Episode 773: How to Create a ‘Moat’ Around Your Company/Department Like Meta

February 6, 2026

Are you hesitant to invest in your team, fearing they might leave after you put in all that time and money? What if the real risk is in not investing, and they stay? Low-performing and uninspired. In this episode, Lauren and I chat about how investing in your team can create a powerful internal moat that attracts the right people and drives your business forward.

We discuss a recent initiative at Lauren’s company in which a team member took the lead to improve an internal process and created an SOP for it. It’s a perfect example of why fostering initiative and empowering employees to take ownership can elevate your entire team’s performance.

If you’re struggling to create that type of culture, this conversation will give you ideas for reevaluating your core values to ensure your team’s alignment and ultimately build a work environment where the best talent thrives. We also explore how these ideas translate into digital marketing, leadership, and managing remote teams effectively.

In this episode:

04:16 Core values, employee initiative, & continuous learning

11:28 The risk of not investing in your team and gatekeeping

17:18 Meta’s strategic investments in employee acquisition and AI

27:28 Creating an internal moat for your business

32:10 The people analyzer process, based on core values

36:05 Adapting to external challenges in digital marketing

45:16 Why radical candor and emotional intelligence are critical

50:23 Final thoughts on creating a moat and call to action

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to Perpetual Traffic?

Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!

READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

How to Create a ‘Moat’ Around Your Company/Department Like Meta

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:02:17
Ralph
That’s where companies make big mistakes.

00:00:02:18 – 00:00:15:17
Lauren
A lot of people are so afraid of investing into their team because you’re like, I put all this money and I invest in them. I mean, they leave that. The other side of that scenario is, what if you don’t invest in them and they stay?

00:00:15:19 – 00:00:23:16
Ralph
If you have not looked at this within your department or your organization, one of the easiest ways to do it is to take.

00:00:23:18 – 00:00:34:12
Ralph
Hello and welcome to the Perpetual Traffic Podcast. This is your host, Ralph Burns, founder and CEO of tier 11, alongside my amazing glowing, glowing co-host.

00:00:34:15 – 00:00:42:19
Lauren
Lauren E petroleum and founder of Mongoose Media, who has great sunset dives happening behind me. If you’re watching online.

00:00:42:19 – 00:01:08:07
Ralph
And I think it’s really important for you to get over to our YouTube channel to see Lauren’s glowing Colombian, not Bolivian hair, because the sun’s going down where you are and it’s like almost midday where I am, and I’m in the future 18 hours. So yeah, unfortunately, being in the future from Eastern Time Zone doesn’t help you better, by the way.

00:01:08:08 – 00:01:33:06
Ralph
Like, you know, the episodes like the I think it was like back to the future three where bef like gets like goes back into the, the he goes, he goes back to the future, but then bets on all these like sports things and makes millions of dollars. Like when you’re 18 hours ahead, you can’t do that. And my buddies have been joking about that because my Patriots are now in the Super Bowl, by the way.

00:01:33:06 – 00:01:55:16
Ralph
Hello. Yet again, I’m, you know, so pretty excited about that. But, couldn’t make any money off it, even though I’m 18 hours in the future. So why are we talking about this? Well, you know, why are we talking about anything on this show? Is because we are predicting the future. All the time, telling you what’s going on in the present, but also letting you know what is coming up.

00:01:55:16 – 00:02:17:20
Ralph
And one of the cool things about running a virtual company just to the side here, you’re in South America, I’m in New Zealand, and we both have kick ass teams, and you just got like a very cool message, which I think if you are a director of marketing or a marketing manager or a VP of marketing or CMO, you should have staff that does this.

00:02:17:20 – 00:02:26:07
Ralph
You have a you have a member of your staff that actually created this OP, like without you asking. This is my understanding. Ask didn’t have.

00:02:26:08 – 00:02:46:08
Lauren
Like we had fragmented ones like so it’s an SOP for slack communications and internal comms in general. And so we’ve had like some where it’s like, hey, this is what our emojis mean. And like here’s appropriate use. And when someone on boards like we do some training on how to communicate via slack, which is our internal main thing.

00:02:46:10 – 00:03:09:02
Lauren
But she took us completely upon herself and like, had shared a message to the general channel and was like, hello everyone. I’m consolidated our slack and comms rules and to one document and SOP for communicating in the mongoose mongoose verse. It isn’t just reading, it’s I need your feedback. I want to make sure the rules actually make your life easier, not harder.

00:03:09:04 – 00:03:31:18
Lauren
This recipe will be our one source of truth goals. Less noise, fewer pains, and faster answers for everyone. Like it was just completely manage and saying, hey, you know, we work across different time zones, different languages, different countries. Let’s communicate in one babble, right? Was that like the babble Stone? Yeah, for remote working. And I’m like going through this and it’s so professional.

00:03:31:18 – 00:03:54:01
Lauren
It’s clean. It’s so direct. It’s like a manual. I would have gotten an A job back when I worked in an office, and I’m just like, whoa. So I was like, well done, Iris, you’re amazing, totally unprompted. But what a benefit. And especially because she’s, like, consolidated from fragmented pieces into one source of truth. Like.

00:03:54:03 – 00:04:16:07
Ralph
Yeah, it’s so good, it’s so good. And I think just as an aside, the reason why I’m actually in New Zealand is because I went down to my leadership team is all based in Australia, so why should they come to the US? Why don’t I go see them? Which was actually very cool. And one of the things that we do, this is our annual meeting going back to what you just said.

00:04:16:07 – 00:04:44:07
Ralph
And I think it is important if you’re running a department or you’re running a company, is to constantly revalue your core values. And one of those core values for us has always been initiative. And we reconfigured it a little bit. I won’t give it away now, because we have yet to present it to the rest of the company, but it’s a slight alteration of our five core values, which we’ve had for the last year or so, and we put them all up on the board.

00:04:44:09 – 00:05:04:11
Ralph
And then this is usually the way that you do this. You say, okay, which employee or which person within the company would you like? Just love to, the clone and have people that are just like that person. I mean, everybody’s going to be different. Obviously you don’t really want to clone, but like their core values, like who they are as an individual.

00:05:04:11 – 00:05:16:01
Ralph
And we had one individual that we sort of put up on the board in this way. The odd thing is the first core values I ever did this, the the person that we used is now on my leadership team.

00:05:16:03 – 00:05:16:21
Lauren
Oh no way.

00:05:17:03 – 00:05:47:02
Ralph
Isn’t that so cool. So anyway, so it it has shaped us as an organization through the years. So I think having core values and one of those is an initiative kind of not being asked without being asked. Like just sees it getting needs to get done and then goes and does it. If that’s what I love about this story right now, because that’s the type of individual that you can really build a great department, a great organization, a great company, a great legacy around this, those type of individuals.

00:05:47:02 – 00:06:00:20
Ralph
And there’s Jim Collins said, good, great. It’s not people create a great company. It’s the right people, especially when you get the right people in the right seats. So certainly seems like that’s the way with that individual, which is awesome.

