In this episode, join us for a message from our founder as we dive into the exciting transformations happening within our business. You'll discover how we're enhancing our strategy for greater efficiency, streamlining content delivery, and opening up new avenues for professional development. We're all about maximizing impact and empowering you on your journey.
Transcript below:
Erica D'Eramo 0:05
Hello, and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo. And this is season four. So today, we actually have a solo episode, it's just me, no guests, we are just going to be going through some of the changes that we are kind of undergoing over here at Two Piers and give folks an update. So this is kind of a mini episode and a little bit of a rundown of what to expect in the coming weeks, months, hopefully years with two peers. So glad to have you joining us for this episode.
Erica D'Eramo 0:50
So it is September. And this is in some ways my favorite time of year, I absolutely love September and October. Growing up in the Northeast with all of the trees, there was something about this time of year that I I really just love, maybe it's because I'm an introvert. And the autumn and the fall seasons mean that we have more quiet time. In theory, I guess we have lots of like sensory input from all the leaves changing and the maples turning and just like it's almost like fireworks but in nature and I've always loved this season. And I kind of look forward to sort of cozying up for winter and nesting a bit, especially here in the Northeast, where, where we now live again, I know it's a little different. When we were in Texas and in Houston, winter is kind of when you come out from the air conditioning. And things become a little bit easier to you know, a little easier to breathe a little easier to get, you know, brunch on a on a porch somewhere and actually enjoy the sunshine. I think the summer months in places like Houston, Florida, a lot of the country right now, the summer months are just so brutally hot that it's almost like living on the moon, just kind of rush from the car to the air conditioning in the office and then back to the car and then rush to the house. And even then you're like drenched, drenched in sweat. So so, you know, I know that it's a bit of a reverse. But up here in Maine, where we currently are currently, somehow waiting to hear news about an upcoming hurricane. So hurricane Lee has somehow found us up in the Northeast. And it's apparently headed our way. Moving didn't didn't excuse us from the hurricane seasons apparently. But up here things in theory will be sort of slowing down. And I'm, I'm really looking forward to that. I think that, you know, this, I felt this way in Alaska to where the summer is just so sort of short and brief and intense during those months of you know, increased sunlight increase daylight hours. But also when your winters are so long, it's just like everyone feels the need to make the most of every moment and be outside and get things done. And this was a pretty rainy summer for us. So maybe less outside time, but it still just has that sort of amped up feeling. That being said, I feel like not just me. But a lot of people around me a lot of my clients, a lot of the folks I speak to are just sort of teetering on the brink of burnout, if not actually in burnout. So anyone who has kids is sort of still reeling, still getting into the swing of things with all of the stuff that comes along with the school year starting back up all the sports practices, all the bad practices, everything like that. We don't have kids, but so many of the folks in our community and around us and our friends and network do and so kind of has that more energized feeling. And, you know, I guess it's harvest season too. So historically, as humans, this is this is a busy period, and we're just sort of on the brink of being able to slow down. But I feel like it's just the eternal way of human being in modern day where we feel like rest is just around the corner. And we're gonna relax in just a couple of weeks once we can clear our plates. I don't know if anyone else is like that. But I feel like that's my eternal state of being.
