The O’Daily is a toddler.

“No” is our favorite word!

We talk about:

• why to say no
• how to say no
• how to say no to your boss
• how to have fewer meetings
• how to prioritize (aka figure out when to say no)

As someone who loves to say yes, I am forever researching and practicing “no.”

I learn, you learn.

Here’s 4 more, totally fresh ways to say no.

Which is really saying YES…to your priorities, deep work, and highest goals!

Say No Without Apology: 4 Key Phrases

1. I have a conflict at that time.

No explanation needed. It could be a customer meeting or a nap.

I usually follow it up with a friendly “feel free to proceed without me” or “would xyz work?”

It saves you time and energy of trying to explain why you can’t.

It’s hard to manage your time if you need a “good” reason to say no or explain your busyness.

A friend shared this tip and she said no one has ever asked her to justify her conflict.

2. Let’s talk over email.

Another pro-level phrase I learned recently.

If something doesn’t need a call or meeting, keep it friendly, helpful, and asynchronous.

For certain meetings (usually folks looking for startup jobs), I find myself sharing the same resources every time. I’ve started sending job boards or job openings via email and keeping their resume on file in lieu of a 30 minute get-to-know-you meeting.

3. I have <this non-negotiable thing>.

Can’t stomach saying no without a really good reason?

Schedule out your most important priorities and leverage non-negotiable commitments.

Examples:

• Team offsites to work on the business
• Executive coaching sessions for personal growth
• Personal training or workout classes
• Taking care of pets/kids (NOTE: children are not a time-saving strategy overall 😂)
• Vacations, concerts, dinners with friends
• Training for a race
• Book club
• Family dinners
• Telling your readers you will write a blog every week 🙃

Important personal and professional commitments create built-in, default boundaries.

For me, triathlon training was a great forcing function for healthy habits and time management. Now, with kids, daycare drop off, family dinners, and sport practices are natural time constraints that force me to prioritize.  

4. I have <this rule about my time>.

Want boundaries without feeling overscheduled?

Another strategy is to make rules about your time:

• I do one evening event per week.
• I do Zoom meetings in the afternoons.
• I work remote on Fridays.

It may seem arbitrary or artificial but over time it will become automatic and non-negotiable.

Anyone who values time, efficiency, and deep work (aka most people!) will understand and respect it.

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What other phrases do you use to say no while still being polite?

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I’d like to spend more of my time in meetings…

Said no founder ever!

Deep work, time to strategize, and general brainstorming are critical for founders but it can feel impossible to find the time.

Here are 5 strategies to protect your time and be in fewer meetings.

5 Strategies For Fewer Meetings & More Deep Work

1. Designate a no-meeting day.

Guard it religiously. Call it something awesome like, Freestyle Friday or Yoursday Thursday (used by Pardot and Rigor, respectively).

Can’t do a full day?

Figure out your most productive time of day and block that off for 2-3 days per week.

2. Shorten meetings.

Do you need 30 minutes or could you get it done in 20? Challenge yourself to be more efficient.

I host 15 min founder calls. (Sign up here!) It may seem short but we have time for small talk, intros, a pitch, 1-2 strategic questions, and next steps.

Never underestimate the efficiency of motivated, busy folks!

3. Eliminate meetings.

Take a hard look at your meetings. Are they all truly necessary?

Can some be emails, Slack conversations, phone calls, or scrapped altogether?

Can you empower someone to decide without you or handle on their own?

4. Batch meetings.

Nothing is worse than a day with 30 minutes between every meeting! Keep your meetings back-to-back or with only 5-15 minutes in between.

Set up your Calendly to offer only certain hours of availability (in line with your no-meeting day, of course).

I also like the one-off meeting feature to schedule a high priority meeting with one email (at a time that works for you, of course).

5. Say no.

Avoid meetings in the first place.

Know when to say no → 10 frameworks
Know how to say no →  7 specific phrases

Now, stick to it!

Once you have your plan in place, the rubber hits the road on the follow through.