00:06:00:22 – 00:06:18:14
Lauren
Oh my gosh, I’m I’m so excited. I love that you talk about the core values. I never even thought about intuition or like that. Like moving fast and, you know, providing value as a good one, like two of our like core values among this media at least, are transparency and continuous learning. Like you and I have been talking about how.

00:06:18:16 – 00:06:19:06
Ralph
Absolutely.

00:06:19:06 – 00:06:49:08
Lauren
I have a new YouTube channel manager, and his requirement by Valentine’s Day is to present to me the three masterminds that he’s interested in joining, and then he has to enroll in one and become one of the top three contributors. Like he’s young, he’s new into this position and he’s important. Like he’s required to be in a peer led training program because that’s not my background, and we need to make sure that he’s empowered to learn at the pace and the skill that he wants to.

00:06:49:10 – 00:07:08:22
Ralph
And he can learn from other people who know more than he does, which I find I hate to stereotype this, but yeah, our business is a lot of millennials, like, you know, a lot of Gen Z, a lot of millennials, and I find that the latest, not the latter, is really is like, I don’t know where I picked that one up.

00:07:08:22 – 00:07:13:21
Ralph
But anyway, somewhere along the lines, it’s like gathering different skills along the way. Not necessarily.

00:07:13:21 – 00:07:16:06
Lauren
I don’t know, a lot of it’s not the latter means.

00:07:16:08 – 00:07:56:07
Ralph
Oh, really? It’s it’s basically it’s the latest means instead of just ascending through the ranks like, you know, you start off as a media buyer, then you become a media buyer, too, and a media buyer. Three and then you’re the director of media buying, and then you ascend to the VP of ops role or whatever it happens to whatever you’re sort of, you know, your ladder of success is, oddly enough, that individual that we shape the core values around 7 or 8 years ago at tier 11, started off as a media buyer and then sort of merged within the ranks and then became media buyer one, two, three and then media buyer director

00:07:56:07 – 00:08:37:02
Ralph
and then eventually like VP level. And now is sort of stayed that level. Now she’s on our senior leadership team. The point is this is that that ladder is not necessarily where the younger generation I’m just I’m generalizing. This is they want I find in my experience they want lots of skills to teach and learn skills along the way and have people to mentor them to achieve their objective, which is to be more well-rounded and have do interesting work, and then work for an organization where they feel like they’re making a difference and is actually going somewhere.

00:08:37:02 – 00:08:54:17
Ralph
And you’re trying to like, we always say this to a level, we’re trying to build something great with great people. So like being a part of that, and it’s not necessarily just ascension. It is sort of lateral skills that you learn along the way. And in so doing you do ascend in your career. And I find that’s super, super important.

00:08:54:17 – 00:09:16:23
Ralph
So that’s kind of what the lattice is. I think we actually I stole that from like the this the Vista group that I was in like way back when. But anyway, it it definitely holds true. Sounds like you’ve got that, you know, with this new individual because you don’t have somebody on your staff who has that subject matter expertise, they’re going to learn it from somebody else through a mastermind, and you’re empowering them to say, all right, find it.

00:09:16:23 – 00:09:22:04
Ralph
Yeah. And then go out do it, which is like an another initiative kind of thing.

00:09:22:06 – 00:09:24:12
Lauren
Actually, yeah. We say we find,

00:09:24:12 – 00:09:45:12
Lauren
you find we find. So it’s like a game component of continuous learning. So like, our project manager had to join a group. It’s having different things where, if you feel that you’re not getting the training like we do. So we do a webinar every Friday where it’s informal but ideally informative, like I’m literally teaching my team on the webinar and, and like we aired on YouTube.

00:09:45:12 – 00:10:05:04
Lauren
So if anyone else wants to watch like mine scenes, they can see it. But if there’s stuff in your position that we’re not training you on, great. You find the course, you find the mastermind, you find the webinar, and we’ll fund it. We will fund it. You have to present it like in this example. So then, you find the three and we gave them some suggestions.

00:10:05:04 – 00:10:16:22
Lauren
And then by Valentine’s Day he’ll have a presentation, show us the three that are his favorite and then present the one that he likes the most and defend. If the others are okay to it’s, then we will find the one that makes the most sense.

00:10:16:22 – 00:10:23:23
Lauren
So we we say that we like. You’ll get paid all the time that you’re in it and participating like that’s part of your job.

00:10:23:23 – 00:10:45:20
Lauren
And then part of my compensation package is equipping you, funding those programs like we have another individual that had joined, an ex training. So like we’re going deep on like, acts and threads and even blue sky and trying short form social media. And I was like, no one is equipped to teach you on that. And so we got two courses there, a membership of a circle community that has it.

00:10:45:20 – 00:10:53:14
Lauren
So for us, like our core, like we have transparency and we have continuous learning. You find we will find.

00:10:53:16 – 00:11:06:09
Ralph
I like that you find we will fund. And then of course like the business case part of it. All right. There has to be a like you have to analyze whether or not it’s worth it based upon the outlay of cash for how much it’s going to cost.

00:11:06:09 – 00:11:27:21
Lauren
But that’s in their presentation. So they’ll say here’s the impact and what I’m going to contribute. Here’s what I believe I’m going to bring to the tour. Right. When you fund and invest in me to join this, you know, thousand dollar a month program or to get this $4,000 course, here’s what I’m anticipating bringing back into mongoose. So it’s like our almost own mini Shark tank where I’m investing in you.

00:11:27:21 – 00:11:48:19
Lauren
And like we had talked about earlier and, you had said, like we both talked about how a lot of people are so afraid of investing into their team because you’re like, I put all this money and I invest in them and then they leave. But like when I was at Disney Institute and was consulting with Disney, like a huge core principle that was, sure, you can invest in someone and they can leave that’s there, right?

00:11:48:21 – 00:11:59:01
Lauren
You don’t know why they’re leaving. There could be a whole bunch of other reasons. But the other side of that scenario is what if you don’t invest in them and they stay.

00:11:59:03 – 00:12:16:19
Ralph
You’re running that risk. I mean I think the the counterargument is is that you don’t do it at all. And then what you have is you have a mediocre staff who probably is going to leave anyway because they’re just unhappy where they’re at because they’re not improving any of their skills like that. Lattice versus the latter thing.

00:12:16:19 – 00:12:38:12
Ralph
Like if there is no room for advancement versus I need more skills, like you need to find out what that type of person is. And this isn’t this is getting it more to an HR discussion here. But like having, a one on one with that individual, like, where do you want your career to go? Like, we just hired a new marketing manager that is being overseen by a fractional CMO.

00:12:38:12 – 00:12:59:19
Ralph
And his goal is he wants to run the marketing department to be a VP or like there is like I in the interview process, we went through that is relatively new. So the point is this is that understanding from a one on one perspective what the goal is. And if that goal is in alignment with your company and or your department, great.

00:12:59:19 – 00:13:17:19
Ralph
Do it and empower those people as much as you possibly can. You always are going to run the risk that they’re going to go off and do their own thing. It’s like that is the world that we live in. So don’t be reluctant to invest because you’re fearful of that. I think that’s where companies make big mistakes.

