ABBY DOWNING is the partner and creative director at The Superfan Company, an all-female team of pop-culture enthusiasts creating powerful programs and products that engage superfans. In this interview we discuss how Abby’s team communicates with each other internally – and deal with the different communication styles their clients have. We also discuss how to manage being always on, how to deal with conflict, what to look for when hiring remote colleagues, and how artists are making more personal connections with their fans.

(https://thesuperfancompany.com/theteam/abbydowning)

 

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Original transcript

Lisette:  Great, and we’re live. So welcome everybody to this remote interview. My name is Lisette, and I’m interviewing people and companies doing great things remotely. And today on the line all the way from South Carolina is Abby downing and Abby, you are the partner and creative director at the super fan company, which is an all-female team of pop culture enthusiasts, which we’re going to dive deeply into that but you guys are creating powerful programs and products that engage super fans. So if people haven’t guessed already, this is music industry-related and graphic design related, but we’re going to get into that. But before that, Abby, let’s start with the first question, which is, what does your virtual office look like? What do you need to get your work done?

Abby:  Well, thanks for having me on a podcast and my virtual office looks like a lot of things. I have a home base which is literally in my home. And it’s, it’s an office. It’s full of bookshelves and product samples and computers. I have a desktop and a laptop, and lots of creative art and collections of things I can’t get rid of. And I use that as my home base. My company produces a lot of physical products, so books, albums, VIP, merchandise, bags, and all kinds of stuff. So I need a place to be able to store and reference all of that. But on days that I need to get out, I work at the local Starbucks a lot. I travel back and forth to New York. So I work in airports and on airplanes and on-site in New York occasionally. And every now and then when I just need to get away all work from my parents’ house in the mountains or, you know, a friend’s house somewhere. So I definitely have a home base I have consistency… [Inaudible 01:49] from my laptop, I jump. Around.

Lisette:  Love it. Love it. So we’re going to talk a little bit about the different kinds of workplaces. But first I want to talk about the Superfan Company. So what a lot of listeners may not know is that I actually have a background in music. I managed a band for a long or a couple of bands for a long time and went on tour for years. And that’s how my remote history started was I started actually working from a van while on tour with my favorite band in the whole wide world. So when I when I saw your information, I was super excited to talk to you. What is the Superfan Company and what you guys do?

Abby:  Yeah, so we started out as a company called ZinePak pack about eight years ago, a small startup and when we started we were creating a product called a ZinePak that was a mini magazine with an album in it. So basically a deluxe version fans could buy for a few dollars more and it had exclusive photos, interviews, all kinds of really cool content and some kind of merchandise piece in it. We did that for the first few years and obviously music sales started to change a lot. And you know, bands and artists are only putting out an album, you know, maybe once a year, maybe once every three years. So we were really lucky that our clients wanted to work with us on a more regular basis, which allowed us to kind of explore different avenues of helping them with their VIP packages, helping them with their faith and [Inaudible 03:20] starting merged for them to sell online. And then we also got into some other spaces based on knowing those artists. So we started doing a lot with ticket delivery for festivals and started also working outside of the music industry with sports teams and corporate partners and a little bit of everything. So we’ve really expanded but it’s still all in that pop culture space.

Lisette:  Wow, exciting and a bit and now when I saw the orders, the artists that you’ve worked with or some of the things you’ve worked this on your roster, really interesting people and looks like some really interesting projects. Do you have any favorites?

Abby:  Yeah, we like to say our clients would make the most interesting cocktail party guest list of all time because it really spans the gamut. I think some of my favorites are probably, Jimmy Buffett, I’ve been a fan forever. So to be able to work with him, was just really exciting. He’s such a brilliant businessman, that that was a really interesting [Inaudible 04:25] I’m looking at my bookcase to see what else jumps out. We’re working currently with the Flatbush zombies, and they’re amazing and super creative. So that’s been really interesting. We just did a really cool concept with stagecoach Music Festival. And we did their ticket delivery and these boxes that pop up and so on social media, everyone was taking pictures of them and creating their own little photoshoot. So that was really fun to see. And we actually just did something for JoJo Siwa, I don’t know if you know who she is, but she’s basically all glitter all the time. So that was a very different vibe and style for us to get into.

Lisette:  Cool. I mean, it’s really fun to do all these different styles because I’m sure every I mean every artist has is their own brand, right. So then trying to capture that graphically or even in these packages must be really fun.

Abby:  Exactly, yeah. Everything from Katy Perry to Paul McCartney and Phil Collins. You know, there’s really no similarities there, right?

