, I saw her at reunions once, and I was like, so stoked.

Rick:

I'll tell you how cool she is, all right? And tell all your friends, because this is like a major story. A guy I know in our hometown has a cat named Kitty Couric, because of her.

Kaleem:

That's fucking

Rick:

if you ever see her, you know, at town or reunions or whatever, just let her know, Hey, there's a cat in Bangor, Maine named Kitty Couric. You should know

Kendal:

Okay. Good to know.

Rick:

Welcome back everybody to Remotely One. I am your co host, rather, Rick Haney, joined by my esteemed colleague, Kaleem Clarkson. What is happening, brother? Oh, you got the happy hands club going on over

Kaleem:

Oh, this is also I want to do for today's guest. Like if, if no one can see me, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm doing the hula kind of I'm trying. It's, it's not very good. It's not very good. semi Polynesian. How you doing? Moana, such a good movie.

Rick:

Make way! Make way!

Kaleem:

How you been, man?

Rick:

Good, good, good. I'm going to address the audience now. Audience, since you know how to find us, do us a huge favor, go to ratethispodcast. com forward slash remotelyone and just leave us a review. Please and thank you. Again, it's ratethispodcast. com forward slash remotelyone. If you could do that for us, we would be ever so grateful. Since 2015, remotely one is one of the largest communities of remote work professionals with over 3, 000 slack members and 5, 000 email subscribers. It's free to join. So go check it out at remotely one. com. And with that out of the way, Kaleem, give us a tease or two about today's guest.

Kaleem:

Oh, yeah, today's guest, Rick. I'm nervous again. Um, you know, I have a nice shirt on today. I put it on, I put on my college shirt,

Rick:

I'd say we almost kind of match. We kind of match.

Kaleem:

Well, we are in the same studio, Rick. You know what I'm saying? We are in the same studio. You're looking great, too, as usual, by the way.

Rick:

I feel it. I feel it.

Kaleem:

let's see. What, what, what? Guest, we didn't even ask you this. Guest, where are you originally from? Guest, this is a great intro.

Kendal:

Virginia. Richmond, Virginia, by the way. Not Northern Virginia.

Kaleem:

Okay. Okay. Okay. Our guest is from, they said it, Virginia. They are graduate from the university of Virginia in culture and commerce. That's interesting. Go Cavaliers. You, you,

Rick:

Wow.

Kendal:

History and global culture and commerce. Yeah.

Kaleem:

global culture in commerce and then the Cavaliers, you, you, I had to do it again. Um, let's see. She started off in sales. And then transitioned to become the global head of customer experience at a company called park jockey. Real interesting. We're gonna have to talk about that, sir.

Rick:

Mm hmm.

Kaleem:

Interesting fact about our guests is they became a Swifty, Rick. They became a Swifty and so much that they even started watching football again because of it. And, um, yeah, I guess, can you just give the energy drink a free plug right now? Can you give the energy a free plug? She listens. She's such a Swiftie that she got sucked in to the new heights podcast that's hosted by Travis Kelsey and Jason Kelsey the brothers. And now she's drinking their energy drink that sponsors it.

Kendal:

because Travis just plugs how delicious the accelerator, active energy, sugar free energy drink is. The Rocket Pop flavor, which they've drank with their mom, Mama Swifty. Huh? Or Mama, Mama Kelsey. Mama

Kaleem:

Mama Kelsey. Holy shit. Is it good?

Kendal:

It's delicious. It is

Rick:

my. What's the caffeine count on that? How many milligrams of caffeine are we

Kendal:

get this thing shipped in. Uh, let's see. I don't know.

Kaleem:

Get this thing shipped in, that's the best.

Kendal:

I do! I'm living in Hawaii. I get it shipped in. Yeah.

Kaleem:

Oh, okay. Guess don't ruin my intro. Okay. Okay, so

Rick:

The nerve of some people, I swear.

Kaleem:

hey, by the way, accelerator were available for sponsors. So you just got a free plug.

Rick:

Yep.

Kaleem:

Let's see. What else about our guests? This is the best intro we've had in a while. After they, had their time at, you know, Park Jockey, our guests then found themselves as a user experience researcher at a little tiny company, Rick called Facebook. Bam, bam. Um, and then after that, they founded, an authentic travel adventures. And they are also the founder and lead facilitator, at executive offsites that has a flagship program. You ready for this Rick in Hawaii? And that's where they

Rick:

Oh Do you know Magnum PI?

