The Art of Training New Hires Efficiently

Text the show!

Brian Johnson joins Happy to Help for the second time! In this episode, we discuss training new hires! Brian and Priscilla dive into prioritizing new hire training, a recent training project, and tips for developing your own training program!

They touch on training in small teams, the importance of flexibility and adaptability in training, hands-on inbox training, personalized self-study topics, and fostering an environment where questions are celebrated! 

We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at [e-mail]!

To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.

Thanks for listening!

Episode Transcript

Priscilla (00:01):
Welcome to Happy to Help, a podcast about customer
support from the people atBuzzsprout.
I'm your host, Priscilla Brooke.
Today we're talking abouttraining new support specialists
.
We'll discuss what theBuzzsprout support training
process has looked like in thepast.
Look at a new training projectwe just finished up and talk
about some tips for trainingyour team to offer remarkable

(00:21):
support.
Thanks for joining us, let'sget into it.
Training your team to offerremarkable support.
Thanks for joining us, let'sget into it.
We are joined as always byJordan, our producer.
Hi, Jordan.
Hey there.
We also have a very specialguest on the show today.
Brian Johnson is here.
If you remember from ourEmpathy episode way back, Brian
was in that conversation with usand so he's our first repeat

(00:43):
guest.
Hi, Brian.
Hello, Thank you, it's an.
So he's our first repeat guest,Hi, Brian.

Brian (00:44):
Hello, thank you.
It's an honor to be the firstrepeat guest.

Priscilla (00:48):
It's so fun to have a podcast long enough that needs
a repeat guest, so this isreally exciting.
That's so true, brian, as youprobably know, because I'm sure
you listen to every singleepisode of this show.
Absolutely, it is an everevolving show, and one of the
things that has kind of changedsince you were on was I've
started asking our guests whohas made your day recently, or

(01:12):
how has someone made your dayrecently.
You know I think I've said thisa couple of times episodes off
with something encouraging anduplifting and a story where
someone has impacted anotherperson, whether they meant to or
not, because we as supportspecialists are in such a great
position to do that and to makesomeone else's day better.

(01:33):
So, brian, how has someone madeyour day recently?

Brian (01:36):
I love this question.
Can I give two examples,because I've had an awesome 24
hours.

Priscilla (01:40):
Yeah, since you didn't get to give one during
the empathy episode, you cangive two.

Brian (01:44):
Perfect.
So last night after work mywife came home and said that her
car was not working very welland we both drive old SUVs and
so I'm kind of used to that.
So I took it to the mechanicand this guy that I've kind of
built a relationship with hetook a look at it and ran his
little scanner like trying tofigure out what was wrong.
And then it turns out it wasjust one little spark plug that

(02:04):
had gone bad.
And so he goes here and thenjust opens up the package, puts
it in.
He's like you're good to go, andI was like, oh, thank you, like
I was I was expecting the worst, like ready for a complete
engine rehaul or something sowell, with cars, you never know.
A to have the relief of it onlybeing a spark plug, and then B
the guy just gave it to me.
It was like so wonderful, Iloved it.

Priscilla (02:24):
That's so great.
That's such a good examplebecause it's so simple and for
him it was not a hard thing todo any major day.

Brian (02:31):
Well, because he knows I'm driving a 20 year old truck,
so he knows I'll be back prettysoon.

Priscilla (02:35):
Yeah, he knows, you're a repeat customer.

Brian (02:38):
And then driving into the office today I stopped and got
some lunch at McDonald's becauseI'm a health nut and the lady
was like it is really hot outhere, would you like some ice
cream?
And I'm like sure.
And she just handed me a hotfudge sundae to go with my meal
and I was like what a great day.

Jordan (02:55):
I love that.
I think you need to get alottery ticket, man.

Brian (02:59):
I know this has been a day I love it.

Jordan (03:01):
Today's the day.

Priscilla (03:03):
Okay, I love that ice cream example so much.
One thing that we haven'ttalked about really on this pod
yet, but that I have talkedabout a lot in support with our
support team over the years, isthis idea of proactive
generosity, like being generousto someone before they ask for
anything, like going out of yourway and being proactive about

(03:23):
your generosity.
I feel like we could do a wholeepisode on it, but that ice
cream example is such a goodexample.
You didn't ask for the icecream, you weren't expecting it,
and not only was she generous,but it was her idea for her to
be generous.
I just love that so much.

Brian (03:36):
I love it.
It's such a small thing, but itreally made me smile the whole
way down here.

Priscilla (03:40):
Yeah, and think about like last week we talked all
about kindness and she was kindto you in that moment, which
made her feel good, which madeyou feel good, and now you
shared it with us.
It's made us feel good.
We're putting it on the podcastand hopefully it will make
people listening to this feelgood and maybe they'll go and
they'll do something similar tosomeone in their life.
I just love it.
So today what we're going totalk about is training, new

(04:02):
support hires.
This is something top of mindfor Brian and I right now,
because we just wrapped up awork cycle for Buzzsprout in
which he really worked most ofhis time on creating a training
process for the Buzzsproutsupport teams.
So let's go back to thebeginning.
When I first started Buzzsprout,it was about eight years ago
and we definitely didn't have atraining program.

(04:24):
There wasn't anyonespecifically doing support, so
my training was very much on thejob.
We had someone who was doingmarketing and support, but there
wasn't like a support team forme to join, and you know that's
pretty expected when you have asmall team that you might bring
someone on to do a role thatsomeone is not currently doing,
and so it wasn't completely outof the ordinary for me to join

(04:47):
this smaller team and figure itout as I go, but the process or
lack of process that we had atthe time can be really good for
some types of people becauseit's very on the job Figure it
out as you go, ask questions asyou go, but no one's going to
tell you everything.
So you just got to like ownyour knowledge and that worked.

(05:07):
But it can also be really hardon someone, especially if
they're not the kind of personwho thrives under that kind of a
sink or swim mentality.

Jordan (05:16):
Yeah, it takes a special person.