Lisette:  Right. And it’s also Dolly Parton. I was a big fan of Dolly Parton growing up my whole family was so that was really fun to see on the list as well, so…

Abby:   Yeah, Dolly Parton is one of my favorites for sure.

Lisette:  Yeah, amazing woman. Absolutely amazing woman just great history. So you got your, your company is based in New York City, but everybody works remotely. Why is it set up that way?

Abby:  Well, we need to be flexible. So my partner Kim, lives in New York. We have an office space in New York, similar to what I have here. A home base for everybody. But our clients are everywhere. Our vendors are everywhere. So we really need to be able to be on the move all the time. So Kim spends a lot of time in LA. She’ll go anywhere for a meeting, but it’s usually LA or New York. My production manager uses our office as a home base for all her samples. But a lot of days, she’ll work from home just because she’s more productive. My project manager who’s amazing was just actually on a two week vacation, all over Italy and [Inaudible 06:31] it’s just nice. You know, our hours generally are not nine to five because we’re working with people in different time zones and different vendors and very quick deadlines a lot. So we need to be as flexible as possible. And it’s just easier for us to be able to do that from wherever we need to.

Lisette:  So how do you communicate with each other as a team?

Abby:  We are in constant committed we use Slack, the app, which has really changed our life. We’ve been using it for a couple years now. It’s cut down drastically on emails, which is fantastic. So we really only use email for vendors and clients and almost all of our internal communication is via slack and phone calls. I’m a really big believer in getting on the phone and just talking through something it alleviates a lot of back and forth. We will do video calls a lot when the team needs to show me something from New York or I need to show them something. So technology airing communication like on a constant basis that that doesn’t really hinder us at all.

Lisette:   And how do you usually talk with your clients because they must be all over the place.

Abby:  They are all over the place. So a lot of it is email. There’s a ton of emails flying around from clients, but we also try to get on the phone with them as You know, quickly as we can we really meet our clients where they’re at. So we have one client who’s a lot better through text message. It’s really not a typical way of doing business. But with him it works. So we text him to get answers to get approvals [Inaudible 10:16] terrible at email, so we just pick up the phone and call them. We have one client in LA that will ignore our emails forever and ever until we show up in LA. And then it’s great. We have a wonderful meeting with him. So we really try to meet people where they’re at to make life as easy for them as possible.

Lisette:  So interesting, right? Because every client really has their own quirks and their own communication preferences, right. So if when you’re servicing other people, then you really have to adjust to them.

Abby:  Exactly and we’re really flexible. We’re a small team. We pride ourselves on being really easy to work with and being really flexible. So that’s part of that’s just part of the way we like to operate is making it easier on him. Everybody else and not having super stringent rules on how we’re going to get it done.

Lisette:  So in terms of then slack, you said that it’s really dramatically cut down on the number of emails. But on the other side of that people have also said that slack can be sort of like this bombardment because you’re, you’re talking more and it’s more conversational in some ways, and it’s more like instant messaging. And so have you also found that like, going from emails, good to going to slack has it also been sort of, you know, like a water hose of information? How do you guys manage that?

Abby:  It was definitely tense at the beginning. It was a lot. But I think because our team is so small, our core team is only four people right now. So the while we do use it very conversationally, it’s not an overwhelming number of people. So we have channels for every project. So it’s all broken out that way. My, my production manager will leave a lot of channels that are not currently active for her, you know that she’s not in that step of the process and she’ll Peace out. And, you know, we’ll just bring her back in when we need her. But it’s just helped us organize a lot. We also use a program called pipe drive, where we sort projects for where they are in our process, whether we’ve, we just have a wild idea, we haven’t talked to them yet, or we’ve actually pitched it, or it’s in pricing, whatever. So between slack and [Inaudible 10:23] are able, organized and moving forward without having to constantly be like doing those, you know, to our team calls, like figure out where everybody is.

Lisette:  Yeah, online tools have really helped come a long way in terms of task tracking and time management. In that respect. I use pipe drive myself, I’m a huge fan, Love it. Love it, love it, and it made me hyper-aware of how many balls I had been dropping before I still did. So.

Abby:  I know. If we don’t check it for a couple of days. We’re like, oh, gosh, what happened to that one, we really need to check back in.

Lisette:   Yeah, indeed. So in the same vein as getting too many, too many messages, sort of the, the fire hose of messages. It sounds like you’re also working with clients from all over the place. And there is this problem that a lot of people complain about, which is this being always on, and sort of the 24 seven, you know, because we can work from anywhere and anytime we tend to, how do you manage that for yourself and at the company?

