December 27, 2024 • 31 mins
Tracy Marlowe, CEO of Creative Noggin, discusses how her company prioritizes employee well-being, individual growth, and community involvement. The company focuses on creating a culture that supports work-life balance and encourages employees to pursue their dreams. They have a strong emphasis on open communication and feedback, allowing employees to feel comfortable saying 'I don't know' and seeking help when needed. Creative Noggin also hires based on personality fit and provides flexibility in work schedules. They engage in pro bono work for organizations that support women and provide personalized gifts for work anniversaries. Challenges include prioritizing their own marketing efforts.
Keywords:
employee well-being, work-life balance, open communication, feedback, pursuing dreams, personality fit, flexibility, pro bono work, personalized gifts, marketing efforts
Takeaways:
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Create a culture that supports work-life balance and encourages employees to pursue their dreams.
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Prioritize open communication and feedback, allowing employees to feel comfortable saying 'I don't know' and seeking help when needed.
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Hire based on personality fit and provide flexibility in work schedules.
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Engage in pro bono work for organizations that align with the company's mission.
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Recognize and celebrate work anniversaries with personalized gifts.
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Challenges include prioritizing internal marketing efforts.
Sound Bites:
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"Don't get so busy living that you forget to make a life."
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"It's okay to say 'I don't know' and ask for help."
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"Everyone is treated like part of the team, regardless of their employment status."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Company Overview
03:47 Fostering Open Communication and Feedback
06:28 Hiring for Personality Fit and Providing Flexibility
15:46 Making a Difference through Pro Bono Work
18:27 Celebrating Work Anniversaries with Personalized Gifts
22:52 Challenges in Prioritizing Internal Marketing Efforts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey everybody.
Welcome back to best people, best place.
I am excited again.
My name is Matt Granados and we have Tracy Marlowe here with creative noggin and Tracy andI, talked probably a month or two ago when we first started having this conversation and I
was just absolutely blown away with what she does with her team and how you were kind ofahead of the curve when it came to helping people be remote.
(00:23):
And therefore when it was time to be remote, you guys already were remote.
So Tracy, do me a favor.
Creative noggin is your company.
Walk me through from just a more technical side so people understand what is it yourcompany does when it comes to who Creative Noggin is.
Then we'll dive into what you do for your
Sure, we're a full service marketing, branding, and advertising agency.
So we just help our clients plan, strategize, execute their marketing plans, just thewhole full gamut.
(00:52):
Awesome.
Well, we had an amazing response from your team again, just so you're aware, Tracy, andthose who are listening for the first time, we break these interviews up into three quick
sections.
The first is going to be how you actually take care of your people from an employeeperspective.
The second is how you take care of your people as an individual perspective.
And then the third is going to be how you give back to the community.
(01:13):
All three of them, your team hits really, really well.
A couple of interesting things that I think is worth pointing out, and this is whatsomebody wrote.
in the survey, says, one thing that caught my eyes when I applied was there was a signsomewhere that said, don't get so busy living that you forget to make a life.
They said the language around that was different than any company I was applying for.
(01:35):
And once I started here, I saw that the way they treated it was different too.
They said, they aren't just words.
We truly support one another in our dreams, goals, and lives outside of work.
I want you to walk me through
Why is that the culture of your company and what do those words
(01:57):
I think it's something that we as individuals sometimes can get so caught up.
We spend more time at work if you work full time than you do at home.
But the reality is work should just be a means to an end, right?
We come to work
It should be the thing that's helping enable us live more full lives.
(02:19):
And so I want our people to feel that that's what this is.
I don't want them to feel like they have to become workaholics if they come and work forme.
I want it to be a place where they're having balance.
can, you know, it's enabling them to live their fullest lives.
And we do really actually talk about everybody's dreams and we make every employee makes adreams list and we celebrate.
(02:46):
you know people achieving their dreams and try to help each other achieve achieve ourdreams, which is great
Awesome, well here's another thing that was super interesting, right?
And we might come back to these topics because they fall out of line of what I said wewere gonna do first, but it just absolutely blew me away.
In addition to quarterly and professional goals, we set and check in regular quarterlypersonal goals.
(03:06):
We maintain individual lists, personal to each of us, plus 50 plus dreams.
So I'm not gonna ask you on that yet, but we're definitely getting into the dreams.
I said that you
have actually mastered the work from home employment model well before COVID even started.
So those are like out of all the stuff that was talked about, those are things I want tospend some time on.
And I want to make sure if for some reason I don't bring them up in these, we have to talkabout very few companies have people's 50 of their dreams listed out and you guys have it
(03:34):
for all your people.
But let's dive into how we train employees to do their job better.
One thing your people said is that they create an environment where we are encouraged tobe honest with feedback.
and where it's okay to say, don't know.
That concept is something I try to get clients to understand and they have a hard time,not just the employee, also, or not just the employer, but also the employee.
(04:00):
How did you get them where they would say, I don't know, it was a respectful, I don'tknow, it was an okay, I don't know, and then you were able to do something with it?
That is masterpiece to be able to get your people to do.
How did you get them to be comfortable saying, I don't know?
And then how did you get your leadership team to be comfortable handling and I don't knowto get it to a no.
(04:20):
Yeah, I think
It starts right at the very beginning.
We have a document called the Creative Noggin Commitment and it really outlines just theway that we treat each other and the expectations basically for how we behave.
And one of those, you know, the things listed is actually that we expect people to speakup and it's okay to say, I don't know, I don't have a clue about this and to ask for help.
(04:49):
We don't expect everybody to be know -it -alls and that we
collaborate and work together to find solutions for our clients.
And so we get everybody to sign that and we even, you know, we'll share that, share itwith people during the interview process because we feel like it helps us to find the
right people that really treat each other and do business the way that we like to do it.
(05:14):
And then that is part of
culture is we are an EOS company and part of EOS is regular meetings and talking aboutissues and things that are not working within the business.
so having a space where our employees can actually bring up things that they feel are notworking and really be open and honest with feedback.
