Luis Magalhaes: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Distant Job Podcast, a podcast that’s all about building and leading remote teams and working remotely. I’m your host, Luis. Today with me is Steve Hamilton-Clark. Steve is an executive leadership and mentor coach, he works at The 18th Camel, where he’s the CEO and founder. He is based out of Vancouver and with clients all over the world. Welcome, Steve. Pleasure having you here.
Steve Hamilton: Absolute delight being with you, Luis. Thank you.
Luis Magalhaes: Did I forget anything?
Steve Hamilton: No, absolutely not. You’re bang on, and it’s The 18th Camel. Yes, to be very specific.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah, The 18th. What did I say?
Steve Hamilton: I heard the 8th Camel, so I just wanted to jump in there and say the 18th.
Luis Magalhaes: Oh, okay. No, no, no, no. Actually, I wanted to start there, but yeah. This was probably a pronunciation fault on my end because I actually wanted to start there. This podcast is usually about leadership and managing teams, of dealing with clients in a remote location. As a writer and general producer of content, I always struggle with naming my stuff. I struggle with naming my books, with naming my projects. I have to ask, how did you get the most awesome name for your firm?
Luis Magalhaes: Of course, this is based on the Bedouin tale of The 17 Camels, which is an awesome, incredible story, and it really fits like a glove. If you know the story, it fits like a glove of what the coach and consultant does. The story is really the best description of the work that you do and that people in your job do. I have to think that the audience is a bit limited. Right? What was the thought process behind the behind this?
Steve Hamilton: Thanks for asking. To be honest, one of the reasons I named it that way is I wanted people to ask me what my story was so that I can share it. I wanted something Middle Eastern because I spent a lot of time in the Middle East. I wanted something fun, I wanted something that was memorable, and I wanted something that had a good story. Those were my four criteria, and that’s how I came up with The 18th Camel, which is based, as you rightly say, on the on a Bedouin story where these three brothers are left an inheritance from their father, 17 camels.
Steve Hamilton: You need a little bit of maths here, but I’ll keep it real simple for you. The three sons had left these 17 camels. To the eldest son, the father leaves half of these 17 camels, strange. To the middle son, he leaves a third, and to the youngest son he leaves a ninth. You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that dividing 17 camels by those numbers doesn’t work.
Steve Hamilton: The three sons really wanted to honor their father’s wishes, and so they had to debate around it. Then soon, it turns into an argument. It was two brothers against one, and then three brothers against each other. Honestly, that can often happen in in a corporate environment. Fortunately for them, they came across a wise lady.
Steve Hamilton: She came in and asked them a few questions about what was going on, what values they had, what they wanted to achieve. Once she understood that, she then suggested to them that they take one of her camels, the 18th camel. The three boys were, “Wow, you would do that for us?” She said, “Yes, absolutely.”
Steve Hamilton: So, the eldest son got half of the 18th camels. He got nine camels. The middle son got a third, so he got six. The youngest son got one ninth, and he got two. So, nine plus six is 15, plus two is 17. I mean, that’s the freaky thing. The wise lady gets to walk home with her camel, the 18th camel. So what my job is, is to help find solutions with clients, which are not obvious in the moments. That’s my story, that’s my pitch if you will, in terms of being an executive coach.
Luis Magalhaes: It really is a great story and a great name. Really the fit between what happens in the story and about the coach and consultant is supposed to do is really mind blowing. So, I congratulate you on your selection.
Steve Hamilton: Thank you.
Luis Magalhaes: So, do people often ask, “My area is marketing. That’s what I do.” I can see that a lot of people would just find it weird. Do you think that a lot of people ask?
Steve Hamilton: Yeah. You know what? My litmus test was very much that how many people would ask me. So, I’ve actually kept a count over the years of how many people ask me. On average, about nine out of 10 people asked me, “Hey Steve, what’s the story behind The 18th Camel?” Right? So, it works. It works, Luis.
Luis Magalhaes: Nice. What about the people who already know this story and come to you? Are those better clients? Does that reflect in the quality of the clients anyway? If people already know and understand, already come to you and say, “Hey, I like what you did there, let’s work together.” Does that reflect the quality of the people?