Priscilla (05:18):
It does, and it's scary and it can be very
stressful too.
So if you have someone come onyour team and you don't have a
training system in place forthem, if they're not the right
kind of person to like, jump inand train themselves.
In that way, you might lose areally good candidate who just
can't handle that kind of thing,and so it's really good to have

(05:38):
some kind of training processin place for your new hires,
whether it be a fully fledgedout program or just you know a
list of things to focus on.
I will also recognize that itcan be really daunting if you're
on a small team or if you'reone person, to try to put
together some kind of trainingprogram for a new person coming

(06:00):
on your team, especially ifyou're in a situation where
you're underwater and you'rebringing someone on and now
you're like wait, I have to taketime out to train you so that
you can succeed, but we've stillgot an inbox full of emails
that we have to stay on top of.
So I kind of want to talk abouta couple of things that I did
over the years as people werecoming on the team.
I think we added seven peopleto the Buzzsprout support team

(06:24):
in just a handful of years, andso each time someone came on the
team I feel like I got betterat training them and better at
training them.
So by the time Brian came onthe team, I feel like I had a
pretty good plan in place.
So I kind of wanted to talkthrough some of the things that
I did, especially when the teamwas young and we were bringing
people on the team to givemyself the ability to train
someone new so that they feltsupported and confident in the

(06:46):
inbox, but also to stay on topof the inbox and emails coming
in and make sure to continue togive our customers really great
support.
So the first thing that I willsay, which is the biggest one
and probably was the hardest forme to learn, was don't be
afraid to let some of the emailssit while you're focused on
training.
Especially in those early yearswhen it was just me on the team

(07:09):
and we were bringing the secondperson on, or when there were
two of us and we were bringingthe third person on, it was
really really hard to step outof the inbox even for just a
couple of hours and focus onthis new person coming in and
give them the attention thatthey needed.
But I think it's reallyimportant, especially if you're
growing a really small team, tobe OK with letting a customer

(07:32):
sit for a little bit longer,because ultimately, your goal is
to have a second person who cancome and provide amazing
support, and then it's going tobe even faster for those
customers.
But in order to get to thatplace when you only have one or
two people on the team, it is OKto let some email sit and to
focus on that new training.

Brian (07:52):
You can kind of think of it as a long term investment.

Jordan (07:54):
Exactly.

Brian (07:54):
That little amount of time that you're taking to
really focus and give them goodtraining will pay off huge
dividends.

Priscilla (08:00):
Exactly, and, as someone who might be the only
person doing support on yourteam, it can feel like, oh my
goodness, I'm being pulled intwo different directions.
I have to stay on top of theinbox because it's growing and
it's overflowing, and but I'vegot this new person and they
don't know how to reset apassword.
But I have to take the time tosit with them and do that.
It can be really really hard toleave an inbox busy.

(08:21):
The emails will get answered.
It's OK to let them sit alittle bit longer.
So that's my like.
First overarching thing that Ilearned as I was bringing new
people on is that it's much moreimportant to focus your time on
the new person and getting themtrained to where they're
comfortable and confident thanstaying in the inbox and just
letting them figure it out ontheir own.

Jordan (08:43):
It's almost like when you buy a new puzzle and you
know when you like take it outand you put all the colored
pieces together and then youcreate like the outline of the
puzzle.
So it all stays like organizedand neat and it's not going to
be as complicated, whereas ifyou just like start grabbing
random pieces, it's going totake a lot longer in the long
run to put that puzzle together.

(09:04):
But if you just take like 10-15minutes to organize it, it's
going to save you hours.

Priscilla (09:10):
It's like the act, my least favorite part of a puzzle
, which is the flipping themover so that they're all facing
up.
Yes, it's that part.
It's taking the puzzle.
You have to take the time toflip all the pieces up and then
you're set up so much better toput it together.
But if you don't flip all thepieces up and then you're set up
so much better to put ittogether, but if you don't flip
all the pieces over, you'regoing to be flipping them over
the entire time you're doing thepuzzle and it's going to slow

(09:31):
the entire process down.

Jordan (09:32):
That's a great analogy Jordan.

Priscilla (09:34):
I love it.

Jordan (09:35):
Thank you, I came up with that myself, good job.

Priscilla (09:38):
So another tip I have is to lean on your team.
You know, not everyone on yourteam is gonna know how to offer
remarkable support experiences,but they're gonna know the
product that you're supporting.
And so if you need to find timein your day to go clear out the
inbox, but you've got this newhire that needs to learn how to
use the software.
It doesn't have to be you thattrains them on that technical

(10:02):
side of things.
You could send them over to adeveloper and ask for a
developer to help you with twohours of training on a specific
feature.
Or maybe you send them to themarketing team so that they can
learn from the marketing teamabout how we communicate via
email.
Those kind of things are reallyimportant to learn and they
don't have to be taught by you.
And so when you're on a smallteam or when you're the only

(10:23):
person in a support teambringing on a second person,
just remember you can lean onyour team.
It doesn't have to just be youthat does all of the training.

Brian (10:31):
That can have an added benefit too of building
relationships for the new teammember with other people around
the team too, that they may notinteract with a ton moving
forward, but at least they gotthat little bit of time at the
beginning.

Priscilla (10:48):
Exactly.
That's a great point, and reallythe third thing that I learned
going through this so many timeswith new people coming on the
team, is that is really helpfulto develop a process as quickly
as you can.
So the first person we broughton, we really had no process for
training them and so it wasvery fly by the seat of your
pants for me.
I was learning how to trainAddie and she was learning how
to be trained, and we figured itout as we went.
But when Megan came on, who wasthe second person who came on

(11:10):
the team, that is when westarted to really look at a
process and put it down andcommunicate it to the whole team
.
And so that is another reallyimportant thing is to start
working on a process as soon asyou can, as soon as you're able
to take that time out of yourday to start putting together a
training process.
Do it, and do it before youhave a new hire.
When things are slow and you'relooking for ways to fill your

(11:33):
margin, go ahead and startworking on a training process.
Start putting that together,even if it's something really
simple like a four week.
You know, here's what we doweek one.
Here's what we do week two,week three and week four.
That can be really helpful sothat when you're actually in the
process of hiring you have kindof a guideline to go by.
Speaking of bringing Megan onthe team, when Megan joined we

(11:55):
had a team of two people and shewas the third person coming on
and she happened to startliterally the week of lockdown,
at least here in Florida.
So it was like we'd been onlockdown for a week and then she
came on, and so we very quicklyhad to figure out how we were
going to train her, virtuallybecause all of our training
experience had been in person upuntil then, and so it was

(12:16):
really I think that's reallywhat pushed us to come up with a
training process.
And so for us at that time ourtraining was like two to four
weeks, and you know we wanted tokeep the training process
concise.
We didn't want it to take along time because we needed her
to be ready and up and runningand helping people quickly
because we were growing so much,but we wanted to make sure she

(12:37):
had time to feel comfortable.
So we kind of had two to fourweeks of training for her, had
two to four weeks of trainingfor her and during that training
we did things like shadowingexisting specialists.
So she would shadow meanswering emails, she would
shadow Addie and she wouldeventually kind of grew into
buddy work and so she would thentake lead on answering the
questions in the inbox.

