Why this, now?
I love to talk about work. Moreover, I like to challenge the status quo and find different ways to do almost everything. I skip the line, zero-base projects, read the last chapter first, and strive to be the contrarian at the meeting. All without being a dick.
I think we should talk about that, and this is where we will.
Is this for you?
If so, you might dig this first draft of an informal covenant:
We shall figure out how to be clear and kind at the same time.
We shall challenge each other’s assumptions about the fundamental ways of doing work in a concerted effort to move everyone forward—together.
We shall not take ourselves, or our work, so fucking seriously.
We shall agree that competition is good, but competitive business practices are bad.
We shall flip desks, question silly people’s advice, occasionally delight in monocles popping out, and banish tribal wisdom that makes us act like monkeys.
So, what say you?
A little about me, a little about us.
I co-founded a podcast production company in 2013. Currently, we are 35 humans and zero LLMs. For now, podcasts happen to be what we make. How we make them can be applied to almost anything - muffins, bicycles, M&A agreements…
To start, we do not divide our work between the personal and business aspects, though I will draw a dotted line between the two for the sake of brevity—perhaps even to illustrate a point.
Kindness, professionalism. In that order.
I don’t like jerks. You know exactly what I mean, and you might even have someone specific pop to mind. Jerks flood your email, blow up your phone, and tend to treat you like you are less important—until, of course, they need something from you. I don’t like them, and I don’t take their money. Plenty of jerks are waving checks at me, and despite George Costanza’s assertion, the Jerk Store never runs out of them.
Recently, I taught my 5-year-old niece to play the card game Fish! We played an “open hand” for the first round to teach her how the game is structured and allow her to find her own strategy. Instead of hiding our cards, we lay them all face up for each other to see and talk about them. We laughed, we listened, we learned, and we had fun. Fish! is now her favourite game, and she beats me consistently.
Years ago, my older brother taught me to play Texas Holdem’. For 45 minutes, I was lectured on game strategy and rules. I was questioned and criticized for every card I laid. I wasn’t free to make mistakes. He needed to establish his superior skills. He was a jerk, and I never played again.
I prefer to play cards when the point is spending time together rather than winning.
Inclusion and diversity are not just woke culture ideas.
Our company is a community of people. People, clients included, volunteer to be here every single day. Collaboration is a choice made from a sense of belonging somewhere supportive, and I’m here for it.
Podfly is a safe space to think, create, act on whims, take chances, and never feel judged. Mistakes are victories to celebrate. Ideas are genius newborns to be nurtured, and carefully planned outcomes are detached from expectation and open to surprise.
Inclusion and diversity are humanity. Humanity is the core of a community. Buzzwords are dumb and a waste of time.
This feels right.
Our intuitions and emotions are part of the process of creating content that moves people. There’s nothing more to say.
If it feels right, it is right.
It’s always personal.
There is one word in our motto that isn’t there by accident. Kind. Outdated expressions like “it’s not personal, it’s just business” make no sense to us. Everything is personal when people are involved, and we believe every person deserves to be treated with kindness.
We are a collection of both willing and unwilling participants in a project. The project happens to be called a podcast. Regardless of its nature, we are all in it to win it. At the outset, we start making choices on how we intend to interact and treat each other.
We can respect boundaries and, at the same time, acknowledge no separation between personal and professional interactions. They’re just interactions.
Sustainability
Human relationships are the point of everything. It’s what we exist for, and motivates our every action and decision. To say we love our clients isn’t weird to us. Feedback often includes how a call with our team is a favourite calendar event of the week. We totally feel the same way.
We are super curious about what you do and what your job entails. It’s kind the nature of creators and artists. And no matter what field of work you’re in, it’s always an exercise in self-discovery to work with people who see you from a very different angle and can reflect it back in a unique way.
For us, that’s what a sustainable relationship feels like. Two parties listen to each other, reflect back what they hear, and build upon a foundation of validation, understanding, and compassion.
Stay tuned; it gets gooshier!
We need to talk about love. Indeed, we have to address kindness, community, and caring for each other. It’s how humans have survived for millennia and how our company has survived for over a decade.
Our business and personal lives are the same. They feed and inform each other because they are each other. How I might interact with my 3-year-old nephew and a $3M account differs only in context and vocabulary. At the core, it’s always about listening to each other’s needs and being present or hands-off when either best serves the relationship.
Let’s make it about loving each other and our time together. The difference may only be that my nephew probably gives better hugs.
Love this!! Totally with you. Just one of the reasons I'm deeply grateful I get to work with you 🙏🏽