Anna Shcherbyna, CEO & Founder of Remotivate on Growing Amazing Remote Teams

Want to build a remote team for your company but not sure where to begin? In this episode of Staffing Show, Remotivate CEO & Founder Anna Scherbyna shares some valuable remote recruitment vetting tips and tricks you can use to ensure you always hire the right people.

David Folwell: Hello everyone. Thank you again for us today. Welcome here today with Anna Shcherbyna, the CEO and founder of Remotivate. To get started, Anna, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about your background and your story about how you got into staffing?

Anna Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely, thanks David. So my background is actually in recruitment operations, I’ve been doing this for the past nine years, actually. And what’s super interesting and something I realized only about a month ago is I’ve never done recruitment for an office position. I’ve always hired remotely, whether that was internationally for obviously in office or hospitality or whatever the industry was, but I still did it remotely.

And so I started off in Ukraine, I did that for about five years, sending people all over the world. And then about four years ago, I got into the remote space and I started working with online businesses, doing operations, doing recruitment, and it kind of snowballed into people being like, “Hey Anna, will you help with recruitment for my online business?” And that happened over and over again. And, hence, I’ve been running my company for about two and a half years now, helping online businesses specifically with remote recruitment. So definitely been a fun journey.

Folwell: That’s really amazing, I mean, you and I had a brief conversation about this, but I’ve talked to a lot of staffing firms, I’ve been in the staffing space for a very long time. I’ve even had a digital marketing agency and hired a completely remote team. I’ve never seen a remote-focus staffing agency. What kind of brought you to that, was just the background and kind of fall into it, or how did you select this?

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely. Now this is something that people do ask me and they’re just like, how did you find this amazing niche? You’re in such a great space. And I’m like, I really didn’t. I mean, I always say that the business found me. I never went out being like, I want to be a business owner. It really was never the goal for me. The goal for me was I wanted to help people from all over the world. I mean, initially it started as I want to help people in Eastern Europe, because that’s where I’m originally from. I want to help them work online. Because it’s such an incredible space. 

And then I just realized that there’s just not enough opportunities out there. And when I got into these entrepreneurial circles, I realized there’s so much opportunity to help people, not just in Eastern Europe, but all over the world. And when I got into that space more and more online businesses were like, “Wait, you can do it remotely, you can hire remote staff?” You actually know how to do that? And I was like, “Yes, I can help.” It started as consulting, helping here and there and then it was just more and more people. And I was like, okay, okay. I’m just going to go register my business and I’ll be right back.

Folwell: That’s amazing, and I’ve learned some of the nuances over the years about remote recruiting and hiring. And so it’s odd having somebody come on full-time that you’ve never met in person. That said, I think everybody in the last year due to the pandemic, a lot of staffing agencies have learned some of the nuances, but how would you say that traditional recruiting is different than recruiting for remote hires?

Shcherbyna: I mean, I would just say there’s just so many differences. From just the way that you have to understand the vision of a role, even the way you call a position, right? When you’re in the US, here’s a great example, senior media buyer. I only heard that some companies call marketing managers “senior media buyers,” I didn’t even realize that. And that’s because, research, research, research. The names of positions are so different. The way that responsibilities from one role, like one operations manager is absolutely not the same as another operations manager. 

The way that you vet candidates, and you have to be so much more specifically looking at all the different steps and information they’re providing, especially if you’re hiring internationally, because it’s different cultures, different people, just different skills and abilities. 

And you really have to be so much more attentive to the process, and then of course the interviews. You have a box to look at a person. You’re like in a Zoom box, you don’t know where they are, you can’t really tell their body language and you have to be just so much more careful. 

So I just definitely say that, I think a lot of people and the way that it has changed is that a lot of people haven’t realized that remote recruitment means being so much more attentive to the process and really keeping a close eye on for the red flags, for the differences in culture, there’s just so many more things to keep watch out. Or I think that wasn’t always the case when it’s just, “Hey, come in the office” or “Hey, provide your references and I’ll call them up on my cell, they’re in the same city.” It’s really changed in that sense.