Your boundaries are only as firm as you make them. If you regularly break your no-meeting day, extend meetings, or say yes…you’ll be right back where you started!

On the flip side, once a routine becomes sacred, your team (and even customers) will plan around it.

You’ll hear things like:

• “We can email you instead of a call because I know Friday is no-meetings.”
• “We’ll pick a time after lunch because mornings are blocked.”
• “I know we only have 20 minutes so let me jump in.”

You’ll have hours back for company growth and personal peace-of-mind!

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What other strategies decrease meetings and increase deep work??

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Looking for more productivity tips and tricks?

• Your Productivity Starter Pack
• Productivity Checkup: 5 Audits To Implement Now
• 6 Productivity Hacks That Actually Hurt You
• Prioritize Yourself Out Of Chaos With A Simple Spreadsheet…Here’s How

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Last week, we shared 5 great books to hone your sales skills.

This week — it’s humans!

Sales is wildly important to startup success.

But not every founder has a sales background.

That’s okay!

Sales - like everything - can be learned and improved.

Here are 3 sales leaders (Atlanta-based, Y’ALL) with a fantastic track record for helping entrepreneurs hone their sales processes, skills, and mental game.

Dive into their content and expertise!

1. Morgan Ingram

Prospecting and sales outreach specialist. B2B thought leadership whiz.

• SDR Chronicles (YouTube)
• 4 Tips To Master Sales Outreach (blog + video)
• Twitter, Instagram
• Amplify → B2B Narrative-Led Growth aka be like Morgan :)

Why Morgan?

Every sales interaction starts with outreach. Nail this first (and sometimes hardest) step to unlock customer deals and investor meetings!

Morgan is funny, clear, relatable, and specific. His social media posts are a clinic on thought leadership.

2. Margaret Weniger

Seasoned sales leader helping female founders build sales foundations that scale.  

• Bulletproofing Your Forecast (article)
• 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was Starting Out (article)
• Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok
• Sales Coaching (1:1, pipeline review, process/strategy, spot coaching)

Why Margaret?

Many founders have great instincts but lack official sales training. Pipeline reviews, strategy sessions, or deal-specific advice can make all the difference.

Margaret’s super power is seeing what makes someone great and leveraging it — no sales cookie cutters here. She gets rave reviews from founders!

3. Mo Bunnell

Business development skills for busy, non-sales professionals — e.g. partners at law firm (or startup founders!)

• The Snowball System (book)
• Real Relationships, Real Revenue (podcast)
• Weekly newsletter - a Saturday morning must-read!

Why Mo?

Mo is positive, approachable, and fun with decades of sales experience (and wins!).

He is specific and actionable on how to build relationships, ask for business, move deals forward, plan your year, run a meeting, write emails, track metrics...all in the context of having a “day job” outside of selling.

What other sales leaders share great content or help you learn??

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Not every founder is a former sales rep.

But selling is HUGELY important for your company to succeed.

You sell to:

• Customers — current & prospective
• Employees — current & prospective
• Investors — current & prospective
• Your mom — jk. she loves you (and your company) no matter what.

How do you get good at selling if you haven’t done sales before?

Learn, practice, test, iterate. Repeat!

Here’s 5 awesome books about sales — with differing focus, style, and methodology — to get you started.

Get Better At Sales: 5 Books To Read Today

1. To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink

• Easy to read, research-based, with a multitude of strategies and frameworks.
• Great overview and primer as you find your sales style.

2. The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon

• Required reading at Rigor where folks in their 20s were closing 6 figure deals with Fortune 500 companies.
• It challenges (of course) the notion that sales is all about relationships.
• Gives specific sales questions, process, and activities.