Steve Hamilton: Well, I can’t answer that question. Nobody knows the story, and so it gives me an opportunity to share it. So, you’re my first person who actually give it a little bit of research to find it out. So if you were my client, and we become a client, then I’ll be able to answer that question for you.
Luis Magalhaes: Nice. So, no one ever knew? Wow. That’s super interesting. I actually knew this story before because I enjoy old Eastern knowledge. I read a couple of books about that, so I actually knew that story from before, and I refreshed it. A light bulb went up in my head when I saw the name of your company.
Steve Hamilton: I know that story.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah, I know what this means. Let me go and refresh it. It’s really nice. Okay. So back to the main podcast topic. I mean, remote work is starting to be more and more picked up. I think that every year now since like two years ago, more and more companies go remote. I want to know, what’s your experience with remote companies and remote work been like over the last couple of years?
Steve Hamilton: It’s a good question. I mean, when I first started off my business and moving from Dubai to Vancouver, my father said, “Oh yeah, and you’ll probably be able to do it over the Internet.” I said, “Oh, I don’t know. It’s all about relationships, and this and that and that.” I actually was skeptical. So when I started off my business, I did a ton of traveling. Today, probably 95% of all the work that I do is over the Internet. It’s using Zoom, it’s using Skype, it’s using WebEx. that is increasingly the preferred tool.
Steve Hamilton: They can do it from their home, they can do it from the airport where they can tune in. What can I say? I’m a convert, complete convert, and I was a skeptic to begin with, and clients prefer it. It’s more cost effective and the connections and interactivity now are so good that it’s almost as if you’re there with the person.
Luis Magalhaes: Okay. So, what change your mind? Do you remember any specific story or set up story that changed your mind?
Steve Hamilton: I tell you what changed my mind is I got fed up traveling. I said to myself, “There’s got to be an easier way, and a more a efficient way, and a more cost effective way for my clients.” So, I really started to see that working on Zoom was working, clients were coming back, recommendations and referrals were happening. I said to myself, “I’ve got my own cyber tour. I’ve got this own thing in my head that I’ve got to meet people face-to-face.”
Steve Hamilton: So, I let go of that cyber tour, that negative thought if you will, and I said, “Right, I’m going to make a purposeful decision to limit my travel to the absolute minimum and see what happens.” Actually, I’ve had the best year in terms of volume of work and financially last year as a result of doing everything through zoom.
Luis Magalhaes: Wow.
Steve Hamilton: Yeah, wow.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s pretty nice to hear. So you mentioned relationships, and you’re right. It’s all about the relationships. I mean, number one thing of being a coach and consultant is really building rapport with the clients.
Steve Hamilton: Yeah.
Luis Magalhaes: Obviously, it’s not the most important thing for actually guiding, but it’s what gets you the buy-in, right? You need to create empathy and rapport with people so they’ll actually take you seriously. How do you do that over video? Because this is a challenge that comes a lot specially in leadership contests. How do I get buy-in from my superiors? How do I get the camaraderie and the respect from my direct reports? This is something that comes up a lot, and I’m interested to know, how do you figure out this challenge?
Steve Hamilton: That’s a really deep question, and we could probably spend hours talking about it.
Luis Magalhaes: I mean, we don’t have hours, but we can take minutes.
Steve Hamilton: You know what? The most fundamental question every leader needs to ask themselves is, what climate am I creating? What climate am I creating? So anytime you’re having an interaction with a group of people or in an audience, what’s the energy here? What’s the climate? I think as a leader when you’re able to recognize what the climate is, you can then adopt or adapt new leadership styles, if you will, to create a sense of relaxness.
Steve Hamilton: There are only two things that people look for when they meet somebody for the first time. One is trust and the other is competence. We’ve got this 200,000 year operating system called the brain. When you go hunting for that saber-toothed tiger, you want to make sure that once you’ve killed the saber-toothed tiger, if another one shows up, you want to make sure that the guy that you’re hunting with sticks around.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah.
Steve Hamilton: If he runs off because he’s scared, you can’t trust him. He might’ve been the best hunter in the world, but if he runs off, we can’t trust him. So really the fundamental thing through Zoom, through telephone as well, funny enough, it’s about creating trust. How do you do that? It’s about being curious, suspending your agenda, asking questions to which you do not have the answer, and being open and vulnerable, sharing personal stories.