Erica D'Eramo 4:38
So now, you know, I am really trying to focus on how do I create space that was sort of one of the themes from last month. This month. Our September theme is really around like getting your voice heard setting boundaries. And so finding ways that I can use boundaries even with myself boundaries with myself to create that face, and just a bit of breathing room. Especially because for me as an individual, I've been battling some sort of it started out as a flu. But it's turned into weeks of just an upper respiratory thing that's been really sapping my energy, and making it a bit unpredictable to know what my capacity is going to be from any from you know, day to day. So trying to create some some space and headroom for that to exist as well. And all of this humaneness that goes along with it. So So really, this episode here is to just give a little bit of like a peek behind the curtain about what's going on at Two Piers. A little bit about myself tied in there, this little recap here, and, and give some line of sight to what's coming up in the future. So I want to, I want to give a huge shout out to our Advisory Board, we have an advisory board of four fantastic humans. We've got Latoya Stallworth, Suzie Black, Gene Valentin and Jason Gray. And you've heard from most of those advisory board members on the podcast already, we have an episode that will be coming up with Susie as well. So she'll also have a podcast episode. And they have been absolutely instrumental in helping to ensure that I've got my blinders off, that I'm getting different perspectives, they give great pushback, when I'm sort of either being a bit hard on, you know, myself and to peers, and some of our efforts, or just not really, you know, taking into account a full picture that I might just not have the lived experience to account for. And so they've been really good to make sure that we are keeping the mission in mind and that we're thinking outside the box. And I'm hugely grateful to them. So pretty much everything that we're going to describe today, you know, they've really been a part of helping me to come to these realizations around where we need to go and what we need to do. So yeah, big thank you to them. And I've really value them so much. And I think that, you know, this can be quite isolating work, sometimes, I definitely have folks that we work with continuously that, you know, I consider the team. But fundamentally, you know, there's a lot of hats to wear. And it can be, it can start to feel a little bit lonely sometimes. And so having the board of advisors there to check in with me to make sure that we're staying on track and to provide that bit of community and, and fellowship is really, really valuable. And I really appreciate it. So I guess, to start with, I'm going to describe a little bit of the change in strategy that we are looking at. And that sort of informs Well, which makes sense, it informs all of the other changes that are ahead. So in terms of strategy, I really took a step back, maybe even a year ago, and thanks to some of our summer interns who helped me conceptualize this, it became clear that I needed to be making some of our content and our offerings and our events, more broadly accessible. So not necessarily having an organization be a gatekeeper for us to be able to access other other people. So right now, most of our workshops are present, you know, we'll go to a company and do workshops, and anyone at that company can attend, or maybe, you know, any partner companies can attend. If we're doing a workshop at a community space, like such co working, which we did in Houston than anyone in that community can attend. But really, we're reaching folks through that organization. And so we have so many great topics, great workshop materials, great programming that could be really beneficial to folks who maybe aren't in an organization that is hosting events or who have active BRGs business resource groups or employee resource groups. And so thinking through how we do that and how we make that more accessible, going forward, we will have programming that's available open enrollment. We haven't done this in a while. So it's always a bit daunting to put stuff out there on the internet and hope that folks show up and that you have an engaging session and that they see the value in it and that they get the value for their time. You know, our time is very precious. So we are making resources available through some of these online why I've hosted webinars, seminars, intensives, lots of different names. And those will be interactive and hosted live, we have one of them coming up in October called reclaim the floor. And that is focused on getting your voice heard and handling interrupters. And we've had some great response to that. So it'll be that is actually filling up quite quickly. And I'm really excited about it, but there's still some room. So definitely make sure to check that out if you want to. And then we'll also have some paid programming that's a bit more like a course, and is delivered over, you know, a longer wavelength. So maybe over six weeks, and it will have modules that are hosted on a platform, you know, like a learning platform or learning delivery platform, which we've already picked out, we're already certainly get that all set up and, and sorted. And that will be, you know, a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous learning. So folks can kind of go through that at their own pace to some extent, they can download the workbooks, they can watch the modules on their own time. And then we'll have interactive elements that are available where people can interface with me, they can interface with our other coaches, and they can get the value of the community out of that. So we're really looking forward to offering that in 2024, on some, you know, deeper dive elements. And the first one that we'll be offering is sort of like our best hit or top hits, you know, like our favorites from our workshops, kind of packaged into one overarching course that tackles stuff like difficult conversations, and self advocacy, and really, all the things that make navigating the workplace in today's day and age a bit