00:13:17:23 – 00:13:41:22
Lauren
Well, even in like creators and brands and like info product companies like bear, I want to get keep. I don’t want to show my stuff. I’m too afraid that someone is going to steal and copycat like that. If you’re familiar with meerkat and Periscope, those are two brands that came out Lyft and Uber. There’s. If you’re going to be in the scarcity mindset, then you have to remember that, someone is going to beat you if you think that someone is going to steal your idea, just know it’s going to happen.

00:13:41:22 – 00:13:58:18
Lauren
So you have to build this moat around yourself and then similar like what the team is just like trying to build a moat and build a community. Like we have team members that are sending each other birthday gifts. And I didn’t even know they talked to each other. I literally found that in the day I was like, what do you mean?

00:13:58:18 – 00:14:13:17
Lauren
You sent them a birthday gift? They’re in an entirely different part of the world. They’re like, yeah. I was like, it’s amazing. I just didn’t know that they were friends. So you build a moat where, yeah, you can train them and they can leave and maybe they will start their own thing. But you want to build a moat.

00:14:13:17 – 00:14:29:20
Lauren
Why would someone want to continue growing at your company and how you invest? But we’re talking about HR stuff because I was really excited. We’ve hired an HR executive and so I’m like, oh my God, valve. I’m so happy I was I was afraid of the HR, especially with my potty mouth, but as.

00:14:29:20 – 00:14:41:02
Ralph
Well. Yeah, there is that, you know. But overall I actually believe that like we’ve had an HR director for quite some time, he’s now VP of of I always forget.

00:14:41:04 – 00:14:42:05
Lauren
Keeping people happy.

00:14:42:06 – 00:15:01:23
Ralph
For his success I believe is now what is his goal as he’s actually been on the show. But he’s been in that role for two years, and I think we’ve always overindex on the HR side, because I do believe that that happy people do create great results and create happy clients. I’m just a big believer in that, and I think we’ve strayed from it in some case.

00:15:02:00 – 00:15:20:14
Ralph
Like we’re not perfect like by any stretch in our evolution as an organization. But nobody is. The point is, this is that I think you’re doing that. I think it’s a really smart move. It’s going to it won’t be a direct return on investment like within weeks or months. But over time it will be a nice retreat.

00:15:20:16 – 00:15:25:04
Lauren
I feel I’ve had an immediate relief at least. Oh guys, an investment.

00:15:25:04 – 00:15:25:15
Ralph
Even better.

00:15:25:21 – 00:15:41:06
Lauren
For me. I think I would find myself in like the mental strain. Like I know where my skills, my skills for sure at strategy, and wanting to lead the team and being people like, I mean, yeah, that makes me happy. But if there’s someone else that’s better than, like, why am I the bottleneck? Why am I getting in the way?

00:15:41:11 – 00:16:01:21
Lauren
Or like the mental tax that goes into like having compensation plans and building roadmaps to accelerating your career? Like I want to do all of that, but it takes me ten times more time to do it. So when I’ve now been able to delegate, I’m like, great. We had our social media manager, promoted into a creative strategist role, and that’s a different compensation plan.

00:16:01:21 – 00:16:41:05
Lauren
So one of the first things that Jennifer is taking on is building a proper compensation and ascension plan for career roadmap, where someone has shifted from organic to the performance paid side of the department, and then empowering them to continue to grow within that role if they so see fit. And the amount of time of organizing that and stuff like for me, the mental load, the mental lift off of what that would have taken for me, I’ve already seen an immediate return because now I’ve had three private client calls where we were mapping out, you know, 1 to $4 million campaigns that may not have had the same amount of energy available because I was

00:16:41:05 – 00:17:02:17
Lauren
like, okay, hold on. I want to make sure I can do this and let me figure out career road mapping, like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. Now we have someone else, I can do it. And then the other thing is like, they can be like, yeah, I want, I want this promotion or I’m entitled to this. Like absolutely like come position this conversation and someone can coach them in to show the value and how that corresponds to a pay increase.

00:17:02:17 – 00:17:16:01
Lauren
And then absolutely. Or again, another thing of here’s the course I want to go to. I don’t have to continue to sit through the presentations of what they find and what will fund. I now can delegate that hour to someone else. And it’s not that I don’t want to see it. It’s just there’s better use of my time.

00:17:16:03 – 00:17:53:06
Ralph
Yeah. Super good. Well, speaking of moats, if you can create a moat around your department, around your organization, around your business. Fabulous. One of the ways that you do it is you get great people and the right people put them in the right seats. I think there’s a company that we talk about here quite a bit that has done that and created an incredible moat, not necessarily just on the employee side, but also can you name another business out there that competes against meta, like how big is that freaking moat that they have created?

00:17:53:09 – 00:17:57:20
Ralph
And like they’re like, at this point.

00:17:57:22 – 00:18:14:06
Lauren
Is there anybody I phase? Yeah, there’s like if you’re an AI development, I mean, some of the things that they’ve been doing, the people that they’ve been investing, like if I could just because like I really like following the AI side of modeling, I just I love the paid ads side, but there’s organic and there’s it’s a thousand and a half different departments that matter.

00:18:14:12 – 00:18:34:08
Lauren
But if you’re looking at the talent acquisition pool and the mergers that they’re doing from the AI space, like it’s becoming like the cool kids table. And yeah, I think you’re right. Like it’s it’s really hard I think for like Apple to go after emerging AI products. I mean they’re definitely doing you think of like who are the like the bigger companies.

00:18:34:10 – 00:18:53:22
Lauren
But especially if you’re developing something innovative and AI again, it’s that’s a find and fun mentality that maybe Mark Zuckerberg is implying. Like you find me an opportunity of how we can leverage this for meta. I’ll fund it. And then he’s buying companies in these like Aqua hires. So it’s like what is acquire. But it’s an aqua hire.

00:18:53:22 – 00:19:11:19
Lauren
So it’s it’s absorbing really young talent that are a part of this vision building he’s got. So he’s got a moat that’s built around, hey, look what we’ve done with WhatsApp. Look what we’ve done with Instagram. Look what we’re doing with metaverse and Ray-Ban, for example. Like, that was a joke for so long. And now, like the meta glasses are really taking off.

00:19:11:19 – 00:19:16:04
Lauren
So it’s really it’s a moat of partnering on the future.

00:19:16:05 – 00:19:45:12
Ralph
Yeah. They have a partnership with Oakley now, which is, you know, which is amazing. Yeah. It just yeah I think they’ve I think there was a time for plus years ago where I, I stated on this podcast that I thought Zuckerberg should step down because he was sort of driving the ads business into the ground and then also went in this metaverse thing, like just everything was off the rails and nothing was really like.

00:19:45:14 – 00:19:56:13
Ralph
Then there was the layoff of 15,000 people, which were largely engineers and people that didn’t unfortunately have sort of, you know, work in the non office environment, rather.

00:19:56:13 – 00:19:59:23
Lauren
Ordinary generating side. Yeah. Oh okay. Yeah.

00:19:59:23 – 00:20:03:16
Ralph
There was a huge shake up. This is 3 or 4 years ago.