Steve Hamilton: That’s how it works, and it’s a very spontaneous thing. It releases a neural hormone in us called oxytocin, right? Which is the bonding hormone. Because a lot of the work that I do is brain-based, as long as I’m helping people get into their executive brain, the prefrontal cortex, that’s where vision, empathy, and trust lie, and that’s how you build great relationships.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah, that makes sense. So, I want to drill a bit more about the questions because I know from reading stuff that you’ve written that you’re a fan of questions. I’m also a fan of questions. That’s why I have a podcast, that’s why I interview people, and questions are a great tool for building rapport. Now, my standard procedure is I just look people up. These days, a lot of people just have half their lives or more in the Internet.
Luis Magalhaes: So, it’s pretty easy to look people up, find out some interesting things about them, and then genuinely ask questions that, again, that you don’t have the answer to, relate it to stuff that interests. This is kind of that easy, and I think it’s important that leaders put in the work because it’s important to know the people that are hunting with you, the saber-toothed tiger. Right?
Steve Hamilton: Exactly.
Luis Magalhaes: But, some people aren’t so easy. I mean for example, I know some people that make a point of having no part of their lives in the Internet. They just work there. They don’t have their personal stuff on the Internet. So sometimes, I have to interview a podcast guests that’s like that, and it gets tougher. What are some go-to questions that are your favorites for getting to know people better, getting to know your clients or people you work with better?
Steve Hamilton: Great question. I’m going to touch on a couple of pieces here.
Luis Magalhaes: Please do.
Steve Hamilton: Because I used to do research on my clients, like going to LinkedIn, see their profile and whatnot. I don’t anymore.
Luis Magalhaes: Wow. Really?
Steve Hamilton: Wow, absolutely. Because I want to come into it with a real sense of curiosity. I want to come in with a limited number of assumptions, and I want to come in with it trusting that they’re having a conversation with me because they’re curious as well. They want to get something out of it. So quite often the first question I would ask is, “Fantastic meeting you, Luis. What would make for successful conversation today?” That’s it.
Luis Magalhaes: Am I supposed to answer that?
Steve Hamilton: Well, we could have done that. Yeah. I mean, that’s what I ask my clients. What I’m doing with them is I’m powering with them. I’m not powering over them. I’m giving them the opportunity to share what’s on their mind, what they see as success in their agenda, and then co-create something together. That’s a great leading question to come into any conversation. So, that’s one.
Luis Magalhaes: Now, don’t you find that sometimes it stumps people a bit too much? I mean, over time doing my interviewing thing, I found that some questions you avoid just because people kind of spend a lot, and they do, “Oh, I wasn’t ready. I don’t usually think about this.”
Steve Hamilton: Yeah. So somebody says, “Oh, I really hadn’t thought about that,” and you say, “Great” or “How interested would you be in willing to explore that for five minutes so that we can make sure that we have a great meeting together?”
Luis Magalhaes: That’s nice.
Steve Hamilton: You know what? Some of this stuff is trained and some of it is just you learned. It becomes natural. As long as you’re asking open ended questions, chances are, you’re in a much stronger position to stay curious and to be able to connect with the other person effectively. It’s when we start getting into the yes, no questions that the conversation can become pretty transactional. So, what would be some of the two key words I would use for creating a transformational conversation? Share and discover.
Luis Magalhaes: Okay.
Steve Hamilton: Share and discover. So as long as you are sharing information and they’re sharing, as long as you’re discovering together, chances are, you’re creating high trust, and you’re willing to experiment together and willing to co-create.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s really cool.
Steve Hamilton: It works.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah, that’s a good game plan.
Steve Hamilton: It’s a great game plan. It’s how I built a global practice based out of Vancouver with clients literally around the world, from Hong Kong to India to the U.S., Europe, and so forth.
Luis Magalhaes: Oh, that’s cool. So, let’s go back a bit to your remote year, to the year where you started basically making your business fully about conducting your business to who starts working remotely, struggles a bit with it at the beginning. Then, some people quit because they can’t be productive, and other people figure out ways to be productive. Since you just told me that you’ve had one of your best years, I assume you’re the kind of person that figured out how to be productive. Do you feel that stress at all? If so, what did you change? How did you solve it?