3. Unselling: Sell Less To Win More by Peter Bourke

• #1 free ebook about sales on Amazon
• Peter Bourke did a sales strategy session with the Renewals team at Salesforce that was magical
• If you’re worried about having a used-car-salesperson vibe, this one’s for you!
• Specifics on how to phrase things and be consultative up front

4. How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

• Alternate title: “How To Be A Good Human”
• Really, a must-read for everyone.
• Not *technically* a sales book but if you think of sales as “transference of belief” this book is filled with specific strategies that move people to your perspective while feeling good about it
• Great summary

5. Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss

• The #1 book I wish I read at age 25. When I think back to salary or customer “negotiations” I’ve done…🤪😬😂🙃
• Tons of actionable advice when it comes to any kind of negotiation.
• Use cases for pricing, contracts, salaries with specifics on phrasing

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What other books have helped you sell? Any diverse or non-traditional author recommendations (this list is admittedly lacking!)??

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If you’ve been reading the O’Daily recently, you already know.

Building tech is NOT the first step to start tech company.

Wait. Whaaaaaa?

In fact, sometimes having strong tech skills can hurt you because it’s easy to over-build.  

(Unless you’re Seth Radman - follow his LinkedIn and newsletter for awesome content on how to build products customers love!)

So, what does work?

Step 1: Test authentic demand (resources & real world examples)

How painful is the problem?
Will people sign up?
Will they take follow up steps?

Step 2: Learn what to build

You know there’s a big market and significant pain
What actually solves the problem?
How do customers want this to work?

We’ve seen a lot of successful tech company start scrappy — without tech — and we follow this process ourselves in the Atlanta Ventures Studio.

Here are 4 specific, real world ways to hone your tech product without engineering resources or actual software!  

4 Ways To Test Your Tech Idea — Without Tech!

1. Community

Build a community of ideal customers through content and events. Get feedback on ideas, track trends, and understand pain points.

Salesloft tested 3 different product ideas within their sales community before landing on their sales engagement platform of today. Kyle Porter shares the story here.

2. Consult

Sell consulting or services that will later be automated via technology. Another way to think about it — fund your company through paid customer discovery!  

Unboxt knew exactly the product their customers wanted because they did in depth consulting work on the problem prior to launching.

AdPipe automated and scaled motion-first marketing — aka what the founders were doing manually for customers through their video production firm.

3. Manual

Do the work of a “product” manually on the backend. Use a form or simple front end as the customer interface.

Carpool Logistics started with a spreadsheet! It’s now a multi-app system for car transporters and dealerships.

4. Mockups

Create product mockups and get feedback. Walk through them with ideal customers. What would they change? What isn’t easy enough?

Iterate until they say, “THAT. I will pay you for THAT. And here’s my money.” 😁 🦄 🚀

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What other non-technical ways can you fine tune your product? Any early stories to share?

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Last week, we shared 5 resources to help you get started on your tech company.

What’s not on this list?

Building actual technology.

An O’Daily oversight? Nope!

The best tech companies start with super scrappy discovery and testing to find authentic demand.

The first step in your non-tech tech-building is answering questions like…

**How painful is the problem?
**Will people sign up?
**Will they take follow up steps?

We have run many authentic demand experiments in the Atlanta Ventures Studio including all of the ones listed below!  

Here are 7 specific tactics to test, validate, and learn before building tech.

7 Ways To Test Your Startup Idea

1. Customer Conversations

Have 20, 30, or 100 Mom Test conversations with your target user. Sounds obvious but don’t skimp on the quantity and detail.

Remember: no leading the witness!

2. Social Post

Post on social media. Does it go viral? What is the engagement or feedback? (Zinnia)

3. Sign Up Form

Create a “beta sign up” form and share via email or social channels. Track sign ups.

4. Survey

Send a survey (especially a follow up survey to your sign up form!). Do people engage? What do you learn from the feedback?

What people say they will do (or pay) is often different than reality. But the number of survey responses is very telling.

5. Simple Website & Ads

Launch a simple website. Spend $100-$500 on ads. Evaluate click thru rates. (Intown Golf Club)

Bonus: include a form to capture leads and further assess conversions.

6. Product Video

Hardware idea? Create a video showcasing your “product.” Share with your target audience to get their reaction. (Greenzie — and look where they are today!)

Animated or whiteboard explainer videos can also work for hardware, software, marketplaces, everything.

