PMP Podcast: One of the Masterminds Behind PMP (With Alyson Taylor)

Read The Transcript:

Timothy Reitsma Are you curious about who is one of the masterminds behind peoplemanagingpeople.com? There's so much useful content being recorded, being generated as well as we have big plans for 2020. If you haven't signed up for the site yet, you're not only missing out, you're breaking the hearts of the people you lead. Okay, well just kidding, but you are breaking our hearts.

Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tim Reitsma, the resident host of People Managing People. Welcome to the podcast we're people managing people and we want to lead and manage better. We're owners, founders, entrepreneurs, we're middle managers, we're team leaders, we're managing people. And yes, we do human resources, but we're not HR, at least not in the traditional sense.

We're on a mission to help people lead and manage their teams and organizations more effectively. So if you want to lead and manage better, if you want to become a better organizational leader and more effective people manager, then join us. Keep listening to the podcast to find the tips, tricks, and tools you need to recruit, retain, manage, and lead your people and organization more effectively. While listening to this show, please subscribe and join our mailing list on peoplemanagingpeople.com to stay up to date with all that's going on.

Alyson Taylor is a marketing coordinator at Black & White Zebra an indie media company based here in Vancouver, BC. She's a people person motivated by exploration, continuous learning, and a passion for all things digital. Alyson is inspired by helping people feel more confident in their day-to-day. She loves researching the most relevant and up to date content and all things managing people. She's an expert at curating content that people are actually interested in and excited to help guide and lead their tribe to the best possible way. Alyson is inspired by helping people feel more confident in their day-to-day. Alyson is one of the editors, you see a lot of content from you. So why don't you just tell our listeners a little bit about you? Where are you from? What gets you excited?

Alyson Taylor Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Tim. Kind of a fully loaded question, but yeah, so a bit of background about myself. I graduated a few years back with an honors in marketing management at the University of Guelph. It's actually back in Ontario where I'm from. And after I graduated I decided to dedicate a couple of years to exploration and adventure where I was backpacking around Southeast Asia for a few months. Then I decided to move to Australia and live in Melbourne for a while. Then I came home and decided I still wasn't done. So I went to Peru and hiked the Salkantay Trek up to a Machu Picchu. I guess you could say I really caught onto the travel bug.

Timothy Reitsma Wow. Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Alyson Taylor But after that, I dove into my career in marketing. So this is kind of just the first real jumpstart in my career and exploring that everything that encompasses a marketing coordinator role. So with that I just had the opportunity to branch out and explore different realms and paths. And that's just kind of where People Managing Peoples come in. But I guess to say what excites me in my personal life, I guess I'm constantly looking for new places to explore and different travel opportunities to jump at. I guess you could say that kind of has transitioned to my professional life as I'm always excited to explore and dive into new opportunities and challenges.

Timothy Reitsma It sounds like a perfect fit, you know, peoplemanagingpeople.com is at this point fairly new. And so it's like the path forward is not necessarily all drawn out. So you're kind of traveling down that path as well. What's kind of getting you excited about peoplemanagingpeople.com?

Alyson Taylor Well, yeah, honestly it's just a new opportunity and there's just, there's so much to explore, so much content to be produced and it really just creating the community for people to get together and just having a tribe to call their own. So that's really exciting me, and just to be a part of that along the way.

Timothy Reitsma Yeah, there's so much data, information, so many websites about HR, how to manage, how to lead. I think one of the great things peoplemanagingpeople.com is doing is pulling it all together. We're seeing a ton of content from you. What is your role at People Managing People?

Alyson Taylor Yeah, so, well I've been curating content for People Managing People for a few months now. And as you said, it is a new site. So we are still in the process of rolling things out. If you haven't already been to our site, it offers some great information on articles, tools, and resources that is positioned to kind of benefit anyone that's found themselves in an HR role but doesn't necessarily want to be there, if that makes sense?

Timothy Reitsma Totally.

Alyson Taylor What I'm doing is trying to like create a community and create a tribe that surrounds people with culture. With that being said, what I'm looking for is the most commonly searched terms within HR persona. That includes keyword research, articles and tools that I think that would benefit our audience. Obviously there's a plethora of software and tools out there to not only benefit but manage your workplace, your employees, your performance, and various systems to help manage and lead and to succeed.

Essentially I'm just creating a top list of tools that people who are struggling to manage either their employee talent or organizational performance for instance, and creating a space that they can find valuable resources at. To sum up, it's more so of a prediction of what us, the people, want and need and kind of catering to that along the way.

Timothy Reitsma Hmm. I like that. I like that it's not just necessarily topics that are top of mind for you or what others are telling you, but it's ... there's some research going into what is top of mind for people, what people searching and how can we curate a great list in a great, I guess one stop website where people can can gather this information? I think that's what one thing that's really exciting to me about the website.

It hasn't been up for that long. It was launched in 2019 and there's been a couple of popular posts so far. What has been top of mind for people? What are they searching peoplemanagingpeople.com for?

Alyson Taylor Yeah, it is new. It is taking a little bit to get out there, but a few of our ... According to analytics anyways, our top sites have been or searches for our HR experts to watch for in 2020 and our top websites and blogs of 2019. I really think this is because our experts and our websites have done such a great job of sharing these articles that we featured them within their networks. This is a really great way of generating more awareness as this is an upcoming site. It's great that we have these shareable articles to get our name out there and kind of share with the various communities that we exist and that we are worthwhile content to be seen.