Kendal:

No, but I've seen

Rick:

Shit

Kendal:

know.

Kaleem:

Oh my gosh. Listeners. And viewers, please give a warm welcome to Kendall.

Rick:

Oh Yeah

Kaleem:

Let's go. Let's go.

Kendal:

Wow! That

Kaleem:

down studio audience. Settle down. Sit down. We're not all going to Hawaii.

Rick:

You're gonna get sent home early if

Kaleem:

to Hawaii. We, we can't take you all to Hawaii.

Rick:

This is a professional endeavor here of

Kaleem:

we want to go to Hawaii to settle down, settle down. Thank you. Woo.

Rick:

Goodness. See we have an in studio audience on command Nobody else can offer that. Nobody else. It's good to have you here, Kendall. Thank you so much for joining us.

Kendal:

I'm so happy to be here. That was one of the best intros I've ever received.

Rick:

We dive deep here at a remotely one. No question. Yes,

Kaleem:

Yes, I mean, we're psyched. We're psyched.

Rick:

you've, accomplished a lot and we want to highlight a lot of those accolades. So we're

Kendal:

Okay. Alright. Awesome.

Rick:

let's dive into it. My First question is, is, is kind of a doozy. That's Kaleem's

Kendal:

man.

Rick:

doozy.

Kendal:

Okay.

Kaleem:

I'm

Rick:

So. Ah, two words that are mentioned several times over and over on your LinkedIn profile, our team and connection. And so my question to you is, in today's remote world, why are these terms so important? And how are they related? Mm

Kendal:

Rick! Good start. Um, why is it so important? Well, first of all, with team, I mean, you got, in order to get stuff done, as individuals, that are distributed, because I just attended the running remote conference by the way, and, Yeah, in Lisbon, and we talked about using the term distributed, even, although distributedly one might be a little, it's not quite, doesn't really ring off quite, quite as well, but um, yeah, that in distributed teams, you know, it's so important to operate as a unit in order to succeed and provide deliverables, and I think what's so important and even, even research shows that like connection. especially in a distributed team, is absolutely necessary to create team trust, which then, you know, creates people actually being able to get the work they need done. So like, they're so interrelated in just every way. And, you know, I see this in the off sites I facilitate, I saw it in the, the different companies I worked for, where the absence of connection. And really led to more isolation, lack of team, and thus, like, us not hitting our results in some cases.

Rick:

Oh, you do a lot of. In person events, and you've had a lot of experience with that. Do you notice a trend, like, every time, is there a noticeable difference between how people are when they arrive, and how they are when they leave? Ha ha

Kendal:

Oh my god, yeah, totally. It's nuts! It's night and day! It really is! Over the course of, so a lot of my events are a couple of days, although I'll do whatever Bespoke, you know, opportunity that teams need, whether it's an afternoon, a day, or three days. But, the ones that I really enjoy are a couple days, at least two nights. And, you know, you come from the skepticism of, you know, and a lot of times these teams haven't met in person. Right? Like, yet. So this is like their first opportunity to really get together and make those connections. And like, yes, you can absolutely design and do that just by bringing people together. It's better than nothing. But then when you integrate two skilled facilitation and the integration of like different, Activities that mimic the way people work and you can have these rich debriefs afterwards and on top of like the Connection exercises for people to get to know each other a little bit deeper than like, yeah I have three kids and you know, Timmy plays baseball, but like actually getting deeper at some of the values of why people like are actually working on the team like what inspires them to do the work they're Doing like when you actually access that which takes a little bit of time You know, the, Yeah, absolutely. And then the results are like, you know, I'll never forget me, uh, walking up a hill after this, like in this beautiful, like grassy field where we had our like closing remarks, last summer with, this chief marketing officer for this company. And I'm just saying, wow, this is single handedly the best value per head of like any offsite I've ever experienced. And like that. He was saying how just getting one person motivated from that org of 40 was like worth millions to him. And then when you get the level of connection from people just having a good time together too, like that, like money can't buy that, you know, it's fascinating too, because people can tell the difference between BS fun versus like actual authentic fun.