(05:39):
think, and seeing that there's no, it's not punitive if you say there's something wrongand broken, we want to talk about
and we want to have an open dialogue about it and then work together to come up withsolutions.
So I think it's just having that be part of our culture and the way we talk with eachother has been helpful.
And then with that, this is another line that came in from another person says, eventhough I'm a long -term contractor versus full -time employee, everyone treats me like I'm
(06:05):
one and trust me with ownership of my clients' relationships without ever micromanagingme, but still provide supports when needed.
With today's hybrid world, contractors, employees, part -time, full -time, remote, in-office, which I know you guys don't have in -office.
How do you get that, that it blends beyond just a certain group of people in the company?
(06:27):
How do you get it so that people who aren't part of the company, when they get a surveylike this, that's the first thing they recognize is how amazing it is that I feel like I'm
part of the company, even though I'm just a
don't even know, be honest, Matt, I feel like it's just so much a part of our culture.
It's the way we treat each other and we want the contractors to feel like part of theteam.
(06:49):
And so I think part of it is that we really prize communication
I think because we were established as a remote company and didn't have to sort of, youknow, backtrack into it after COVID happened.
And so we started and built from the ground up a really collaborative, communicativeenvironment and processes.
(07:17):
we communicate, I think I communicate more.
openly and easily probably at this company that I ever have with any other company.
And so it's easy for people to just reach out and talk with each other.
And I think that that's part of it is the fact that it's very easy to communicate.
We prize communications.
We're talking and communicating all day long with one another.
(07:39):
And I think that that's part of it.
Nobody feels like they're in a silo or like they're alone.
They always feel like they're really part of the team.
So when it comes to, you brought this up of working from home, you guys did it beforeCOVID had to happen.
And I find the people who have been most successful did it before they needed to, right?
(07:59):
It's like you had the time to do it.
Some people did it out of necessity.
That's just how their model works.
But in your situation, looking back on it now, seeing the issues that other entrepreneursand business owners or leaders have with managing remote work forces, what advice would
you have for them?
when it comes to keeping their people in alignment.
(08:20):
And again, you guys have a culture that encourages this.
You guys have been building this since the beginning.
But if you had to pivot the way some of these companies are having to pivot, this is kindof a hard question, because I know that's not necessarily what you had to do.
What advice would you give them to try to make it work and keep a culture the way you guys
(08:40):
I think communication is key.
think making certain that you're giving people the space to very openly communicate.
know, project management systems and whatnot that are online so that everything's flowingand everybody's aware of, you know, what's going on.
(09:00):
And we also, I think just regular meeting cadences and just making certain that you'recontinuing to just regularly touch base and connect with people.
And I think for us also, we realize not everybody should be working from home.
So we utilize personality profiling when we hire.
(09:23):
to make sure we're hiring the right people.
And a lot of times we do hire people who have experience working from home because somepeople think they want to work from home and then once they've done it, they realize they
don't want to do it anymore.
realizing that, you have to find the people who really are productive in that environmentand do well and thrive that way.
(09:44):
So you brought the, so you bring a personality profile when you hire, you bring in thatagreement you have when you hire, you're putting a lot of stuff in front of the people
you're trying to hire that I a lot of companies either wait till after they hire them,right?
Where did that thought process come from?
Is that something you've always done?
Is it seems counter to what the average company does when it comes time to hire people.
(10:09):
I think we have always done it.
mean, obviously some of it's been trial and error, learning as we've gone.
But it is, yeah, I mean, we're very intentional with who we hire and making sure thatwe're hiring the right people.
Just really from learning from history that not everybody's cut out to work from home.
So we want people to come here and thrive.
(10:31):
So that's really important to us.
And I think that's a huge part of it is, you know, if you're hiring people, I don't knowmany people who have that mindset when they're hiring.
When what are we hiring for?
Is this a remote place?
Is this a hybrid offer?
Like it's almost like a new characteristic that we need to put in place because somebodycould be an amazing employee if they're in community and they're with people and they're
(10:54):
thriving in that environment.
And others can be the opposite thriving in that outer environment and others can't handlethe hybrid, the back and forth that, that mix.
And it's interesting.
say that where you're like, no, no, we look for someone who can do this because yourentire team is remote.
Where I think if more people in part of the like description of who we're hiring for wouldbe what personality type works well on their own and works well within a community and can
(11:20):
handle these new three types of work.
Cause that didn't used to be the thing.
Like you were an anomaly that you had, you let your people work from home, even thoughthat was your business model from the beginning.
Now it's like you have to give people multiple options.
But again, I like working by myself.
My wife, she wants to be in room where she can go knock on someone's door every fiveminutes and just talk.
(11:44):
And that's actually, she is, and it goes against every productivity rule in the world.
She's more productive that way.
She needs the stimulus and the interaction with other people.
So I think that's a huge part of what you guys just do naturally that most people don'tthink to do is tying in what's the work environment you're offering to someone
is this conducive to their life and who they are as a person?
(12:07):
So that's super helpful.
All right, so many ways you help your people do your job.
You guys have skilled individuals who are coming in and they are creating products foryour clients.
One thing I found is that people spend time when it comes to training their clients, theyspend time training them on the technical side.
Do you train them on technical or do you find the ones who are technical?
(12:30):
and bring them in under the fold or a mix of both?
And if so, do you organize how you train them on technical skills?
I think it's more of a mix of both.
do hire people that have technical expertise.
don't as often hire somebody with no background, although we have hired people who we feltlike they were the best person for the job, but they didn't necessarily have all the
(12:54):
technical skills and we've trained them because I think the right person is just asimportant.
But it's a combination and we do a lot of internal mentoring and training.
We have our own procedures and processes all documented pretty well so that we're able toshare all of that and train people.
(13:19):
But technical, especially in our environment, in marketing.
That's always evolving and changing.
we also hire people that are incredibly, just innately curious people who will continue toreally self feed themselves and grow their knowledge because we have to all continue doing
(13:39):
that because marketing just continues to evolve and change.
So it sounds like you hire people based on the person.
Probably so, mean it's definitely based on the person I would say.
