We would like to introduce one of our newest members of the Client Services team, Melissa Chavez , Client Success Strategist - Sr. Program Lead and local community activist.

Work-Life

Stefan: Hello, and welcome back to our employee spotlight. My name is Stefan and I'm the People and Culture Strategist here at Remotish. So today we're gonna be talking to our newest employee, Melissa Chavez. And Melissa is our new Client Success Strategist Senior Program Lead. Quite a mouthful, but we're so excited to have her on board here. So Melissa, can you tell us a little bit about your role here at Remotish?

Melissa: Sure. Thanks so much for that introduction, Stefan. I'm actually very excited to be a part of this and answer your questions. It's kind of funny, I've never been a part of a community that actually put in this step of spotlighting employees. So this concept is a really cool touch and thank you so much. So the Client Success Strategist, Senior Program Lead role, I really do see this as a two part opportunity. One, focusing on the Senior Program Lead is to build an effective framework, particularly around the client health. As we all know, client health is 100% important to healthy opportunities, healthy relationships. So by doing this, we're using the essential supports of metrics, engagement, target, and proactivity. But we also cannot forget, no matter the role, no matter the situation, no matter what we can be doing right, we always have to have that backup plan of reactiveness. Essentially, is to look at it in a different perspective, or a overall perspective is building out a client success, center of excellence. Number two, in cooperation with cells here at Remotish and client services, create customer focus relationships that are collaborative, goal focused and are able to adapt as our customer needs evolve. We need to respectfully move away to revenue centric ideologies, and bring in clients success philosophy of which incorporates that entire customer journey, which we put so much time into, which will ultimately put that focus back into the customer value.

Stefan: It's so well said, because I mean, this role is so important with either a, you know, expanding and growing the customer with us, but I think even more so ultimately, like making sure they're taken care of and they're being heard, and they're happy. Because they're happy, they're gonna continue with us even further, right?

Melissa: Absolutely couldn't have said, couldn't have summarized that better.

Stefan: So, you know, I know, it's, you're on what day, you know, day 12 or so. So it's still early on. But you know, what does an average workday look like for you?

Melissa: Yeah, so at the moment, I'm still very much living in the onboarding and data information upload world where my brain is just on hyperdrive. However, as with any kickoff project, relationship, company position role, there's always the priority of instituting those self maximizing principles, that is key to your individual success, right. So I, as we both know, here at Remotish, there are great internal systems that support our individual job functions, as well as department functions. So I believe that that self accountability and self responsible, responsibilities, is to build out my own organization. Ultimately, to build up my own organization is going to be beneficial not just to the future and success of my role of future Client Success roles, but also the client success framework in its entirety. So to sum that all up right now my days are a little bit of a bit of a whiplash. So I am starting my day with a look back, look at today and a look ahead. So basically go through yesterday's recap, today's goals and tomorrow's wish list and prioritize accordingly. And also making something that I tend to do and have always done in any situation, because you can be as organized as possible, but you will have those moments where a new idea just pops in your head. I have a single document that is called Idea dump. And I put anything that just randomly spurts into my mind into the idea dump. And that is what my days are looking like, so far.

Stefan: That's cool. I liked how you say, you know, whiplash, but it's, it's a great framework almost because you're looking back at like, alright, this is everything I accomplished yesterday and or, you know, need to carry over into today, which then pulls into, you know, today's goals. And then again, looking forward to the next day of like, is there anything I can bring in there today, or can we leave it and work on it tomorrow? So I like that.

Melissa: Absolutely. And perfectly said because what changes is the priority. Could have felt like a priority yesterday, and today may not be a priority. So that's absolutely.

Stefan: So with us being you know HubSpotters here we're HubSpot agency, what's your favorite HubSpot tool and favorite thing about it.

Melissa: Email templates. If you know me or you work with me, or you've had a conversation with me, templates are everything to me. I truly believe templatizing your own book of business is critical to be able to cut down on time and create efficiencies. I truly feel that there is no need to create the wheel. If you do it once and let's and it's effective template, you can always update it, you can always revise it. And then if you see someone else do something a little bit better, you continue to have those iterations. So template email templates, when I had the first experience with that, especially if it, you know, connects it to a workflow that I mean, my heart fluttered.

Life-Life

Stefan: Yeah, it's such a time saver. Because like you said, you can, you can keep all the key components in there that maybe allows for some easy personalization or like the, you know, contact fields or any of that, but then yeah, you can personalize it to how it's going to fit, whoever is getting that email. So I agree, it's a great tool. So let's switch gears a little bit. We've talked about all the exciting work life pieces, let's talk a little bit about just normal life life. What's the best thing to you about remote life?