00:20:03:16 – 00:20:21:01
Lauren
I was on campus when that happened. So I was speaking to an event where there was like 75,000 people. Meta brought me on, and I was on this panel with Doctor Jordi, and I remember it was like the day after it happened, and it was, there was a gentleman who was in charge of NFTs for all of meta.

00:20:21:01 – 00:20:40:17
Lauren
So he was the top person because at at then, like against show, like where this was in that timeline, someone’s like NFT. What? Like no fucking truth here. But anyways, there was a time when meta had an NFT department, and the gentleman who was in charge of it was like, you know, it’s it’s NFTs or like crypto art goes away.

00:20:40:19 – 00:20:59:21
Lauren
I’m going to be on the chopping watch. This is like it was is very somber moment on campus. And like I was there meta had fallen man. Two people from Italy, an individual from the UK. Like there are eight of us that they flew from all over the world to come together for this program. And yeah, that was it was hard.

00:20:59:21 – 00:21:23:18
Lauren
It reminded me like, so when I worked at the Walt Disney Company, way back when I was pretend it was like yesterday. But I remember, like, there’s this huge, massive layoff, like, for people that don’t know, like, there’s a specific division of the company that contributed, like, 44% of their marketing team’s budget. And when people started cutting the cord, ESPN was no longer bringing in the type of budget that was contributing.

00:21:23:18 – 00:21:36:07
Lauren
So there was huge, massive layoffs. And it was hard. Christmas was hard. Like people like just it was a huge, like go. And so that gave me, like those kind of moments. So anyway, sorry. Like, oh.

00:21:36:09 – 00:21:56:03
Ralph
Well, I mean, I think they had certainly pivoted over time. And now there’s, you know, we’re I think we’re reaping a lot of the benefits right now, both on the organic side to a certain degree, but definitely on the paid ads side. Now, with all the decisions that have been made, I think there’s been some missteps along the way, like plenty of.

00:21:56:04 – 00:21:59:15
Lauren
But that’s with everyone. I mean, oh yeah, but it’s like,

00:21:59:15 – 00:22:03:02
Lauren
I don’t think that a burden is a misstep. I know.

00:22:03:02 – 00:22:09:16
Ralph
Yeah, I think it’s still there. It’s not the investment that it once was. I’d have to double check on the numbers, but now I know.

00:22:09:19 – 00:22:32:09
Lauren
There’s nowhere near like they cut trillions, but like I have I like, love the saber. It’s my favorite. Like, I’ve been ranked for Lizzo’s for one of Lizzo’s song and Beat Saber. But like, even, I want to say like a month ago, they did this huge partnership with Coldplay when they performed at Wembley Stadium. So it’s like, you know, one of the like premier soccer stadiums in the world.

00:22:32:09 – 00:23:01:00
Lauren
Coldplay had performed there and meta had done this massive partnership, so you were able to have a 3D experience of this Coldplay concert live in a way that’s really bringing immersive entertainment. And where Marc Overindex on how much he invested. I still believe that it’s a huge opportunity. He was just a little too early. I mean, what Snoop Dogg made like $10 million selling real estate in the metaverse is not going away because you did you know this?

00:23:01:15 – 00:23:24:12
Ralph
Yeah, I have heard that, yeah. When all this was stuff was going down, like, all of those headlines are just crazy. I mean, now it’s I hate to say it’s in the distant past because it really wasn’t that long ago, but, I mean, everything now is all about, obviously. I mean, when ChatGPT had sort of the AI for a moment back in, what was that November of 2322 now I’m forgetting, like what it was.

00:23:24:14 – 00:23:47:23
Ralph
The point is, like, all of that stuff kind of got like was pushed to the background especially. Yeah. Like you don’t hear much about it now, but we hear about what you read about and what we’re now seeing with everything that we’re talking about on the show and what we’re going to be talking about on today’s show is all about, AI and the investment that meta has made and, you know, for that matter, Google, of course, on the other side.

00:23:47:23 – 00:23:53:06
Ralph
But, I mean, the meta side is just, oh my God, it’s so it’s transformative. So.

00:23:53:08 – 00:24:24:02
Lauren
So getting that moat because you’re part oh yeah Vegas and whatever sense from an US based company and like where like the vision that he has it’s like this like you know like Elon Musk has all these visions for if you’re in the space race, right. It’s like you want to be a part of him colonizing Mars. But in the like the AI space, I do believe that Zuckerberg is building, like one of the strongest nodes now is going to be an antidote for those that are looking for more of a scrappy type of, like, anti-corporate model, which is fine, but like, it’s it’s really cool what they’ve built.

00:24:24:02 – 00:24:27:17
Lauren
I’m just going to leave it on the like. I don’t think that the metaverse and all that stuff will disappear, because

00:24:27:17 – 00:24:45:11
Lauren
if anyone looks up, still there? Sure. Jordan. Winn like he’s got an amazing case studies where he used virtual reality and helped an individual who was a quadriplegic from a, or had a paralysis from a motorcycle accident to be able to receive stimulation through his legs by doing rock climbing in metaverse.

00:24:45:17 – 00:25:08:12
Lauren
There’s been a lot of advancement where hospitals are doing surgical practice using virtual reality. I really believe that that’s going to come back in a way that will have this huge AI adoption. It’s just not there yet. The the machines are too heavy. I get carsick in them. I can’t as much as I want to play Beat Saber for hours and hours, like I can’t go more than 20 minutes or I’ll be nauseous.

00:25:08:18 – 00:25:16:00
Lauren
But it’s it’s just out of the limelight because when it was the focus, it got all the bad rap and AI is going to fund it. So I’m.

00:25:16:00 – 00:25:16:15
Ralph
Excited.

00:25:16:15 – 00:25:46:08
Ralph
No, I actually that’s that’s my point, is that AI is funding all of it. It’s not getting the headlines, but it’s a lot of the similar technologies. If you actually compare technologies between AI, what’s happening in that realm and the metaverse, there is a very, very there is a Venn diagram of overlap between the two technologies due to the fact that the tech, the hardware is very similar as to how it’s actually being utilized.

00:25:46:08 – 00:26:11:12
Ralph
So the headlines are on AI, but in the background, to your point, and I agree, is metaverse is still there. It’s just not the one that it’s not the thing that’s getting the headlines. But all of this, you know, billions of dollars in investment will help fund the metaverse at a later date. We’re using the same technology platform, but it’s just it’s not the thing that’s driving everything.

00:26:11:12 – 00:26:17:23
Ralph
I know. It’s certainly not driving the stock market. It’s not driving like what everyone’s talking about. News, the news cycle.

00:26:17:23 – 00:26:39:09
Lauren
It talks about like, yeah, the advancements of medical and virtual reality. And then even with AI, like I had the chance to speak with, like, heads of AI from Nvidia and Siemens and Google when I was at South by Southwest, I had this, like, very private invite only room where I was like one of four women that was like super happy that there were at least three other women in the room speaking on this.