7. Consulting

Offer consulting or manual services to solve the problem. What is the willingness to pay from your target customer?

Up Next: Testing Product Ideas

Your authentic demand tests go well. 🎉🎉🎉

It’s time to start thinking about the actual product.

But — SPOILER ALERT — you can do this without building software!

Next week we’ll cover real life examples on how to fine tune your product without a single line of code.

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What are other real life ways to test an idea?? How did you know you had authentic demand even before you built a product??

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So you’re thinking about starting a tech company - AWESOME!!!!

Where the heck do you begin?

Spoiler alert — it’s not “find a CTO.”

Yes, you need engineers for a tech company!

But there are many steps to take before a single line of code is written.

Find a market. Validate the idea. Get customers to sign up.

Here are the top 5 resources and ideas I share with ambitious entrepreneurs who want to start a tech company!

1. Read The Mom Test 📖

• Learn how to do simple, accurate customer discovery
• Find real pain. Avoid leading questions!

2. Pick a BIG MARKET 🚀

• It’s hard to build a company no matter what, so might as well go big!
• Consider B2B Saas
• Thought-provoking posts on big markets: here, here, here, and here

3. Look for Authentic Demand

• Where are you being pulled?
• What problems will people pay you (right now) to solve?

4. Implement a Minimum Viable Testing Process 🧪

• Figure out what must be true for your idea to work
• Test the smallest, most specific part of that idea

5. Explore Language Market Fit

• Another no-cost way to figure out what resonates with future customers
• Skip the branding agency; DIY with a slide deck over Zoom or coffee

When do I build tech???

It feels slow to do thorough discovery and testing.

Especially when you are driven and love to go FAST (aka every entrepreneur).

Similar to endurance sports, a strong base is key for speed in the long run.

Go slow to go fast. Start small to build big. First-to-market (or first off the start line) isn’t necessary to win.

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What does it actually look like to test ideas?

Next week, I’ll share specific strategies used at Atlanta Ventures to launch businesses without building tech!

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What are other helpful resources to get started on a new business idea?? ⬇️

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It’s one of the most important questions in business.

“How do I get more end users to adopt our product?”

ESPECIALLY if you’re in B2B SaaS or another product where revenue ties to number of users.

It’s even more mission-critical when:

• the user is not the buyer (you sell to a sales manager but sales reps use the product, e.g. CRM)
• you’re B2B2C (you sell to a business who gets value when their customers use the product, e.g. healthcare platform)

Here are 3 steps to significantly increase product usage no matter how complex the adoption cycle.  

3 Steps To Improve User Adoption

1. Find a Champion.

Identify at least 1 person who is using the product decently well.

This can be an end user, a power user, a whole company — wherever you are seeking to improve the adoption rates.

#PROTIP
If you have 0 people using the product well…it may not be an adoption issue. 🙃 Look for a bigger problem to solve or better way to solve it!

2. Talk to your Champion.

Captain Obvious here. Ask this Champion a bunch of questions.

Let the Champion coach and educate you on how to improve adoption with other users.

Ideally in person or Zoom. You’ll miss non-verbal feedback and screen sharing via email or phone.

Example Discovery Questions

• Why do you use the tool?
• How are you using the tool?
• What are the benefits for you?
• Why do you use it but others don’t?  
• What would help others use it or adopt it?
• How or why do other folks in your office start using new technology?
• What technologies have they adopted well? Why? What was that process like?
• What objections have you heard from others?

What To Listen For

• How to explain the product so that users want to try it (aka Language Market Fit)
• How to use the product in a way that’s helpful
• How to train people effectively — bring doughnuts? video tutorials?
• Strategies, tips, unique insights, or unexpected use cases

#PROTIP
You likely have thoughts on how users should use your product. Know your own biases or hypotheses. Keep an open mind and follow The Mom Test.

3. Use the Champion’s advice to make more Champions.

The fun part!

Leveraging your Champion’s advice, recreate their success with other users.