Folwell: Yeah, it’s pretty incredible, and also with the timing for starting your business. I mean, the unknown, was like, my God, what’s the pandemic? I was just looking at stats on this and said that, in December I saw it was almost 42% of American workers were working remotely, and then through 2021 Upwork expects to be 26.7% of people still working from home, which is pretty incredible. 

A lot of the companies, the founders I talk with, they’re saying, we had an office with a hundred people in it and now we’re not sure we’re going to renew the lease, or we might go to just a shared workspace and have everybody have flexibility on that front. But I think this is one of those trends that is moving accelerated by the pandemic.

Shcherbyna: I think a lot of companies are realizing that there’s a lot of benefits, so many companies were either against that or never looked into it. And now that they’re going into the remote space, they’re realizing, “Oh, wow, there’s all this overhead that I don’t have to pay for, there’s an office that I don’t have to pay for, there’s so much opportunity opening up. Because now I’m not limited to a city, I’m not even limited to a country, I can hire from any time zone, I can expand my business.” And it creates all these opportunities that businesses are only starting to realize. It started in 2020 and 2021 it’s just like, it’s beginning to really snowball into that understanding of, I can do amazing things with my team.

Folwell: It is really incredible when you look at it. I’ve been working with, I think I’ve historically used Upwork for parts of this. It was seven years ago, I started working with an assistant out of the Philippines, and still today, still on a monthly basis. I just like it, it’s incredible so I’m a big fan of outsourcing and also finding remote teammates to help you move forward. That’s pretty great. 

So, how have you seen recruitment change throughout the years, and really where do you see the future trends, where is your recruitment going in the next few years?

Shcherbyna: I mean, as I said, I just think there’s going to be so many changes to how companies recruit, right? I think one is, it’s going to make business definitely more international, meaning again, because their doors are open to international recruitment. And I do think the recruitment industry is still very much behind. I’ve even had a client who was, it’s a nine-figure company. I mean, we’re still a small business. I mean being completely honest, we’re a small business, we’re helping small to medium businesses who are mostly working with online businesses. 

And this nine-figure company calls me up and I’m like, “Let me just be honest, why are you talking to me?” Honestly, I just asked them that question, because I wanted to have an understanding, why are we having this conversation? Because they mentioned they worked with Hayes, which is a multi-billion dollar company. I’m like, “So why are we having this conversation?” And their response is, “Those companies don’t know how to hire remote staff.”

And that’s what’s crazy. It’s that the space of recruitment is so behind and so old school, and every time I have a conversation with even people who are ahead of the game or online business owners, and they’re just like, we never heard it. For example, reference checks, wait, what? How can you do international reference checks? There’s all these fun questions that come up and they’re just like, what’s happening here? How do we do all of this? And I think, I mean, we’re talking huge multi-billion dollar companies are behind and they still don’t really know how to do it. 

So, I think we’re in such an incredible time and incredible journey where companies are going to be accelerating and there’s going to be a gap. So when it comes to recruitment, I hope these recruitment companies really, really are going to catch up, because right now there is really no one who knows how to do proper recruitment. And then there’s obviously a whole thing on pricing and structures and vetting processes. Everything’s going to change. I truly believe that and I’m so excited to see what’s going to happen.

Folwell: I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I think watching all of the digital transformation and how that’s impacting businesses, and what I see time and time again, it’s companies that are just adopting new technology like crazy, trying new ways to automate the entire, as much of the recruiting process as they can, that makes sense. I know you see others who are kind of still holding onto the old ways. I think we’re going to see some pretty intense changes in the next few years within the staffing industry. 

So, tell me a little bit about, I mean, you’ve mentioned clearly a demand for your business segment has increased pretty drastically, sounds like you’ve figured out some pretty cool things. How has business growth been for you guys?