And I think that seems like it just makes sense, but I don't think people recognize howfar we've run away from that, right?
Cause we try to get through the massive amounts of applicants and people who we think, howquickly can we get through these interviews?
(14:04):
And it's like, we want to find the best person, but we don't want to put the effort intogetting to know the person.
Do you have any tips or ways on how you get to know the person quickly?
Or is it just, takes a little bit longer?
Obviously the ROI is positive.
What are your thoughts on that?
there a fast way to get the, how do you find if the person is who they need to be?
You talked about personality tests, any other ideas or thoughts?
(14:25):
honest, the personality testing is a big thing.
we will, we just hired recently for a role and we identified upfront the personality thatwould thrive best in this role.
And I basically was like, I'm not interviewing anybody that doesn't have, doesn't fitwithin these parameters.
and so that helps us weed through that, those people first.
(14:47):
And then, you know, we interviewed people based on their skills as well as personality andour feeling like how well that would they fit culturally.
and then that's how we
it down but the personality profiling is pretty huge for us.
And I'm glad you said what you said because the follow -up question I was going to ask ishow well do you listen to them?
(15:07):
Because a lot of people use them and then they ignore them because they like the person.
And I found the only way I found that work is the person who you like is almost like achameleon.
I mean that in a good way and they can kind of blend in with any, to your point of justthat curious personality, willing to do whatever it takes.
They don't really have one super strong skillset, but they can kind of adapt to anything.
(15:29):
Those I have found that work, but they are few and far between.
So, all right, so that's how you get the team technically and skillfully where they needto be.
I am so pumped to hear about this, because this was crazy to hear about these 50 dreams,these dream rocks, right?
Is that what they're called?
All right.
we have a dreams list and then we'll set basically rocks and EOS towards actuallyachieving our dreams.
(15:53):
All right, so walk me through the dream list first, and then we'll talk about the dreamrock and how you guys work together as a team to get them.
So dream lists, seems like it's common sense, not commonly used.
Talk to me about
Yeah, we started this a few years back and it's just been, it's really been an amazing wayto get to know each other, inspire each other.
(16:16):
Every employee when they are hired, they're expected to.
created list of their dreams, minimum of 50.
I think some of us have more, I think I have over 100 online.
Because what happens is we share to them, here's a list of the entire agency.
We can all see each other's dreams.
So when they're required to create their dreams list, they're able to go in and peruseeverybody else's, which sometimes kind of inspires you.
(16:43):
Because you're like, my gosh, I never thought about that.
But I always wanted to learn to do a pogo stick.
And I didn't know that that
Terry's dream and you know those type of things and so you know everybody usually startsout dreaming really bad you know it's the I want to go on a trip to see the Great Wall of
China those types of things but then you start realizing there's a lot of smaller thingslike some you know I think somebody had a dream of being able to lower their blood
(17:13):
pressure naturally without pills and to get their blood pressure down
That's awesome.
And so there's just certain things like that.
Some are health, some are spiritual, know, just all kinds of dreams.
And then we regularly actually even go through, I think on our last company quarterly, weactually went through everybody's dreams list together because it had been a while since
we'd all looked at them.
(17:35):
And then cross some off, you know, and talked about and shared pictures of, you know, usachieving our dreams.
And it's just great.
And then we do, you know, we're
quarterly we set rocks for the company on goals that we want to achieve.
But we encourage everybody to also set a dreams rock.
And it's just to help support everybody in their own personal growth and keeping thatbalance and realizing that we should be striving to achieve our dreams.
(18:07):
even if it's like a bigger dream, sometimes people will cut it up into chunks.
Like if it was a big trip, maybe they want to save a certain amount of money or somebodywanted to be debt
free, and she's paid off one credit card, you know.
So it's things like that, but we, it's fine because we do celebrate those on a regularbasis together.
Gotcha.
(18:28):
One thing somebody said is that Dream Rocks came up again.
Dream Rocks came up like seven times.
It was literally popped up all over.
that's you're doing good there.
It says flexible schedule.
It says very flexible schedule.
And I don't know ton about how you run your agency, but the industry you're in, the goalis to get work done, right?
(18:49):
It's not, I mean, you have a timeframe to get it done in.
Is it flexible because you have flexibility and when people can work to get
things completed or how, why very flexible?
That kept coming up and I find that people say they want flexibility, but some peoplecan't handle the flexibility.
You already discussed how you hire the right person to deal with that.
What is very flexible and why do people describe the schedule so
(19:15):
think because we're human beings and I want people to be able to feel like they can.
bring their full self to work, but then when they need to take care of personal things,they're able to do that.
Like we had a woman who her kids were small and they, she wanted to go meet them every dayto go get up when they got off the bus.
And so in the middle of the day, we, you know, she would leave and go, so she would checkout to go meet her kids at the bus stop and then walk them back to the house.
(19:43):
So they weren't walking by themselves.
And so, you know, I mean, that kind of flexibility, we had another woman that is amusician and she,
had a gig every Tuesday night where she would be a DJ on the radio station.
And so she would come in early those days and then leave so she could leave at four to godo her DJ gig.
(20:03):
Things like that, just so that people are able to just have a little bit of flexibilityand do what they need to do.
So that's the kind of flexibility.
So it's to be able to leave in the middle of day to take a child to a doctor's officeappointment and just not feeling like there's anybody rolling their
at them because they're not taking care of business.
(20:24):
And I think that go pick up my kids from school concept is something I think we could siton for a bit.
And here's why.
Number one, she's not leaving the office, right?
She's leaving her house because everyone's working from home.
Is that correct?
Right?
So she's walking to the school bus, picking up her kids, bringing them back.
I'm thinking maybe 30 minutes in reality.
(20:46):
And what happens is a lot of people who are doing this remote work stuff are sitting theregoing, you need to be on your computer from nine to five.
And when you do that, you're making them more even of a slave than if they were in theoffice.
So yeah, they're working from home, but they're working from home in a 15 inch screen box.
(21:07):
And I think it's you sit there and it's brilliant of you guys to not only allow it, butencourage it because guess what people are gonna do anyway?
