Blog – Abby Phillips

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5 Ways to Stay Engaged From a Distance

I love working from home. It’s a luxury to take my dogs for a walk on my lunch break, wear comfy pants all day, and throw a load of laundry in the washer on a brain break. In fact, I’ve never worked in an office. Working from home (WFH) is all I know. In today’s job market, hybrid and fully remote positions are the norm. While I’m certainly pro-WFH, I’ll be the first to admit it has its challenges, and poor Wifi connection isn’t the only one.

Without face-to-face interaction and office camaraderie, it’s easy to feel isolated and disconnected from the company and your team. But one thing is for sure, feeling like you’re on your own island isn’t good for anyone.

Of course, a healthy team culture is the key to staying engaged from a distance. Here are some ways to make that happen.

1. Establish Clear Expectations

From the start, clear expectations around communication, guidelines, and protocol are imperative to a remote team. What are the working expectations? Are hours flexible? How will meetings run? How often will the team collaborate and connect?

Establishing the functionality of a workspace is the foundation of good engagement across remote teams. Clear expectations should lay out the culture of the team and ways to seek personal and professional community. Regular virtual meetings with managers are a great way to discuss individual progress, provide feedback, and address any concerns while offering a continued stream of communication surrounding expectations.

2. Get Connected

Anyone who works from home in any capacity has most likely felt some sense of isolation. Some thrive without daily interactions, but I’m not one of them. In my opinion, the best morale booster is a face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) connection!

We spend approximately 40+ hours per week with our coworkers in any given capacity. Whether it’s brainstorming topics, building out plans, or sharing a coffee together, make the most of it! Here are some ways to get and stay connected.

Hop on a call – Schedule regular video calls with your team to maintain face-to-face communication and connection. It can be regarding work, but it can also be for fun!
Send a chat – Death by meeting is real. Take advantage of the various forms of instant messaging or chat tools for real-time communication and collaboration. Send a Teams or Slack message to your colleague to connect on various topics.
Hop on office hours – Establish optional virtual office hours as a way to check in and discuss topics as needed.
Enjoy social hour – Work doesn’t always have to be so monotonous. Create virtual social events, such as happy hours, coffee talks, or themed meetings to foster team synergy and connection.

3. Take a Break

Staring at a computer screen all day is physically and mentally draining. Take a much-needed break to let your brain rest and recharge, even if only for a brief time. Whether you fold laundry, take your dog for a walk, or just sit on your couch, brain breaks are the best way to avoid burnout, boost productivity, and maintain your mental health.

In fact, those who take breaks at work experience physical and mental benefits, including fewer headaches, eye strain, lower back pain, higher job satisfaction, and lower rates of burnout. A healthier, happier you is just a few brain breaks away.

4. Set a Routine

For many work-from-homers, routines are necessary to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

One of the many benefits of working from home is the time you are given back in your daily schedule. More time to exercise in the morning instead of sitting in traffic. More time to eat a healthy, hearty breakfast rather than a drive-thru sandwich. More time to spend with family, read books, and enjoy the outdoors. Just more time.

A constant and flexible routine allows you to engage colleagues and resources during working hours so you can enjoy more “you” time!

5. Stay Organized

While communication is of the utmost importance, so is organization! Without organization, working collaboratively with a virtual team can get messy and confusing. If your home office lacks storage like mine, organization can be a challenge. However, project management tools are here to save the my-office-is-so-cluttered-I-can’t-think-straight day.

Project Management software, like Trello, Monday.com, and Asana, keeps track of tasks, project progress, and collaboration across teams. It’s a game-changer for collaborating and staying organized on projects while working remotely. The best part? There are some great free options!

It’s no surprise that working from home can present a unique set of challenges. While it may feel like you’re off on your own island, you can have a meaningful company experience from afar. With the right tools and strategies, it’s possible to maintain productivity and stay engaged with your remote team. Who would trade that for a commute to work anyway?

Job

33 Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Featuredby Abby PhillipsLeave a Comment

I remember feeling like a million bucks walking through the doors of my very first marketing meeting. It was the very first day of my very first Marketing job—coffee and confidence ran through my young, eager veins.

