Lost in Translation: Cracking the Code of Office Communication

Kristy: Oh God in heaven

Anna-lynn: We’re going to get it together. We are. Should I have my hood up? I’m worried if I take it off it’s going to be like… I’m going to try to do this straight-faced. Hey, if I can have Bill caterwauling in my ear,

Kristy: Caterwauling?

Anna-lynn: Yeah, that just popped into my head, I loved that!

Kristy: What does it mean?

Anna-lynn: Like howling?

Kristy: Oh.

Anna-lynn: If I can, if I can handle that with a straight face I feel like I can get through this. Good job brain on that word! Like, I’m impressed! Today was rough.

Kristy: I have so much hair going on that I’m just…

Anna-lynn: I can feel it, it’s going to be good.

Kristy: I think, listen, I think we just… we’re going with a really, real vibe and so there’s just, I’m pulling back the curtain on everything.

Anna-lynn: I love it.

Kristy: I don’t think there’s any deception behind the fact that I’m needing to lint-roll myself for this. Here’s what I do need to know, where should my hair be? Where should my stomach rolls be?

Anna-lynn: Some hair forward so we can see the tinsel.

Kristy: On this side?

Anna-lynn: on the other side.

Kristy: This side?

Anna-lynn: Yeah, yes, I like it! Mhm.

Kristy: Am I okay?

Anna-Lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: Okay, well, here we are, lint-roll–roller–and everything. Um, I’ve noticed you didn’t dress in any fur today with me.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, I feel like I missed a memo. I thought we were going cash today…

Kristy: I really thought we talked specifically about today being Fur-Day, hence I couldn’t have gone harder on this. I could have gone harder on this.

Anna-lynn: Does this help?

Kristy: Okay…

Anna-lynn: It’s something

Kristy: It… It helps a little. I really wanted a fur case for my phone and I looked, I looked, and I could not find one.

Anna-lynn: It’s cuz you don’t have an iPhone…

Kristy: No, I know, actually.

Anna-lynn: You’re not part of the club!

Kristy: No, I know actually. We passed in the wind here.

Anna-lynn: Well, I, to paraphrase Taylor Swift, I am the monster on the hill, and you’re the sexy baby. Sorry about that.

Kristy: Um, yeah, I’m trying to decide which one I’d rather be but…

Anna-lynn: Oh you’re the sexy baby, for sure!

Kristy: Okay! Okay.

Anna-lynn: Yeah! For sure. I am definitely the monster on the hill today.

Kristy: So that’s–so that’s, I’m deciding now, going to be the cover art. And I’m going to put this down so that I stop making noise with it. Um, welcome to the free dive podcast of the monster on the hill and the sexy baby. Um,

Anna-lynn: Today, it’s about communication.

Kristy: Today is about communication.

Anna-lynn: Something we clearly need to work on.

Kristy: Yeah… If you don’t know us by now, we like fur. How can you tell? Listen, um, you think I’m wearing this ironically–I’m not, this is who I am. It turns some people off the, uh, the extraness of it, but here’s what I’ve learned in my old age of 36–I just turned 36–um, I’m bringing back the part of my childhood where I felt smothered, like I wasn’t allowed to like the things that I liked,

Anna-Lynn: So, now you’re smothering yourself,

Kristy: so, now I’m like “I will wear what I love.”

Anna-lynn: “I’m going to smother myself, but with fur!”

Kristy: I remember being, like, in elementary school, and I had this like realization where girls were like, “the color pink is not cool,” and I was like “oh, that really sucks cuz I love the color pink…” So I was like, “Yeah, it’s not cool,” and I had to break up with pink, which was horrible and devastating for years because I was, like, I hate that pink isn’t cool and now I’m leaning really heavily into it in my 30s cuz I’m like, “uh, hey all you little girls and elementary school, screw you guys, pink was always cool.”

Anna-lynn: “You’re old and sad now.”

Kristy: “You guys were a bunch of Pick-Me’s, and I don’t need to be picked because I like pink.

Anna-lynn: I feel like I have a different trajectory because–

Kristy: I agree! Our friendship is very weird.

Anna-lynn: It doesn’t make sense.

Kristy: It does not make sense!

Anna-lynn: I mean, I do appreciate faux fur, and I’ve always kind of liked it, but, see, we’re 10 years apart. I’m 46 and, um–well 47 in a couple months–and I have recently, like, fully embraced the faux fur. Just not today because we didn’t communicate,

Kristy: We didn’t…

Anna-lynn: like we usually do, but, um, yeah, I was not… I was not a pink princess girl at all.
Kristy: Ever.

Anna-lynn: I was the one being like, “You guys…”

Kristy: Are lame for pink? You would have bullied me.