Melissa: Yeah, um, so remote life, it's it's been an interesting idea on its own, and has definitely revolutionized in the past few years, especially with the impact of COVID. And it was actually really interesting to see companies and organizations have to immediately pivot, and ultimately struggle with that work from home concept. I've been remote for eight plus almost nine years. So I feel pretty versed in that realm and that's anywhere from my office coordination to my at home tech stack. And then creating a true divide from this is my home, this is my house. When I close my office door, that room is done until Monday morning. So really trying to create all of those separate cells of individual space have been something I feel like I've got down pretty well. And one thing was really cool is the company I was at, during the pandemic, we did do an outreach to companies that were struggling, so we were able to put together good, whether it was good cameras, the best keyboard to buy the best mouse to buy. Any type of technical tips that we could give, we were able to donate that to places that weren't, didn't have that down quite right. But I guess if you're gonna say what's my, the best part about it. I do love the waking up and having my own routine. And part of that routine is my pup. He is a special needs. So for me to be able to have that slow time of getting him up, getting them outside feeding him and giving him medication. To me that that's, that's very important. It brings me a lot of relief that if he needs anything, I'm right there for him. So, and ultimately, he needs me as much as I need him and vice versa.

Stefan: Right? That's sweet. And I think you make an important point there about, like, the separation. It's like important to create those boundaries of you know, here's where I do my work. And when I'm, like clocked out for the day, it's like, alright, I'm closing the doors, and now I'm at home and enjoying my home life now. So that's, that's so important. Now more than ever, in the remote environment.

Melissa: Absolutely. You're not wrong.

Stefan: So what blogs, podcasts, would you recommend our readers and door visitors follow? Like, what are some of your favorites?

Melissa: Yeah, um, I appreciate you asking it, but that is definitely one that's difficult for me, personally and professionally. I did take a hiatus over I guess the past 15 months. It's been over a year for sure. And I just felt like I needed to step away. I felt that I was no longer it for certain perspectives. I was no longer listening, I guess listening with listening ears. And also I'm very much a practice what you preach type of person. And I felt like there was just a lot of people that I was following that weren't necessarily doing that. It's easier to say what we want versus if we're going to actually put that into practice. So I took a hiatus. But coming back to it in the past few months my list is not very long. So just to just to be able to, I guess off, off the experiences I've had, which have been limited, I would say 'The Two Bobs'. That is a podcast about the way that they have it on the website, which I thought it was perfect is "conversations on the art of creative entrepreneurship". I feel like they they're very informative, or he's very informative. And it's, it's something in the rhythm of how they speak, and the topics that they choose, that really started to bring me in, and the people that they bring in as guests. I've liked everything so far. To follow on LinkedIn. Adam Grant, I truly have, there's, I feel like when Adam posts he posts from personal experience and from the heart. And I don't feel like there's a huge marketing team behind the words that he's saying, but more so he's putting himself in the shoes of others. Robin's Story, she is, she's incredible. I can only describe her as bear faced. She says what she means she puts it out there. There's, there's no buzzwords, there's that, you know, there's nothing out there that you people just use it to flutter someone's stomach. She just gives it how it is. And I do appreciate that. And another one actually, I told a colleague of ours to follow earlier today was Cody Sanchez. She is very young, very competent. And what I love about her is she is so gracious with giving out her intellectual property, whether it's finance or one thing that I love about her most and it's something that I feel like I do as an individual is she talks about just reusing collateral. Like we you never have to reinvent you, you know, you pay accolades to whoever you partnered with in the past or whoever, you know, you were inspired by a blog, but don't sit and wrack your brain to as we said, we're talking about earlier recreating the wheel. And then for the times that I are Melissa times is the UFO rabbit hole podcasts. That one's really good too.

Stefan: I have not heard of that one. It sounds interesting. I know "Two Bob's" has come up in previous conversations, but the UFO rabbit hole sounds intriguing.

Melissa: It is very intriguing, which but I love the paranormal so.

Stefan: Well, let's see. So you know, when you're not HubSpotting, tell us a little bit about what you do when you're not wearing your Remotish hat.

Melissa: Yeah, um, so I think that that's probably the most interesting part about me, the these days is must have been around five years ago, I started to look at what I was 32 ish. And I wanted to start thinking about what my next 30 years were going to look like, and what mattered to me. So I started taking a very active approach to significantly increase my activism. And that is in my local community, or at my other communities and groups who need support. And this has been, I've now started to really hone in on the communities that I'm giving my time, my voice and my activism to, which has been really difficult. You know, you have to do a lot of research into the groups, you have to connect with the people and find the ones that are of genuine nature. That way, you you're still you're not feeling maxed out, you're feeling that every, every single minute you're putting in it's making some type of impact. So that would say, being part of an activism community has been something that is near and dear to me. And it's funny that people who know me say, have said that there's three different Melissa's right. There's Melissa, Melissa, which I have a friend and family nickname that that's her and then there's professional Melissa, and she comes even with a different tone. And then there's activist Melissa, which she also comes with a different tone. And they're all different. So I would say that that's where I put the majority of my time. Other than that I do love being outside. I do love working out. I love running and fishing.

Stefan: That's awesome. The three headed Melissa. Which one hen are you gonna get today?

Melissa: Who are you gonna get today?

Stefan: Oh, you know, what would you say is your personal motto or mantra?

Melissa: This too shall pass. Simple enough.

Stefan: I like that it's optimism at its finest, right? It's like it's this will pass and on to the next and you know, no need to kind of fret over it. Right?