(12:59):
As she got comfortable withthat with us as like a safety
net with her, and then once shekind of graduated into working
on her own in the inbox, we kindof had what we called on-call
hours, which just meant that shecould at any point she would
know who was her go-to duringthat shift to ask questions, so

(13:19):
that she never felt like she wason her own and she always knew
that she had people to back herup.
But that it kind of was alittle bit of a sink or swim
kind of process because we hadto go really quickly.

Brian (13:31):
But it's amazing how much their confidence grows if they
do have that on-call person likejust as that safety net.
They just double theirconfidence because they're like,
well, I can probably get this,but if not, I know I have this
person over here, exactly.

Jordan (13:43):
Yeah, mm-, yeah, I have a question.
So Megan started like right atthe pandemic.
Yeah, how did she shadow?

Priscilla (13:50):
remotely.
How did that work?
That's a great question.
Yeah, it actually worked reallywell, and I think maybe it
worked better than doing it inperson.
Oh, but what we did was wewould get on a zoom call and I
would share my screen, or Addiewould share her screen and Megan
would watch and she would askquestions as we did things, and

(14:11):
we would just sit on a Zoom call.
And it was nice because we gotto know her that way too,
because we were working remotely, so we didn't see each other in
person, but it was, you know,we'd spend a couple hours in the
inbox together with hershadowing, literally just
watching me share my screen as Iworked through the inbox, and
then, as she got morecomfortable, then she would take

(14:33):
over and she would share herscreen and I would be there with
her to walk her through things.
So that's kind of how we did itat that time, which worked
really well, and part of thatprocess is still how we do
training to this day and is partof the program that Brian put
together, because it reallyworks so well.
Virtually training that way.
That's cool, yeah.

(14:53):
And so just a quick breakdown.
You know, when we first broughtMegan on.
Like I said, that was the firsttime that we really put
together a training program.
I don't even want to call it aprogram like it was a guideline,
a training guideline.
And so week one we would havekind of a bunch of introduction
meetings where she would meetpeople and she would understand
the product, she would learn theproduct, she would learn how we

(15:14):
do support, our philosophybehind support.
All of that would happen inthat first week and then she
would be given a lot of time toprocess everything she'd learned
to study our help articles, tostudy our canned responses
within our email software, and alot of that happened in that
first week.
And then, toward the very endof the first week, we'd start
pushing her to answer a questionor two, not because we wanted

(15:36):
her to feel uncomfortable orrushed, but we wanted to start
getting her acclimated to whatit feels like to be answering
emails.
If you're coming into a supportjob from a non-support role, it
can be really scary to startanswering emails, and what I
never wanted was for people tofeel like they had been here for
a couple of weeks before theystarted answering emails.

(15:58):
When I started, I came in tothe team and was answering
emails the same day that Istarted and I barely knew what I
was talking about if I knewwhat I was talking about at all.
But I think it was reallybeneficial for me because then
you get over that fear ofanswering questions really
really quickly.
And so whenever I bring anyonenew on the team, I always try to
get them answering emails assoon as I can so that they can

(16:22):
start getting acclimated to that, and obviously someone's with
them to make sure their contentis correct, but they're the ones
sending the emails so that theystart to get comfortable with
that.
And then week two, at this timeduring this training guideline,
we did a lot of shadowing, alot of time for the new hire to
study and then some guidedanswering questions.
So more of that kind ofhand-holding, but letting them

(16:45):
kind of be the one who's doingthe writing, who's doing the
communicating.
Week three was more of thatbuddy work that I was talking
about, where they're leading it.
We're there with them as aquick answer to a question,
guidance, that kind of a thing,but they're taking the lead.
And then week four is whenthey'd get into that more
independent work, knowing thatwe're on call and available for

(17:05):
them if they need us.
But then it becomes much moreindependent work and less, you
know, handholding.
So that was kind of ourguideline before really the team
grew.
But now here we are four yearssince Megan came on.
Four years, it's only been fouryears.
It feels like longer than that,but it's been four years since
Megan came on and our trainingprocess has solidified more and

(17:29):
more each time someone new cameon.
Brian, you started about twoyears ago listening to how I
just explained what it was withMegan, what was different about
your training process when youcame on.

Brian (17:40):
It was interesting to hear those early days because I
feel like by the time I was anew team member, you had
everything super organized andit was a system that we just
knocked out every single day andI felt by the end of our four
weeks we felt ready to go.
So I thought whatever you hadin place was awesome and I even
told you just the one-on-one.
Well, for us it was one-on-twotraining because you were

(18:01):
training both Blake and I at thesame time.

Jordan (18:03):
Yeah.

Brian (18:04):
And just that detail of training that you put in each
day was just so impressive and,like the details that you would
cover with us during that shadowtime, during our buddy time or
even guiding us through ourself-study time, you had it down
.
So that's interesting to hearhow you were kind of just
winging it at the beginning.

Priscilla (18:20):
Well, it's funny because you know you do in the
beginning.
You kind of figure it out asyou go and then I never took the
time to really solidify it.
It just got a little bit bettereach time I brought in a new
person.
So it's nice to hear that bythe time I got to training you
and Blake, it felt like it wasreally structured.
I don't know if I felt like itwas very structured on my side.
I remember you giving me acompliment about the training

(18:41):
right after we had like moved.
I think you were maybe twomonths in and I remember being
so like feeling so good aboutyour compliment because I
thought, oh good, I finally feellike I have a grasp on how to
train efficiently and well.
And now I have, like this planin place, which is really good.
And so it's cool now becausehere we are two years later and

(19:05):
now you're going to kind of takeover our training process a
little bit, which is reallyreally beneficial.
One of the things that we werekind of running into recently as
we brought new people on theteam is that it just became a
very time intensive process forme to train every new person
that came on the team.
So a couple months ago I had aconversation with Brian about

(19:29):
training and figuring out whatwe could do to kind of take some
of that load off of me andfigure out how to make that
process something that Brian canown, and so that's where the
training project came from.
And then Brian was able to goand create a process that we now
have for when we get our nexthire on the team.
And so, yeah, let's talk aboutthat project a little bit.

Brian (19:51):
Absolutely.
That'd be great.

Priscilla (19:52):
Yeah.
So, brian, can you first giveme a little bit of a glimpse
into your history with training?
Because, if you don't remember,listeners, we mentioned this on
Brian's Empathy episode, butBrian used to work with
Chick-fil-A and you did trainingat Chick-fil-A, right?