Anna-lynn: Probably! I was horrible to like the cheerleaders at school,

Kristy: Awe, man.

Anna-lynn: And like, I was terrible.

Kristy: It’s better that we met later in life,

Anna-lynn: Cuz I was like…

Kristy: I was the cheerleader.

Anna-lynn: “Stop embarrassing yourself with that pink! Wear a real color!”

Kristy: What is a real color?

Both: Black.

Kristy: The absence of color?

Anna-lynn: Hey, okay, I’m going to just divert here a little bit. Black is the best color.

Kristy: Yeah, you would say that.

Anna-lynn: It really… No, it really is! Okay. Night sky, you think of the universe. What color is behind all the stars and the planets and everything?

Kristy: There isn’t one.

Anna-lynn: It’s black!

Kristy: There is none.

Anna-lynn: It’s black!

Kristy: There isn’t any.

Anna-lynn: Space… is black, because black, to me, symbolizes having the room to be whatever you need to be,

Kristy: Yeah, but that’s not…

Anna-lynn: on a given day.

Kristy: To me I’m just like,

Anna-lynn: It’s just space.

Kristy: that’s just absence of color, there isn’t any.

Anna-lynn: Oh, but it is a color! It’s all of them!

Kristy: Yeah…

Anna-lynn: It’s everything. It’s,

Kristy: Wait, is white the one that’s all of them? Or black’s the one that’s all of them?

Anna-lynn: I don’t know… I’m just going to say black’s the best.

Kristy: Okay.

Anna-lynn: But, yeah, I feel like you can be whatever you need to be on a given day if you’re wearing black. Pink, you’re locked in to a mindset, to a—to a disposition, I feel like so… how do we get talking about that? Like, we’re supposed to be talking about communi—Well, it’s a, it’s a form of communication, I guess!

Kristy: It is. It is!

Anna-lynn: it’s not, like, really… you know, color is a form of communication in marketing, but that’s a little abstract. We’re not really reaching for that.

Kristy: Well, I mean, it falls into graphic design. That’s like a whole other topic.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, I guess it does! Just wasn’t expecting to go there this morning.

Kristy: We, we’re, thinking about communication in terms of, well—for a lot of reasons—one thing, Bill trotting off to Europe,

Anna-lynn: Oh, yeah.

Kristy: and how that’s going to affect our,

Anna-lynn: He’s quite the fancy man now.

Kristy: he’s quite the fancy man now, and how that’s going to affect our communication in the office and… remote… life… work and, I don’t mean to make this a gender thing, but communicating with men as women,

Anna-lynn: Oh, it’s totally different, yeah.

Kristy: but, like, just in interpersonal relationships in the office and how hilarious and frustrating that can be…

Anna-lynn: Yeah, between teams, and communication is just so important and we had something happen recently that I—that I was just like, “Kristy our next podcast has to be about communication, because this was so funny to me.” Because I feel—and I feel it more and more every year—every time we hire somebody new, that, to be a creative director, you have to be multilingual and you have to learn to speak everybody’s language. Especially like our, our design team! Like graphic designers have their own vocabulary and their own language.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Totally do,

Kristy: Yeah, yeah…

Anna-lynn: and, I feel like our analytics team and our strategists like they speak a different language. and anybody—our, our writers! Our creative team. They speak a different language, and so, here I am, like, trying to manage everybody and get everybody to work together and get details from our strategists and our account managers and, you know, decipher what they’re telling me so I can communicate it to our team so we can get the results we need… and it’s just like, “I don’t know what anybody’s saying…”

Kristy: Yeah. Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Like… and there are just moments where it it’s, it’s hilarious. Like I just had something happen, um, Adrian and I were… Adrian and I were working on this project and it was one where Bill, oh! And, and Bill. There is something that I call, sorry, there’s something that I call Bill speak,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: and Bill is such a visionary that, you know, he gets all these big ideas which, you know, we all get excited about the big ideas, but then when it comes to, like, implementing them like he’s like…

Kristy: Oh my word…

Anna-lynn: 20 steps ahead,

Kristy: Oh my word.

Anna-lynn: and he can visualize what he wants

Kristy: And cannot relay it?

Anna-lynn: but he can’t like, it’s hard for him to dial it back and be like—step by step—here’s, here’s what I’m actually asking you for, and so I will hound him and be like, “tell me, like I’m five,

Kristy: Yeah,

Anna-lynn: exactly what you want me to produce for you.” Because he’ll be like, “I need you to, I need you to make some ads, and I need them in two hours.” Like, oh…mmm, okay, um, can you give me more?

Kristy: Yep.

Anna-lynn: “Yes.” …”Such as?” You know? And then I’ll be like,

Kristy: Where’s the more?