It wasn’t even 5 minutes into the meeting when my I’m-a-girl-boss-marketer bubble popped. I had no idea what was going on. An extreme sense of panic came over me faster than the coffee I downed a few hours prior.

What am I doing here? They surely hired the wrong candidate. I don’t know anything. I am so underqualified.

Words like ROIs and MQLs were among the many that surely put a look of confusion on my face. Instead of nodding and pretending to know what was going on, I started jotting down notes. Not just any notes, though—I started a running list of unknown terms and looked them up immediately following. A marketing dictionary, if you will.

Since then, the list has grown significantly. And with that, so has my knowledge of marketing.

If you have ever been a Marketing deer in headlights like me, here is my gift to you. Print it out, save it on your computer, add to it, or recite it before bed — you might find you enjoy the peace of mind of knowing the difference between CTA and CRM.

1-Pager: Also known as a Sales Sheet or Flyer, a 1-Pager is a 1-page document that highlights information on a given topic. It is often a product or solution sheet for a specific brand.

Analytics: Data points that identify and track trends in activity to bring purpose and understanding to marketing efforts.

Blog: A low-cost form of short or long-form content that boosts brand awareness, increases website traffic and engagement, and builds trust and credibility.

Bounce Rate: A metric used to measure engagement across the web and email. Bounce rate refers to the number, or percentage, of users who immediately leave or “bounce” from a webpage without taking any action while there.

Call to Action (CTA): A CTA is a suggested action for audiences to take, often on websites, emails, and other forms of content.

Case Study: A form of content that showcases a real-world example highlighting the benefit of using a brand’s product or service. Case studies are used by marketers to show how a brand provided a solution or made a positive impact.

Content Marketing: A marketing strategy focused on creating and sharing quality content to target audiences to produce leads and build brand awareness.

Content Management System (CMS): A software or platform used to manage the content lifecycle, including creation, editing, and management. A CMS streamlines the process of content creation and allows for a simplified approach to managing content.

Conversion Rate: The metric used to track the percentage of users who complete the desired action, like responding to a CTA. Marketers desire high conversion rates because it represents how effective marketing efforts are.

Customer Journey: The interactions and experiences customers have between the first touchpoint and the purchase time. This process helps understand the customer better to improve the overall customer experience.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A CRM is a tool used by marketers to measure the relationship lifecycle with clients and prospects, including interactions and meetings. A CRM allows companies to grow their business through relationship building/tracking.

Brand Awareness: The familiarity an individual has with a specific brand or product. Brand Awareness is an important measure in marketing, as it is how clients and prospects recognize your brand, which influences buying habits.

Demand Generation: A marketing strategy used to generate demand and awareness for a brand. Demand Gen builds revenue by driving high-quality leads.

eBook: An eBook, or an electronic book, is a digital, downloadable content piece often available in PDF form that provides relevant information on a given topic. An eBook provides in-depth resources to readers and allows marketers to position their brand as trusted thought leaders within an industry.

Editorial Calendar: A tool used by content marketers to plan, schedule, and organize content over a period of time.

Gated Content: Content that requires specific or personal information to view. For example, it may be required to enter your name and email in a lead capture form to access an eBook on 2023 Content Marketing Trends. Gated Content is a strategy used in lead generation to identify prospects and increase leads.

HTML: HyperText Markup Language, or HTML, is the language of the web. With HTML, marketers can provide a customizable experience to viewers on different mediums—emails, web, etc.

Inbound Marketing: The strategy marketers use to attract prospects through the use of valuable digital content and experiences.

Infographic: A form of visual content used to make content more digestible to target audiences.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Specific goals set by individuals and teams to track numerical metrics throughout a specific time. KPIs show trends in marketing to highlight how marketing efforts impact engagement.

Landing Page: A webpage users “land” on after being directed from another source to convert visitors to leads and eventually sales.

Marketing Automation: Software that manages and automates marketing tasks for a company, including campaigns and activities. Marketing automation improves efficiency across teams, essentially bringing in more revenue.

Marketing Plan: The outline or roadmap of a brand’s marketing strategy and the action steps needed to obtain certain goals over a period of time.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): A lead generated by marketing efforts that are likely to convert to a sale. MQLs are often generated through completing forms on websites, downloading gated content, signing up for webinars, etc.