Abby:  Yeah, it’s, it’s a constant battle. I think we, we really are on all the time. Because of the nature of this business, the entertainment world, it’s not a nine to five. So we need to be flexible in how we manage that. But we do a really good job of shutting down when we can. So this week, if it’s quiet on Friday, we’ll take a summer Friday and we’ll get out of the office will get out of our house, wherever we are and we will respond to emails or will be on our phones, but we won’t have to be tied to a desk. For remote working people were pretty consistent and being at our computer at a desk or a table somewhere. So for us, you know, summer Fridays are great to rest. But if we get it my production manager doesn’t start her day, usually until 10, or 11. Because if she’s on the phone with China or working late at night, those hours work better for her. Whereas I usually work really early in the morning. So by the midafternoon, I need a break [Inaudible 12:31] walk my dog or do something like that. So we try to take little breaks where we can, but in terms of being available, like we generally are always available, and then just try to balance it out where we can when we have some time we have some breathing space, we take it.

Lisette:  And do you have some sort of a team agreement in place with the team or is everybody just on slack and saying like, hey, I was up really late with China last night. I’ll be taking the morning off. I mean that how do you have some sort of like core hours thing that the team needs to be there or

Abby:  Our core hours are pretty much like 10 to five is when we really expect people to generally be around. But my partner Kim, you know, she does a lot of meetings, she does all of the inbound business. So she might be recording a podcast or be in meetings all day. So we live and die by our Google calendars. So all of our calendars are shared. So if Kim is going to be out of the office all day, it’s in her calendar. So we know [Inaudible 13:37] you know, if I have a dentist appointment, it’s in my calendar. So there’s really no privacy from that standpoint. We have everything in there. So you know, if it’s 11 o’clock, and Amy knows she’s not going to be in until noon. The next day, she’ll put it in her calendar or she’ll put it in slack. But I think being a small team allows us that really wide likeability that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to have if we had a huge team that we were working with.

Lisette:  So how has the…you said that it started your company started seven years ago with Zine a ZinePak? How has the way that you’ve worked changed since seven years ago, sort of some of the main things that have changed?

Abby:  Yeah, so much has changed. I feel like we’ve pivoted like every year so. But when we started, there was the two count co-founders and myself, it was just the three of us. And we were literally working from our kitchens in New York City together, bouncing around to different restaurants and different people’s apartments. And over the years, we grew to a team of I think about 17 people. And Walmart was our first customer when we were doing the Zinepak product. And we were just cranking them out. I mean, so many every year, and it was really it was almost scientific. We had a process it was very clear. So we were able to build a team and crank out more and more product every year. Then as the music industry really changed a lot, about three years ago, streaming became such a big deal. Sales of music went down, artists really wanted to start reaching fans differently. And so with that chain, [Inaudible 15:19] and started doing projects that were really completely custom, every time there is no equation, there is no real process. It made it harder to work with that very large team. Because you know, spent more time managing people and figuring out how to do 30 different kinds of projects as opposed to doing the same one over and over and over again. So we went back to a smaller team and now we’re it’s almost a free for all it’s a very organized free for all because everything we do is custom. So we, we have the same process in terms of pitching the client talking to the client, you know, working through but the difference Designing a black unicorn sequin backpack. And you know, a 200-page coffee table book is very different. So now that our team is back to being really small, we’re actually working more like we did when we started the company. So we’ve kind of come full circle.

Lisette:  Interesting. And what’s challenging for you guys at the moment in terms of working remotely? What are what do you still struggle with? Or what do you newly struggle with?

Abby:   Yeah, I think for myself, personally, the biggest struggle is there’s two things really, sometimes the human contact factor, you know, becomes, I’m not seeing people in my day to day necessarily if I’m super busy, and I’m not leaving my office at home, then the only person I’m talking to is my dog, which, you know, you can start to feel crazy after a while with that. And so that becomes a challenge. I think that’s where working at Starbucks occasionally there’s a new social club opening in Charleston that’s really being targeted for remote workers. It’s not a remote workspace, but it’s going to have space as part of it that you can work in, which will be really great. So I think those things will kind of help that battle. The other challenge for me, being a partner in the company is a lot of you don’t necessarily get a seat at the table virtually, sometimes in the larger conversations, some companies that run in them more corporate way, you know, if they don’t see you physically sitting across from them, they don’t consider you part of that conversation. And I think that’s something that we really battle because we pride ourselves on big ideas. So when your big ideas not being heard, just because you’re not physically in the room, that’s really frustrating. So we’re still we’re always trying to work on how to how to balance that and how often do you get on a plane and show up and walk in the room and how often do you say My idea is just as good for me And you don’t have to pay for the plane ticket. So listen to what I have to say. And that’s a challenge.