They're gonna find an app that's gonna move their mouse for them.
They're gonna find the next thing that your system can't track.
And I'm not talking to you, Tracy, I'm talking to other people listening.
And it's like, no, just tell me you're doing it.
I'd rather know you're going to DJ at night for multiple reasons.
(21:30):
So I can know who you are.
could better serve you.
could better give you what you want.
But also if your work is slacking, we can have a real conversation versus is it yourability or is it the fact that, you're cutting out on Tuesdays every now this individual
is coming early and I'm not saying her work wasn't getting done.
But I think there's that element of, of openness that you've created that if you wantflexibility.
(21:53):
and you want autonomy, you need to be comfortable receiving and keeping accountability.
I tell that to the employee, but as an employer, don't sell freedom and autonomy and thenput them in a cage at home.
I think you've done that perfectly where it's like, no, no, we truly mean it.
Because again, your people kept saying flexibility, flexibility, flexibility.
(22:13):
So I think that's great of you doing.
I always want to know when I meet someone who's a good person with good people and a goodcompany, there's almost always a focus on doing good in the community.
What is it you guys do that's so interesting?
And I was trying to figure, cause I knew you guys, your community's wide, right?
You're all over the country, maybe even the world with some people.
(22:34):
But what they said was the thing they love most, said, the thing I love most aboutCreative Noggin is that we provide pro bono work for deserving organizations and a
charitable holiday gift each year.
Walk me through how you bring everyone who's wide apart together.
for the pro bono work and how that is brought up.
(22:54):
Again, it was brought up three times separately.
And then we'll jump into the charitable holiday gift, but the pro bono work, do you pick aspecific organization?
Do the employees pick the organizations?
How do you get to that organization or those organizations you're gonna serve for the
Usually the team picks it.
do have a specific, we're very mission driven and we are focused on helping causes thatsupport women.
(23:18):
So I think, you know,
It's a multitude of different organizations that we've supported over the years.
And it's different every year.
kind of, they come together and sort of put together some ideas and a plan for what wewant to do.
We've gone and volunteered together.
(23:41):
And we have, we do a Christmas party every year and we bring, fly everybody in and we all,you know, get together and.
in person and I think one year we did go in at that time then we all went together andvolunteered at a food bank and did some work with them and so and then other times we've
(24:02):
done things where we donate money but we also you know have done projects to help supportthe different charities and organizations that we're supporting and we do also typically
do at least one pro bono project per year
for some sort of an organization and that changes from year to year just depending on whowe want to serve that year.
(24:27):
Gotcha.
Another thing people talked about was their work anniversary gift.
They get a gift on their work anniversary.
Is that customized per person or is that just like a shirt you get with Creative Noggin'slogo on it?
How do you guys give a gift that people brought up a couple of times?
We, when everybody joins the company, we actually ask them for a list of all theirfavorite places to shop.
(24:49):
And so that's how we use that.
So smart.
And then is it usually a gift card they get of some sort?
And again, you sit there and you go, man, it's so cliche.
And I always tell people it is, but if it comes from a point of caring, it's clichebecause it works.
People value that, let alone you even remember their anniversary, let alone they getsomething because of it and because you're a wise, like I feel like a lot of the,
(25:18):
the culture that you're building starts at the interview and at the onboarding.
Like you're creating the culture and the idea right away.
That's why you're not playing catch up.
That's why you're not struggling with what a lot of people are struggling with as you doit all in the beginning, which I think is extremely tremendous.
You and I were talking right before we started recording.
I said, how are things going?
(25:38):
And you said, you know what, like we just had our quarterly and it's going really, reallywell.
And I love hearing it because as you've implemented all these things,
With the things that we talked about, do you attribute it going really well because themarket's good?
Because I don't know many people right now that would say that.
Or do you attribute it to the culture you've built and the way your company works?
What would you contribute this success you're currently having that made you say, it'sgoing really well right
(26:07):
I think it has to do with my team and I think it's these people.
I feel like I've never had such an incredible team where everybody is so bought in.
and really invested.
You know, it's not just a job.
It's not just a paycheck.
(26:28):
It's not something that they, you know, it's not just a check the box.
It's like they are all, I feel like they all have such ownership of not only the work thatthey're doing, but also just the company.
I feel like they're just, and really, you know, everybody says, the team, it's like afamily or whatnot.
(26:48):
But I really feel like they really have a lot of caring for each other.
And so I think they just honestly want everything to be as good as it can possibly be.
That's awesome.
All right.
With the good you're having, I always like to tell people just because you're on the showdoesn't mean you don't have problems, right?
Like we all have problems.
What are some of the challenges and hardships that you're working through right now,trying to figure out within the company, within the organization, whatever it might be
(27:18):
that you'd be willing to share with us to show everyone that you are not perfect.
You have trouble like everyone else, but you take care your people along the way.
So what are some of the things that you are running into that
could potentially just see that you're not human, or that you are human, I'm sorry.
I think for us, I think probably the hardest thing is it's the old saying, the Cobbler'schildren have no shoes.
(27:42):
And I think that this is something we've been working on this year.
And I think that we're making really good headway is doing our own marketing.
A lot of times, you know, what happens is we have great, great plans to
make some updates on our website or add some new landing pages or just put a new campaigntogether.
(28:04):
But oftentimes it gets pushed to the back burner for other client projects.
And so that's one of the things we've been working on.
We sometimes struggle with making ourselves a priority and treating ourselves like aclient.
Got you.
Okay, so Creative Noggin, where are you located, Tracy?
Where are you guys headquartered?
I know you work all over, but where are you
(28:25):
in San Antonio, Texas, and we have an office in Sacramento as well, West Coast office.
Awesome.
And how can people contact you, find you, reach out to you?
They can find us at creativenoggin .com.
I'm on LinkedIn, Tracy Marlow.
anybody, if somebody wanted to email me, you could email me Tracy, T -R -A -C -Y, atcreativenoggin .com.
(28:50):
Gotcha.
Any final thoughts on how people can treat their people?