Kaleem:

100%. I actually have a question in regards to when you're talking about connection and you're building retreats, what is kind of the ratio? I've heard Chase Warrington talk a lot about this would do as far as how they plan their retreats and what their intent is. So with your executive offsites, obviously, you know, people come in with their own perceptions of what they want to happen. But for remote companies and hybrid companies or distributed companies that are not working together on site all the time, what is kind of your suggested advice to, companies as far as how much time they want to allocate to get work done and then how much time. They should allocate for fun. And then maybe how much time they should also allocate for no schedule at all. Nothing planned at all. Free time. What are your thoughts on on, on, on the makeup?

Kendal:

It's interesting, I saw Chase and we had a discussion around this at the Running Remote Conference and like, Chase gave this whole presentation about the structure he uses and to be perfectly honest, he has a little bit more free time than me, built in to his retreats that he organizes. Like, I think, I forget the exact breakdown, but it was something like 50 percent free time or something. It was pretty substantial, I forget the exact one.

Rick:

Typical rich guy.

Kendal:

Well, Well, here's,

Kaleem:

He's not really

Kendal:

what's fu

Rick:

It's a long standing joke.

Kaleem:

he was on the show. We love chase. He was on the show in his name. His name sounds rich. Rich. Hello. I'm Chase Warrington. He was like one of his coaches in high school used to give him so much shit. Yeah.

Kendal:

Like. Yeah,

Kaleem:

horse. Yeah, he does put in a lot of free time and a lot more than most people, which is it's interesting concept. Their

Kendal:

so the thing that I've noticed, if left for their own devices, and I saw this, I experienced this, right, if left for their own devices with the downtime and the free time and the dinners, you know, people tend to gravitate towards like the people they know on the team, their little clicks. Um, and, it never moved the needle on the communication challenges that actually needed to take place, like, at this in person time. And what was so funny at the conference is, there's this professor from Harvard. I forget his name, but he gave a presentation that validated this exact concept with data showing that, when you kind of have, bring these in person get togethers, you know, people tend to gravitate towards their ethnic groups. That was like some of his findings. And like, the people that are most like them.

Kaleem:

Yeah. Yeah. Like why do all the black kids sit at the table? Yeah. It's a book. Sorry. The context. That's a famous book. It's a famous book that talks about that research. Like, why do all the black kids sit at the table? It's like, it's a famous book. Sorry.

Kendal:

Yeah, no, it's all good. And like, I think back to when I was at Facebook, being on the travel ads team, and that, it was, it's interesting, because, overall, diversity, like, Facebook was a very, diverse company to work for, but it was interesting, too, how certain teams were more ethnically, like, stacked in some ways. For example, this, there was this team of 50, and it was probably 40 people that were Chinese. Like, it was just very interesting. And so that was an experience for me, too, to be at the lunch table for that particular team, and people were speaking Chinese. Um, anyway, I had a follow up conversation with this professor and I was just like, do you feel that facilitation and especially like when it's intentional right so we're like creating these intentional in person opportunities to break down barriers to create cross functional collaboration so you can't kind of be like, in my view, right, and this is where I differ from others it's like, In my view, you can't kind of like leave that to chance. Like,

Kaleem:

No.

Kendal:

just hope that those conversations are going to happen. Like that, in my experience, hasn't really worked versus, of course you need downtime for sure. But I try to facilitate the type of conversation that I know is going to like fix some of those communication challenges and get people to interact with people they wouldn't normally.

Kaleem:

so does your thing vary? Like, basically, you don't have a prescriptive percentage of how much time that are scheduled, how much time is for fun. so it just kind of, varies based on

Kendal:

Yeah, to be honest with you, I would say maybe like 20 percent is more the free time. So that's where I'll, I'm, that's a big gap between probably, I forget if Chase is 50 or not, but yeah, and 20 and so there's definitely some downtime, but, um, yeah.

Kaleem:

how much work and how much fun?