Lisette:  Has that changed over time? Or is it still? Is it is it sort of still on the cusp of change that people need you to physically be there at the table instead of the video conference call, for example.

Abby:  I think it’s tough because it’s definitely a personal preference. You know, there’s, there are people that are very open to it, and they don’t ever, ever have to meet you in person and they’ll completely trust you and it is [Inaudible 18:31] other people, if they don’t see you, you know, they really are not big believers in what you’re doing necessarily. So I think that personal preference factor, it makes it hard because you’re always having to gauge who you’re talking to and how to best handle it. So I think that that’s again, where the flexibility comes in and saying, Okay, this, this guy has been running his company like this for 30 years. It’s not going to work like I’m going to have to get there I’m going to have to be in the room and trying to balance that.

Lisette:   Right? Such a different environment actually. So you guys are the, you know, the clients and you’ve got a number of different customers, each customer has their own communication preference, like email or phone or in-person or video or yeah, so it’s a flexibility is really the name of the game there.

Abby:  It is. That’s really our key to flexibility and creativity as long as we can balance those two things. Those are our key ingredients for getting all this work. [Inaudible 19:36]

Lisette:  So, I want to go back to something that you mentioned and that Charleston is opening and you said it’s a social club aimed at remote workers. So it’s not an It’s a place where you can go to work. Also, like it’s like a co-working space be said it was more for social interaction. You tell us more about that?

Abby:  Yeah, I can, I’m so excited about it. They are not opened yet they are under construction, but they are going to be a social club, they’re going to have a pool and they’re going to have a small music venue and a restaurant and a smoothie bar and a gym. I mean, it’s really a lifestyle [Inaudible 20:16] creating, but they’re going to have space within it with work tables, conference room phone booths, so that if you are a member, you have a space to go and work meet clients, do what you have got to do. And you get all the lifestyle pieces with it, which is really exciting. So I…

Lisette:  Very different than a co-working space.

Abby:  Yes, yes. And we have in New York, we work in a….we-work space. We have an office that we work so you know we can jump around to those spaces all over the place and we work is amazing. But the workspaces in Charleston are really expensive, because property is expensive, and they haven’t quite nailed down the whole co-working configuration like we were cast, you know, the offices and Charleston are huge and have big wooden desk and huge leather chairs and it’s like, that’s not what we need, you know, we don’t need that kind of space. So I think being in this new club is going to be really [Inaudible 21:20] put people that work remotely that want to network that have this lifestyle in the same space and then give them you know, everything they need to succeed which is a space to work out a space to be social. I think it’s going to be really interesting.

Lisette:  It sounds amazing. I really love the spin-off from the regular co-working space into sort of a more lifestyle space, especially for remote workers. And I find that very curious that Charleston has not quite picked up on the co-working vibe working that the offices are not yet picked up because you know, in some cities know when you go to Bali It is made for digital nomads, for example, some you know, so it is in some cities are just in different places than others.

Abby:  It’s crazy because so many people in my neighborhood are remote workers. I mean, when I built my house, I specifically built this house, so I had an office. And all the co-working space is just super traditional here, it doesn’t know that we [Inaudible 22:22] you know the [Inaudible 22:23] one person offices with glass doors, and they’re super easy and down here. It’s just like these big corporate spaces that are expensive and just really not necessary for a big part of the remote population. So it’d be interesting to see how this new space works. And I’m, I’m totally blanking on the name of it, but I will share it with you afterwards. Oh, great, because I would love to put it in the show notes. Yeah.

Lisette:  Yeah. Great. So I also wanted to go back to you said that you worked in various places. So you work from your home office. You work from the local Starbucks. When do you choose how do you choose which space you want to work in? Are there certain tasks that you do like when you’re at the Starbucks? Or is it just like you need to get out of the house it’s a mood you need to get out and you can do everything from anywhere and so is a task-based or is it mood-based with the depending on your, your space?