I think you should treat your people with kindness and respect and have an open doorpolicy with them and let them have an open and honest dialogue with you to help grow and
improve and better your company.
Awesome.
(29:10):
Hey Tracy, appreciate you very much.
One last thing.
If people want to work with Creative Noggin, is there a specific type of customer outthere that should, if that's them, they should reach out to you.
sure, you know we primarily do service -based marketing.
We don't do product or e -commerce per se, but we do a lot of service -based marketing andbranding.
(29:34):
We do really authentic branding.
So if somebody's looking for brand improvement or maybe even a rebrand, that is really ourbread and butter.
We're super good at that.
So yeah, look us up.
Awesome.
Tracy, appreciate it very much.
Everybody, appreciate you listening to Best People, Best Place, and we will see you on thenext episode.
(29:56):
Have a great week.
Take care of your people.
Thanks, Matt.
Hey everybody.
Welcome back to best people, best place.
I am excited again.
My name is Matt Granados and we have Tracy Marlowe here with creative noggin and Tracy andI, talked probably a month or two ago when we first started having this conversation and I
was just absolutely blown away with what she does with her team and how you were kind ofahead of the curve when it came to helping people be remote.
(00:23):
And therefore when it was time to be remote, you guys already were remote.
So Tracy, do me a favor.
Creative noggin is your company.
Walk me through from just a more technical side so people understand what is it yourcompany does when it comes to who Creative Noggin is.
Then we'll dive into what you do for your
Sure, we're a full service marketing, branding, and advertising agency.
So we just help our clients plan, strategize, execute their marketing plans, just thewhole full gamut.
(00:52):
Awesome.
Well, we had an amazing response from your team again, just so you're aware, Tracy, andthose who are listening for the first time, we break these interviews up into three quick
sections.
The first is going to be how you actually take care of your people from an employeeperspective.
The second is how you take care of your people as an individual perspective.
And then the third is going to be how you give back to the community.
(01:13):
All three of them, your team hits really, really well.
A couple of interesting things that I think is worth pointing out, and this is whatsomebody wrote.
in the survey, says, one thing that caught my eyes when I applied was there was a signsomewhere that said, don't get so busy living that you forget to make a life.
They said the language around that was different than any company I was applying for.
(01:35):
And once I started here, I saw that the way they treated it was different too.
They said, they aren't just words.
We truly support one another in our dreams, goals, and lives outside of work.
I want you to walk me through
Why is that the culture of your company and what do those words
(01:57):
I think it's something that we as individuals sometimes can get so caught up.
We spend more time at work if you work full time than you do at home.
But the reality is work should just be a means to an end, right?
We come to work
It should be the thing that's helping enable us live more full lives.
(02:19):
And so I want our people to feel that that's what this is.
I don't want them to feel like they have to become workaholics if they come and work forme.
I want it to be a place where they're having balance.
can, you know, it's enabling them to live their fullest lives.
And we do really actually talk about everybody's dreams and we make every employee makes adreams list and we celebrate.
(02:46):
you know people achieving their dreams and try to help each other achieve achieve ourdreams, which is great
Awesome, well here's another thing that was super interesting, right?
And we might come back to these topics because they fall out of line of what I said wewere gonna do first, but it just absolutely blew me away.
In addition to quarterly and professional goals, we set and check in regular quarterlypersonal goals.
(03:06):
We maintain individual lists, personal to each of us, plus 50 plus dreams.
So I'm not gonna ask you on that yet, but we're definitely getting into the dreams.
I said that you
have actually mastered the work from home employment model well before COVID even started.
So those are like out of all the stuff that was talked about, those are things I want tospend some time on.
And I want to make sure if for some reason I don't bring them up in these, we have to talkabout very few companies have people's 50 of their dreams listed out and you guys have it
(03:34):
for all your people.
But let's dive into how we train employees to do their job better.
One thing your people said is that they create an environment where we are encouraged tobe honest with feedback.
and where it's okay to say, don't know.
That concept is something I try to get clients to understand and they have a hard time,not just the employee, also, or not just the employer, but also the employee.
(04:00):
How did you get them where they would say, I don't know, it was a respectful, I don'tknow, it was an okay, I don't know, and then you were able to do something with it?
That is masterpiece to be able to get your people to do.
How did you get them to be comfortable saying, I don't know?
And then how did you get your leadership team to be comfortable handling and I don't knowto get it to a no.
(04:20):
Yeah, I think
It starts right at the very beginning.
We have a document called the Creative Noggin Commitment and it really outlines just theway that we treat each other and the expectations basically for how we behave.
And one of those, you know, the things listed is actually that we expect people to speakup and it's okay to say, I don't know, I don't have a clue about this and to ask for help.
(04:49):
We don't expect everybody to be know -it -alls and that we
collaborate and work together to find solutions for our clients.
And so we get everybody to sign that and we even, you know, we'll share that, share itwith people during the interview process because we feel like it helps us to find the
right people that really treat each other and do business the way that we like to do it.
(05:14):
And then that is part of
culture is we are an EOS company and part of EOS is regular meetings and talking aboutissues and things that are not working within the business.
so having a space where our employees can actually bring up things that they feel are notworking and really be open and honest with feedback.
(05:39):
think, and seeing that there's no, it's not punitive if you say there's something wrongand broken, we want to talk about
and we want to have an open dialogue about it and then work together to come up withsolutions.
So I think it's just having that be part of our culture and the way we talk with eachother has been helpful.
And then with that, this is another line that came in from another person says, eventhough I'm a long -term contractor versus full -time employee, everyone treats me like I'm
(06:05):
one and trust me with ownership of my clients' relationships without ever micromanagingme, but still provide supports when needed.
With today's hybrid world, contractors, employees, part -time, full -time, remote, in-office, which I know you guys don't have in -office.
How do you get that, that it blends beyond just a certain group of people in the company?
(06:27):
How do you get it so that people who aren't part of the company, when they get a surveylike this, that's the first thing they recognize is how amazing it is that I feel like I'm
part of the company, even though I'm just a
don't even know, be honest, Matt, I feel like it's just so much a part of our culture.