Ideas-Into-Action Plan

1. Make a list of ideas to try per your Champion’s feedback.
2. Consider cost, bandwidth, and likelihood of success as you prioritize.
3. Test, test, test!  
4. Whatever works becomes part of the playbook.
5. Continue learning and tweaking.

Rinse and repeat forever!

Your Champions will be a valuable source of feedback for the life of your company.

#PROTIP
By engaging a Champion, they’ll naturally become an advocate and advisor. Don’t be surprised if they proactively offer to facilitate adoption strategies within their company!

Have you leveraged a Champion’s insights before? How did it go?

What user adoption strategies have you seen work well at early stages or with complex products???

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Healthy habits, no matter how small, are incredibly important when you’re in the trenches of building a startup.

You want to feel and perform your best over the long haul. Sleep, exercise, and eating healthy are critical aspects of well-being and performance.

But time is short! How do you balance health and a hectic schedule?

Here’s 5 easy, veggie-packed lunches you can make in 5 minutes or less.

I vouch for their deliciousness and speed, having eaten all of these myself over the past 15 years.

They are brown bag, ahem, reusable-lunch-bag friendly or great to whip up in your kitchen between meetings.

5 Fast, Healthy Lunches For Busy Startup Days

1. Spinach Salad

• Prewashed baby spinach leaves
• Dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
• Sliced apples or pears
• Crumbly cheese (goat, feta, gorgonzola)
• Nuts (pecans, walnuts)
• Balsamic or fruit vinaigrette

It’s tasty.

It has vegetables, fruit, and nuts.

It takes 3 minutes to put these things in a bowl or Tupperware.

#PROTIP

I’ve used this reusable lunch bag for years and it’s amazing. You can pack 2 really big salads since the neoprene is stretchy. It’s easy to clean, somewhat insulating, and water resistant! (Just like a wetsuit. Neoprene FTW.)

2. Hummus, Pita, Veggies

• Whole wheat pita
• Easy-to-prep veggies (cucumbers, carrots, pepper slices, cherry tomatoes, green beans)
• Hummus. Duh.

#PROTIP

If you live in Atlanta, Aleppo Kitchen makes the most amazing hummus. Woman-refugee owned. Find them at your local farmer’s market!

3. Burrito Bowl

• Kale or spinach
• Brown rice or quinoa
• Black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, chicken
• Tomatoes, chopped cabbage, frozen corn, olives, other random veggies
• Salsa, greek yogurt, avocado

Cook the grains ahead of time. Open a can of beans. Add veggies (corn, kale, cabbage). 2-3 minutes in the microwave. Top with cold stuff like salsa. Add cilantro or green onions if you have the luxury of 2 extra minutes.

#PROTIP

Keto or low-carb? Drop the grains. Focus on meat and veggies.

4. Asian Grain Bowl

• Kale, spinach, frozen stir fry veggies mix, broccoli, carrots
• Brown rice or quinoa
• Tofu, frozen shelled edamame, chicken, scrambled eggs
• Soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, teriyaki sauce
• Seaweed, avocado, sesame seeds

Notice a pattern? Grains + protein + vegetables + microwave + seasoning.

You caught me! Same thing with a few ingredient and flavor tweaks.

#PROTIP

Whole wheat couscous (found at Trader Joe’s) is a quick grain if you haven’t prepped ahead. Add couscous and boiling water to a bowl and cover it for 5 minutes.

5. Homemade Sandwich

• Whole wheat bread (like, actual whole wheat. If it doesn’t taste like whole wheat, it probably isn’t.)
• Mashed avocado, white beans, hard boiled eggs with lemon + salt (vegetarian)
• Grilled or roasted meats (omnivore)
• Hummus or mustard
• Sprouts, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, shredded veggies

Here’s the thing. Sandwiches can be healthy but you have to do it right.

Put some veggies on there. Sub hummus for mayo. Avoid deli meats (lots of salt and additives). No white bread.

#PROTIP

Sometimes local delis or coffee shops will have a delicious, healthy sandwich. Still trying to find that healthy chain sandwich shop...🙃

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Building a company is a marathon not a sprint. It’s important to stay healthy along the way — for yourself and for company performance!