00:26:39:11 – 00:27:16:07
Lauren
But I think, like, there’s a lot that’s hidden from the conversation. And like in the medical use case, especially with drug discovery, those aren’t the sexy headlines that people are jumping on to the conversation. And I would just wonder if the amount of money that Zuckerberg had previously invested into metaverse and the hardware required, I wonder if it gave him the first layer of a moat, because he had the technology, servers and hardware to facilitate one of the fastest AI implementations, like with meta AI and programmatic AI and all these other cases, I’d be curious if it was part of what helped launch them so much further than what I believe are the

00:27:16:07 – 00:27:28:20
Lauren
other big name brands where you’re saying, like, are they really in competition with them? Like, Microsoft does a lot with copilot, but they’re not attracting the level of talent that, like Mark Zuckerberg, has a line out his door.

00:27:28:22 – 00:28:02:08
Ralph
So I think meta has done a extremely good job of creating their own sort of internal moat, like not only internal for the individuals that work there, but also externally as a business. The real question is, is how do you create the same kind of thing within your department? And or so you’re running a marketing department. You have videographers, you got social media people, you’ve got content writers, you’ve got ad buyers, or, you know, you’re even running an agency for that matter, or you’re running a company in, you’re figuring out like, what am I going to do to create a moat for my business?

00:28:02:08 – 00:28:30:11
Ralph
Because there is the external like competitor’s moat, which I constantly think about as the business owner. But then really like when I do these quarterly meetings, a lot of it is about how do we create our own internal moat so that we attract the right individuals in order to drive the growth forward for two year 11. And then that always sort of comes back to this exercise that we do yearly, but we review it every quarter.

00:28:30:11 – 00:28:47:08
Ralph
And I don’t know if you do this or not, but I mean, I’ll say this again, because we’ve talked about a couple times here on the podcast is that we subscribe to this, traction model of this entrepreneurial operating system or iOS. Gino Wickman, look it up. I’ll leave links in the show notes by the book, one of the best books.

00:28:47:08 – 00:29:13:11
Ralph
And I almost like, reread it every single time I run a meeting because I’m running the meetings now. We did have an integrated that ran our meetings for a year or two years. We got a little bit off track, got a little bit bloated. We’ve changed a lot, we’ve altered everything. And we relooked at at our core values, which is the thing that attracts and we promote and then we ascend people within the organization based upon these core values.

00:29:13:11 – 00:29:36:02
Ralph
And we realize our core value is actually needed. A little bit of a tweaking and we realized that the the moat that tier 11 creates is around these core values, because those are the things that kind of keep people there. And a lot of ways. And if you have not looked at this within your department or your organization, I highly encourage you to do so.

00:29:36:04 – 00:29:57:08
Ralph
And like I said before, one of the easiest ways to do it is to take your best employee or best person, and then just list out all the characteristics that they have and how. Like the one person that you say I, this is the person you use. The example when we started the show here, somebody who showed a lot of initiative, my guess is that part of your core values should probably be initiative or something.

00:29:57:09 – 00:30:16:04
Lauren
I wrote down and I was like, we’ve never incorporated I like that’s so good, but it’s a, piece where I want to have like, it’s. So you had done this, you had like, tell me about, like how you found your core values and how you reshaped them because like, we have some. But I made them up so I don’t have ownership or buy in.

00:30:16:04 – 00:30:24:05
Lauren
I set the tone. But you, you did you you evolved yours because you had team participation. I’m taking those role.

00:30:24:07 – 00:30:44:03
Ralph
Yeah, yeah, we did it just because we’re like we’re we looked at our old list. I’m not going to say what they are because we are going to and they are a slight alteration, their refinement. Because as you grow as an organization or the the landscape changes, like one of the big things for us is, you know, I adoption.

00:30:44:03 – 00:31:03:15
Ralph
So you have to be, this is a core value that we’ve always had. I’ll just tell you this one, because this is not going to be a surprise for anybody. This list from tier 11 is hungry. You have to be hungry. You have to be like, get after it. You have to have this drive to succeed. Drive for self-improvement, drive and want to be the best.

00:31:03:17 – 00:31:30:19
Ralph
And in doing so, you need to adopt and you need to integrate new technologies and new ways of doing things. We talked about this in our last show. It’s like if you’re doing running ads like you did ten years ago, you are you are jobless right now or you’re getting crappy results because you have not adopted and adapted to the algorithmic changes within meta, within zoo, or that all the platforms that we talk about here so are a trust fund child.

00:31:30:19 – 00:31:31:04
Lauren
So you didn’t.

00:31:31:04 – 00:31:47:00
Ralph
Care whether you’re a trust fund child and you’re just like, you know, so I got off the teat, so to speak. So anyway, so the point is this is that like hunger is one of those core values which really hasn’t changed. We’ve changed the incarnation of it and then the list of it, but it’s one of the five that we have.

00:31:47:02 – 00:32:06:05
Ralph
And so we talked about this for, you know, 20 like at least 20 minutes. And then we did a workshop for an hour where we’re like, let’s go through all these and make sure that it’s really right. And then we put that one person up on the board and like I say, who it was. And then we listed all I think it was her.

00:32:06:07 – 00:32:31:03
Ralph
Her core value is like, how do we replicate that? And then the second step of it is once we decide on what the five or it can be three. And another great book for this is Patrick Glenn. Simone is the ideal team player. Anything by him is great. He usually has like three core values. The traction model or the EOS model isn’t a list.

00:32:31:03 – 00:32:59:14
Ralph
All of the people in your organization. And then on the top you have all your five core values or your three core values. And then you determine are they a plus? Are they a plus minus or are they a minus a minuses don’t have it. Plus minus is they they do it not all the time consistently inconsistently. And then a plus is they do it most of the time.

00:32:59:14 – 00:33:04:08
Ralph
Not all of the time. Because no one’s perfect. And then we oftentimes will assign a plus plus.

00:33:04:08 – 00:33:09:20
Lauren
Oh, and Mary Poppins saw me. Otherwise she was practically perfect in every way.

00:33:09:22 – 00:33:33:23
Ralph
She was. Yeah. And so is my wife, by the way. She reminds me all the time, just just this morning, as a matter of fact. So, anyway, so plus plus is, like, literally, like, all the time. Like you, you could not think of an example where they ever did not show this core value. And so the, the rule is you can get by with two plus minuses.

00:33:34:00 – 00:33:58:13
Ralph
If you have three, then you have to figure out like if you have five core values, okay. If you have two plus minuses, borderline, you can just ChatGPT this because it depends on if you’re five or your three or your two core values. Whatever it is, I would say no more than five. But if you have one negative, one negative means they’re out and that’s all.

00:33:58:15 – 00:34:00:08
Ralph
Yeah.

00:34:00:10 – 00:34:06:01
Lauren
So so what are you doing this with like people that are up for review. Are you doing this with people.

00:34:06:01 – 00:34:38:23
Ralph
No. We do it every year. Why? You do it every year. But then we do a modification of it every quarter. Just to kind of keep us on track. We haven’t been doing it every single we do have done, like, every six months. But when you redo or re revalue your core values like we did in this meeting, the reason why I’m here, like, you got to do this in person with your leadership team, or you do it with one of your trusted advisors, like on your on your team, whoever that person happens to be.