Timothy Reitsma Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well even just on those two, most popular, it's ... they're very different. It's the top blogs to follow as well as the top HR leaders to follow in 2020 so it's content and people. I think that's one of the, again, another great thing that you're able to curate and pull together. As we go into 2020 what's coming in terms of content? What do you think? What's going to get people excited about People Managing People and what insights can you share? What's to come?

Alyson Taylor Well we actually have lots in the pipeline in terms of articles, new tool listings and of course the podcast. We are going to be doing some guest posts coming soon as well. Also, if there's anyone out there who's keen to contribute to our site in any way, we welcome you with open arms. But yeah, I said I'm trying to kind of position our site to people who need to learn and who need to grow in this People Managing People community.

We're just looking for tools and tips and funnies to help inspire them along the way. But yeah, I'll be honest, I've never kind of truly managed a team in a large capacity, but I've been managed and I think kind of that's where a lot of my excitement and inspirations rooted from. But yeah, so we're just kind of headed in that way.

Timothy Reitsma Well, I think you bring a unique perspective, not necessarily, like you said, you haven't necessarily managed people or managed a team, but you've been managed so you still have a perspective, and I think a great perspective from that side of things where it's sometimes looked upon the leader or the manager to know all the answers and have all the answers, and yet we forget to ask people on the front lines or people who are performing or doing the work, how they're being managed and what's working and what's not. So I'm looking forward to that perspective that you bring to the site and to content as go into 2020.

Alyson Taylor Yeah. Absolutely, I'm really excited just to kind of see where the site's headed and kind of bring people back to the basics, just kind of like offering them the tools and resources to ... just successfully manage and lead their tribe, really.

Timothy Reitsma Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. As Ben Aston the founder of Black & White Zebra company, and People Managing People falls under Black & White Zebra, he had developed this idea of, okay well he's managing a team, leading a team and he's kind of the CEO, the founder, he is the finance guy, the HR person, he is doing a lot and not necessarily having a dedicated HR person or HR team.

And so that's who we're looking at curating content for. We're spinning the podcast in that direction to really go at that persona for our listeners, people who are trying to do it all and looking for insight, looking for information-

Alyson Taylor Yeah absolutely.

Timothy Reitsma ... and not have to go to 16 different websites to figure it out. For those who are listening, if you haven't gone to the website yet, if you haven't signed up on the website to get the latest content you're missing out. Alyson had put together a great little ebook full of tips on how to successfully manage and lead people. There's 10 tips in the book and I asked Alyson before the podcast, what is her favorite, or top tip, so what is your top tip for our listeners?

Alyson Taylor Yes. Yeah. So if anyone hasn't gone to the site already, make sure you subscribe, and then you'll have access to the ebook. But I think that my main tip is really just to not lose sight at where you began. I know that once upon a time we all started in a position where we were the ones being led and sometimes I think that many of us lose sight in that. So striving to be like a motivating leader and inspiring your team to work towards a common goal, and that includes telling them they've done a good job in setting attainable goals and ensuring they just don't lose sight in the work, I think that's a super important, not only for the individual but really as a team as a whole. But yeah, the ebook is 10 tips, so make sure you download to see more.

Timothy Reitsma Yeah, it's a quick, easy read, but it's packed full of great insight and little quotes. I was scrolling through it recently and I like this quote that's in there, "Leadership is not about vision and responsibility," or sorry, "Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power." And that's a Seth Berkley quote.

I liked that because it talks about being a servant leader and really ties into what you just mentioned about your top tip or top insight is, is don't forget your roots. You know where you are, you've been managed, you're now leading people. Be a servant leader, really put yourself in the shoes of the people you're leading and see where it goes. Thanks for that. I appreciate that. In your opinion, what will people be missing out on if they don't visit the site, subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the website?

Alyson Taylor Too much probably.

Timothy Reitsma Listen, what are people truly missing out on?

Alyson Taylor No, seriously, I think that peoplemanagingpeople.com is an excellent resource for people who are looking for tips and further insights on how to manage and lead. And yes, you can say I'm biased, as I will say now I'm open to suggestions from our audience, but these are tools that people are interested in, there are articles that you wish that you could read. We love to produce content that our audience craves and they want to listen to and they want to read. So as our site grows, we'll only be growing in knowledge and resources. As our audience, my number one tip would be make sure you subscribe so you can keep up with us along the way.

Timothy Reitsma Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's great. I really appreciate you taking a bit of time out of your busy day to tell our listeners a bit about who you are, what to expect in the days going forward in the months going forward, and what gets you really excited about peoplemanagingpeople.com.

Alyson Taylor Of course. Thanks for having me Tim.

Timothy Reitsma So with that, thanks Alyson for agreeing to be on the podcast today. Yeah. And for our listeners, if you have any comments, if you have any suggestions on content, let us know. We'd love to hear from you for the website, for the podcast, for anything, you know? But we'd love to hear your feedback. We want to connect with you and, and curate this site and this podcast with you for you. So with that, I hope you enjoy your day and we'll talk to you soon.