Steve Hamilton: Thanks for asking that because now that you mention it, it’s kind of second nature now. When I first started I was like, “Oh my God, how do I do this? How do I set it up? How do I get the Canada links?” I had so many questions then to the how piece. A technique that I use for myself and I use for my clients is to get unstuck from the weeds is to have a vision.
Luis Magalhaes: Okay.
Steve Hamilton: So, my vision was very much about having a global practice where I can meet clients anywhere in the world, safely, confidentially, and with impact. Sort of vision my mind, I said, “You know what? This is part of the learning process, and so you’ve got to experiment,” right? It’s like learning to walk. You have to learn how to crawl, then walk, and then you can run. Is there a secret to that? Yes, practice. Practice, practice. Right? It’s those three big pieces.
Steve Hamilton: The more you practice, the more you get comfortable at things, and that’s the nature of human behavior. So, that’s the one piece. So practice, practice, practice. The world’s going that way. My experience has been as that as clients, even novices to it, kind of come into it, they start finding out how easy it is to use, how interactive it is, and Internet connections these days globally are so much more stable than they were, say, five years ago that it just makes for a natural interaction.
Luis Magalhaes: See, that’s super interesting that your blogs or the technical part. Because what I find is that people usually are okay with the technical part. They go over it easy, and most people have one of two problems. Either they get extremely unproductive because they just get distracted all the time. Because once you’re working from home, then work gets sidetracked and the priority becomes the family, the kids, or the cats, or doing the dishes, or cooking or stuff like that, the household stuff, and you keep pushing work away. Or then, there’s the opposite case where people just work, work, work, work, and forget to eat, forget to wash, forgot to everything. Work just takes over their life because they don’t have that physical separation between work and life. That’s the commute.
Steve Hamilton: Wow. Okay. So you’ve hit on a lot of big points, and thank you for bringing up this concept of productivity again because it was in your original question and I didn’t answer it. So, thanks for bringing that up back up again. Activity really is about focus. That’s it, right? Being in the moment, being in flow. The brain is easily distracted. As you mentioned, the kids running in, somebody ringing the doorbell, a thought popping into your mind. So I’m very conscious of, or mindful I should say, about how I use my time.
Steve Hamilton: I know when I’m most productive, early morning, right? We’re having this phone call right now, it’s 7:30. I actually had a coaching call at five the morning, Vancouver time. It’s my most productive time. So I do all my hard work, if you will, the one that requires a lot of prefrontal cortex piece, my executive brain, it requires me to be really present. I do a lot of that in the morning.
Steve Hamilton: The other piece, too, is I very rarely do anything that lasts more than 90 minutes, just because the brain burns it out. My brain burns out. I’ll go for a 10 minute break, go out on the balcony, have a snack, may go for a walk. I do something that just takes my mind off everything. What’s another strategy? Because I think you’re looking for strategies here. Another strategy is very much about how I set myself up for the day. So, this is going to sound a little bit strange perhaps for some. When I wake up, first thing that I do, the alarm goes off, you put it on snooze.
Luis Magalhaes: Really?
Steve Hamilton: All right? Absolutely.
Luis Magalhaes: I can’t do that.
Steve Hamilton: I can do that. We all do that.
Luis Magalhaes: If my alarm had snooze, I specifically disabled snooze because if my alarm has snooze, I’m not getting up. I’m just snoozing.
Steve Hamilton: You’re snoozing. Well, I’m actually awake, and the snooze is for five minutes. During those five minutes I wake up, I open up my eyes, I turn on the light, and I close my eyes again, and I start thinking about what I’m grateful for in my life. What I’m doing by thinking about that for about five minutes is I’m helping release a neurochemical in my body called oxytocin, which I referred to earlier. It creates a positive feeling in me, and it helps set the tone for the rest of the day.
Steve Hamilton: So that’s one of my strategies, set up yourself right. A lot of my clients are, and I used to do it myself, so you need to wake up, “Oh my God, I’ve got to get up, have a look at the emails, see what’s happening, have a look at WhatsApp, who’s been in touch?” I don’t do any of that because it creates stress, and then I’m just stressed for the rest of the morning, which is my most productive time of the day.