Brian (20:07):
I was a certified trainer , and so not only would I do the
training at my kind of homestore, but I would go to grand
openings all over the countryand train team members there as
well when they're opening up anew Chick-fil-A.

Priscilla (20:18):
Nice, I don't think I knew that.
Oh yeah, that's awesome.

Brian (20:21):
I actually just had a Facebook memory pop up.
I spent six weeks in Des Moinesabout 10 years ago, and so I
was just like, oh man, I hadforgotten all about that.
That was six weeks in DesMoines.

Priscilla (20:31):
No, no shade to any of our Des Moines listeners out
there.

Brian (20:34):
I'm sure it's a great place.

Priscilla (20:36):
I've never been there , but Brian's had some good time
there.

Brian (20:38):
But no, I always kind of find myself, no matter what role
I'm in, I kind of find my wayto training eventually because I
just love it.
I'm a big sports guy, so I kindof view training as kind of
like coaching, and so atChick-fil-A it was so different
when I first came on as a teammember.
A lot of the training was basedon watching a bunch of videos
that corporate had made and thena little bit of shadow time,

(21:00):
and then you're out there,you're ready to go, and over the
years it kind of changed, whereit was a lot less videos and
supposedly more shadow time, butour Chick-fil-A had just gotten
so busy.
There was never great time fortraining because it's either
just absolutely dead slow inbetween breakfast, lunch and
dinner or it's just crazy chaos,and neither one of those is

(21:23):
great time to train.
And so there were difficultiesbecause we're trying to train.
My team at Chick-fil-A was 200people, and so we would
constantly just have a rotationof new people all the time, and
so we're trying to train thesepeople a lot of them younger
kids, like teenagers, workingduring the evening, and so that
meant that I was basicallytraining the younger leaders

(21:44):
that work at night to trainthese other new team members,
and then so I'm kind of doingtwo levels of training there
while trying to keep up with mystuff during the day.
And so it just got to be verydifficult.
All these balls in the air andyou get feedback from the new
team members like well, I wassupposed to be partnered up with
this person, but they wererunning around, I couldn't keep
up with them, so I kind of juststood in the corner.

(22:05):
I'm like great, so with thebest intentions, like we had
awesome training plans puttogether, but just the chaos
would take over and theywouldn't get it.
And so really we ended upimplementing something that they
are going to master oneposition during their training
time.
So they weren't technicallytraining very long, but then we

(22:27):
would say the training neverstops.
And so basically I'm workingwith the leaders on the team to
always be looking foropportunities to train the new
team members and help them growin being able to do multiple
positions and then eventuallytrain them to become the next
wave of leaders.
And so with a large team likethat, it really was difficult to
get that specific training timein, and I think that's why I

(22:50):
liked Buzzsprout's training somuch is because it was just so
much one-on-one time with youand I, and then obviously Blake
as well, and I just felt soprepared.
After our training was done, itwas like oh, this is a good
feeling, like this is whattraining should be.

Priscilla (23:05):
Yeah, well, and it's funny, you know, you say you
have 200 people and you'retraining them and everything's
chaos and there are peoplecoming through the drive-thru
and all of that.
And I think it's way easier tosay, hey, let an email sit for a
few minutes, that's okay, thanto say let this person sit for a
few minutes, who's at thewindow?
and who's expecting theirchicken nuggets, you know.
So, depending on the industryyou're in, it might be easier to

(23:27):
kind of, you know, slow downand focus on the training.
So yeah, I can see howChick-fil-A would definitely be
a whirlwind of a trainingexperience.

Brian (23:42):
But, like you said, no matter what industry or what
your business is like.
It's about and we'll talk aboutthis more later flexibility,
like as long as you're not sostrict on I have to do it this
way and you're flexible, thenyou can get great training, no
matter what the business is like.

Priscilla (23:52):
Absolutely so.
Can you tell me a little bitabout your strategy that you
used when you were creating thetraining program and kind of you
know where it came from and allof that?

Brian (24:01):
Yeah.
So my strategy going in and Itold you this as well is I
didn't want to reinvent thewheel because I thought your
training and what you had set upwas great.
So I didn't think there was anyreason to change everything, and
so really what I wanted to dowas just get everything in
documents and really just havesomething that we can share with
the trainee that's not just ourone-on-one times like spoken

(24:25):
training.
And so I kind of went into itthinking, oh, this is going to
be the greatest resource in theworld, like it's going to have
all the information they need,one-stop shop, like it's going
to train them.
And then throughout the process, I realized that really wasn't
a great path to head down and Ikind of I give you credit to

(24:46):
this because I feel like youchanged my mindset into changing
the program to where it's notonly going to be beneficial for
the trainee of how it ended up,but also five trainees from now.
It's going to have that flex.
You're going to hear me sayflexibility so many times
flexibility to change and evolve, to just keep getting better
and better and better.

(25:06):
And so, where I wanted it to bethe greatest resource in the
world, it actually ended upbeing very simplistic, but more
of a guide that's going to helpthem have a great base of
knowledge when we finish ourfour weeks with them.
They're going to be comfortablewith the systems that we have
in place to find answers thatthey don't know, and they're

(25:27):
going to be comfortable with theprocesses and our team effort
as far as, like, we can rely oneach other.
You don't have to knoweverything, and so the program
as it sits now, has very minimaldocuments that have a ton of
information on them, but a bigpart of our training is the time
that you and I spend with themin the inbox and they're going

(25:49):
to get to learn from real emails, and this will help guide them
during their self-study time.
But I think you kind of talkedabout this in the episode with
Marshall when you're looking forpeople to join our team, we
want people to be comfortableresearching and discovering
answers and not be afraid thatthey don't know something, and
so this will help guide them inthat process where they're not

(26:11):
going to know everything, but wehave a ton of resources to help
them find the answer.
And then if they find somethingbrand new that we've never
researched before, it's going togo in the training program and
the next person is going tolearn and the rest of the team
is going to learn from them too.
So it's an ever evolvingprocess that is flexible.

Priscilla (26:28):
Yeah, flexibility is really good.
I mean, it allows you to growover time and you learn new
things as you train new peopleand you have different
personality types that arecoming on the team, and so maybe
then you go oh man, I reallywant to adjust this for the next
person who's super outgoing,and so they really benefit from
having that one-on-one training.
But maybe the next personreally is more of a knowledge

(26:51):
seeker and they really like thatindependence more, and so maybe
they need less Q&A sessions andmore independent study time.
And so being able to adapt tothe different people that come
on your team I think is reallyimportant when you're doing any
kind of training and making sureit's efficient, because it's
not going to be efficient toteach someone who's really
introverted one-on-one.