Anna-lynn: “Can you give me dimensions, is this a lead in ad, is this a display ad, is this a custom match, like, what are we doing?” And then, it’s like… I can feel his frustration through my, through my phone sometimes.

Kristy: Cuz, in his brain, he’s like, “I told you,”

Anna-lynn: “Oh God, isn’t it clear?” And so, there’s like a… that’s a whole, like we could spend a whole thing on, episode on Bill speak, but, but we’re getting better! We’re getting better at it. And like, but I was laughing because this project, that we needed to turn around in like two hours, I’m like, “okay, okay, I’m going to, you know, we’ll get in touch with everybody. I have to talk to Adrien, and so, Adrian, I’m trying to nail down exactly what he needs from our designer and our creative team. Does he need an image? Is this like, um, is this a lead-in ad situation, um, is this a situation where this is a template that you’re using so you just need copy in an image? Or do you need our designer to actually design you the entire ad,

Kristy: Right.

Anna-lynn: with everything in it? And we went back and forth… I’ve got to find it because it was, don’t be mad at me Adrien! I’m just gonna preface this with nobody in our agency is an idiot or stupid or anything! Like

Kristy: We’re all just,

Anna-lynn: This is not a case of, “wow, how could you not get it,” it’s just that we all work there, you know, there’s a high degree of neuro-divergence in our, in our office, and so everybody’s brain is wired just a little bit different. And so what seems obvious to one of us is like “no, you got to spell that out, because to me it means this,”

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: “and to you it’s something completely different.” So, um, so first he tells me, um, so like he’s talking about… the creatives. He says, “the creatives need to be 1080 by 1080 for the dimensions,” and I’m like, “creatives? what does he mean by creatives?” Because I was asking him like, “do you need a full ad or do you just need an image?” And I said, “so the confusion is over the word creatives,”

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: I’m like, “do we need an entire ad or is creatives just the image?” And he says, “I guess an easier way to say it is, whatever the final product is, should be 1080 by 1080.” And I’m like, “so… final product, do you mean, again, do you mean is it an image or is it is it an ad?” And he’s like, “well, the final product is the display creative.”

Kristy: Oh boy,

Anna-lynn: And I’m like,

Kristy: oh boy.

Anna-lynn: I’m losing my mind.

Kristy: What do you want?

Anna-lynn: I was like, I don’t know how else to say it cuz to me I’m being like so plain,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: And he’s feeling the exact same way. He’s like,

Kristy: “How are you not understanding this?”

Anna-lynn: “What is she being confused about? Because I’m, I’m telling her…” Like to him, display is an entire ad, not an image, and, I’m like, no, I need to kno—because of how my brain works—

Kristy: What you want.

Anna-lynn: to know that I’m communicating this clearly to our designer.

Kristy: Right.

Anna-lynn: Um, Sorry my phone’s going off. Um, is it an image or is it a full ad? And so we had this whole back and forth, and it wasn’t until he sent me, he’s like, an image of a completed creative.

Kristy: Which was what?

Anna-lynn: It was a complete ad.

Kristy: Okay.

Anna-lynn: And so I was like, “okay now I know where the disconnect happened.” I’m like so you’re calling,

Kristy: An ad.
Anna-lynn: an ad, the creative.

Kristy: Where’s he getting that word from?

Anna-lynn: It’s just…

Kristy: How he knows it?

Anna-lynn: Yeah, it’s how he describes it and how he… it’s the word he associates it with.

Kristy: Okay.

Anna-lynn: So like, when he gets some a… a task from Bill and it filters into his,

Kristy: Was that a Bill word first?

Anna-lynn: Well, I talked to Bill after, I’m like, “I feel like we need, like, a Bible of some kind.”

Kristy: A vocab sheet!

Anna-lynn: A vocab sheet, right! So that we know what each other means, because communication is not not always easy…

Kristy: Oh my word, yeah. No, I can see that confusing everybody.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, all these creative minds and they all look at these projects from a different angle and so the vocabulary can be just different enough that you’re just like, “what do you mean though?” And one thing I love about Adrian, um, because when we are in calls with Bill sometimes and Bill will ask for something on a project, Adrian is like a pitbull. He is just tenacious about making sure he understands clearly what bill is talking about, and he will just be like, “but when you say that do you mean this,” and you can, you know…

Kristy: He is working to get the information, for sure.

Anna-lynn: Right, and I love that he’s so dogged about it because you have to be and I-I feel like sometimes we do get self-conscious and we’re like, “I don’t want them to think I’m stupid,”

Kristy: Right, right.

Anna-lynn: “because I don’t get what they’re telling me,”

Kristy: Right

Anna-lynn: “what they’re asking me for…” but it’s like,

Kristy: But it’s good.

