EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: Andrea Neal

John: Alright, so, John McMillan here with another employee hangout. Today, we have Andrea Neal, who is a client manager, recently promoted. You’re in probably, month two, month three of being a client manager?

Andrea: Yep, month two.

John: Cool, so how long have you been at Vyral? Eight months? Close to a year?

Andrea: I think this is seven months actually.

John: OK, cool. So why did you start with Vyral Marketing to begin with?

Andrea: I was looking for a job and I saw you guys had quite a few different positions open, so originally I applied for graphic design I believe, and I think right when I had my interview with you, I was also planning a trip to go to Colorado, so when I came back, there were certain jobs that were available and you said that you thought I would fit best in the project managing position, and I didn’t know if I wanted it or not for sure, and once I got in it, I really enjoyed it a lot.

John: Cool. So what was your first impression of Vyral?

Andrea: When I walked in here you guys were doing a Tuesday meeting, so there was a ton of people and I was just like “Oh my goodness, where am I right now?” And it looked really cool though. I was kind of stoked because it seemed like there was a lot of people my age here and our interview was really comfortable, so I kind of liked it.

John: Cool. So where do you think - obviously you got promoted, which is big and that’s probably one of the reasons why you’re still here - why do you think you’d like to stay at Vyral for the foreseeable future and where do you think you’re headed with your career?

Andrea: Yeah, moving up so quickly within the six months that I’ve been here kind of was exciting to me. It seems like there’s a lot of opportunities here, and this being a semi-new company it seems like there’s a lot of positions that are available and that are becoming available. For instance, just advertising in general, it seems like there’s tons of opportunities that are opening up, so it encourages me to stick around and see what happens.

John: Cool. So what do you think you’ve learned since you’ve worked here at Vyral? Probably a lot.

Andrea: Yeah, I definitely have. Originally, I graduated from college with PR and advertising so I did a little more emphasis on advertising and graphic design. I hadn’t really spoken with clients, so I think as far as learning goes, I’ve learned to kind of speak and consult people, and I think that’s an important skill to have, especially in my position right now or in the future. So that’s probably the biggest thing.

John: Cool. Have you had any breakthroughs, in your mindset since you’ve been working here - and I know you went to Tony Robbins as well, so that might have given you some insight there.

Andrea: Yeah, Tony Robbins was awesome. That was probably something that I really didn’t expect to have ever, and going there, I was very skeptical as I think other people usually tend to be, however, it blew my mind, and I feel so comfortable with just being able to step out of my comfort zone. There’s a lot of things I’m uncomfortable with as far as just speaking to people and not feeling confident in what I’m saying, and after going to that I definitely feel like I can just say whatever, and know what I’m speaking about, which is really cool. Other breakthroughs that I’ve probably had just being in this position are that this is a delegating position, and I am not usually very confrontational, and so it’s been a process, but I definitely feel like our team runs so smoothly, and it’s worked out a lot better than I thought.

John: Cool, that’s great. So you know, you came here right from college, but you have friends in the workforce, and you probably worked at some different places throughout college. What makes us different than other companies out there?

Andrea: This is so relaxed, and not in a way that you guys don’t care, it’s more like if you get your stuff done, you can definitely have the freedom to like, let’s so go on vacation or something like that. Whereas I know a lot of my friends, they have to wait until they start accruing PTO and things like that, and that’s really attractive to me working here.

John: Cool. So let’s talk about the people here. What makes the people here, you know, fun to work with, easy to work with? The kind of laid back stuff you’re talking about.

Andrea: Yeah, there’s so many people here that are very different, yet we all tend to get along really well, which I think is so cool. Just even on our team in general, JR is really quirky and kind of a goofball so he livens up our mornings usually, and Matt stays on track and is like “OK what do we need to get done today?” and it’s a really fun work environment just in our room. Currently our room is decorated; there are little streamers everywhere. So it’s just kind of fun.

John: Give us a little tour with the webcam!

Andrea: Our door is shut so you can’t see the coolest part, but I’ll show you the ceiling at least. There’s streamers and then we also have this window so we can see the writers, which is pretty cool. So we have a good time. Originally they were just for Mikaela’s leaving, and then we were like “we should keep them up, it’s kind of cool!” So we left them.

John: Alright, so that’s nice. So can you name any specific memorable moments that you’ve had while working here at Vyral?

Andrea: Memorable moments...the first day I was hired - I was hired on a Friday - or my first day was a Friday, and you guys went to Beercade, which was pretty cool.

John: Oh that’s right! That was your first day!

Andrea: Yeah, it was just cool to see that there was outings, but everyone hung out outside and it seemed like a great turnout, so I just came by to say what’s up and everyone was so friendly to me. And they’re like "it’s your first day!” you know, just kind of explaining to me how things work, and I thought that was really cool. But as far as work goes, the first day I was here, it was really comfortable. I remember that everyone was just like “Hey, who are you” and not in a weird way where you’re like “uh, sorry, I don’t know what to say to you,” it was really comfortable. Everyone’s cool. So I don’t know specifically, I guess it’s kind of an on-the-spot question. I’m sure as it happens I can think of a million things.

John: No, those are good ones though. So you’ve been working with clients now for a couple of months, would there be a time that you can remember where you’ve really wowed someone or you’ve been on a call with someone and they’ve been like “Yeah that’s great, thank you!” and how that made you feel?

Andrea: Yeah, it’s happened a couple times, and actually recently this week I was kind of just brainstorming with one of my clients; he wanted a certain layout for his home tours and he had just gotten like four or five videos done for home tours, and he was like “Yeah I just want all of them to be on a channel on YouTube,” and I was like “What if we put them not only on a channel on YouTube, but also on your blog so we can have your clients go to that page as well and see so many other things that you want them to go to,” and he was like “Yeah, that’d be awesome!” We’re like really - I love the way he emails me, we’re kind of like friends on email instead, and he was like “TONIGHT” and spelled it all out and was just so stoked about it. It’s just so cool that he feels comfortable with me to say whatever and just be kind of silly. So that was really cool. Or with Lisa Burridge, she’s new and we definitely hit it off right away. I’m pretty sure she got a hold of Frank and was just like “Andrea’s awesome, I love her!” and that made me feel awesome because that was my first week of coaching.

John: That’s great. So what would you tell someone - because people that actually are looking at Vyral or are looking at applying here watch these pretty religiously, so what do you tell those people that are thinking about working here?

Andrea: Definitely do it. If I was looking for a job when I was in college, I would have done it sooner. I had three jobs while I was in college so I was super busy anyways, but any time it’s a great place to work. If I would have known about it, I would have done it way sooner.

John: Cool, that’s great. Who do you think shouldn’t work here at Vyral? Maybe personality traits of someone?

Andrea: Anyone who doesn’t want to speak to people. You know, if you don’t like working on a team, you could work here still. You could be a writer or something like that, and just stay - not that they don’t work on a team, because they definitely are team-oriented - but I think that’s one of our biggest core values here is team, and seeing people succeed and helping everybody. So you know, if you don’t want to speak to people or you don’t want to have a good time then it’s definitely not the place to work.

John: There you go. Well thanks Andrea.

Andrea: Yeah, thank you.

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