I joined the Community team at Willa.com in September 2020 and currently serve as a Content Marketing Manager on the marketing team. My work supports the growth & development of our community (creative freelancers) through online content and in-person events.

How big is it?

‍Willa overall has about 80 employees and is growing every day! My specific team currently has 9 members.‍

Where are your teammates located?‍

Our employees are primarily located in Sweden and across the USA, but we have team members everywhere from Brazil to Spain to Finland. On my specific team, we’re split about 50-50 between folks on Pacific Time and the rest of the USA.‍

What does your team do? What are you responsible for?‍

Our team is responsible for creative initiatives that drive the growth and success of our brand and make our community members feel connected to each other.

A sense of community is the core of strong remote culture. I guess I would say that since I work in the digital community space! When team members feel connected to both each other and a greater common purpose, there’s less risk of isolation and dissatisfaction.

One of the best advantages of joining a small startup in the early days is the flexibility for your role to grow and change with you. I benefited from this when I first started here. As I discovered my talents and passions, the company let my role change along with me. To this day, our leadership checks in with everyone to make sure their daily tasks inspire them and are a fit for their skills and the future they want. This is the leadership lesson I have most taken to heart and I try to pass it along in making sure anyone under me on my team has that same opportunity.

One of the biggest challenges for me as a remote leader is identifying when a teammate may need support even if they’re not specifically asking for it. Getting to know people personally and staying closely up to date with their typical workflow helps me identify when they may be struggling and foster better communication & comfort with asking for support.

We’ve had company-wide virtual cooking classes and cocktail-making events as well as gift swaps, a comedic magician, and various games. Most teams have met up in their cities or taken a retreat nearby, but we’re gearing up for our first cross-team and all-company in-person events this spring.

We’ve previously used gather.town to meet up virtually and play games like Mafia and Fishbowl. Some of us (ok, it was me) might have been a little too competitive when it came to Fishbowl, though…

Our team leader starts each weekly meeting with a personal check-in that helps us all feel connected and present. I used to work in wilderness therapy where a common tactic was to use a random inanimate object to get patients to describe their feelings (if your feelings were a vegetable this morning, what would they be and why?) When I first joined this team I was excited to see a toned-down, but similar, concept in use.

The company overall meets weekly for high-level updates and concludes with a game of Kahoot.

As a community professional, I rely on Commsor’s Community Club and resources from CMX to stay on top of industry trends, connect with other community professionals, and grow as a leader.