Anna-lynn: You have to do that. You have to put your ego aside,

Kristy: And draw information,

Anna-lynn: and your pride aside, and just be like, “look my brain is not processing what you’re saying in a way that makes it very clear what you mean. Can you just explain this a little bit differently or give me a visual or…” Like don’t take for granted that I know what you mean, you know,

Kristy: Yeah

Anna-lynn: unless we are speaking the exact same language. You know? It… so that’s been like super eye openening and since I’ve started like really actively trying to appreciate and think about how different people on different teams take in information and how they… you know, kind of studying their thought process and learning from these things that happen it’s like, okay now I know how to communicate better with each person and Bill too! Like we’ve worked together—I’ve known him for like half my life but only worked together for 4 years—and even though I knew him so well like working with him felt like, “I don’t know you!” Like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Kristy: Yeah…

Anna-lynn: Like, how come? And it it kind of surprised me at first that we weren’t like, synced,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: because we knew each other for so long and I’m like… I feel like I should be better at this!

Kristy: Well, he… he’s a special person… to communicate with. Like I, again, like and Courtney and I are probably the most well-versed in that because being here for this long and it’s like there’s still times where I am like, “I have been I have been working with you every day for eight years and I’m, like, I cannot believe that sometimes we’re still…” Like, I still like am getting better at “I know when he’s not going to understand me with if I don’t phrase something a certain way or a question a certain way” or like I know, and this is, again, I’m not trying to generalize men, but I know I can only send him one question at a time. I can only send him one question at a time, and that is most men. I can’t send him two, I’ll only get one answer back so I just don’t even bother with two questions at once, I’ll only get one answer, but going back to something that you started to talk about… about, like, sending, like… him just being like, “make me an ad,” it’s, I have, I have joked about this and I’ve talked about this in the past like it’s-it’s like going to a painter and being like, “paint my house.”

Anna-lynn: Right right.

Kristy: What paint? What part of the house?

Anna-lynn: Inside? Outside?

Kristy: Outside? What color do you want? What, what do you want the trim to be? Like, when do you want me to start? When does it need to be done by? Like there so many,

Anna-lyyn: Matte or glossy?

Kristy: so many more, so many more details that I need! You can’t just say, “paint house.”

Anna-lynn: Right…

Kristy: And go! Off you go! Like, I, like, the creative process and the details that we need,

Anna-lynn: Right…

Kristy: are so involved there’s so many details,

Anna-lynn: Yes…

Kristy: you can’t just be like, “make video. Go!” I can’t do that. I cannot do that. I-I need so many more details

Anna-lynn: And I-I think it’s a mistake for an account manager to come to the creative team and be like, “well, that’s part of being creative, is to come up with the answer to all those things,” and it’s like, no, no, no, no.

Kristy: No, it’s not.

Anna-lynn: It’s not.

Kristy: It’s not!

Anna-lynn: It’s not. And it’s not a sign that you’re not creative if you come back and you’re like, “you need to give me some parameters, you need to give me more information about this client. You need to tell me a little bit about what you want and not just be like, ‘go crazy!’”

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: “‘Be creative!’”

Kristy: Well, and I’ll tell you—and I’ll be as vague about this example as I can be–but I, years ago, had an… had an experience with a client where they had a vision for a certain video they wanted me to make. And they were just like, “make video” and I kept drawing them out and being like, “but what do you want it to look like and do you want me to follow your style guide and do you do you want me to use stock footage and do you…” and they, they kept just kind of coming back frustrated at me, “being like just do it, just do it.” And, so I-I mimicked something that I believed that they wanted, and I worked on it for weeks because they I just they would not give me anymore. They were just like, “just do it.” And so, without having more information I made it, and I sent it back to them, and they were just like, “what is this crap?! This is not even close to what’s. in. my. brain.” And I had to be like, “I know this is a shock, I cannot see inside your brain.” Like and-and then, at that point, did they send me an example video of what they wanted replicated,

Anna-lynn: “I was picturing more like this.”

Kristy: and I’m like… if I had had that in the beginning,

Anna-lynn: Right.

Kristy: because it was nothing like what I made

Anna-lynn: Mhmm…

Kristy: not even a little bit.

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: And I wasted literally,

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: 3 weeks on what was, really, a great video that I made, but it was nothing even close to what they had visualized because they were just… in their mind just like, “make it. Do it.”

Anna-lynn: So, do you feel like with clients like that, because I think this is important, because it’s not just communication within teams once we get something, you know a task or a project from a client, um… but it’s with the client themselves, that communication has to happen first thing. So, when you have someone like that, and that-that was a long time ago, since then what has helped you to get more from a client to keep that from happening again?