Abby:  I would say it’s both probably mostly mood-based. If I you know, I get started really early in the mornings and if I’m having a hard time getting going at home, [inaudible 23:28] which is going to get dressed leave the house you know, find myself in a different space. If I’m doing important calls, like podcasts, are really important conference calls. I do those from my home office because it’s quiet. So really it but for the most part, you know, if I’m at Starbucks, I have my headphones in, have music on, and I’m just super focused. So sometimes, if I feel the need to like really zoned in on something, I might leave my home office just because it’s a different space and a different vibe and my dog is not there and those kinds of things. But yeah, I split time really just, you know, sometimes I’m at home and I work from my dining room table or my couch, or my back porch. But I try to have consistent hours and processes regardless of where I am I just sitting differently or, you know, holding my laptop in my lap instead of on my desk.

Lisette:  So, in terms of your team, you said you’ve gone everywhere from the team. So you’ve had a few people all the way up to 17 people on the team. And now you guys are sort of this Rock star, four-person team. What characteristics do you think now that you’ve worked with so many people? What characteristics do you think make a good remote worker? Or what would you look for if you are going to hire other people for your team?

Abby:  Yeah, that’s a great question. Definitely trust. Trust is a big one. We don’t want to be questioning where people are or you know, worried that they haven’t shown up. Very high-level communication skills are really important. Being able to be productive without being managed is really important. My partner Kim and I, we do not like to micromanage. We are big believers and having a team that is self-propelled. And we can trust them and they do it on their own. So that is a really big piece of it. Like self-starter, you know, like, if you’re, we’re not going to check in on you at 8 am. But if you know you have something to get done by 9 am, we’re going to assume you’re doing it. So those are really the key factors. We’re really independent and how we work. We work as a team [Individuals 25:34] are individual tasks like it’s, you know, kind of independent, free for all and so we really have to trust that that stuff is going to get done.

Lissette:  How do you deal with conflict when it comes up on your team? There must be there must be disagreements.

Abby:  Yes in a creative world there always is, you know, and especially when you’re dealing with super tight timelines, deadlines like we do all the time, I think the key is to pick up the phone. Because on Slack, you know, just as in a text message, you can totally read it the wrong way, you know, [Inaudible 26:15] you can [Inaudible 26:16] tone meant to be there or vice versa. So, I think that picking up the phone and just saying, hey, what’s up? Let’s work through this, you know, that seems to quell it pretty quickly, as opposed to stirring the pot or letting it brew through slack where everybody’s, you know, making up their own story of what’s happening.

Lisette:  Right, right. Yeah, indeed, picking up the phone just getting on the getting on a call with somebody with the voice because as I as we see on social media, how people treat each other. I mean, if you read any of the Twitter, like any of the following on Twitter comments from just about any controversial post, it’s just awful, for people.

Abby:  It is, and you just as a human, you know, we insert our own emotion into things. So by doing that, and by having expectations and by assuming things, it could get kind of messy and especially when you’re on an all-female team, you know that it’s this, the work we do is really intense and it’s really fast. And so if you don’t [Inaudible 27:13] then you know, things can start to get a little heated and frustrating, but generally, anytime we can just pick up the phone and either as a team all talk or one on one, you know, we work really well together and we know each other’s you know, if they get if I’m super cranky at three o’clock in the afternoon, they know I’ve reached my limit, you know, they’ll, they’ll leave me alone for a little bit until I can kind of regroup because I’ve been going since 7 am. So we know each other well enough now to work through some of that, but I’m a big believer in picking up the phone and just full transparency talking through.

Lisette:  Right, yeah, I think a lot of people would benefit from a little less typing and a little more talking.

Abby:  Yes, yes, some instances.

Lisette:  So I have a couple more questions. We’re running out of time. Dang, it always happens. But I have a couple more questions. One’s not necessarily concerning remote working. But I’m really curious about the how you say that musicians are wanting to connect with their audiences in different ways, especially over the last like, since the last three years when the music industry has changed so much? What/How were they connecting before? And like, what are they? What is sort of the change in terms of how people are wanting to connect with their fans now?

Abby:  Yeah, it’s we kind of do it as a throwback, actually. So it seems that a lot of entertainment properties and musicians and teams are wanting to do things to connect with fans where they’re at. So moving a little bit away from Digital, not completely because obviously social media streaming, you know, that’s a big part of it, but really, creating things that feel personal that fans want to hold on to and keep and frame and put on social media Ironically, it just seems like they really want to connect a little bit on more of a personal level. So that’s great. I mean, it just makes you know, if fans are paying tons and tons of money for these shows, especially if they’re buying VIP tickets, I mean, the prices are astronomical, what are they walking away with? Other than a great experience, you know, they’re probably going to get to meet the artist, they’re probably going to get to ask questions now, and they’re probably going to walk away with something that is exclusive that you can’t buy anywhere else. Those kinds of things just make the value intrinsically higher for what they’re paying, which obviously helps when it’s expensive.