(27:12):
It's going to be more efficientfor them to learn it on their
own and to trust them to do thatkind of self-directed study.
It kind of goes back to what wetalked about with Sarah Caminiti
last week about knowing thecontext around the people that
you have on your team, knowingthem, where they come from, what
motivates them.
All of that information canhelp you be a better leader, and

(27:33):
so having a training program orguideline or framework, however
you want to refer to it that'sflexible, that allows you to
adjust for new people that arecoming on your team is really,
really important and, I think,gives you a ultimately a better
process than having somethingthat's so rigid that it doesn't
change and everyone who comes inneeds to fit that mold in order

(27:53):
to be successful.
All right, brian, so can yougive us a little bit more kind
of insight into where theproject landed and what are the
biggest changes you made fromthe guidelines we had originally
and the framework you ended upwith at?

Brian (28:08):
so we are going to have a meeting before the next new
team member starts theirtraining and we'll kind of set
the guideline for what we'rehoping this program will look
like for them.
But, as you mentioned, we'regoing to be flexible because

(28:29):
they may have a differentlearning style.
They may really pick up on someitems better than some people
in the past.
Just because one item the lastfour trainees picked up
instantly in day one does notmean this new fifth trainee is
going to pick up on it quicklytoo.
So we are going to haveflexibility where you and I are
going to meet and before eachweek we'll set their training
program to match what they needthat week and what would best

(28:52):
suit them moving forward.
And so I love that we kept theinbox time as far as shadow time
, buddy time and then kind oflike on-call time, as you
mentioned, and I think that timeis really important because
they get to see actual emailsthat come in and actual problems
that we get to help solve everysingle day.
Now we also kept it's a nicebalance we kept the self-study

(29:13):
time because there's a lot ofinformation that we're throwing
at them and we want them to beable to learn in whatever way
they feel is best all thesubjects, and so one of the big
change is we actually give themone to two study topics per day.
Now when Blake and I trained,you would guide us on some days
and then other days we wouldhave really the freedom to study

(29:36):
whatever we wanted, and I guessI didn't know what I didn't
know, and so I don't feel like Iuse that time efficiently,
where I would just read a bunchof articles or I would watch a
bunch of videos and I wasn'treally focused on one topic.
And the more I've talked to theteam, it seems like if we get
them to focus in on one topicper day and really kind of get a

(29:56):
mastery of that topic, It'llreally build their foundation
that they're comfortable withwhen certain emails come in.
And so we're starting with nicesimple topics that they're
going to get their confidence upand they'll be able to pick up
pretty quickly hopefully, andthen we'll get into more
difficult, more top tier emailsand topics as they go throughout
the four weeks.

Priscilla (30:17):
Yeah, and one thing you mentioned I think is really
good to point out is that youdon't know what.
You don't know when you're anew trainee in any kind of role.
You don't know what informationis most important.
Someone has to tell you that.
So when you trained, brian,part of the reason that you had
so much self-directed study wasbecause I could not walk you

(30:38):
through everything, because Ijust didn't have the time to do
that.
And so if you have a smallerteam, you don't have the time to
be with someone 24 seven,because you're not going to get
anything else done, you're notgoing to get any of the work
done.
And so part of thatself-directed study idea came
out of this need for me to beable to get other work done, and
so you guys had self-directedstudy.

(30:58):
But in doing that we've learned, and through this project I
think you have pointed out thathaving the structure there to
kind of guide, the self-directedstudy is really really helpful
because it helps the new person,the new trainee, know where to
go and so their time isefficient because you really you
got four weeks to train forthis new job and you know it's a

(31:23):
lot of on the job training andso taking that self-directed
study time.
So let's say you have fourhours in a day.
That is self-directed study.
It can feel daunting as a newperson on the team to not know
what am I supposed to studytoday.
Like what should I focus my timeon today?
In the case of Buzzsprout,you're learning a product,
you're learning an industry,you're learning the technical

(31:45):
aspects of podcasting, which canbe overwhelming, and so giving
someone the direction and saying, ok, the first week we're
focusing on moving to and fromBuzzsprout and we're focusing on
logging in issues and and we'refocusing on this kind of basic
thing and then moving up and upand up.
So by the time they're finishedin their four-week training,

(32:07):
that's when they're learningthese more niche features that
we have or these workaroundsthat we have in place that might
not be necessary for them tolearn week one, but they don't
know what's more important.
So I think what you did reallythe biggest change in this
project is that you took all ofthat information and you put it
in the right order and then youdeveloped this plan, this four

(32:31):
week day breakdown for the nextperson to come on to know
exactly what they need to study,so that by the end of the four
weeks they can feel reallyconfident and really comfortable
in the inbox with all thatknowledge, because it's a lot to
learn.

Brian (32:47):
It is.

Priscilla (32:47):
It's a lot to learn when you're coming into a
support team.

Brian (32:49):
And a big part of that is going to be our coaching time
with you and I, either in theinbox or we have some meetings
set with them as well, and a bigpart of it is just encouraging
them, because I think I wasstubborn, thinking like, oh, I'm
going to come in, I'm going tolearn everything and this is
going to be easy.
And then I think you probablysaw me get discouraged when I
was just like, oh, my goodness,this is a lot.
And so you got to, you got tokeep their head up and be like,

(33:12):
hey, this seems like a lot now,but, trust me, you're going to
keep doing it.
Repetition, you're going togain all this knowledge and
we're going to teach you how tofind answers too, so you don't
need to know everything, likeyou can find the answers when
you need to.

Priscilla (33:24):
Yeah, it's funny because when you think about
training for a new job, you'relike, oh man, I have to learn
this new company, I have tolearn this new role.
But it's unique in support thatyou're coming into a job and
you are becoming the expert inthe product that you're using
Like.
It's not like joining amarketing team.
You already have marketingknowledge and that's pretty

(33:45):
applicable into your new roleand, yes, you learn the company,
but you're not learning acompletely new, foreign thing
that now you're expected to bethe expert on and, with support,
you are expected to come into anew team and become the expert
on whatever it is you'resupporting, whether it be a
product or a service or whateverit is.

Jordan (34:06):
Well, and all of the overarching stuff as well,
because if someone comes in andthey've got a question that's
not necessarily related to yourproduct or service, but it
affects it service but itaffects it you have to have the
knowledge to say like, okay,that's happening, because this
thing that you're trying to do,it's just, it's a lot.