Kendal:

it's really based on three different areas. One is focusing on the team dynamics. One is having you as having fun. Let's have fun, and, but let's not let it be a checkbox of like, cool, we did an escape room. Let's have fun, and maybe, sure, we'll design an activity that mimics the way people operate, and then we have a rich debrief afterwards. The second is like something unique that's actually brings kind of awe, Because the level of awe can actually create, does something in the brain where it just creates a memorable event. And then the third aspect is creating that team alignment. So I really try to create a balance between those three, but like all of my events will always have those three components and then depending on what the team needs to achieve. get out of the event, like to get that ROI from, you know, the C suite for the investment and the time, then, there's, yes, there can be a substantial focus on some of the in person, uh, the alignment. So that third aspect. So I just try to create at least a, on a three day event though, at least a day and a half of the first two. And you know, one of the structures too that helps is to have like a head heart exercises, head heart break. So you don't want to have people too intellectually stimulated and then they drone on and on and it's whoa, I just, I need a shift, you know what I mean? So it's all learning from mentors and learning from and books and also experience to create that stimulation, breaking it up.

Rick:

I love it.

Kaleem:

Head heart. That's great. I like that. Head heart. Head heart.

Rick:

So, earlier, I'm assuming it was earlier in your career, uh, you were exposed to customer service, um, customer experience rather, in the travel cruise industry, is that correct?

Kendal:

I, it was actually Park Jockey. So Park Jockey was a company I worked for which was, um, an app for paying for your parking online as a tech startup.

Rick:

Walk me through the transition from customer experience to user experience at Facebook.

Kendal:

Yeah, totally. Great question. Thank you. So, basically I was at this bootstrapped, You know, tech startup, park jockey, and it was tricky. It was hard times. You know, I saw people, people come in and I saw those bigger more well paid people kind of, that those budgets get cut and they leave and that was tricky. But in my role as head of customer experience, I also saw inquiries. I was in charge of customer support and then working with our CTO to, basically alleviate, some of the patterns that I saw come in tickets. Because the support tickets, obviously, there's a lot of the same tickets that come in. And once I saw that, like, the same questions were happening, and we could actually do things in, from a UX perspective, if I knew how to do that, like, with colors, with designing the site, designing the app accordingly, we could really minimize the number of, inquiries we got and really create a lot of cost savings for the company. So I saw that UX was really the way to go for me at that time. And so that's where I really made the decision, okay, I need to get the best training out there for how to do UX. And so that's where I, I entered this training program at Facebook at the time. And it was great experience to get that training.

Kaleem:

What do you think was actually the biggest difference between like just customer experience and then user experience? I know like a lot of times user experience, people are graphically inclined, um, former designers. I know a lot of people get into UX experience that are designers. So do you have a design background or were you coming from more of, I did a lot of customer experience. User experience is, You know, customers are users a lot of times. So there is a lot of similarities, but what were the big similarities, but then what were the big differences?

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 corned beef. Oh. Freakin day. Or maybe 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 Cooter's Car Wash. We ain't no soap opery, but you'll be singing high praises. Hoo wee, Cooter's! 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.

Kendal:

Yeah, that's a great question. When I decided that UX was my path, I did not come from a graphic design background. That's where a lot of UX designers come in. And once I noticed that there are, at bigger companies, there's a split between UX research and UX design. Smaller companies, it's kind of the UX designers are all encompassing and there are They're supposed to do their own research, which they may or may not have capacity to do. But in these larger companies, the roles are split. And so I saw my skills as a people person, as an interviewer, as getting people to, you know, feel safe enough with me to really reveal how they actually felt about the app. Even if it was like a level of hatred that, Yeah, they felt I, that was more where my skills laid. So, that's where I looked for opportunities to, to do UX research. And I think the differences there are, I mean, it's really very different. So in, in customer experience, it was all around, yeah, managing customer support, you know, really, liaising with customers the tech team to prevent inquiries, to really have that customer experience be a positive one, all the way from working with operators to like the actual experience on the web, but the, to the delivery of the product and versus, UX research was really about, you know, creating studies and having these methods at my fingertip of doing surveys and in depth interviews, and focus groups, and, all these different methodologies to basically get at the root cause of why we weren't seeing, certain engagement on a certain thing.

Rick:

Hmm.

Kendal:

yeah, I love all this inquiry on this stuff. I haven't talked about this stuff in like forever.

Kaleem:

I'm a fake designer. So I was just curious. I was like, yeah, how did you just teach yourself how to be a designer? And you're like, no, they actually split it. So user

Kendal:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I hustled, you know, that's the thing, Kaleem, I've been a hustler, like, so I, there was this program to learn, once I figured out that I wanted to make that transition at that time between customer experience and UX, and I didn't even know the difference in the split between research and design, I reached out to this program head of this program to learn UX research and design, and I said, hey, can I take your course for free if I fill it? And so I just, yeah, I bartered my way into it, you know, and then, and it's just so funny because too, like even getting the job at Facebook, it was a hustle, you know, it's always kind of really just like work in the game to make things happen.