It's the way we treat each other and we want the contractors to feel like part of theteam.
(06:49):
And so I think part of it is that we really prize communication
I think because we were established as a remote company and didn't have to sort of, youknow, backtrack into it after COVID happened.
And so we started and built from the ground up a really collaborative, communicativeenvironment and processes.
(07:17):
we communicate, I think I communicate more.
openly and easily probably at this company that I ever have with any other company.
And so it's easy for people to just reach out and talk with each other.
And I think that that's part of it is the fact that it's very easy to communicate.
We prize communications.
We're talking and communicating all day long with one another.
(07:39):
And I think that that's part of it.
Nobody feels like they're in a silo or like they're alone.
They always feel like they're really part of the team.
So when it comes to, you brought this up of working from home, you guys did it beforeCOVID had to happen.
And I find the people who have been most successful did it before they needed to, right?
(07:59):
It's like you had the time to do it.
Some people did it out of necessity.
That's just how their model works.
But in your situation, looking back on it now, seeing the issues that other entrepreneursand business owners or leaders have with managing remote work forces, what advice would
you have for them?
when it comes to keeping their people in alignment.
(08:20):
And again, you guys have a culture that encourages this.
You guys have been building this since the beginning.
But if you had to pivot the way some of these companies are having to pivot, this is kindof a hard question, because I know that's not necessarily what you had to do.
What advice would you give them to try to make it work and keep a culture the way you guys
(08:40):
I think communication is key.
think making certain that you're giving people the space to very openly communicate.
know, project management systems and whatnot that are online so that everything's flowingand everybody's aware of, you know, what's going on.
(09:00):
And we also, I think just regular meeting cadences and just making certain that you'recontinuing to just regularly touch base and connect with people.
And I think for us also, we realize not everybody should be working from home.
So we utilize personality profiling when we hire.
(09:23):
to make sure we're hiring the right people.
And a lot of times we do hire people who have experience working from home because somepeople think they want to work from home and then once they've done it, they realize they
don't want to do it anymore.
realizing that, you have to find the people who really are productive in that environmentand do well and thrive that way.
(09:44):
So you brought the, so you bring a personality profile when you hire, you bring in thatagreement you have when you hire, you're putting a lot of stuff in front of the people
you're trying to hire that I a lot of companies either wait till after they hire them,right?
Where did that thought process come from?
Is that something you've always done?
Is it seems counter to what the average company does when it comes time to hire people.
(10:09):
I think we have always done it.
mean, obviously some of it's been trial and error, learning as we've gone.
But it is, yeah, I mean, we're very intentional with who we hire and making sure thatwe're hiring the right people.
Just really from learning from history that not everybody's cut out to work from home.
So we want people to come here and thrive.
(10:31):
So that's really important to us.
And I think that's a huge part of it is, you know, if you're hiring people, I don't knowmany people who have that mindset when they're hiring.
When what are we hiring for?
Is this a remote place?
Is this a hybrid offer?
Like it's almost like a new characteristic that we need to put in place because somebodycould be an amazing employee if they're in community and they're with people and they're
(10:54):
thriving in that environment.
And others can be the opposite thriving in that outer environment and others can't handlethe hybrid, the back and forth that, that mix.
And it's interesting.
say that where you're like, no, no, we look for someone who can do this because yourentire team is remote.
Where I think if more people in part of the like description of who we're hiring for wouldbe what personality type works well on their own and works well within a community and can
(11:20):
handle these new three types of work.
Cause that didn't used to be the thing.
Like you were an anomaly that you had, you let your people work from home, even thoughthat was your business model from the beginning.
Now it's like you have to give people multiple options.
But again, I like working by myself.
My wife, she wants to be in room where she can go knock on someone's door every fiveminutes and just talk.
(11:44):
And that's actually, she is, and it goes against every productivity rule in the world.
She's more productive that way.
She needs the stimulus and the interaction with other people.
So I think that's a huge part of what you guys just do naturally that most people don'tthink to do is tying in what's the work environment you're offering to someone
is this conducive to their life and who they are as a person?
(12:07):
So that's super helpful.
All right, so many ways you help your people do your job.
You guys have skilled individuals who are coming in and they are creating products foryour clients.
One thing I found is that people spend time when it comes to training their clients, theyspend time training them on the technical side.
Do you train them on technical or do you find the ones who are technical?
(12:30):
and bring them in under the fold or a mix of both?
And if so, do you organize how you train them on technical skills?
I think it's more of a mix of both.
do hire people that have technical expertise.
don't as often hire somebody with no background, although we have hired people who we feltlike they were the best person for the job, but they didn't necessarily have all the
(12:54):
technical skills and we've trained them because I think the right person is just asimportant.
But it's a combination and we do a lot of internal mentoring and training.
We have our own procedures and processes all documented pretty well so that we're able toshare all of that and train people.
(13:19):
But technical, especially in our environment, in marketing.
That's always evolving and changing.
we also hire people that are incredibly, just innately curious people who will continue toreally self feed themselves and grow their knowledge because we have to all continue doing
(13:39):
that because marketing just continues to evolve and change.
So it sounds like you hire people based on the person.
Probably so, mean it's definitely based on the person I would say.
And I think that seems like it just makes sense, but I don't think people recognize howfar we've run away from that, right?
Cause we try to get through the massive amounts of applicants and people who we think, howquickly can we get through these interviews?
(14:04):
And it's like, we want to find the best person, but we don't want to put the effort intogetting to know the person.
Do you have any tips or ways on how you get to know the person quickly?
Or is it just, takes a little bit longer?
Obviously the ROI is positive.
What are your thoughts on that?
there a fast way to get the, how do you find if the person is who they need to be?
You talked about personality tests, any other ideas or thoughts?
(14:25):
honest, the personality testing is a big thing.
we will, we just hired recently for a role and we identified upfront the personality thatwould thrive best in this role.
And I basically was like, I'm not interviewing anybody that doesn't have, doesn't fitwithin these parameters.
and so that helps us weed through that, those people first.
