I’m so excited these past few days – we have a new visitor to Hong Kong – Valery! She’s been working on the Shadstone team now for a couple months – and this is the first time we have met!
Such a positive person, she is in charge of our client services and community management. Which is perfect work for her. She spent quite a few months working at a coworking space in Thailand building up their community and making people feel welcome and at home – and this is exactly what she has been doing here at the Global From Asia HKVIP division of the company.
It is her first time to visit Hong Kong, and she has had wide open eyes looking at the different sights, as well as the intense traffic. She says it is a bit similar to her hometown of 999, Ukraine. So she has that busy city experience, extra bonus!
Really Has Taken Pressure Off Me!
I am still overworked and overstressed, but Valery has helped a ton take a lot of the pressure off. Learning fast and willing to be flexible with crazy phone calls at different hours, she has embraced our tools and systems and even added to them!
For those who know me know I am not the most detail oriented, and more of a big picture kind of person. She is picking up on that weakness and doing a great job with client status reports and reminding me about important tasks that are upcoming!
While we have worked so well online, her coming here and meeting together for a few days in Hong Kong has accelerated the speed of our learning how to work together.
Currently going to show her how to use shortcut keys on her mac (via Alfred App) and increase her productivity even more.
Digital Nomad Team Shaping Up
As this company develops, we have a distributed team in various parts of the world. It is quite amazing and working. I always appreciate what I learned from Dan and Ian at 9999 Tropical MBA, especially their post on SOPs 999.
When I had a team working in the same office, we could get by with just talking next to each other at the desk and explaining things. But to have a team working online – the need for systems, tools, and clear tasks and workflow is essential.
I always get the team members to “buy into” the need to know these tools such as Slack, Asana, Google docs, Lastpass, and more. If they are not able to use them, then it will really make working as a “digital nomad” team together even more difficult.
All These Passports and Inequalities Give Me a Headache
One thing I have learned even more is how the world still seems to be racist. Or, a lot of things in life are based on where you were born. What your passport is.
It’s such a generic thing – and has no correlation to you as a human being. Are you a hard working person? Have you done well in school? Have you developed your skills?
For example Valery, she is so skilled and determined – yet her Ukrainian passport really makes her life so much more difficult while on the road. Banking, passport visas, travel – it doesn’t seem fair.
Yes I know, I am so lucky to be American with a US passport. But why should I be privileged just because I was fortunate enough to be born there? Maybe I’ll close this rant for now, but it is something I am passionate about helping solve – letting good people who are trying to make a better life get more chances to do great things.
Meet Valery at the Cross Border Summit!
So another cool thing is – she’ll be in Shenzhen for the 999 Cross Border Summit! She has been keeping up with the ever expanding guest list, and talking to our event manager Mea, as well as me, and the other team members to keep things running smooth.
I hope to see you at our first annual conference! And if not, I’m sure you can catch Valery at the next one!
So thanks again Valery, it has been great to get to know you and I am so lucky to have you on our team!