Kaleem:

Congratulations.

Kendal:

and now I use those UX research skills, which is really cool in like designing what the offsites are going to be for the team experiences, or even if it's not just off sites, like I'm getting into coaching specifically and it's around, it's utilizing those skills from UX research to do the surveys like make sure we're monitoring metrics to see the, yeah. the pre and the post to see the impact as well as like the in depth interviews. And again, it's relying on that skill set of making people feel safe, to be honest. And I think that's something too that like managers can do more effectively. I've seen like, you know, is really being able to come with a like almost like an embodiment to those that they manage that allows for open dialogue communication.

Rick:

Hmm. So, I did have an additional question about your Facebook experience. And I'm wondering, was there a moment where you were just like, I'm gonna leave this place and begin travel adventures. And this is what I want to do instead of working at Facebook, you know. Was there something like that that occurred? Or was it just something organic that continued to build? Oh,

Kendal:

something that happened.

Kaleem:

leap of faith though, you know?

Kendal:

Yeah, well, it was more like a big leap of faith being forced out the door. I mean, I was fired for not being a good teammate. No! It's all good.

Rick:

Okay, good,

Kaleem:

this is part of the story.

Kendal:

this is part of the story. This is what set me on this path. Um,

Rick:

Do

Kendal:

You know, when something like that happens, you get fired for not being a good teammate, you know, take a hard look at yourself. And there's definitely stuff to be responsible for in my, well, this is, this you guys might get a kick out of, but in my behavior of, um, I'll just be perfectly candid with you. There was another, you know, very like high powered woman on the team I was on. And. It seemed like no matter what, she wouldn't listen to me. Like, only, my research had to support exactly what she wanted with her direction. And it's like, every time, I was like, sorry, my research is not showing that your direction's working. Um, that did not go over well. And it really triggered me and really bothered me. And then I looked at it, and though, I was asked the question, where in your life did someone make you not feel heard or seen and just it was her way or the highway? And I was like, oh my god, is this all to do with my mother? And it's the truth. It's true. It's totally the truth. I was bringing unhealed mom shit into the workplace, you know? And like, think about how often, like, the funny thing about that though, is That set me on this path to then study, do the continuing studies program at the Bowen Center for Family. Understanding how the way in which we're brought up in the families of origin and in the families we create actually impacts how we operate in the workplace. yeah, it set me on this path to understand, like, from a psychological point of view, like why we operate the way we do. And then at the same time it had, it showed me that even though at a company like that, where there were so many investments in millions of dollars being spent in, in like bringing the team together, that, in my case, sure it was being, getting fired, but in others there was a lot of team switching and things of that nature. And it's like, Why are we not making investments on moving the needle on Joe and Bob working better together two weeks from now? Like, that just doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense to me to have a communication class and then not have the people that you work directly with in the class. They're just missed opportunities there to create that psychological safety that's so important. So that's why I'm on this mission, to really create that. And that, and it's come from a personal place, you know, because

Kaleem:

You can tell, you can tell.

Kendal:

Oh,

Kaleem:

Well, no, I mean, just, you tell them the story. It's it hits really close the home with me because I was in a very similar situation and now the path is completely different. And I had to do my own reflection and to hear the words that you said, I was fired for not being a good teammate. I mean, that hurts any human being. And the fact that you had the wherewithal to say, Hey, wait, yes, there was some shit that was happening that I didn't agree with, but this shit's on me and now you're building retreats in Hawaii and all over the world to bring companies together. I'm getting emotional. I'm getting emotional. So thank you for sharing that. Um, and. No, I got some here. I got some here, but it's, it's, you know, these are the stories, man, that we're, that's why we started this podcast, man. And, um, that's what this is about. And if you can't hear some of these stories and get emotional and see what they're doing, and we were talking about, you're working with some great companies to be able to just say, Hey, look, I need to do this. Kudos to you. I just want to say thank you for sharing. And it was, it was awesome. Yeah.