Steve Hamilton: So, that’s one strategy. Another strategy, too, is I have an office in my house, and I only do work in my office. I don’t do work anywhere else. So for me, this is space, it’s a sacred space. So, this is sacred space for work. So the rest of the house, the outside of the house, that is the space for having fun. So, very delineated in terms of those two pieces. So, mindfulness and making sure that you’ve got your space that you do work in.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s interesting. That’s interesting because I actually built, well, it’s not super built because it’s not partition it. I don’t have the division for an actual office [inaudible 00:22:15], but I did partition part of my living room as an office. This desk is where work happens. From the couch to this side, it’s work. From that, the couch, to that side, it’s entertainment. So, the couch kind of divides stuff.
Steve Hamilton: Very good.
Luis Magalhaes: But what I find out is that every now and then, it’s nice to switch it up. So if I feel unproductive and just slug, and just working being a slug here, I find that it’s actually quite nice if I just go grab my laptop and go to the kitchen table when something like that. The changing the environment, I guess this is a personal thing, but it kind of lifts me up a bit.
Steve Hamilton: Absolutely, and you’ve hit on a really key point too is, I call it changing. It’s shifting your geography. Right? So for example, never work more than 90 minutes because then I stand up, I’ve got blood flowing through my body, I’m feeling a different form of energy. So, changing your environment is great. Hey, do I work in my kitchen table? Sure. I do that sometimes when there’s nobody else in the house.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah, yeah. That’s key. Right? [crosstalk 00:23:27]. Yeah.
Steve Hamilton: Yeah, because the brain is a very finicky thing, right? It can get easily distracted. As long as there are no distractions happening, so I turn off my phone, I turn off my email notifications, I’m able to concentrate on the work that I’m doing. Then when I’m ready, I can resurface, if you will, and take care of emails, WhatsApp, and so forth.
Luis Magalhaes: All right.
Steve Hamilton: Som distractions. Eliminate distractions there, Luis.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s always good advice.
Luis Magalhaes: Hey there, it’s Luis. Welcome to the intermission of The Distant Job Podcast. If you’re listening to this podcast, there’s a very big chance that you’re interested in building a great remote team. To build a great remote team, you need great remote employees. That’s where Distant Job comes in. So, here’s how it works. You tell us the kind of position that you need to fill. We talk to you, we try to figure out not only what are the exact requirements that that person should have, but also we try to figure out who would be a perfect fit for your company culture, because we really believe that that matters.
Luis Magalhaes: Then once we have an exact picture of what we’re looking for, we’re off to the races. Our recruiters tap into their global network, and we filter people very well so that you don’t waste your time interviewing people that are never going to be of interest to you. We make sure because we are techies and our recruiters are techies as well. So when people get to you, they are already pre-selected, and you just have to decide between the cream of the crop.
Luis Magalhaes: Once you make your selection, we handle all the paperwork, we handle HR for you, we handle payments, and you get a full-time remote employee that’s among the best of the world, and managed entirely by you, by your processes, and following your culture. If this sounds good, visit us at www.distantjob.com. Without further ado, let’s get back with the show. Thank you for listening.
Luis Magalhaes: You’re doing great. Hopefully, your business keeps growing. One day you’ll need to expand. Once you are hiring for someone to work for you as a remote employee in a remote position, what would we look for? Not necessarily, what will you look for in that person as a person that’s able to live the values of your business and provide the kind of services that you’re used to providing to clients, but specifically, the person that you will trust before working from home.
Steve Hamilton: You know what? I need to think about that question, because I actually made a purposeful decision to stay solo, and a stay solo in so far as not hiring people. Because, scale changes everything, and I wanted to keep simplicity. What’s interesting about that, and I can answer your question in a different way, is that I don’t work alone. I actually have partners. So, I have partner companies with whom I work, and they’re based around the globe from England to Dubai to Luxembourg as well. What am I looking for in those partners?
Steve Hamilton: So, these are not necessarily employees, but what am I looking for in them? I’m looking for shared values. So, one of the first things that I look for when I’m looking for new partners to work with is where do they spend their time, money, and energy? So as long as our values are overlapping, we’re probably off to a good start. Then the second piece behind really’s been quite upfront right from the start, what does a great relationship look between us, right? What would a successful relationship look like between us? Right?