easier. And as usual, this content is stuff that is applicable to everyone, but disproportionately impacts those of us who are underrepresented in the workplace. So we've got that coming up in the next couple of months. And, you know, in in the next couple of weeks for some of this programming. And in order to do that, we really just had to take a step back and look at some of our systems and processes. So I do want to give a shout out to Jan Ditchfield. So her programming was actually what she had an online offer accelerator program that she offered. And that helped me understand what was needed in order to have a successful program where people got value out of it, build that community, and just how to how to set up an online course, which is something I hadn't done before. So in that it made us take a step backwards and kind of look at well, how are we reaching people, if not through other companies and entities? You know, is it just through social media? Are we just beholden to the algorithm, I don't particularly like interfacing with social media, especially as someone who is ADHD, I just that can be like a huge potential time vacuum. And so what's the best way that we can do that. And that's how the digest kind of came about in a way that we can consistently reach folks and let them know when we've got these new offerings when we've got free resources out there, and ensuring that we're giving value alongside that. So so that's how the digest digest came about. And in doing that, we realized that we probably need to switch email platforms as well. So all of this sort of came tied together. And the email platform will be changing soon. So you'll see a new look and feel to our our materials and our content, as it shifts into a platform called Flodesk, which is a bit more streamlined, and maybe not so many bells and whistles as MailChimp, but for us, it seems to be a good fit. So some folks will have already started to see emails come out through that platform. And they'll probably be noticing a different look and feel to them. And I'm really enjoying it so far. It makes it much easier for us to to get content out. And the user interface is a lot easier as well. So with the email platform, and with the learning platforms, and all of these sorts of systems changing we took a step back and realize that we had a lot of interfaces, a lot of integrations. I dusted off my Zapier account and realize that it was all a bit overwhelming. And so with all of these different platforms, it felt like it was becoming a bit unwieldy. So we are also in the process of moving over into a platform called dubsado, which is sort of end to end it will include everything and this is not something that most folks who deal with us will probably even be conscious of but the the experience for our clients should be much more seamless from the point of Like inquiry when they reach out to us all the way through to getting the proposed like a proposal from us to being able to pay their invoice, access their documents or materials, everything kind of all in one place book meetings with us, everything's in one place. So that I think should streamline everything for us. And that puts me right back in my element of kind of processes and, and the engineer comes out a little bit, but we did have the support of Angela Ellison and her company Simply Growing Joy. So they helped us to document all of our work streams and workflows, and to get that all sort of prepped and ready for us to migrate into a new platform. So that's happening in the background, lots of moving parts right now, lots of stuff going on. But again, the evolution of an entity where the growth is great, and I'm so excited about the way that two peers has been growing. And it means that we've had to sort of reevaluate whether things are working. And they might have worked in the earlier stages when you can have a lot of manumatic stuff, and a lot of manual emails and whatnot. But now things need to be streamlined. So that's what we're working through. And then, as far as the look and feel I don't, I'm not sure if this is going to resonate with our audience at all. But this is sort of an Apple products production over here. So we will I use a MacBook, and I use almost all Apple products, despite having used mostly PCs, in the professional realm through much of my corporate career, it is possible to switch but I've always had a MacBook as my personal and then always had a MacBook for two years when I started. But it means that the native software is keynote, and I have struggled with keynote a lot. So that prompted me to go do some LinkedIn Learning and figure out better ways to use Keynote, especially if I'm going to be hosting lots of remote workshops, online courses. If we are revamping, you know, our proposals and all of our templates and stuff, I wanted to be able to have a cleaner, and more effective presentation kind of setup. And so went on LinkedIn Learning, and decided I was gonna need to teach myself all the the ups and downs and ins and outs of Keynote, which is pretty complex, actually, and found Nicte Creative Design. So she hosts a LinkedIn Learning course, specifically on Keynote. But actually her background and everything she focuses on is brand design, color theory, and sort of all things branding. And so I ended up reaching out to her and we have been working through sort of a revamp of the Two Piers brand, it'll still have our seem you know, colors and logo and in the primary things are not changing. Because those are tied to some of our core values. Like there's a interesting story behind literally every element of our Two Piers brand, but it will be expanding. So we'll have an expanded color palette, we'll have expanded graphics and presentation materials. And I'm super excited about that. But the really valuable piece of it was sort of going from the the very base of our of our mission and our values and then working through how it is that we present ourselves and how it is that we want to be seen by the people we are hoping to reach and the communities that we want to impact in a positive way. And so the work that we did with her was just absolutely incredible, really, really impactful.