Kendal:

The truth is, is that if you don't create, if you don't create functional teams, like, your actual livelihood can be impacted. And it's like, that's what's at stake. And also your happiness. Your enjoyment of life. You know, like, we're not trying to be like slaves to our jobs here with no purpose in life. Like, some might be fine with that, but I'm not really. And, um,

Kaleem:

most people are not.

Kendal:

Yeah,

Rick:

they just accept it.

Kendal:

yeah, and I think we spend so much time with people we work with that it's like, why would we not try and have the best relationships possible when we know that meaningful professional relationships are what create people to enjoy where they work?

Kaleem:

Mmm

Kendal:

it seems counterintuitive.

Kaleem:

so many great nuggets in this whole interview, so

Rick:

Oh yeah.

Kaleem:

been great

Rick:

Yeah, I mean, so we, segwaying back into my previous question about retreats, which we've talked about at length already, but most remote companies are investing in these retreats nowadays, so where do you think remote work is heading and

Kendal:

yeah, yeah, thank you. Well, at the Running Remote Conference, it was certainly put on over and over by all the keynotes that it ain't going away and that it is here

Kaleem:

Not

Kendal:

stay. And,

Kaleem:

a good rap line. Oh

Kendal:

yeah, Annie, Annie Dean at Atlassian actually has a really good report that talked about the future of work, not going away. And I truly believe that. The interesting part about it, as I live here in Hawaii, you know, and I'm able to, you know, run on the beach in the morning and go surfing in the afternoon, like, I'm going to create a life where I can still do that here. And I think we've all gotten a taste of it, you know, at least, and I think, One of the things that's kind of known too is this legacy kind of attachment to the office, is also the people who are more likely to be attached to the office. Number one, I've been there a long time, like, that's their careers. There's a loss of identity there. That is like, oh, if I have to give this up, like, who am I? You know, that's attached to their identity, their work identity. So, I think with that generation retiring, I think that attachment will, for lack of a better word, die off. but these investments in in person time, like, being very necessary, especially for new graduate, who need that socialization of how to work in the workplace. Like, that stuff doesn't necessarily need to take place in an office. It can take place, you know, at really meaningful in person experiences every three months. I don't see it going away, to answer your question, Rick.

Kaleem:

You hear that folks? It ain't going away.

Rick:

You heard it here, see?

Kaleem:

Stop tripping. Stop tripping. Damn it.

Kendal:

doll? What's your problem?

Kaleem:

Keep going. That

Rick:

Remote work is here to stay, see?

Kendal:

As you wear a paperboy cap.

Rick:

do! I do! That's why I wear it! Read all about it!

Kaleem:

is so

Rick:

That is amazing.

Kaleem:

come on, dawg. Come on, dawg.

Rick:

We're gonna take you up to see the big cheese. I

Kendal:

So

Rick:

was born in a different time. I don't belong here.

Kaleem:

I love it. I love. Yes, you do, Rick. And we need people that respect history and can recite these lines. And because

Kendal:

Yeah.

Kaleem:

don't understand, you know?

Kendal:

It's so

Kaleem:

man.

Kendal:

I think that's like 30s, right? That's like 30s.

Rick:

20s, 30s, somewhere around there. Yeah,

Kaleem:

Like Dick Tracy type shit.

Rick:

yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, Kendall, can you share with us a comical or inspiring moment you had while working remotely?

Kendal:

Yes. I can give you, um, yes, I absolutely can.

Kaleem:

Okay. Now, Now, now, be sure to set it up. Give us

Kendal:

Yeah. Well, I kind of have

Kaleem:

geeked up.

Kendal:

four.

Rick:

Okay!

Kendal:

They're not, very long.

Kaleem:

Okay. We're here for him.

Kendal:

okay.

Kaleem:

Start with the worst one first and move up. Let's see. Let's let's migrate towards it.