Kristy: Yeah, that-that was a learning experience, and that’s why—and that was years ago—and that’s why we did learn from that and kind of set in, in place processes of “you need to fill out these forums with these answers before I’m even going to touch this.” What is the theme? Are we using voice over? What is the script? What are-what are the creative licenses that I have? Are we following a style guide? Are there any kind of compliance issues that we’re following? Like there’s so many questions,

Anna-lynn: Do you want a male or female voice over,

Kristy: Correct.

Anna-lynn: if they doing that?

Kristy: Correct, yep. There’s so many things that they have to answer before I will even begin, because it wastes everyone’s time, everyone gets frustrated, and it is, it is, it’s actually impossible for me to start, for any creative, to start on a project by being like, “just do it.” It doesn’t work, because what you are visualizing in your brain versus what I may be visualizing in my brain is not the same. Even if! Even if too you, you’re thinking, “I don’t even really know what I want, so, I don’t know, just make something and maybe I’ll like it.” Even that’s a waste of our time, because I may create something that you’re like, “well that actually doesn’t even go along with our companies beliefs, and policies, and regulations, and compliance, and it actually… you’re not following the our-our company font, and colors, and our logo can’t be used like that.” There’s so many things that I may waste time, and in-in the process, weeks may go by and your campaign may be close and I have other projects that I’m working on and so that’s why the communication has to be so refined, so that and, and that’s where account managers kind of come into play asking those questions and I just stay way out of it.

Anna-lynn: Right.

Kristy: Um, and that’s why they’re a little bit the middleman. They,

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: account managers are really good at speaking to clients in that way. They get to know their clients really well, and how to communicate in that way, so that us creative brains don’t-don’t have to learn how. But, um, that’s another way that communication is really important.

Anna-lynn: And it can’t… and having stuff like forms from you, because you did initiate those like, you give the account manager a list of “here are the things that you need to find out from them” because the account manager may not always think of that, and most clients they might think that they don’t know what they want, but they do.

Kristy: They do.

Anna-lynn: They really do. And they just, um, don’t always know how to express it,

Kristy: Correct.

Anna-lynn: and how to translate that into the language you need to hear.

Kristy: Right, and that’s our job to do.

Anna-lynn: Right. So you do have to be a linguist in way,

Kristy: Right…

Anna-lynn: and figure that out and give them like, a starter pack of, “okay here are the things that you need to answer for me,”

Kristy: Yep.

Anna-lynn: and then we can tap into what’s in their brain and what they do want, because they all—there’s preferences there and they do, deep down, have a vision for what they want so…

Kristy: Yep. And so my recommendation, whether you’re on the, um, the client side or, uh, you’re on the creative side, just like you would going to a hairdresser with a picture of hair being like, “this is kind of what I want,” or you go to your wedding photographer being like, “these are the pictures that I like.”

Anna-lynn: “This is the style I like.”

Kristy: You go, go to, um, you know, a meeting and be like, “this is kind of the vibe I’m feeling,” or, “I liked this video or this blog that I read, let’s do something like this”

Anna-lynn: “I definitely don’t like this.”

Kristy: Bring, yeah, bring examples forward to be like, “this is where my brain’s going.” Even if you’re not sure, and you don’t have to duplicate something, you can still bring examples forward to be like, “how can we make something like this.” Whether it’s a voice over, or an image, or an ad or anything. That helps get the creative sauce a stirring,

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: Like to help get things going, yeah.

Anna-lynn: Yeah. I think that’s great. And, I think, another way we have to communicate, like, internally with teams, like, it’s almost like a game of telephone sometimes. Like some things can get lost from the client to the account manager to the team that needs—the creative team—like, some things can be lost, so a lot of times there’s, I apologize all the time and I’m like, “I’m sorry if it feels like I’m having you explain yourself again,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: but sometimes you have to communicate several times about a project just to make sure you’re clear like, “this is what the client wants. This is what you’re asking for.” And sometimes the account manager has had to go back to the client, “oh I didn’t really think of it that way, let me go make sure.”

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: And then, it’s changed, what, how we worked on something.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: So, it’s like even if you think the communication is good, double check it.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Make sure it’s right. It’s saved us so many times doing that, and just being cognizant of that, that, you know, it-it’s not a done deal always,

Kristy: Right…

Anna-lynn: The first time around, when you receive that information or the instructions or something, like really sit with it and think about it and, um, and… yeah, I just think it’s important because so much can get lost in translation from the client to the team that’s working on it if people aren’t careful.

Kristy: Yeah. And it’s the same internally, like,

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: if we’re not all communicating effectively, how much frustration,

Anna-lynn: Yeah,

Kristy: happens.

Anna-lynn: I think that’s the biggest thing that we find that we are constantly working on. I think.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Not just because it’s something I personally have to keep working on,

Kristy: Yeah, Yeah.