00:34:38:23 – 00:35:02:23
Ralph
Or you can do it by yourself like you can. You know it doesn’t. You don’t necessarily have to do it with your leadership team, but you have to hold fast to whatever you determine and be brutally honest. So we sat there for like an hour and a half and analyzed every individual. And then to, you know, to our great surprise, there were lots of people that had practically perfect plus pluses across the board.

00:35:03:01 – 00:35:13:14
Ralph
And there was many that had like all pluses, which is great. Like plus pluses is like insane. Pluses are really good. You know, if you.

00:35:13:14 – 00:35:14:03
Lauren
Think that’s a lot.

00:35:14:03 – 00:35:15:16
Ralph
Like.

00:35:15:18 – 00:35:20:20
Lauren
You’re you’re under sizing, you’re like, okay, cool. I know who my next round of leaders is about to be.

00:35:20:22 – 00:35:40:14
Ralph
Absolutely. And so you and this is what they, they refer to as the People Analyzer. This is this whole process. It’s called the People analyzer. So just, you know, oh, like I said, we’ll leave links in the show notes for this if you’re not familiar with it. But if you’re running a department or running a company, I would highly recommend that you do this once a year.

00:35:40:14 – 00:36:04:05
Ralph
The reason why we did it. And then what happens is that then you create sort of this internal moat around retention for those individuals, similar to what we’re talking about with meta. But it creates a culture, and that’s how you create a culture within a virtual organization, in my opinion. Now, how you manifest that is really is up to you.

00:36:04:05 – 00:36:19:00
Ralph
And I think the last 2 to 3 years, like just being completely transparent. I think we’ve done an okay job of it because we’ve been more we’ve had like the last couple of years have been challenging years in the digital marketing space. So we have.

00:36:19:01 – 00:36:21:22
Lauren
Oh my gosh, it’s like one hit after another.

00:36:21:23 – 00:36:23:01
Ralph
One hit after and all.

00:36:23:01 – 00:36:49:07
Lauren
Leaping up with the demands of performance marketing while staying afloat like a rising ad costs. You know, external factors, tariffs, the impact of ads that you couldn’t you can predict a pandemic. You couldn’t predict what you could predict. The craziness that happens when it’s an election, like there’s just all these external factors that it’s a like like a duck, your legs underwater are doing all this.

00:36:49:07 – 00:37:06:03
Lauren
And Ralph, you’re running a successful agency. You show up for this podcast every single week, and there’s just only so many hours in the day, so everyone can always be better. It’s not. The goal is never perfection. It’s progression towards getting better, incrementally, getting better every single day.

00:37:06:05 – 00:37:23:21
Ralph
Yeah, I agree, I think there was just a lot of firefighting and I think we all realized it. And plus we also reconfigured our leadership team like we did. So many things. The theme of this, this of this meeting was this is the year of the Fire Horse.

00:37:23:23 – 00:37:40:14
Lauren
Oh. Oh, that’s so cool. It’s the year of the horse for the Lunar New Year. For those that don’t know, and so we’re coming out of the year of the snake going into the horse, and you’re saying the fire horse. That’s so funny. Fun, fun. Small fact. Draco Malfoy, his name in Chinese is like, ma.

00:37:40:16 – 00:37:56:18
Lauren
I’m like, Ma is, is horse, and it is. It’s a fun play for the year of the horse. If you have a picture of Draco Malfoy, if you see him showing up in like red Lunar New Year decorations, especially upside down, just know it’s like a fun plan or it’s real.

00:37:56:18 – 00:38:08:15
Ralph
That’s awesome. You know what’s cool, though, is, you know, the sense of optimism in 2026. First off, like, we feel very optimistic about what’s going on in the coming year, but 2025, I think.

00:38:08:15 – 00:38:31:14
Lauren
That’s a global thing too, though. Like, even like science, it’s it’s like we we had a lot of political disruption in 2025 and lots of things were happening and going on. And I, I do feel that we’re finally in a we’ve settled inflation has happened, everyone’s cost of housing and pricing has gone up every single everywhere. No one’s now comparing.

00:38:31:16 – 00:38:36:12
Lauren
And we’re just at this like, okay guys, we’ve reset.

00:38:36:14 – 00:39:04:04
Ralph
Yeah. And that’s why 2025 was the year of the snake, which was shedding old habits, old bad habits and that was so that was sort of our theme for this quarterly meeting is like and we looked back like how much stuff we either shedded changed completely overhauled in 2025. I’m like, oh my gosh. Like we listed it all out like, oh my God.

00:39:04:04 – 00:39:18:23
Ralph
Like this was actually before we did any of the core value stuff. I said, as a part of that, we need to shed our old identity and alter it slightly, be, you know, to prepare for the year of the fire horse, because in so doing, we need to evaluate, reevaluate.

00:39:19:00 – 00:39:33:07
Lauren
Is it fire like how it’s every four years? It’s like wood water. Like there’s a every 60 or so and or you. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that’s even cooler. I thought you were saying because our firefighters we’re going to make it a fire horse. But if it that goes into that like every four.

00:39:33:08 – 00:39:48:12
Ralph
Oh okay. I just like cooler like it was a cool like everyone was like so energized because like, yeah, well I logger the snake, you know, and so like, we had this whatsapps or it was like the year of the fire horse, like WhatsApp thread, like in preparation for the meeting. So anyway, that was kind of the scene.

00:39:48:12 – 00:40:13:20
Ralph
So anyway, simple, simple stuff here. But I think that’s how you create a sense of optimism for the future. But also sort of admit the fact that, all right, you face some challenging times in the past and maybe you need to change your core values. Maybe you need to change your approach. We’ve talked about every single episode here in the last 12 months has been about change and about how you can how you need to.

00:40:14:00 – 00:40:35:17
Ralph
That last episode, we just did was about you can’t keep doing things the way that you’ve done them always, otherwise you’re just not going to get the results. Especially when we talk about Meta and Andromeda and all the others. Right? Yeah, I infuse platforms that we’re now dealing with. So that’s I think how you create a mode internally, you don’t have to be a meta size in order to have a happy.

00:40:35:17 – 00:40:40:23
Ralph
You can do it with a three person department. You can do it with a ten person company. You can do it with a Elance.

00:40:40:23 – 00:41:01:08
Lauren
Do it when you’re smaller because you can have that like that culture. Start somewhere and think of how much harder it is for a culture of 10,000 people to then all of a sudden change like Tony Shea, R.I.P., like he what he had done with Zappos in Vegas and what Hermosa is doing in Vegas, what Matt Damon tried to do in Vegas.

00:41:01:08 – 00:41:26:16
Lauren
It’s it’s changing a culture of a city that’s dependent on nightlife, entertainment, where there’s a lot that’s going on to try to make Vegas a new production center in the United States, where it’s like Matt Damon tried to bring Hollywood to Vegas. I mean, there’s a lot that happens in Nevada and the porn industry because of tax incentives and stuff, but like, it goes alongside that nightlife entertainment.