Steve Hamilton: Then, to manage expectations right at the start, and I found that that’s been extremely effective in terms of aligning what we both want and then being able to, this is the secret here, this is the one thing a lot of people don’t do, with my clients have a code word. Because sometimes, we don’t meet each other’s expectations. Sometimes working remotely, we forget about each other, and we’re not there, we’re not available. So, we have a code word, and it’s a different one for my different partners that we use that we can bring up.
Steve Hamilton: People, they know when I use it or when they use it with me that it’s safe. It’s like we’ve done something that we’re unaware of in terms of impact. So, one of my clients, the code word is, “That’s bat shit crazy.” He chose that one purposely because he wanted to bring humor to it, and I notice you laughed as well. He’s only ever used it once with me, and it was like, “Oh wow, okay. Thanks for bringing that up. What’s happening here? What have I missed? What do I need to know?”
Steve Hamilton: So, we explore that together so that we can realign our expectations. What I’m looking for is shared values. It’s an environment where we can suspend our judgment of each other and basically say whatever we want, create that psychological safety.
Luis Magalhaes: it’s a pretty useful tool.
Steve Hamilton: It is a tool.
Luis Magalhaes: Yeah. I was trying to put it in other words, but code word really is the best way to put it because it is a way that without having a big conversation, knowing immediately that something’s not right here, and then we can start focusing on what isn’t right and finding solutions instead of trying to figure out a way to bring up the issue. So yeah, that’s quite the good tool.
Steve Hamilton: You’ve hit on a perfect point there. It’s about focusing on solutions, not the problem.
Luis Magalhaes: Let’s talk about tools that are actual physical tools or maybe that are technology tools, like apps. If you add 100 euros or dollars, $100 to spend, with each one of your partners, what would you give them?
Steve Hamilton: Absolutely. Headspace would be a good one, right? Just to be able to help people. We’re always in this go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go mode, and it works. You do need to stop the car and you need to refuel, right? Because you can’t stay on the road all the time. It’s in those moments of refueling that you get to reflect a little bit in terms of what your impact is, what you’re trying to do, what you want to achieve. Then, you can able to then reconnect to the road with higher impact and greater purpose. So, taking five minutes every 90 minutes just to chill out, to refuel, reflect, to then be able to reconnect is one of the most powerful tools for being productive.
Luis Magalhaes: Sounds good. Sounds like a good gift. So, what about yourself? What about yourself? In the past year, let’s say, what purchase has made your work life easier or more productive?
Steve Hamilton: Well amazingly, I think it’s been Zoom. What we’re using, I didn’t purchase it. It’s free. Right? It’s a big deal. It’s the best price. Funnily enough, with the work that I’m doing and the way I’m expanding now, I’ll be doing more and more group type work, which will require me to actually pay for a subscription. So to answer your question, Zoom has been by far the most effective, stable platform, easy to use, easy to put into calendars. It’s just a click away. If you can’t, you can dial in, which is just amazing. So, very flexible tool. Love it.
Luis Magalhaes: You might have talked about it earlier when we were talking about how you started to remotize your business, but did you mention Calendly at all?
Steve Hamilton: Did I mention?
Luis Magalhaes: No? Okay. So, Calendly is one I use on top of Zoom just because it’s basically a magical link that you send to people, and you define what times you are free for what types of meetings, and then they pick from your schedule, from your availability, and it automatically creates a Zoom at that time and day. It’s a brilliant complement to Zoom.
Steve Hamilton: Brilliant.
Luis Magalhaes: We use it to schedule this podcast, so I will put that out in addition to your recommendation. What about book? What book or books have you gifted the most?
Steve Hamilton: This is the one on mine right now. People, our audience can’t see the cover, so I’ll actually read it out. There we go, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get The Most Important Work Done.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s a mouth-
Steve Hamilton: Which amazingly, Luis, is directly tied to what we were talking about remote workers being productive and how does to stay productive.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s a mouthful.
Steve Hamilton: It’s a mouthful, Two Awesome Hours. That’s it, that’s the book. By the way, it only takes two hours to read, so there you go.