Kendal:

Okay. Okay. So, so here's, here's, here's the truth. Is that at the end of 2020, I spent a month working in Hawaii and then I. So I went pretty much immediately to Costa Rica and spent a month working remotely there. And they were, because I was trying to surf both places, and they were like night and day experiences. So I had this meeting, and at one point in time, the biggest challenge about Costa Rica was the Wi Fi. So I, at one point in time, One of my meetings, I literally ended up in the reception area of a, like, hotel, like, on the floor. The, the, the receptionist there, like, to my left, and I just remember sitting on this, like, cold tile floor, trying to, like, be in this meeting, and just being like, this is absurd, like, I need better Wi Fi. Also, Then I gave a presentation and I was like, okay, this, I need, I'm going to go to the best wifi in town. All right. I found my fiber optic and I went there for the presentation and, you know, okay. Made every arrangement for it to work. However, didn't think about the fact that the wind could take out all of the electricity in the town. So then I'm like, okay. Delayed getting on for this like presentation in front of 200 people. Like it was my moment. And I'm like, I'm like too, too, you know, I, yeah, it was a, it was a tricky one. Those were not great experiences with, having Wi Fi and, and working remotely. However, then I'll contrast those experiences with two moments where I'm on Zoom calls in Hawaii. The first is, I'm really trying to comport myself. It's my first time experiencing these big waves. And I'm like looking at my screen and in the background are these massive waves. Cause we had this huge swell. And it's just like a 20 foot wave. And I'm like trying to keep my composure. And in the background there's like this just full on show for Mother Nature. Just being like, Yeah! And it was a similar thing during whale season, where I'm like, again, on a Zoom call trying to keep my composure, and then there's this humpback whale just like, using the entire background to keep just breaching and breaching. And I mean, that was just absolutely spectacular. And it was just like a, cause it was like a, it was like a moment between me, and the whale, and the universe, and like nobody knew about it. You know?

Kaleem:

So you kept your cool and you were able to keep everything going and no one knew. But like, as you're sitting there on your computer, like, did you get nervous and shit? Like you picked up your computer and started walking back when the waves were coming in. Like, Oh snap, that wave is way too close. That wave is way too close.

Kendal:

no. I was looking out the window. I was at a table. So, I was

Rick:

Okay.

Kaleem:

like, Oh shit. You started running.

Kendal:

No, No, just had to

Rick:

Feeling nervous!

Kendal:

You know? Yeah.

Kaleem:

That is pretty cool. That is pretty cool.

Rick:

That is amazing. So, where can our listeners and viewers find you?

Kendal:

Yeah, so you guys can reach me at Kendall, with two L's, by the way, K E N D A L L, at executiveoffsites. com. or you can reach out to me at corporate offsites is the Instagram or www. executiveoffsites. com and I do a free 30 minute consult for anybody who wants some strategic advice on creating their offsite or their in person get together, or quite frankly, even if they're not ready for that, just how they can build trust among their team. And I will say There's actually two things that I'm kind of piloting at the moment because I feel so confident that I can add value here. So the first is I am doing a study this summer where I, because data is so important, between a control group of offsites, like planned, you know, kind of a normal way versus, you know, kind of having my, take in my method on the offsites. And I'm really looking for teams that are struggling with their team connection or trust, to basically crown some, one team at the end of the summer the most improved team. And I am willing to offer them an offsite for free for this study, where it's, yeah, where it's, Pay me what you think it's worth when I really vastly improve, uh, your team's dynamic.

Kaleem:

there. in Hawaii and we'll,

Kendal:

Ha

Rick:

your invitation.

Kaleem:

your challenge. We accept your invitation, Rick. We will be there. We're going to, we're going to record live from Hawaii. Um, executive offsites. com

Kendal:

Love

Kaleem:

one. We'll be there. So

Kendal:

it. You're so welcome. Yeah, well

Rick:

Yeah.

Kendal:

off sites obviously too, in Hawaii or Elsewhere.

Rick:

No, we're only interested in Hawaii. I'm sorry.

Kendal:

Okay, alright. Okay. The other thing I just want to plug real quick is just that the other kind of opportunity is give me two people who don't get along on a team one day together and guarantee that by the end of the day they will be working well together.

Kaleem:

Well, you heard it here. Guaranteed Kendall. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We appreciate it. Can't wait to, you know, hang 10 on some of those waves, dude. Brody.

Rick:

Jeez.

Kendal:

ha ha

Kaleem:

wait. I've seen Point Break. I've seen I've seen,

Rick:

Yeah,

Kaleem:

I've seen Point Break, bro.

Rick:

okay.

Kaleem:

thank you so much.

Rick:

Kendall, you are a sport. Thanks for tolerating us.

Kendal:

Aw, thank you guys for having me. It's been a treat.

Kaleem:

We'll talk to you later. Peace.

People on this episode

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Kaleem Clarkson

Co-host
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Rick Haney

Co-host