Melissa: Exactly. It actually came about from, I got into set cycling a couple of years ago. And while I'm a runner, it's a completely different set of muscle groups. And the I was doing it for a cause. So to be able to get up and moving was really difficult. So I started saying that as if I was going uphill, I would start saying this too shall pass. And then I just started applying it everywhere.

Stefan: It's like, what? What Thomas the Train? I think I can I think I can.

Melissa: Yes, exactly!

Stefan: Um, what is your guilty pleasure?

Melissa: Oh gosh. So my guilty pleasure is literally, and I know this, in fact, everyone else's reason not to like watching movies with me. During any movie watching, not at the theater, of course, but at home watching around friends. I love to google anything I can think of during, watching the film. So whether it's where was the where was it filmed? Where was the location? Why did they choose that location, who chose that location for which other movies at that person choose a location? Going down that whole movie fact rabbit hole is so delightful and brings the movie together. What's funny is I don't like to see behind the scenes, that for me spoils that too much. But I do like googling all of those questions and just creating a wealth of useless information.

Stefan: That's awesome. That reminds me, my wife will, doesn't like to see the movie trailers ahead of time. So she'll much rather just go into it blindly or know very little. So, yeah. And then and then afterwards, she'll, she'll hit up Reddit about the movies. I don't understand or why this happened? Or is like, I'm missing something. You know.

Melissa: We all want to become experts. And yet we like don't blog about it. We don't write about it, but we have it in our head stored for later.

Stefan: Does Melissa have a unique talent?

Melissa: I'm, so I, that question will make me obviously get held up at any point. And I can shuffle through a list of talents. However, they really do. I'm really mediocre animal. I'm a dull swiss army knife. I have all the components that are just not none of refined. So if I had to call one out, it's most likely my ability to recall memories and details. There's, there's like some type of association that I do with memories, smell and then details. I can. If only I could paint. I could probably recapture anything.

Stefan: Would you lump a photographic memory into that too?

Melissa: No, no, I wouldn't. Yeah, it's a it's a really, it's a really unique thing. I can say that I've had conversations where I can remember something from a random day. If someone's having a conversation and we were all in that memory and they're kind of recalling with this and that I can almost go down to verbatim what everyone has said, what people were wearing, where we went to go eat and then what the what smell was in the air, what temperature it was that day, just like weird stuff like that. But.

Stefan: That's impressive. Yeah, no, that's cool. Well, lastly, where do you live? And why do you love living there?

Melissa: Yeah, um, so I live in South Austin, Texas. And I remember when I used to say I live in Austin, I used to always get this. Oh, Austin's so cool. And I used to be like, yeah, and nowadays I'm like arg. So to that I have been here 20 years, over a little over 20 years and I do feel very much like I'm a seasoned Austinite. So I would, I would say the reasons I fell in love with Austin are extremely different than why I love it today. So to break that down just the reasons I fell in love with Austin when I moved here at 17 years old was it's inclusivity's. It had that melting pot vibe no matter where I went. The access to wilderness and watering holes. How many different types of once in a lifetime conversations I had the ample amount of mom and pop shops which as we are being recorded, this is your reminder to shop local. Access to it live music anytime of the day and really just this whole togetherness around supporting local musicians, whether that's for health benefits, for food, for lodging, we just gathered around that community of local artists to be able to ensure and and really creates and foster the longevity of it, which just really struck my heart chords. And of course, the cost of living was very reasonable considering how cool the town was. I think it genuinely from where it sits and its surrounding towns, it feel or it felt like its own ecosystem. Why I love it now. It's home. I've been here 20 years, and my brothers live very close to where I bought a house. One door to door is six minutes, I've timed it several times. And the other one is less than 15 minutes. And to have my and my grandma also is about eight minutes. So to have my family nearby is incredibly important to me. My first home was bought here. I have, you know, Diego and I have had a very good active life together here. And I think it's more has come into more sentimental reasons versus like the, the previous reasons if that makes sense.

Stefan: That's great. And I can definitely relate. I mean, I'm out in Katy. So it's only about a two and a half hour drive. For me, and I'd love to make it out there more often. But like my sister is like a five minute walk. So yeah, we're very similar in distance like you and your brother.

Melissa: It starts to matter when you get older, because when you're younger, you're just like ugh, and then as you get older, you're you genuinely start to appreciate appreciate them in a different way.

Stefan: 100% Well, that concludes today's employee spotlight. So I want to thank our listeners for tuning in. I also really want to thank Melissa for sharing her story with us today. So thank you, Melissa.

Melissa: This was a really great experience Stefan. Thank you so much for your time and the great questions and really giving me the opportunity to showcase myself in a different light versus just the professional Melissa.

Stefan: Absolutely. So if you all enjoyed this interview, you can head over to remotish.agency and check out the other employee spotlight interviews as well. So these can be found by heading to the header of the website, clicking on our Resources link and then clicking on the Blog option. So this will take you to our other catalog of blogs as well as the other Spotlight Interviews. So again, my name is Stefan. That's it for today. Until next time, happy HubSpotting.