00:41:26:16 – 00:41:47:03
Lauren
There’s there’s huge change makers in the Vegas community that are like trying to adopt the culture. And it’s such a hard shift. It’s taking so long. So even if you have a smaller person team, it’s it’s, it’s a habit to carry and start now can carry into tomorrow and, yeah, it’s it’s a lot easier.

00:41:47:05 – 00:42:07:00
Ralph
Yeah. And I think the carry the carry over is, is the hardest part. Like you can, you know, throw a stake in the ground and say, all right, well this is our year of the fire horse, but now it’s up to us to, you know, my, VP of employee success is going to love this. And now it’s our turn to inculcate that within the organization.

00:42:07:01 – 00:42:13:15
Lauren
Oh my gosh. I remember when he would use that term every minute of the episode of oh my gosh.

00:42:13:17 – 00:42:32:23
Ralph
Yeah. Anyway, it’s his favorite word ever. But it’s true because it’s like, all right. Oh, well, now, you know, the the common wisdom is like, oh God, now we’re shifting again. But and you actually live, breathe it and do it. And every like we do this show twice a week, we’re going to be talking about this. Like this is constantly being a thing.

00:42:33:01 – 00:42:57:22
Ralph
This isn’t a new thing. You know, shedding the old and being optimistic about the new. It’s what are you going to do about it? You know, how are you going to excel in this new world? And I think that’s exciting and that’s you’re on to something if you’re doing that, even if you don’t get to the goal. We talked about this about a year ago, and we talked about like bigger goals or better goals, like, you know, ten x is easier than two x.

00:42:57:23 – 00:42:59:13
Ralph
I don’t know if you remember that theme from a year ago.

00:42:59:14 – 00:43:00:22
Lauren
Oh my gosh, I love that.

00:43:00:22 – 00:43:16:23
Ralph
Yeah yeah yeah. It’s like, you know when you make a dramatic shift you’ve got to pull it through the entire year. It’s not like this thing you do for two weeks and you’re on to the next thing. Like as a leader of a department or a company, you have to inculcate it and consistently drive towards it. I’ve said it.

00:43:16:23 – 00:43:49:22
Lauren
Now I only becomes like a spelling bee firm like I want to the fifth graders duking it out. Oliver, get over that. Yeah, bring that vernacular into it. But, I mean, I love, I mean, some I love this because, I’m so I look up to you and like, your business has been growing and like, the things that you do in everything that I learned, I mean, I, I listen to this podcast for years before I had the privilege to, prove myself funnier than chasm, but, like, I love that, even, like, in the spaces that I’m growing, like, there’s there’s things that I’m, you know, we can make changes now and I, I’ve

00:43:49:22 – 00:44:16:22
Lauren
been this whole time and taking notes of, like, okay, do we evaluate our core values? And you said initiative. And I was like, okay, I’m thinking of Tanya. What does she emulate. And then solution forward. Like that’s just everything. It’s like, you know, you don’t come to me with problems like come to me with solutions. And so I’m like, okay, I’m going to take your initiative and, and invite my team to say like, hey, if we we add solutions forward and like because I think, like continuous learning trends, transparency and challenge like challenges are thing like, I want you to challenge the norm.

00:44:16:22 – 00:44:36:17
Lauren
I want you to challenge the data. I want you to challenge the team like my best team members are always the people that will tell me I’m wrong. I don’t mind being wrong. I mind you being silent because if you know I’m wrong, and if I’m leaning off of wrong information, you don’t feel comfortable, push back and challenge me.

00:44:36:19 – 00:44:55:01
Lauren
You’re not going to fit in our culture. And there’s been a lot of great people that we have worked with that were not great fits for us, not because of their skill set in their personality. It’s just the if you are going to be okay with me saying something that’s grossly incorrect, I am not going to be okay with you saying no.

00:44:55:01 – 00:45:14:08
Lauren
You don’t have to like, embarrass me publicly. I don’t mind, like my ego can take a knock every now and then. Yeah, but still, challenge is a core one for us. And so now I’m adding like, solutions forward because of, those everything. So I’m just I’m like really grateful that we can have this conversation. And I know this is like kind of off topic to like, the normal stuff we do, but I’m.

00:45:14:10 – 00:45:16:01
Lauren
Thanks, Ralph.

00:45:16:03 – 00:45:40:07
Ralph
Well, I think it’s I think it’s really important. And I think everything that you’re talking about here is like, you’re you’re circling around a lot of our changes in our core values. And I like one of our core values for years and years was radical candor. It’s now more of an adjective that we have now chosen, but that is it.

00:45:40:09 – 00:46:04:05
Ralph
But you have to mix that with emotional intelligence. It’s like if you’re going to challenge Lauren, you need to do it in a way so that you don’t end back like she’s still the boss, like you have to do it in a cohesive way. Like yesterday. My, like, my slack threads are like all over the place. And strange being is the only because they’re all, like, out of time, depending on when.

00:46:04:07 – 00:46:30:17
Ralph
It’s the weirdest thing with slack. But anyway, so I saw something and I was like, my salesperson said something on the slack, and I was like, that’s just so not right. But I didn’t, like, respond in the slack channel and I forward it to her. And then I called her and I’m like, I know this isn’t what you meant, but it’s like I had the emotional IQ to not put it in the thread because it would have embarrassed her.

00:46:30:19 – 00:46:49:06
Ralph
You know what I mean. That’s one example. So that’s like another core value. Like you have to go along with radical candor or like the adjective that we’re now using. I’m going to say what it is. But anyway, the point is, like, you have to be able to tell people what you really think, but you have to do it in an emotionally intelligent way.

00:46:49:08 – 00:47:00:13
Ralph
And those are things that are super important in a virtual company. Yeah. It’s like, you know, I just saw that SOP that you put together. I think you’re your person put together who exudes.

00:47:00:16 – 00:47:05:23
Lauren
Yeah. Oh, that I’m taking your values for saying it’s like, but yeah.

00:47:06:01 – 00:47:24:06
Ralph
A lot of like what that is, is like, don’t overuse emojis like, but then use emoji and like use a yeah Noah animated GIF in the right way. It’s like all of that stuff that’s kind of like emotional intelligence. It’s like that discernment to be able to know, like when to do something, what not to do. Something is so important.

00:47:24:06 – 00:47:26:21
Ralph
Like that’s a core value if you have all people.

00:47:26:21 – 00:47:49:05
Lauren
But now it empowers people, right? There’s not every generation we work. We have people from Gen Z up, and not everyone uses and communicates via emoji like that’s it’s a different habit. And so it’s just like, hey, it may seem obvious, but let’s like my like, I don’t like assumptions, I hate assumptions, and I don’t like intentionally excluding people.

00:47:49:11 – 00:48:12:04
Lauren
And if you speak via GIF or you speak via the emoji and someone doesn’t understand and they didn’t challenge you like, wait, what? I’ve never heard that term before. What does this emoji mean? Like I use the fax machine emoji a lot because I use it as a word fax. So when someone says like, hey, Samir did this amazing initiative with blue Sky, I’ll be like, fax machine emoji.