(14:47):
And then, you know, we interviewed people based on their skills as well as personality andour feeling like how well that would they fit culturally.
and then that's how we
it down but the personality profiling is pretty huge for us.
And I'm glad you said what you said because the follow -up question I was going to ask ishow well do you listen to them?
(15:07):
Because a lot of people use them and then they ignore them because they like the person.
And I found the only way I found that work is the person who you like is almost like achameleon.
I mean that in a good way and they can kind of blend in with any, to your point of justthat curious personality, willing to do whatever it takes.
They don't really have one super strong skillset, but they can kind of adapt to anything.
(15:29):
Those I have found that work, but they are few and far between.
So, all right, so that's how you get the team technically and skillfully where they needto be.
I am so pumped to hear about this, because this was crazy to hear about these 50 dreams,these dream rocks, right?
Is that what they're called?
All right.
we have a dreams list and then we'll set basically rocks and EOS towards actuallyachieving our dreams.
(15:53):
All right, so walk me through the dream list first, and then we'll talk about the dreamrock and how you guys work together as a team to get them.
So dream lists, seems like it's common sense, not commonly used.
Talk to me about
Yeah, we started this a few years back and it's just been, it's really been an amazing wayto get to know each other, inspire each other.
(16:16):
Every employee when they are hired, they're expected to.
created list of their dreams, minimum of 50.
I think some of us have more, I think I have over 100 online.
Because what happens is we share to them, here's a list of the entire agency.
We can all see each other's dreams.
So when they're required to create their dreams list, they're able to go in and peruseeverybody else's, which sometimes kind of inspires you.
(16:43):
Because you're like, my gosh, I never thought about that.
But I always wanted to learn to do a pogo stick.
And I didn't know that that
Terry's dream and you know those type of things and so you know everybody usually startsout dreaming really bad you know it's the I want to go on a trip to see the Great Wall of
China those types of things but then you start realizing there's a lot of smaller thingslike some you know I think somebody had a dream of being able to lower their blood
(17:13):
pressure naturally without pills and to get their blood pressure down
That's awesome.
And so there's just certain things like that.
Some are health, some are spiritual, know, just all kinds of dreams.
And then we regularly actually even go through, I think on our last company quarterly, weactually went through everybody's dreams list together because it had been a while since
we'd all looked at them.
(17:35):
And then cross some off, you know, and talked about and shared pictures of, you know, usachieving our dreams.
And it's just great.
And then we do, you know, we're
quarterly we set rocks for the company on goals that we want to achieve.
But we encourage everybody to also set a dreams rock.
And it's just to help support everybody in their own personal growth and keeping thatbalance and realizing that we should be striving to achieve our dreams.
(18:07):
even if it's like a bigger dream, sometimes people will cut it up into chunks.
Like if it was a big trip, maybe they want to save a certain amount of money or somebodywanted to be debt
free, and she's paid off one credit card, you know.
So it's things like that, but we, it's fine because we do celebrate those on a regularbasis together.
Gotcha.
(18:28):
One thing somebody said is that Dream Rocks came up again.
Dream Rocks came up like seven times.
It was literally popped up all over.
that's you're doing good there.
It says flexible schedule.
It says very flexible schedule.
And I don't know ton about how you run your agency, but the industry you're in, the goalis to get work done, right?
(18:49):
It's not, I mean, you have a timeframe to get it done in.
Is it flexible because you have flexibility and when people can work to get
things completed or how, why very flexible?
That kept coming up and I find that people say they want flexibility, but some peoplecan't handle the flexibility.
You already discussed how you hire the right person to deal with that.
What is very flexible and why do people describe the schedule so
(19:15):
think because we're human beings and I want people to be able to feel like they can.
bring their full self to work, but then when they need to take care of personal things,they're able to do that.
Like we had a woman who her kids were small and they, she wanted to go meet them every dayto go get up when they got off the bus.
And so in the middle of the day, we, you know, she would leave and go, so she would checkout to go meet her kids at the bus stop and then walk them back to the house.
(19:43):
So they weren't walking by themselves.
And so, you know, I mean, that kind of flexibility, we had another woman that is amusician and she,
had a gig every Tuesday night where she would be a DJ on the radio station.
And so she would come in early those days and then leave so she could leave at four to godo her DJ gig.
(20:03):
Things like that, just so that people are able to just have a little bit of flexibilityand do what they need to do.
So that's the kind of flexibility.
So it's to be able to leave in the middle of day to take a child to a doctor's officeappointment and just not feeling like there's anybody rolling their
at them because they're not taking care of business.
(20:24):
And I think that go pick up my kids from school concept is something I think we could siton for a bit.
And here's why.
Number one, she's not leaving the office, right?
She's leaving her house because everyone's working from home.
Is that correct?
Right?
So she's walking to the school bus, picking up her kids, bringing them back.
I'm thinking maybe 30 minutes in reality.
(20:46):
And what happens is a lot of people who are doing this remote work stuff are sitting theregoing, you need to be on your computer from nine to five.
And when you do that, you're making them more even of a slave than if they were in theoffice.
So yeah, they're working from home, but they're working from home in a 15 inch screen box.
(21:07):
And I think it's you sit there and it's brilliant of you guys to not only allow it, butencourage it because guess what people are gonna do anyway?
They're gonna find an app that's gonna move their mouse for them.
They're gonna find the next thing that your system can't track.
And I'm not talking to you, Tracy, I'm talking to other people listening.
And it's like, no, just tell me you're doing it.
I'd rather know you're going to DJ at night for multiple reasons.
(21:30):
So I can know who you are.
could better serve you.
could better give you what you want.
But also if your work is slacking, we can have a real conversation versus is it yourability or is it the fact that, you're cutting out on Tuesdays every now this individual
is coming early and I'm not saying her work wasn't getting done.
But I think there's that element of, of openness that you've created that if you wantflexibility.
(21:53):
and you want autonomy, you need to be comfortable receiving and keeping accountability.
I tell that to the employee, but as an employer, don't sell freedom and autonomy and thenput them in a cage at home.
