Can Working Remotely Foster Growth?

The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and Guests

William Kyle moved his company from San Francisco, CA to Lexington, KY, and now runs it from Lisbon, Portugal. Along with a tour operator business in Italy. Curious about how to manage remote work teams, how distance can foster growth? Ask William, CEO of hydra Brands and Resonate Tours.

1:10-1:45 – sound of handbells…

6:45 – “It (COVID and hiring a new COO) allowed me… to see the possibilities of expanding… living away from the office, away from the manufacturing, away from the day-to-day, that we could do a lot of things remotely that we didn't think we could do before, because the technology wasn’t there, or we didn’t make the leap.”

7:26 – … the best part of working off-site “it has made it obvious that there are people doing work autonomously, that I might have micro-managed before… and how they’re doing work and we have a project-based system and we’re using technology and people have stepped up, out of my (CEO’s) shadow.”

10:20 – “Before I was feeling like I had to make all the decisions, and this made it so I could delegate more effectively, being farther away, I had to delegate.”

11:42 – “From a personal standpoint this has been fantastic, growing as an entrepreneur and owner and understanding what my strengths are.”

22:45 – Advice for other CEO’s leaning into remote work: “Understanding how to make best use of technology is absolutely critical… and you have to stand your ground… take those moments and opportunities and reinvent if you need to.”

25:37 – “… and now our sales manager is in Montana, I don’t know if we would have hired a remote sales manager… now we have a team that can operate differently than before, so in some ways we reinvented how we do business.”

27:35 – “All of that seems to have been catalysts for making distance help the growth of your business… I have not let place ever get in the way of what I want to be doing.”