Luis Magalhaes: It only takes two hours to read, that’s something. They’re living what they preach.
Steve Hamilton: Absolutely, absolutely.
Luis Magalhaes: What made you pick that one?
Steve Hamilton: It made me pick that one in particular, because one, it’s a recent purchase, but a lot of the work that I do with my clients, they are under a tremendous amount of pressure to get a lot done, so get more done with less. People are burning out. They’re running on adrenaline, not taking care of themselves in terms of mindfulness and they’re unaware of the impact that it’s having on the mental. It’s too late.
Steve Hamilton: So, one of the things that I work with my clients is productivity, right? How do you get the best out of your day? What are the times that you use the most amount of energy, and when are you most productive? This book is a really nice complement to the coaching.
Luis Magalhaes: Nice, okay. So before we close this down, I want to be respectful of your time. I have one last question. The Chinese fortune cookie question. I haven’t been doing this for some episodes but popular demand, the public has spoken and they have told me to start tasking the Chinese fortune cookie question again. So, I’m here to please.
Luis Magalhaes: Let’s say that you are hosting a dinner with leadership from top Silicon Valley companies. In the dinner, there’s going to be a round table discussion about the future of work and how to lead remote teams. As you are the host of the dinner, you are entitled to write the message that goes inside the fortune cookies. So, what is the message that comes inside the fortune cookies?
Steve Hamilton: Right. Great question. I need to think about that one for a minute before I respond spontaneously. I’ve got one that popped into my head, and I’m now processing it. That’s it. You will be connected.
Luis Magalhaes: Well it’s not the question, but who cares? Statement, fortune cookie statement.
Steve Hamilton: Yeah. Well, I think the fortune cookie is all about you will be connected. For success, you will be connected.
Luis Magalhaes: Okay. So, thanks for the conversation. Thanks for the great responses and some great questions that you delivered here.
Steve Hamilton: Thanks, Luis.
Luis Magalhaes: Now, I would like you to tell if people have questions or the listenership wants to continue the conversation with you, where can they find you, where can they have a conversation with you, and where can find The 18th Camel?
Steve Hamilton: The best, best tool that ever been made so far, as far as I’m concerned in terms of get connected, LinkedIn. Steve Hamilton-Clark, just type in to LinkedIn, and that’s the best place to get connected.
Luis Magalhaes: All right. So, I will put that on the show notes.
Steve Hamilton: Yeah, good question. Final thought, if you take nothing away from this meeting or this conversation except for one thing, what would it be? I think it would be what I mentioned earlier. When you’re having your Zoom meetings, your interactions, whether they’re face-to-face or over the Internet, always ask yourself this one question, what climate am I creating?
Luis Magalhaes: Sounds good.
Steve Hamilton: That’s it.
Luis Magalhaes: Steve-
Steve Hamilton: My words of wisdom.
Luis Magalhaes: That’s good. So Steve, thank you for your words of wisdom. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate it, and to see you around.
Steve Hamilton: Absolutely. Thank you, Luis, and have a great rest of the day.
Luis Magalhaes: So, we close another episode of the Distant Job Podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please, you can help us out by sharing it on social media. That would be great. It’s how we reach more listeners, and the more listeners we have, the more awesome guests I can get in touch and convince to participate in these conversations that are a joy to have for me, and I hope they’re a joy for you to listen to as well.
Luis Magalhaes: You can also help a lot leaving reviews on iTunes or your podcasts indication service of choice. Reviews are surprisingly helpful in helping the podcast get to more listeners. Now, another thing that you might want to do is go to distantjob.com/blog/podcast, click on your favorite episode, any episodes really, and subscribe. By subscribing, you will get a notification whenever a new episode is up and whenever we get the transcripts off the episodes up so you can actually peruse the conversations in text form.
Luis Magalhaes: Of course, if you need to find a great employee for your team, a great remote employee, you should take the whole world into consideration and not just look to hire locally, not just look to hire in your country. Look around the whole world because that’s the talent pool that contains the best talent. To you help with that, again, distantjob.com is the perfect place to start. You will tell us who we need, and we will make sure that you get the best possible candidate 40% faster than the industry standard. With that, I bid you ado. See you next week on the next episode.