Erica D'Eramo 18:54
I can't speak highly enough about her. So highly recommend, Nicte Creative Design if you are also looking to explore how your brand shows up in the world. And then that kind of brings us to another revelation, which is about our audience and who it is that we are trying to reach. I'm not gonna lie when I started Two Piers and when I started this podcast, I really thought that our listeners and our following would be mostly women like me, folks who either struggled to find a place in the corporate world or, you know, like women in steel toed boots, those of us who had plenty of pairs of ill fitting coveralls, just people who had lots of talents and skills to offer but just didn't feel like they fit in in their work environment. But I've had a chance to look into you know our listenership metrics in a lot more detail through each of the various platforms that our podcast shows up on. And I've had access to some of our other kind of audience data over the past couple of months, and what's become apparent to me is that while those folks certainly do make up a portion of our audience, at least half of our listeners, possibly more, are men. And I love that because we absolutely need everyone involved in the effort to create representative workforces. And the more I'm hearing from some of my male clients, the more I'm understanding that, you know, everything that we talked about, really is applicable across a broad spectrum. And that was something that was at the core of our workshop development, I've always said that the stuff that we talk about, the topics that we present on are broadly applicable to everyone - things like managing difficult conversations, self advocacy, handling conflict, like all of these things applicable to everyone, and generally disproportionately impactful for underrepresented groups. So I'm really glad to hear that our offerings, our podcast, and our articles seem to resonate, regardless of gender. So that's great. It also seems like we've got quite a variety of age demographics,listening all the way from kind of early entry career through to retirement. So I love that too. And quite a bit of geographic diversity and industry diversity. So really, really pleased to know that this is resonating across a broader spectrum. And I guess the the invite is always out there that if you have feedback about what you would like to hear, if you just want to reach out and say like that you're listening and tell me a little bit about yourself, you know, we would love to hear from you. Because it's always a bit like standing on a stage with the with the spotlight in your eye, you can't see who's in the audience necessarily. So you have a broad idea, you imagine who it is. But I'm genuinely surprised sometimes when I hear from folks that you know, they've been listening to the latest episode of the podcast. And they they loved XY and Z points, or they really enjoyed a certain guest that we had on and, and they might not be somebody that I assumed listened to the podcast. So it's been a continual learning exercise for me. And I do want to make sure that we we are tailoring our offering to be most impactful for the folks who are looking to make a difference. So I've I've kind of said that our target audience is the trailblazers and the changemakers. And I know that they come in every shape and size from every background. And so it's really the commonality there is people who want to make change, people who are in, who are striving to be in a position where they can make change. And we're there to help remove the barriers and be the cheerleader in the corner. And give them the tools, you know, the oxygen pack, as we say, to go help terraform Mars or whatever it is to, to create the environment that we need so that we can all breathe. So yeah, that invite is out there. If you ever have feedback for us, please get in touch. We love meeting new people, we love hearing about what our audience and our clients are doing out in the world and making the connections and helping to, helping to kind of cheer you on so. And on that, that kind of is the overarching update for Two Piers and what to expect from us going forward. So a lot more material will be delivered online, hopefully accessible across time zones, across work platforms, you'll be able to access across whatever time works for you. So we're really trying to make that asynchronous learning work out for folks. And then we'll have a variety of kind of cost points. So anything from totally free, just show up. Nothing, nothing needed, from your part, no investment needed besides time, which is precious, all the way through to kind of deep diving and really investing over a period of time. And getting that kind of one on one support, along with a lot of academic resources and coursework and workbooks and whatnot. So, yeah, that's, that's where we're at. And I'm looking forward to our next podcast episode, which we have two super incredible guests. I'm not going to spill the beans too soon. But we have recorded a really great podcast episode looking at the future of diversity, equity and inclusion. Had a lot of questions about you know, now that the Supreme Court ruling has come down on affirmative action. What does that mean for DEI and is DEI over. And we discuss that in the episode and kind of look at the future of DEI and where we're at and where it's going, and some best practices. And I really love the framework that both of our guests bring and the incredible insights that they bring. So definitely tune in for the next episode. And in the meantime, like I said, reach out to us, we'd love to hear from you. You can find all of our most recent offerings on www.twopiersconsulting.com under our event section, and you can keep up with us via the digest or on social media. So we are posting some more updates about upcoming events and content and newsletters and whatnot. But really, the best way to know what's going on with Two Piers is probably to sign up for a digest and you can, you can subscribe on our website. Until then, we'll see you next episode.