Eating a healthy lunch means a happier, smarter, more energized self in the afternoon.

Multiplied by 5 days/wk over 5-10 years and the results are significant.

What are your favorite fast, healthy lunches?? Share your recipes or tips!

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Want more (realistic & practical!!!) tips for staying healthy while building?

• 5 Ways To Eat Healthy When You’re Building a Company
• 6 Tiny Healthy Habits No Matter How Busy You Are
• Why Gratitude Matters At Startups & What I’m Grateful For This Week

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You’re growing!

This means hiring more people which is exciting!

And also risky…

Hire the wrong people or don’t equip them properly and it could be a big setback.

I’ve onboarded hundreds of people in different roles at different stages and company size. There’s a few things I’ve seen work well whether you’re hiring 2 or 200 people per month.

Here are 4 strategies to scale your onboarding process, maintain a strong culture, and empower your people to do great work!

1. Same Day Start

This is going to sound obvious but it took me, like, 3 years to figure out.

Have new hires all start on the same day.

First Monday of the month. Or first and third Monday of the month. Whatever makes sense for your company.

Benefits of Same Day Start

• New hires befriend each other! A natural support network makes starting a new job more fun and less stressful.

• Onboarding gets WAY more efficient Example: HR only has to do 1 session every 2 weeks about benefits instead of a 30 minute one-off appointment for every hire.

• Less negotiating on start date. Can’t start on the 1st? Great, start on the 14th. The end.

• More cross-functional intermixing. New hires get to know people in other departments on day 1.

#PROTIP

Have a few days of general onboarding that applies to everyone (department overviews, HR items, product demos) before breaking out into job-specific training.

2. Discuss Core Values

Want people to really understand the company values and culture?

Have a specific session where you go through each value and explain what it means with examples.

Make sure to incorporate Core Values throughout onboarding so new hires know you “walk the walk.”

Examples of Core Values During Onboarding

• Give shout outs or prizes to new hires for embodying Core Values
• Mention Values in training sessions, explaining how a process or philosophy ties to a Core Value
• Distribute a Core Value cheat sheet
• Ask new hires about Core Values examples they’ve seen
• Align your onboarding with Core Values, e.g. do a service event to embody your Core Value about community.

#PROTIP

The CEO/Founder is the best person to lead the conversation about Core Values! Do it over lunch or breakfast to keep the schedule manageable.

3. Onboarding Buddies

There are some questions you can’t ask your manager.

You’re new and trying to make a good impression.

You don’t want to bother them.

You know they mentioned something but can’t quite remember.

ENTER: the onboarding buddy!

Ideal Onboarding Buddy

• on the same team, doing the same job
• likes helping others, friendly and kind
• at your company at least 6 months, ideally 12 or more

#PROTIP

Onboarding buddy is a great role for someone asking for more responsibility, who thinks they may want to be a people manager, or who you want to test out as a people manager.

4. Keep It Live

Yes, your Customer Success manager is going to give the same 60 minute training every 2 weeks.

It’s tempting to record it, say “Watch this video!” and — 🎉 tada 🎉 —most efficient onboarding ever!

Here’s what I’ve seen…prerecorded videos are fine in small doses, if you miss a session, or for specific tasks.

But a mostly-video onboarding is REALLY BORING.

Oh, and also, NOT AS EFFECTIVE.

You miss out on the most important part — the ad-hoc, human interaction where learning and connection happen!

Live Training Benefits

News hires can…

• Ask clarifying questions
• Get context from a subject matter expert
• Feel like they know the person leading the training. Great for rapport, future questions, and overall connection to the company.
• Hear “the scoop” - what’s buggy, changing soon, or causes customer frustration

#PROTIP

Trainings held via Zoom are okay! In-person is not always possible or preferred. Just don’t make someone watch too many recorded videos :)

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Onboarding is a critical part of company growth.

You’ll always be tweaking and learning but laying a strong foundation for culture, connection, and strong job performance is key!

What other tips or strategies have you seen work well to scale employee onboarding?

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