Well, we made it through Halloween and we’re barreling towards Christmas. We’re laser focused on what needs to get out the door by the end of the year, including some very cool projects:
- A variable content / variable cadence engagement program to send regional “flavors” of the same campaign at different speeds based on consumption
- Automating RSS feeds from 8 different blogs to manage new followers, add them to drip campaigns, and drive segmentation using FeedOtter and Pardot
- Systematizing a multi-product, multi-sales process funnel in Salesforce to track leads from Marketing Solution Qualified to Closed Won
We’re looking forward to tackling new and different projects in 2020, as well as helping teams get the most out of their MAP and Salesforce.
Speaking of Halloween…
As most of you know, I moved to Puerto Rico at the end of August. It’s been an interesting challenge to grow and run Sponge from afar. We’re enjoying the beach, endless summer, and their laid back approach to work and life. It’s been what we were looking for in terms of reaffirming what’s truly important.
Also yes, our kids like their school and they’re picking up lots of Spanish, especially Leo who was barely speaking when we arrived. As for running a business on an island, all I can say is thank god for gigabit fiber internet, Zoom, and my partner Allison holding down the fort at home.
We have some new faces!
Carly Grudzien joined us earlier this summer, and she’s been such a great addition that I can’t really remember what things were like before she was here. Her background is in marketing automation, events, and graphic design — which has been a great complement to our “ops” bench.
Shelby Dawirs officially came on board last week. Shelby and I worked together at Logi Analytics and I’ve always considered her my polar opposite — where I am decisive, she is thoughtful; where I am big picture, she is diligently pushing things across the finish line. It is still nuts to me that people want to work here and that Allison and I have consistently hit all the goals we set for 2019. Neither of us has worked at a company where things actually went according to plan, so it feels bizarre. We’re very thankful for the team we’ve built and the work we get to do. Welcome ladies! 🙂
What we’re digging…
- MeetEdgar Employee Handbook – we just launched our Sponge Employee Handbook (benefits! family leave! all the tech!) and we stole from this document with abandon. If you’re a small business owner, it’s worth a look.
- Dear Girls by Ali Wong – I inhaled this book and it’s fantastic. I read it on a plane and after silent laughing/crying for four hours the guy next to me downloaded it on the spot. So good.
- Gantt Charts in Excel – have you ever wanted to create a gantt chart in Excel? Use this hack to create one based on a table! It works and it’s free.
That’s it! Thank you for supporting us at Sponge. Thank you for being great people to work with. And thank you for letting us do cool stuff that we can then brag about on our blog. Happy holidays, and let’s finish 2019 strong.
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