Priscilla (34:26):
Yeah, it's so much, which is why I think what you
were saying is so good, Brian tobe encouraging to that person,
as they're coming on the teamand reminding them that you
don't have to know everythingtoday.
It's going to be a process Insix months you're going to look
back and you're going to beblown away by how much knowledge

(34:47):
you have on whatever product itis that you're supporting.

Brian (34:49):
Because we're Buzzsprout.
I tried to make it a little bitfun and personable on their
little daily link that they'regoing to receive from me every
day.
It has a little blurb on thereand I just tried to keep it
light with either encouragementor jokes or little funny gifts
and stuff like that, like justget their day started off like
in a positive manner.

Priscilla (35:06):
I love that.
Yeah, we're a big fan of dadjokes over here, at Buzzsprout.
So Brian threw a couple of dadjokes in there, which is always
fun and it's good because itcommunicates the personality of
the company to a new hire.
Because you know, everyoneknows, those first few weeks at
a new job are like a blur andit's hard to get to know
everyone there and the product.

Brian (35:26):
So having that kind of personality is really good well,
not only that, but we're in anindustry that's constantly
changing, so when you feel likeyou've mastered it, then
something new comes along andtotally changes everything, like
that's a big difference fromChick-fil-A that chicken
sandwich hasn't changed in 60years, and that's such a good
point.
Yeah, so it's a constant.
Like we can go back to thatphrase.

(35:46):
Like the training is never done, like we're always learning new
things.
Yeah, even if we've been herefor eight years, two years, like
it doesn't matter.

Priscilla (36:00):
So and that's why, again, I'm going to go back to
that self-directed study is sohelpful when you're learning,
when you're coming into asupport team because one that's
putting the ownership of theknowledge on you it is your job
to make sure you know thisinformation.
We're here to help you, butwe're not going to sit in a room
with you for eight hours everyday and teach you one-on-one.
Some of this is going to beyour responsibility to really
solidify it, and so you knowyourself best.
It's kind of like being incollege Go read the chapter and

(36:23):
come back to me with questionsthat you have.
You know it's veryself-directed, but that also
builds the muscle of doing thatas you continue learning, or as
you continue working, becauseyou're not going to hit the top
of the knowledge.
Great, I've got it all and Idon't have to learn anything
more, because something in theindustry is going to change, or
something with your product isgoing to change, or we're going
to roll out a feature update andyou're going to need to stay on

(36:45):
top of that.
As a person in the support team, you'll have help, hopefully
you'll have guidance from yourleader, but ultimately at least
the way we do it in Buzzsprout,that knowledge is your own
responsibility to stay on top of, and so building that during
the training process is reallybeneficial to us and to you as
the new trainee.

(37:05):
Okay, so, for anyone who mightbe listening, who is in the
process of developing their owntraining program, what does it
look like like a typical day,brian, with this new program
you've put together, what doesthat look like for the trainee,
and how are you going to becommunicating with the trainee
so that they know what to do inthat day?

Brian (37:24):
So we went back and forth on that a few times and we
ended up deciding that we weregoing to keep the template in a
folder for Priscilla and I andthen, before the trainee starts,
we're going to copy thattemplate into a personalized
folder for the trainee and we'llbe able to really add details
and give us that flexibility inthat personalized folder for
that trainee but still have ourtemplate available for the

(37:46):
future.
And so we will manually givethem their daily topic and the
schedule for that day.
But they will have access tothat folder, let's say during
their self-study time.
If they want to maybe look andsee what the topics for the next
day or next week were, they canlook ahead and work ahead if
they're Mr Go-Getter.
So, we did decide to do itmanually, but automation might

(38:07):
be something that we look at inthe future.

Priscilla (38:10):
The nice thing about doing it in a way that you have
the structure templated and thenbeing able to personalize it to
the person is what we weretalking about before is that
each new person that comes in,they're gonna have different
motivations they're gonna have.
Maybe they're in a differenttime zone, and so you wanna take
that into account, because themeeting structure for the first
week that worked for your lasthire might not work for your

(38:31):
next hire, and so having atemplate of that framework and
then taking that template andapplying it specifically to your
new hire really allows you totailor that really, really well.
It could be that if you hiresomeone in June, it's going to
be a slightly different processthan if you hire someone in
January, because it's summer andmaybe people have more vacation

(38:52):
and so it doesn't become a fourweek training.
Maybe now it's a five weektraining because there's a week
in the middle there wherethey're out for a week or for a
few days.
It's a five week trainingbecause there's a week in the
middle there where they're outfor a week or for a few days,
and so I think having thetemplate was a really good plan
for us to give us the ability toset this up ahead of time and
to let it still be highlypersonal to each new trainee
that comes in.

(39:13):
And it's also really great justto brag on Brian for a little
bit.
It's really great for me to beable to give this over to Brian
and let him take ownership ofthis and run with it, because
now I am, for the most part, outof the day-to-day training
aspect.
There's still going to be timeswhen I come in and I do some
training with the new hires, butit's so great to have someone

(39:34):
specifically on the team who isgoing to focus on the training
and sharpen it as we hire newpeople and new people, and it
will get even more and moretailored, which is really nice,
and it's never going to be asituation where it's so
structured and so tailored thatit can't change for the next
person that comes on.

Brian (39:53):
Absolutely.
There's nothing that the newtrainee can throw at us that's
going to mess up the programLike we're going to be able to
really accomplish anything wewant in any timeframe that we
want.
I'll hit it right back at you.
I think, looking back on it, itwas just so impressive the fact
that you were able to trainBlake and I at the same time and
do your full-time job whiletraining us, and who knows how
many hours you were putting induring that time.

(40:14):
But looking back on it, I can'tbelieve you did it.

Priscilla (40:27):
Well, it can be really difficult, and I will say
again to anyone who's listening, who is in a leadership role on
a team it is really importantto have a training process in
place, because what will happenis you will get to a point where
you can't do both things and soyou are working way more hours
than you should be, and that'sreally not a healthy way for you
as a leader to handle thetraining.
But also it doesn't teach newpeople on your team how to
handle your time management.

(40:47):
If you're working 70 hour weeksbecause you're training in that
time, it's not a good rolemodel for the new person yeah,
it's not a good example for thenew person that's joining your
team, and so I think having thisin place to give yourself the
ability to be more efficientwith training, or designating
someone on your team to be theperson who trains new hires,

(41:08):
that can be really, reallybeneficial for you as a lead,
but also for your team, andgetting people to a place where
they're comfortable andconfident in the inbox and
working with customers.
Absolutely confident in theinbox and working with customers
, Absolutely so.
Before we wrap it up, I kind ofwant to talk about just a couple
actionable tips that people cantake when they're trying to
think through this trainingprocess and when they're
building it for themselves.
So I just jotted down a coupleof things.