I think you've done that perfectly where it's like, no, no, we truly mean it.
Because again, your people kept saying flexibility, flexibility, flexibility.
(22:13):
So I think that's great of you doing.
I always want to know when I meet someone who's a good person with good people and a goodcompany, there's almost always a focus on doing good in the community.
What is it you guys do that's so interesting?
And I was trying to figure, cause I knew you guys, your community's wide, right?
You're all over the country, maybe even the world with some people.
(22:34):
But what they said was the thing they love most, said, the thing I love most aboutCreative Noggin is that we provide pro bono work for deserving organizations and a
charitable holiday gift each year.
Walk me through how you bring everyone who's wide apart together.
for the pro bono work and how that is brought up.
(22:54):
Again, it was brought up three times separately.
And then we'll jump into the charitable holiday gift, but the pro bono work, do you pick aspecific organization?
Do the employees pick the organizations?
How do you get to that organization or those organizations you're gonna serve for the
Usually the team picks it.
do have a specific, we're very mission driven and we are focused on helping causes thatsupport women.
(23:18):
So I think, you know,
It's a multitude of different organizations that we've supported over the years.
And it's different every year.
kind of, they come together and sort of put together some ideas and a plan for what wewant to do.
We've gone and volunteered together.
(23:41):
And we have, we do a Christmas party every year and we bring, fly everybody in and we all,you know, get together and.
in person and I think one year we did go in at that time then we all went together andvolunteered at a food bank and did some work with them and so and then other times we've
(24:02):
done things where we donate money but we also you know have done projects to help supportthe different charities and organizations that we're supporting and we do also typically
do at least one pro bono project per year
for some sort of an organization and that changes from year to year just depending on whowe want to serve that year.
(24:27):
Gotcha.
Another thing people talked about was their work anniversary gift.
They get a gift on their work anniversary.
Is that customized per person or is that just like a shirt you get with Creative Noggin'slogo on it?
How do you guys give a gift that people brought up a couple of times?
We, when everybody joins the company, we actually ask them for a list of all theirfavorite places to shop.
(24:49):
And so that's how we use that.
So smart.
And then is it usually a gift card they get of some sort?
And again, you sit there and you go, man, it's so cliche.
And I always tell people it is, but if it comes from a point of caring, it's clichebecause it works.
People value that, let alone you even remember their anniversary, let alone they getsomething because of it and because you're a wise, like I feel like a lot of the,
(25:18):
the culture that you're building starts at the interview and at the onboarding.
Like you're creating the culture and the idea right away.
That's why you're not playing catch up.
That's why you're not struggling with what a lot of people are struggling with as you doit all in the beginning, which I think is extremely tremendous.
You and I were talking right before we started recording.
I said, how are things going?
(25:38):
And you said, you know what, like we just had our quarterly and it's going really, reallywell.
And I love hearing it because as you've implemented all these things,
With the things that we talked about, do you attribute it going really well because themarket's good?
Because I don't know many people right now that would say that.
Or do you attribute it to the culture you've built and the way your company works?
What would you contribute this success you're currently having that made you say, it'sgoing really well right
(26:07):
I think it has to do with my team and I think it's these people.
I feel like I've never had such an incredible team where everybody is so bought in.
and really invested.
You know, it's not just a job.
It's not just a paycheck.
(26:28):
It's not something that they, you know, it's not just a check the box.
It's like they are all, I feel like they all have such ownership of not only the work thatthey're doing, but also just the company.
I feel like they're just, and really, you know, everybody says, the team, it's like afamily or whatnot.
(26:48):
But I really feel like they really have a lot of caring for each other.
And so I think they just honestly want everything to be as good as it can possibly be.
That's awesome.
All right.
With the good you're having, I always like to tell people just because you're on the showdoesn't mean you don't have problems, right?
Like we all have problems.
What are some of the challenges and hardships that you're working through right now,trying to figure out within the company, within the organization, whatever it might be
(27:18):
that you'd be willing to share with us to show everyone that you are not perfect.
You have trouble like everyone else, but you take care your people along the way.
So what are some of the things that you are running into that
could potentially just see that you're not human, or that you are human, I'm sorry.
I think for us, I think probably the hardest thing is it's the old saying, the Cobbler'schildren have no shoes.
(27:42):
And I think that this is something we've been working on this year.
And I think that we're making really good headway is doing our own marketing.
A lot of times, you know, what happens is we have great, great plans to
make some updates on our website or add some new landing pages or just put a new campaigntogether.
(28:04):
But oftentimes it gets pushed to the back burner for other client projects.
And so that's one of the things we've been working on.
We sometimes struggle with making ourselves a priority and treating ourselves like aclient.
Got you.
Okay, so Creative Noggin, where are you located, Tracy?
Where are you guys headquartered?
I know you work all over, but where are you
(28:25):
in San Antonio, Texas, and we have an office in Sacramento as well, West Coast office.
Awesome.
And how can people contact you, find you, reach out to you?
They can find us at creativenoggin .com.
I'm on LinkedIn, Tracy Marlow.
anybody, if somebody wanted to email me, you could email me Tracy, T -R -A -C -Y, atcreativenoggin .com.
(28:50):
Gotcha.
Any final thoughts on how people can treat their people?
I think you should treat your people with kindness and respect and have an open doorpolicy with them and let them have an open and honest dialogue with you to help grow and
improve and better your company.
Awesome.
(29:10):
Hey Tracy, appreciate you very much.
One last thing.
If people want to work with Creative Noggin, is there a specific type of customer outthere that should, if that's them, they should reach out to you.
sure, you know we primarily do service -based marketing.
We don't do product or e -commerce per se, but we do a lot of service -based marketing andbranding.
(29:34):
We do really authentic branding.
So if somebody's looking for brand improvement or maybe even a rebrand, that is really ourbread and butter.
We're super good at that.
So yeah, look us up.
Awesome.
Tracy, appreciate it very much.
Everybody, appreciate you listening to Best People, Best Place, and we will see you on thenext episode.
(29:56):
Have a great week.
Take care of your people.
Thanks, Matt.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.