Organic Marketing: A cost-effective marketing initiative used to drive traffic without paid media. (i.e. blogs)

Paid Marketing: A marketing initiative that used purchased advertising to target specific audiences with marketing campaigns and materials. Paid Marketing is a quick and effective way to promote your business and build brand awareness.

Personas: A marketing persona is a fictional depiction of a brand’s ideal customer. Personas humanize customers to tailor content to the specific target audience(s).

Return on Investment (ROI): Marketing ROI is the calculation of how much revenue marketing efforts contribute. It is calculated by subtracting marketing costs from sales growth and dividing it by marketing costs. Essentially, ROI justifies marketing efforts.

Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS is a method of offering a platform or tool through a digital format via the web. MailChimp, HubSpot, and Salesforce are examples of companies who offer SaaS.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The science of using content, keywords, links, and more to improve a website’s search optimization in major search engines. The purpose of SEO is to drive traffic to a company’s website.

Subject Matter Expert (SME): A Subject Matter Expert, or SME, is a person who specializes in a specific subject or industry. SMEs are important to marketing teams by contributing knowledge and expertise to content development and marketing strategy.

Webinar: An online event hosted by a company to inform, educate, and/or entertain audiences. Webinars are a low-cost marketing initiative used to build brand awareness and credibility, often converting to sales.

Whitepaper: An in-depth, informational document on a specific topic that addresses a problem and offers a solution. Similar to an eBook, a whitepaper is a long-form content piece used by marketers to highlight the benefit of a solution and encourage sales.

Just like my knowledge of marketing, this list will continue to grow and evolve to include more information for marketers like you and me.

With each new term, strategy, and method I learn, a little bit more confidence runs through my veins. As for the coffee, it’s always been there.

I’d love to know what terms you think should be added to this list. Comment below and share your thoughts!

Job

Into the Thick of It: Starting Over After Getting Laid Off

Featuredby Abby Phillips3 Comments

Apparently, it’s lay-off season, and I’m the latest victim of this brutal storm.

The world of business has always been cut-throat, but I had no idea it would happen so soon in my career. But you know what they say, there’s a first time for everything!

Ha — can you tell humor is my coping mechanism?

I’m sure you’re familiar with lay-offs, but has anyone ever told you getting laid off sends you down a grief spiral?

Sadness, disbelief, anger, despair. Yes, you feel them all, and sometimes all at once.

It’s a weird thing really. You always hear about companies facing financial distress, but never think it’ll be you getting the boot. You work so hard, you go above and beyond personally and professionally, and you have such loyalty to your company. You never think it’ll be you until it is.

Not until you get the phone call at 9:30 am on a Tuesday and your world stops for a second.

How can a 60-second call end so much?

“Your position is being cut.” Disbelief.

Your team of rockstar professionals-turned-friends will never work together again. Sadness.

Oh, and you’ll no longer get paid either. Panic.

All of this gone in a 60-second call. Anger.

How am I already back to this point again? 50 job applications sent. Exhaustion.

Another rejection email? Despair.

And suddenly I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place; Unsure what my next move is or where to go. Young enough to start over, but waiting for a sign to lead me.

Clearly, I’m still in the thick of it — grieving the loss of a job I loved, oh so much.

It’s a process I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But, in a way, I’m grateful for it.

Here are 3 tips on how to stay successful after getting laid off:
1. Keep a routine.
Do your best to not fall out of your routine. Instead, replace it with new, beneficial, and productive activities. Use this time to make yourself better than when you started.
2. Network like no tomorrow.
Find connections through your connections. Someone can introduce you or vouch for you. Give them the chance and nurture those relationships. Don’t stop once you find a new job, either. Always continue to build your network.
3. Set goals for yourself.
Create daily, weekly, and monthly goals for yourself. Get them done. Make new goals. Do it again.

I’m holding out for the hope that something much better is just ahead. Sometimes God pushes us when he knows we wouldn’t take the steps ourselves.

Though it hasn’t been long, this “vacation” has given me time to reevaluate and appreciate what’s around me.