(41:30):
The first is being intentionalabout how quickly you transfer
knowledge and in what orderyou're transferring knowledge.
I mean, you did it so much inthe training process, really
breaking down all theinformation that we think is
important for someone to learnbefore they're a fully trained
support specialist in Buzzsprout.
But sitting down and looking atthat information and being

(41:50):
really careful about how youkind of dole that out can be
really, really helpful.
What you don't want to do isdump it all on them day one and
have them feel so overwhelmed.
So if you're kind of slow abouthow you present that to your
new trainee, it can be reallyreally beneficial and it also
can avoid them getting overlystressed out or, you know,

(42:12):
having regret about taking a jobwhere they're learning so much
so fast.

Brian (42:16):
Absolutely, because, I think you said it earlier, the
worst thing in the world wouldbe to find a trainee that you
absolutely love and then youburn them out too fast and they
end up looking for somethingelse because they decide this is
not for me.

Priscilla (42:27):
They're like three days in.
They're like this is way toomuch information, so you've got
to be careful about how you givethat information.
Another actionable tip that wehave that we've been talking
about is giving your new hirestime to process and study on
your own or on their own.
We build a lot of study timeinto that first week.
One because we don't want tooverload you with information,

(42:47):
but two because you have to havetime to study what you've been
taught or else it's not going tostick.
And so I always tried I don'tknow if this is in your training
program, brian, but I alwaystried to give at least one full
day of like study and processingtime to a new hire in that
first week.
So you might have four days ofmeeting with people and learning

(43:08):
our process and learning oursupport tone and how the company
works and, oh, pto andinsurance and all of that stuff
that you also have to learn whenyou come into a new job.
And I always tried to make surethat their Friday was hey,
you're on your own.
Today you can go back andreview your notes.
This is a time for you to geteverything set up that you need
to get it set up.
You have lots of time for thatself-directed study so that by

(43:32):
the time you start week two youfeel really good about week one.

Brian (43:35):
I think that's smart.
Let them take a breath and justkind of review everything,
because it's a lot.

Priscilla (43:40):
Yeah it can be a lot to learn right off the beginning
.
Okay, the third thing I had isto trust your new hires right
from the start and encouragethem to take ownership, which is
in line with that self-directedstudy.
It starts getting them to flexthe muscle of ownership over
their knowledge and I'm going totrust you to be on top of your

(44:02):
knowledge, like right off thebat.

Brian (44:04):
Hopefully your hiring process is long enough where you
can build up that trust withthe new hire Absolutely and
you're not in such a rush tohire just somebody that you're
hoping to build that trust oncethey come on.
Hopefully you've already kindof built up that trust during
the interview process.

Priscilla (44:17):
The flip side of that is you have someone new on the
team and you micromanage everylittle thing that they're doing.
Well, then you're building thisexpectation that everything is
going to be micromanaged, and sothey don't take ownership of
any of their own work because,well, it hasn't been told
exactly how to do it yet, so Ican't do it at all.
And so if you kind of lead withthat trust, then you're going

(44:41):
to get better results.
You're going to have peoplethat are more open to finding
things out on their own, totroubleshooting on their own,
which is such an importantquality when you're in support,
and you have to be able tofigure out these things on your
own in order to be a really goodsupport specialist.
Another thing that we reallyreally push is to welcome
questions.
I will never have an issue withsomeone asking a question.

(45:04):
We talked about it a little bitwith Sarah last week.
But this idea that with support, you know, sometimes people
might feel like embarrassed toask a question I am always going
to welcome questions.
We have specific time builtinto the training program, that
is, q&a meetings, right?
So when they've done two hoursof researching on this certain

(45:24):
topic and they have a list ofquestions.
We have time specifically setaside for them to come and ask
us questions and we also make itreally clear in the support
team that anyone can ask aquestion at any time to anyone
in the support team and we willall be there to help answer
those questions.
And especially during thattraining time questions are
encouraged and celebrated andbeyond the training time they're

(45:47):
always welcome.

Brian (45:48):
Oh, absolutely.
I feel like we ask each otherquestions all the time and it
just it helps us all learnsomething new that maybe we just
assumed everybody else knew andnone of us knew it, and so now
this group discussion helps usall get better.

Priscilla (46:01):
Yep, absolutely.
And then the last thing is justto celebrate and encourage your
new hires.
I mean, when you are new to ateam, it can be very
overwhelming, it can beembarrassing, it can be, you
know, just really hard to getintegrated into a new team of
people who are already doingthis job that you've been
brought in to also do, and socelebrating their wins,
celebrating the first email theysend or the first great rating

(46:25):
that they get if you have like arating system in your email or
the first time someone said, oh,you just made my day today,
like celebrating that feels sogood.

Brian (46:34):
I agree Like that's.
A big part of what you and Iare going to try and accomplish
during those four weeks iskeeping their confidence up,
because we know they're going toget it.
We have the process in placewhere they're going to learn it,
but we just don't want them tofeel overwhelmed.
We want them to feel confident,like their confidence is going
to grow throughout the wholeprocess, and we're going to make
sure of that, whether it'sthrough silly dad jokes or just
like little pep talks.

Priscilla (46:56):
Yeah Well, I think confidence is a huge part of
customer support.
It really is what takes yoursupport experiences from OK to
really good.
If you are confident in yourknowledge, then all of that is
set and now you can take a stepabove and provide a really great
experience.

(47:16):
But if you don't get to theconfidence in your knowledge and
the product, that's whereyou're going to feel like
everything is difficult and it'shard to be empathetic and it's
hard to have patience becauseyou aren't even fully
understanding the product yet.
So that comfortable confidenceis such an important part and
celebrating those wins andencouraging as a team,
encouraging the new hire, issuch a good way to build that

(47:38):
right from the start.

Brian (47:43):
Yeah, if you don't have that confidence and you're
dreading each email that comesin because you're afraid that
you're not going to know theanswer, then you're not going to
last long in a support role,because it's just going to be
too hard.
Exactly.

Priscilla (47:50):
So bringing new people on your team can be
really overwhelming, and if youhave a small team, developing a
training process can be reallydaunting.
I hope that this conversation atleast gives you a little bit of
a direction to start working inif you're thinking about
creating a process like this.
You know we figured it outtrial and error, but we
certainly aren't the end all beall when it comes to training.