Anna-lynn: but I feel like it’s something that all of us are like, “man, we really you know have to up our game on that” or “we have to do better at this aspect of communicating.” Um, because we do have a lot of remote workers, which I think makes it even more challenging or it can be,

Kristy: Or even the high-it’s the hybrid situation that I think complicates things, because there will be a lot of weeks where it’s like, “is so and so coming in today?” And unless every individual is on top of being like, “I’m not. I am. Here’s my schedule,”

Anna-lynn: “Here’s my schedule.”

Kristy: Um, it creates a lot of confusion or it’s hard to plan—like if you and I are not super in sync with being like what days are we both in this week,

Anna-lynn: Right.

Kristy: so that we can plan to record, so that we can plan to collab on stuff, like that-that would get crazy and frustrating.

Anna-lynn: Oh yeah, yeah.

Kristy: Like, we’re not, like all jokes aside, us getting dressed up for the podcast, like we don’t… I’m not dressing up every day. I’m coming in in leggings and a sweatshirt. Like…

Anna-lynn: I love that we do that, like even that communication, it’s-it’s silly,

Kristy: Yeah!

Anna-lynn: but it’s fun! Like I’ll send you a fit check text message,

Kristy: Right!

Anna-lynn: in the morning, be like,

Kristy: Right.

Anna-lynn: “here’s what I’m thinking, how about you?” You know?

Kristy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. But it-it helps like, if we were not on top of that,

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: Like, like this is-this is just true what happened… like last night last night, she texted me to check, like, if, like, I’m also bringing my kid in today, cuz she’s bringing hers, and I was like in bed like, “oh my God, I forgot to text you because I was just like distracted with other stuff!” So, I was so glad that you texted me first,

Anna-lynn: Yeah…

Kristy: um, because I had just totally forgotten I had meant to cuz I needed to know if I, like, needed to let Elise know that she could come with me—So I was just like, ah, like that was a great example of like, “wow I’m glad Anna-lynn was on top of this communication, cuz I dropped the ball!” So like,

Anna-lynn: We take turns.

Kristy: one of us needs to be on it so that I can plan which piece of fur to wear,

Anna-lynn: Right!

Kristy: so, yeah.

Both: Yeah…

Kristy: But, with Bill being gone I’m, like, I do have like stress and concerns,

Anna-lynn: Oh, yeah.

Kristy: and like I messaged him Monday morning, it was really funny, so for anyone that doesn’t… I-I’ve, I think I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, but we have this daily, um, uh cute little thing every single day that he comes in, he comes—so our office is two tiered and I work downstairs, his office is upstairs—he comes to the top of the stairs and when he gets here, I’m always here before him,

Both: Always.

Kristy: um, he comes to the top of the stairs and he yells down the stairs, “Good Morning Starshine” and I yell back up at him, “the Earth says hello!” I don’t know,

Anna-lynn: It’s adorable, I love it.

Kristy: I don’t understand why it started, we’ve been doing it for over a year—maybe two years—and it, it means a lot to me that we still have this cute little thing! It’s from the Willy Wonka movie.

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: I don’t even know why it started, but every single morning that he comes in, “good morning star”, to the point where sometimes I’m on the phone and, like, there’s been a couple times and he’ll scream down “Good Morning Starshine”, I’m on the phone with a client, and if I don’t respond he’ll just double down.

Anna-lynn: He keeps screaming!

Kristy: He keeps screaming! And I’m just like, eventually he’ll come down like something’s wrong, and I’m like,

Anna-lynn: Screaming in your face.

Kristy: I’m on the phone! Like… Like, the Earth says hello, I’m on the phone! Um, but on Monday, on Monday, I’m here and I hear footsteps above my head and it just immediately triggers in my brain like, “oh Bill’s here, he’s about to come to the stairs and yell down.” I’m prepping myself to say, “‘The Earth says hello!’” and then I realized it’s Tim, and I’m like “awe…” and I thought I’m not going to hear Bill say Good Morning Star Shine for the next two months,

Anna-lynn: Awe…

Kristy: and I was so sad and I messaged him and was like, “hey, um, I just realized I’m not going to hear you say ‘good morning star shine’ for 2 months and I really didn’t need another thing to feel sad about, so I’m a little angry at you.” And he was like, “oh man, I should have recorded myself and I could have had Tim come downstairs and play it every day!” and I’m like, do you really think Tim has it in him to commit to that bit for two months every day? Was never going to happen. Like, be so for real! But, anyway, I’m like that level of communication he and I have had on lock, like that little bit, and I love it. It means so much to me, and now it’s dead for 2 months…

Anna-lynn: Oh…

Kristy: So, yeah, but he like, him being gone is just going to, like, mess up my daily schedule. Like it’s going to—it’s just—it’s already, it’s only been a few days and I’m, like, I’m weirded out that he’s not here.