00:48:12:04 – 00:48:35:12
Lauren
But if we can’t articulate what some of that means, you’re intentionally excluding people from the conversation because you weren’t able to scope it out. So like, I mean, I love so much about the SOP because it’s it’s yeah, it’s a circle making no assumptions and bringing everyone in this great equalized conversation format so that we can also respect boundaries and timelines, like there’s a whole page dedicated to our checking channel.

00:48:35:12 – 00:48:45:00
Lauren
And it’s like the intention of the checking channel is because people want to know when you’re on. If you have not checked in, we are not going to huddle. You. Yeah. Because I know I would channel that.

00:48:45:01 – 00:49:08:07
Ralph
Yeah. Absolutely. Like a sucker. But like where is that person. Right. Yeah. So it’s all of those things like I said this like maybe people material. I want to listen to this. Like the biggest, like compliment I can give in an emoji is that we have an Einstein emoji. It’s like it encompasses so much like that’s just smart.

00:49:08:07 – 00:49:26:05
Ralph
It’s well said. It’s like whatever it is like a well timed. It’s a really it’s it’s one of the best emojis. I gave it to a guy last week, and I don’t know if he realized it was such a great thing, but then I, you know, getting the compliment after that. The point is this is like like what is your culture?

00:49:26:07 – 00:49:54:01
Ralph
And you build that culture around the core values and then how you all interact with each other. And then that’s, in my opinion, your internal moat, because people want to work at a place where they really feel like they’re valued. No point is going to be perfect at this, okay? They’re shaded, they’re doing good work, and they are growing from a personal and professional standpoint.

00:49:54:01 – 00:50:09:00
Ralph
And those 4 or 5 things that I just mentioned, there are not all inclusive, but I’m just generalizing. Like that’s usually what where people want to work because they can work anywhere, you know. And it’s hard to do it, hard to inculcate. I said in the third time, Harry’s going, oh.

00:50:09:00 – 00:50:12:07
Lauren
My gosh, this is a dream. I have my water in my living glass.

00:50:12:07 – 00:50:12:19
Ralph
Totally.

00:50:12:22 – 00:50:14:15
Lauren
And it’s now and shooting.

00:50:14:17 – 00:50:36:12
Ralph
Shooting you’re you’re shooting your water. You’re getting drunk in the H2O anyway. But you have to inculcate that within the organization. That’s how you create an internal moat. So, for those of you who are running companies or running departments, hopefully today’s episode has been helpful. It wasn’t the original intent of this episode. We are going to get to, the other part, at a later date in another episode.

00:50:36:12 – 00:50:44:02
Ralph
But I think this was, you know, just the the memo that you got from your employee, sparked a whole different conversation.

00:50:44:02 – 00:51:02:05
Lauren
Oh my gosh. Like, just like, well, like load. I told her I was like, you’re so amazing. Get this all my files next to it. I’m super like, I’m almost like, do we do an episode? I’m like, let me just explain how well. And now, like, it’s not dumbing it down. It’s not in a place of anything rude or anything.

00:51:02:07 – 00:51:21:09
Lauren
But she like, makes example, like, hey, this is a great use of a thread. This is a great use to communicate. I don’t have time to look at it, but I’ve acknowledged it. So I am aware that this is in here and I’ve set myself a reminder, like it’s common tips that maybe aren’t commonly known and it’s not done in any type of degrading way.

00:51:21:09 – 00:51:41:02
Lauren
And if someone doesn’t know this, you can feel really behind. And that’s a hard thing. Like when again, changing culture that we talked about that shift. Imagine someone’s been in the company for six months and they’re like, oh, that’s what the fax machine means. I well, we just thought Lauren was telling everyone how old she is.

00:51:41:04 – 00:51:45:10
Ralph
That she remembers what a fax is. Yeah. That’s good. Well, I.

00:51:45:12 – 00:52:00:04
Lauren
Think I had to learn that from someone else, by the way, because I didn’t even know there was a fax machine emoji. But, when someone had used it on me, I was like, oh my God, this is like the phone machine, the fast. And she said, sorry. Anyway, so if anyone hasn’t used that before, welcome to my favorite.

00:52:00:04 – 00:52:02:07
Lauren
It’s then. And that’s how I found you.

00:52:02:09 – 00:52:19:01
Ralph
And you can create like well Einstein. Yeah. Einstein. Well look at well I’ll leave a link in the show notes how you actually create an emoji inside slack. If people don’t know slack, much like a slack emoji like you can create your own. And I’ve even done them on like, super tactical. So anyway.

00:52:19:03 – 00:52:34:23
Lauren
Very cool people make from the team. So I would recommend that someone from tier 11, if you’re listening, turn Rao’s face into Einstein and like give him like crazy, white hair sticking out from the side. And they got the like, Ralph sign emoji or the burnout.

00:52:34:23 – 00:52:36:14
Ralph
And he loved me like,

00:52:36:16 – 00:52:44:02
Lauren
That would be my favorite. And ours is we have like, a crush can because we have a crushing channel. So if someone’s not.

00:52:44:02 – 00:52:44:15
Ralph
Oh that.

00:52:44:15 – 00:52:51:21
Lauren
I would we have crushing it. So then it’s like a can of orange soda. The crush one. So that’s one. That’s our unskilled.

00:52:51:23 – 00:53:15:06
Ralph
But it’s like little stuff like that. I swear to God. Like I, I’ve done so many talks on how to create a virtual company culture. I would say the emoji is the one of the only reasons how we could ever create a virtual company. And your emojis are different than our emojis and that is your company culture. And that’s what makes this whole thing cool.

00:53:15:06 – 00:53:30:18
Ralph
So anyway, figure out what that thing is and and start working on it. You know, have to do it all at once. But I think in the back of your mind, I think it’s really important because that’s how you create a motor on your department and around your company and, you know, build something that’s worthwhile and hopefully lasting.

00:53:30:18 – 00:53:33:20
Ralph
And I mean something. And that’s what today’s show is all about.

00:53:33:20 – 00:54:02:15
Lauren
So and thinking maybe people who are listening, whether you’re watching on YouTube or not, if you head over to YouTube, or into Spotify, this can lead to comments like, share, what are your favorite emojis? And, let us know how you’re using them in your organization. And are there ways that the emoji can transcend the conversations in a way that’s, like, super adaptable in the remote working space or even like the in-office space because you still have, internal comms or using teams or Google chats and stuff like that.

00:54:02:17 – 00:54:19:23
Ralph
Even in physical cultures, they still have, you know, slack and all kinds of like, project management systems. So this this translates over into that world as well. And so many companies are now sort of half and half, you know, hybridized. So it all makes sense here. So anyway, we’ll leave links in the show notes for all the stuff that we talked about here today.

00:54:19:23 – 00:54:44:05
Ralph
And of course, you can check that out over at Perpetual traffic.com. So on behalf of my amazing, a modified co-host, Lauren Petrillo. So till next show, see you.

Episode 773: How to Create a ‘Moat’ Around Your Company/Department Like Meta

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How to Create a ‘Moat’ Around Your Company/Department Like Meta

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