Lisette:   Right and man I can, I can remember you know, I was a record collector back in the day and you know, when you get a record and have the or the artwork of the record and the and what was inside was like, so important, and almost now I almost feel like you know, now I just sort of click, you know, it was iTunes and now Spotify but you know, now you just click a button and you just get you don’t get the full album anymore. You just get like this mix of songs all the time. So it’s like the whole concept of just sitting down and listening to the B side of your favorite record. It’s like yeah,

Abby:  [Inaudible 30:18] you know, vinyl’s are really coming back. Like they’re starting to do a lot of vinyl’s again. Music sales are still high and retail sales are, surprisingly, you know, people are still buying physical music for their favorite artist [Inaudible 30:31 target the super fans, like the hardcore fans that want all of the information, they’re consuming everything for that artist, team brand, whatever it is. And so we’re constantly trying to do you know, exclusive photos, exclusive content, help them learn something new about their favorite artists that their friends don’t know. And that kind of thing, which just is it exciting for people. So the same thing with the festivals, you know, when they, it’s not that much fun to [Inaudible 31:04] print on a ticket and have a white piece of paper with a barcode. It’s way cooler to get something awesome in the mail that you’re excited by that you’re surprised by. And then you can take photos and share it with your friends. And you’re already so excited about the festival, you know, six weeks before it happens. So we love working in that space.

Lisette:  Oh, yeah, all that anticipatory energy that you get before in this because it’s true. In the end before the album was what was exclusive. Sometimes I remember driving from Colorado to Oklahoma just for this one album that was in a store, you know, and you just had to drive there to get it and so it was just…

Abby:  Wow.

Lisette:  Road trip and now, of course, you can stream it from wherever…

Abby:  Every Friday, I’m streaming all the new music which is great. You stay really up to date, but at the same time, it starts to feel pretty disconnected.

Lisette:  Right. Super interesting. Okay, so last question or last couple of questions. Back to Remote working, if you had advice. Okay, one, three questions. Have you worked in a traditional office setting before where you have to go in from like nine to five?

Abby:  I have.

Lisette:  Would you ever go back?

Abby:  Ah [Inaudible 32:15]. But I think in working in the entertainment space, it’s never going to legitimately be nine to five. And it’s never legitimately going to be in an office Monday to Friday, because there’s events everywhere, and there’s travel and all that goes with that. So I think as long as I stay in this industry, I don’t really believe it would ever truly be like a corporate nine to five situation. Um, but I may have to give up working from my cozy home office, you know, all the time too. So I would consider it for the right opportunity. But I think there would always have to be that flexibility factor just because of the nature of the work.

Lisette:  Right, right. It’s true and if we look at Back in terms of the industry was never really nine to five, probably in the entertainment industry. I mean…

Abby:  You said you worked for a band.

Lisette:  Yeah, yeah that was definitely not nine to five like 9 am to 5 am maybe but…Okay, so advice for people who are starting out with remote working, what would you tell them?

Abby:  It’s interesting anytime I tell people that I generally work from home there, they all say, Oh, I could never do that. I could never focus I would be doing laundry all the time or watching TV, which has never been a problem for me. So I think my advice would be to, you know, find a space, find a process and really stick to it. You know, it’s nice to have the flexibility to go to the dentist when you need to or go to lunch or whatever. But really being consistent in the way you work so that your co-workers know what to expect from you. They know how to get in touch with you, and then just being super communicative, and how you talk about your work, your clients, your projects, it’s really important when people don’t see you all the time that you communicate really clearly and concisely.

Lisette:  Indeed, and if people want to learn more about you what is the best place to find information about you and the Superfan company?

Abby:  Yeah, so um, we both have websites, thesuperfancompany.com and my website is abbydowning.com, and we’re on Instagram for both and we share a lot. My partner Kim shares a lot of stuff on her Instagram as well. And she’s Kim Kaupe K A U P E and her Instagram is a really great source for entrepreneurs, and female founders and all that kind of great content.

Lisette:  Love it and I’ll definitely link to all of that in the show notes.

Abby:  Great.

Lisette:  Very Interesting to talk to you today. Thank you. So much for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

Abby:  It was really nice chatting with you. Thank you so much.

Lisette:  All right, everybody, until next time, be powerful.

 

 

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