Anna-lynn: And it’s going to make communication, like, I mean fortunately we are used to working with remote,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: co-workers because we have people all over the world. Um, but, it’s still a challenge to make sure you’re on the same page,

Kristy: Mhmm.

Anna-lynn: and to make sure things aren’t getting lost,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: because, when you’re in person, there’s just… it’s so much easier to connect on things.

Kristy: Mhmm.

Anna-lynn: Um, it’s not impossible when it’s remote, clearly, because we do it,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: every. day. and every week.

Kristy: Yeah!

Anna-lynn: Uh, it just means you have to up your game when it comes to communication, and you really have to make that, uh, a priority, and work hard to be good at it.

Kristy: Yeah…

Anna-lynn: You can’t-you can’t let it slide.

Kristy: Yeah, and he’s a dry texter.

Anna-lynn: Yes!

Kristy: And we’ve talked about that throughout the years—years ago we had this ongoing joke that I’m like, “I need you to throw a unicorn Emoji into the chat every now and then so I know you’re not mad at me” and so… actually when he and I just podcasted together I’m like, “we need to bring back you putting emojis in the chat, because I’m going to start thinking you’re mad at me all the time.”

Anna-lynn: I need some flavor here.

Kristy: I need to know that there’s spice happening behind your DMing because…

Anna-lynn: You lose tone.

Kristy: You lose! He has no tone.

Anna-lynn: No tone.

Kristy: He’s very much an “Okay.” kind of man, and I’m like, don’t you dare put a period at the end of your sentence with me, sir! Throw a unicorn emoji so I know if everything’s okay.

Anna-lynn: That you’re not mad at me.

Kristy: Men and texting, I just want to… Yeah.

Anna-lynn: I’ve-I’ve, that’s one of the things that I’ve learned, um, with Bill too, because I’m very much like a stream-of-consciousness kind of explainer,

Kristy: Mhmm.

Anna-lynn: and it drives me crazy,

Kristy: Mhmm!

Anna-lynn: but I always-I know now, that I have to kind of organize my thoughts a little bit before I, like, go up to his office and be like, “hey can I talk to you about something.” A lot of times, I can’t just be like, “bleh, and here’s everything!”

Kristy: He will zone out so fast!

Anna-lynn: Just vomit out, I can see it happen like his eyes just…

Kristy: Glaze?

Anna-lynn: Glaze over and he’s just, like, checked out and I’m like, “okay get to the point, Anna-lynn, get to the point! This is what I really wanted to talk to you about!”

Kristy: “Come back, Bill, come back!”

Anna-lynn: And then I finally get to it, Right! I’m like, “don’t, don’t leave! This is important! It’s just taking me a minute to get to it!” But, I, yeah, that’s… that’s where, like, learning how people take in information, what they need, you have to have, like, a short hand with Bill; like, direct to the point, “okay this is the meat of it,” and I’m like, “I’m gonna set this up for you, and like give you some backstory, so you understand where I’m coming from!” And it—and it’s, I think, and it’s like I know I do that, because I am constantly misunderstood.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Constantly!

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: And it drives me insane! And so I’m always like over-explaining, and I’ll do it when I’m—I know I drive our writers crazy sometimes—because I’m like, when I’m, you know, translating a task for them and telling them about what’s needed, so, you know, I’m sending these big long things and then I’m like, “that could have been a sentence…” You know? I’m really sorry, I’m taking so much of your time but I just want to make sure that this is making sense to you and trying to explain the context. And so, I tend to be on the over, over communicating,

Kristy: Yeah

Anna-lynn: Side of the spectrum. Instead of,

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: to the point, blunt.

Kristy: We need to start messaging more like men.

Anna-lynn: Yeah! I’m trying. I’m trying so hard, and it’s working! It, I-I feel like Bill and I are communicating a lot better this year, um, which is great. Not that it was ever bad, but it’s, you know what I mean, like we’re-we’re more in sync now and understanding what-what, you know, each other needs to communicate well. But…

Kristy: We’re getting there. We see the importance of it, is the whole point of this.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, and we’re trying,

Kristy: And we’re trying!

Anna-lynn: We’re constantly trying so… trophies for effort?

Kristy: Yeah! “You Tried” trophy.

Anna-lynn: Is that okay, Tim? Can we get participation trophies, Tim?

Kristy: Oh yeah, yeah Tim! He’ll never give us a participation trophy.

Anna-lynn: Nope, never.

Kristy: That’s fine he doesn’t get one either.

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: He didn’t even try,

Anna-lynn: Nope.