My supportive and loving husband. In a scary time like this, I’ve never felt so safe and supported.
My family and friends. I truly have the best support system around me. Whether helping me find jobs, looking over my resume, or grabbing coffee because it’s been too long.
The little things: putting some extra love into my garden, daily workouts — sometimes even 2, treating myself to Starbucks (everyday), and having time to write again.

Who knows, maybe that’s what I needed.

This story isn’t finished yet. It never will be, but my next chapter is coming soon! 💗

Lifestyle

CHANGING. GROWING. LEARNING.

Featuredby Abby Phillips4 Comments

Change. Something we all are familiar with.

I’m not talking about the change that your dad carries around in the pocket of his Levi’s. I’m talking about the kind that keeps us on our toes– the kind of change that allows us to grow and evolve.

Change is good. But let’s be honest, change can be difficult. In fact, sometimes change can be heartbreaking. In just two months, I have experienced so many changes. I changed my last name, my job title, my address, my priorities, my everything, for the most part. I loved the changes I was experiencing. I still love them.

These beautiful new changes are so exciting. They are the changes we pray for and so desperately long for throughout our lives. We await the changes with arms wide open and greet them so favorably once they arrive.

And then something happens. Of course, how can it not? We experience change in a not-so-favorable light. It is inevitable. The dreaded change that you don’t see coming; You don’t welcome it either. The kind of change that stops you in your tracks and leaves you defeated. I have come to know that change recently.

My grandmother recently lost her fierce fight with cancer. She was 74 years young and put up a strong fight against the odds.

It is devastating to lose a loved one. Somehow the world keeps turning, but how can it, knowing you will never see that person again? One second they are there and alive and the next they are gone. Eventually, that despair in your heart turns into a mental battle in your mind. Mine looked like this:

I will never taste her cooking again.
My bundt cake will never taste as good as hers did.
I will never hug her again.
My children won’t know her.

During these thoughts and feelings of grief I picked up the book, The Fight to Flourish, by Jennie Lusko. Jennie lost her 5-year-old daughter, Lenya, and did not think she could continue to be a good mother, wife, or Christian. With the help of the Lord, Jennie was able to fight to flourish and uses her story to encourage others to do the same. She shares hope and encouragement with readers when she says, “God loves you. He cares for you. He is with you. He will fight for you. Your part? Believe Him. Trust Him. Keep your hands up in surrender, and just keep walking. When you come up against the impossible, when you feel like you’re losing the fight, when you’re so weary you can’t lift your fists to protect yourself, look up. See that God is there, and watch Him fight for you.”

What a beautiful way to think and believe. God’s got this. He always has and always will.

In our broken world, it is so important to remember that the key to overcoming unwanted change is trusting in the Lord.

I can now see how God was working in my life leading up to my Grandmother’s passing. Thankfully, I was trusting in the Lord’s plan and can now see his work before my eyes. Here is the “God Wink” he gave me:

Randomly and without reason, Tyler and I changed our October wedding to March. There was no true reason we chose to turn our engagement into six short months following a relatively short time dating. I could argue that the venue fit us in so perfectly for a late March wedding, but what really happened was Jesus. I didn’t understand that until now. If it wasn’t for God uprooting our previous plans for those he had for us, Grandma wouldn’t have made it to the wedding. She wouldn’t have been there with us to celebrate.

A crazy, unfounded, irrational decision to move our wedding up a few months was not my decision or Tyler’s decision, it was God’s.

That is the beauty in the journey. When you are least expecting it, God swoops in to change your plans for the plans He has for you. Thank you Jesus for that gift!

Finally, I felt peace, and alongside it came joy. I remembered that while I may never see her again on this Earth, I will see her again someday! What a victory that is. When you open your heart and mind up to Jesus, grace and peace and joy overflow from you.

One day we will meet again and that will be such a joyous celebration! Without Jesus that wouldn’t be possible. Without Jesus, change would have certainly consumed me. Without Jesus, change would not be worth it.

Once I remembered this, I popped her bundt cake in the oven, grabbed a cup of coffee, told Alexa to play Elevation Worship, and sat on the kitchen counter and thought of my favorite moments with her. I felt at peace remembering her this way– with a cup of coffee and one of her best recipes, even if it wasn’t as good as hers.

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