(48:13):
There are lots of ways to goabout this, and so I hope that
this conversation has at leastgiven you some inspiration or
some direction on where to gowith your training process.
But a big thing to remember iswhat's the outcome that you want
?
You want to make sure that yournew hire is equipped and
excited and confident to workwith your customers and they're
comfortable in that role so thatthey can go above and beyond

(48:35):
and offer those remarkableexperiences.
So having a strong trainingprocess is going to be really
beneficial for your support team.
Absolutely, it's time forSupport in Real Life, our
segment where we discuss reallife support experiences and
questions.
Jordan, what do you got for ustoday?

Jordan (48:55):
All right.
So I've got a message fromRiley says I've noticed that one
of my colleagues oftenstruggles with handling
difficult customers and it'saffecting team morale.
How can I provide constructivefeedback without coming off as
critical or unsupportive?

Priscilla (49:10):
I would say you know, go back and listen to our
episode we did a couple of weeksago about angry customers,
because I think that willhopefully give that person some
tips on dealing and working withangry customers.
Yeah, but I think the biggestthing to keep in mind is that
it's hard to work with adifficult customer.
I mean it's difficult and somepeople are better at it than

(49:32):
other people.
So if you are feeling this kindof frustration with someone on
your team that they're not doinga very good job at it, just
have as much grace for them aspossible, because it might be
something that you are justnaturally better at than they
are, and holding them to thestandard you have might not be
feasible and it might be reallyoverwhelming for them.

(49:53):
So I would start with that inmind.
You know it's hard, it's adifficult thing to do, and if
you can do it well, kudos to you.
But not everyone can, and soyou know you want to have as
much grace with this person aspossible when you are going to
approach them about that.

Brian (50:07):
Yeah, I agree, I think it is very difficult and it can be
more so for others.
Let's say, if it was somethingin Buzzsprout and we were the
inbox with someone and we saw asuper difficult email come in
and someone was in there andthen they hopped out, then maybe
that's a good moment for justin the moment coaching, and you
can send them a little messageand be like hey, I saw you look
at that one, but then you hoppedout.

(50:29):
Was there?
Was there anything that youweren't comfortable answering?
Or was there a reason why youdidn't want to answer that one?
Um, because in the moment it'snot a big deal.
You're just kind of coaching,yeah, and you don't have to be
like make a note and be like, oh, I need to schedule a meeting
with that person and it's goingto be this big thing, like it's
just like, hey, tell me what'sgoing on, like what's what's
going on there, because youdon't want your support team any

(50:52):
members, let alone the wholeteam, to start avoiding
difficult conversations, becauseyou can never do that in
support, and so maybe it's justsomething that we like hey,
what's going on?
It just may be an off day, andthat's fine, because everybody
has those, but if it's somethingthat they're starting to become
afraid to do because they got abad rating one time or I don't
know, it could be a milliondifferent things but like trying
to help them get over that humpand just encourage and be like

(51:13):
I've seen you take on difficultquestions before you do just
fine, like it doesn't have to bea big thing.

Priscilla (51:19):
Right and, like you're saying, you know, if
they're avoiding those, itbecomes bigger and bigger and
bigger.
And so, just in the moment,saying hey, let's jump in a
conference room and talk throughthis one, or let's get on a
phone call, if you're workingremotely, and talk through this
one in the moment, withoutmaking it a big issue, I think
that can be a really goodstrategy and it doesn't have to
be a hey, you're bad at this,I'm good at this, so I'm going

(51:39):
to show you how to do it.
It can be.
Hey, this is a hard thing.
I would be happy to walkalongside you and work with you
on getting this done.

Jordan (51:47):
You know, I think of some jobs that I've had where I
had a coworker that complained alot, and I think that that can
really hurt company morale.
Like the coworkers, they canjust get kind of like annoyed by
it or something like that.
And so I wonder if this is sortof a company culture question
as well, or, you know, justhiring the right kind of people

(52:10):
or maintaining the right kind ofpeople on the team.

Priscilla (52:13):
Yeah, I was going to say, you know, with this
affecting company morale oraffecting team morale, they said
in the question that this canaffect, or is affecting, the
team.
I think at that point, if youare not the head of the team,
then the right step to take isto go to your team lead and let
them know that this is affectingyou and this is affecting the

(52:34):
rest of the team, because onceit gets to a team morale issue
or you start to see that effect,then it's much bigger than not
being able to work with adifficult customer, and so you
really want to make sure you'rebringing that to your team lead,
who may not be noticingsomething like that or how it's
affecting the team.
And so I think it's reallyimportant that when you see it

(52:57):
start to affect the team in thatway, take it to your team lead
and let them handle it from thatpoint of view, because that's
going to be ultimately healthierfor the team, and what you
don't want is the team to get sofrustrated with this one person
who keeps avoiding difficultcustomers, so much so that
people start to become resentfuland frustrated.
Yes, and then you have a teamthat's fractured in so many ways

(53:20):
because the team lead eitherwasn't aware of it or didn't
take action on it, and so ifyou're seeing it from your point
of view, taking that to yourteam lead and encouraging them
to handle it from that point ofview, I think is really really
important.
It doesn't always need to be apeer review type of a situation.

Brian (53:39):
Yes, the longer you wait, the harder it gets.

Priscilla (53:47):
Absolutely, but it's important to remember that
working with difficult people isreally hard.
So have grace for each other,because everyone knows it's hard
.
It's really difficult and ifyou're struggling with that,
then go back and listen to thatepisode from a couple of weeks
ago about working with angrypeople, because it will give you
some actionable tips to takeinto your next email interaction
.
So remember that you can shareyour stories or questions with
us for our support in real lifesegment by emailing us at happy

(54:09):
to help at buzzsproutcom, andyou can text the show.
There's a text the show link inthe description right now that
you can use to text us anyquestions or stories you have,
or you can let us know howsomeone made your day recently.
We would love to hear thatWe'll pick one question or story
each week to discuss at the endof the show, and so you might
hear your story or questiontalked about on a future episode

(54:31):
.
Well, that's it for today.
I hope you have enjoyed thisepisode.
Thank you, brian, for beinghere with us today.

Brian (54:38):
Thanks for having me.

Priscilla (54:38):
If you liked the episode, go, leave a review or
rating on Apple Podcasts andfollow us on Apple Podcasts or
anywhere else you get yourpodcasts.
Thanks for listening.
Now go and make someone's day.