NICE41 - Fully remote teams, firing yourself, and retention with Brian Roland.

Brian Roland is a Social Entrepreneur and Founder of Abenity, the 6x Inc. 5000 Company that’s powering corporate perks for top brands, including U.S. Bank and MasterCard.

The Nice Podcast is brought to you by Futureforth.com. We help fast-growing tech companies onboard, create, and keep happier, more connected employees.

What we talked about...

• Coffee snobbery and a herniated disc.

• Starting Abenity as a fully remote team in 2006 led to his obsession with coffee.

• On founding the company with his brother and bootstrapping to millions of members and nearly $10M in annual revenue.

• Brian fired himself after thirteen years. He hired a CEO and President to run the business.

• Improving performance reviews and providing feedback.

• Focus on building momentum and scaling your business.

• Thirty team members across ten states - fully remote.

• Covid redirected their focus.

• Social mission sponsoring children with each client via WorldVision.

• “Just show up. You’re looking for the people who are looking for you.”

• Adding a task management platform like Asana to help communication.

• Hiring team members who already have relationships with staff is important.

• Open jobs are not advertised. They only tap their existing team for recommendations.

• Trust, respect, and accountability are already there as they onboard new people.

• The dangers of hybrid work and loneliness.

• Using DiSC personality assessments to determine how they will work remotely.

• Manage output over activity.

• Read Faith Driven Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Step Into Your Purpose and Pursue Your God-Given Call to Create by Henry Kaestner.

• Contact Brian at BrianRoland.com. Check out Rules of Engagement for Fully Remote Teams.

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