Kristy: so, it’s fine. well I feel like we’re out of time.

Anna-lynn: I feel like we didn’t tease Tim enough!

Kristy: Um, next episode…

Anna-lynn: It’s called goals.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna-lynn: Hashtag goals.

Kristy: Yeah. I feel like he gets it so much anyway… My-my episode with Bill I did a lot of that, so,

Anna-lynn: Okay.

Kristy: We’re just kind of like giving him a break for now.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, I mean he did a good job with his podcast episode with Bill!

Kristy: He did.

Anna-lynn: Was very impressed. Good job, Tim!

Kristy: I, okay on that note, I was a little bit annoyed that his TikTok did better than ours…

Anna-lynn: I know!

Kristy: I was like, ugh!

Anna-lynn: I saw that and I was like seriously?

Kristy: Like, it’s all these women that just think he’s cute, like stop. Okay, TikTok women, don’t like it just cuz he’s cute. Like…

Anna-lynn: Are we not cute too?

Kristy: Yeah. It’s all

Anna-lynn: Maybe not…

Kristy: Our audience on TikTok is a lot of women, and, like, thanks women! We love you! We’re girls-girls, but like it’s not our fault that we’re not like… attractive men.

Anna-lynn: Do I need to have a scruffy beard? Like, my takeaway from this is not good.

Kristy: Again, sounds like I’m hitting on Tim again, just like I was with Adrian. I have to… Okay! HR buzzer, I hit on the men in this office a lot by accident.

Anna-lynn: Their wives you’re misunderstood too.

Kristy: Their wives know, like, it’s… HR knows… It’s jokes! It’s not on purpose! That’s what I say to HR.

Anna-lynn: It’s lighthearted teasing! And,

Kristy: I told-I told Adrian, I’m like, “I’m complimenting you, I’m not hitting on you.”

Anna-lynn: Just to be clear!

Kristy: It’s different. It’s different!

Anna-lynn: Yeah.

Kristy: I got cat-called in a parking lot recently by Bill, so… in front of his wife!

Anna-lynn: Communication.

Kristy: And it was a joke! Communication… not sure what he was communicating! He was trying to get my attention, okay, cuz I didn’t-I didn’t see him so I was like this is how you’re choosing to get my attention? Oh boy… We’re crossing lines like we usually do.

Anna-lynn: We are still working on communication here. From the top down!

Kristy: We don’t,

Anna-lynn: We’re all works in progress!

Kristy: We don’t know how to say it, so we’re just cat-calling each other?

Anna-lynn: Pretty much! Collectively going to the basis form of communicating.

Kristy: It feels good! it’s a confidence boost! Can we not do that workplace?

Anna-lynn: I will cat call you any day.

Kristy: Can we not sexually harass each other in the workplace if it makes each other feel better? What are the… We have nothing in writing! And our HR department is literally just a buzzer.

Anna-lynn: A 12-year-old child with a buzzer. That’s…

Kristy: Oh boy… so this is probably going to be the intro to the episode!

Anna-lynn: Signing off is Sexy Baby and Monster on the Hill. Thank you Tay Swi…

Kristy: Oh, um…

Anna-lynn: She gets us.

Kristy: Yeah. Our new viewers, did we bring it back? I hope we did!

Anna-lynn: I’m crying… This is…

Kristy: TikTok please like these ones, okay?

Anna-lynn: Yeah!

Kristy: We’ll bring Tim back eventually…

Anna-lynn: Maybe…

Kristy: Maybe. If he earns it. We’ll bring…

Anna-lynn: If everyone keeps liking his more, we might have to like keep pushing these episodes,

Kristy: Prove it! Prove it that you want him back.

Anna-lynn: Right.

Kristy: In the comments give him a cat-call!

Anna-lynn: Oh, Simone would love that.

Kristy: She actually would! She actually would! Okay, that’s enough for now.

Anna-lynn: Yeah, don’t actually do that, cuz… yeah… I don’t know, maybe?

Kristy: I don’t know, let’s see what happens! We’re trying new things so,

Anna-lynn: Yeah! This is the year of new things!

Kristy: Whatever! Do. it.

Anna-lynn: The relaunch is all. new. things.

Kristy: What have we got to lose? Except maybe getting banned on TikTok… that’s fine!

Anna-lynn: Still feels like a milestone, you know?

Kristy: Yeah it does! I think I would be proud…

Anna-lynn: Defining moment, you know?

Kristy: Yeah, it’s the company account not mine, what do I care?

Anna-lynn: I’m all about the moments this year.

Kristy: Yeah, I love this for us! Okay, we’re stopping before we actually go too far.

Anna-lynn: Okay.

Kristy: Love you all, see you next week.

Anna-lynn: Bye!

Kristy: Bye.