Shcherbyna: Yeah, I mean, it’s been crazy, David, honestly. And that’s something that is the beauty of all of this. Especially since last year. And this is something I’m extremely proud of. Our entire business right now has been word of mouth referrals. And it’s just snowballed where I’m getting, I’m waking up with all of these different, “Hey, this person told me that you can help with remote recruitment. I can’t find anyone else.” “Hey, I Googled remote recruitment and you’re the agency to talk to.” I’m like, okay. 

And so we’re definitely growing our own team and scaling alongside helping other companies grow their team. And honestly, it’s just such an incredible experience, because one of the amazing things that I learned at the very beginning of this year when I started getting into marketing, which has been a bit of a struggle, because my background is operation and recruitment not marketing. Okay? 

And once I started getting into it, I realized there’s not enough information out there in terms of just content. And yeah, of course I can do, again, I can give you the fish, right? But I want to teach people to fish. And I think right now, once I started researching, my team started researching, we realized there’s really not enough information out there. 

And so this year, not only of course will we support so many companies that are going remote or need that assistance and help and support. But we’re going to be creating content, whether that’s the blog, whether that’s getting on social media, doing lives, doing webinars, because it’s a gap and people need that. Entrepreneurs and business owners and HR managers, also included, need that support. And I definitely want to be able to make that difference. My entire team wants to be able to make that difference. So business has been good and we definitely have big dreams and big aspirations, so to speak.

Folwell: Awesome. Awesome. And with that, it sounds like you’re going to be sharing some of these on your blog or through webinars, but do you have any specific recruitment vetting tips, anything that you could share that would help people through this?

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely. So there are a few things that I would absolutely love to share. Just kind of like highlight tips and tricks that I think are so, so, so important. So the number one, my personal favorite and to everybody’s surprise, it’s not sourcing, even not so much the vetting process, I mean, which is important, and I’ll get to that in just a second. But I think one of the most important things that almost every single entrepreneur, business owner, HR manager that I work with really skim over is the vision of a position. Really fully understanding the position that they’re looking to bring on. 

And when I say that, I mean, most business owners say “I need a marketing manager.” Here’s an example of what I need, here’s a job description, post it on somewhere and hope for the best. And then I wonder why I’m getting all these candidates that just are not relevant at all to my position. And that’s because I always say “position to sell,” and it’s so strange to people because it seems so counterintuitive. I’m paying for this, so why would I have to position to sell? People should work for me because I’m paying money. You know the normal kind of thought process.

But right now, as you said, there are so many people going remote and there’s so much talent. And there’s not enough thought going behind the, how do you position a role? What’s the actual job description? What are the responsibilities? And what are some benefits and opportunities for working for your company instead of another one? 

And companies just don’t take the time to tell their story to really be attractive. And that just creates a whole snowball effect of who are you going to vet if the people coming in are not even relevant to your position. Okay? 

So, I know you asked about the vetting and I’m happy to share about it, but I feel like the number one thing that people should take away is do the research. Really, truly understand who you’re hiring and not just for right now, not for the quick fires, but for the long term. What is this person going to do for you in the long term? What does success look like for this role in the long term? And I think those are some important questions to ask, but I am happy to go into vetting if you like.

Folwell: Yeah, no, no, no, that’s all good, that’s great. And it’s also something that resonates with me pretty strongly. I’ve worked with quite a few people who, even in my early years, one of my early roles I hired about 20 people and I remember copying and pasting the role from another, and I was like, let’s find out what are the typical roles and responsibilities for this job title? And it’s like, guess what? That doesn’t work out so well, you’ve got to make sure that it fits exactly what your needs are. 

And I think even going in the positioning to sell the job, but also positioning in getting a clear understanding of what your needs are as a business and what you’re trying to achieve, it’s kind of the underlying principle there. So absolutely. 

You also mentioned sourcing and that’s an area that I’m always, it’s near and dear to my heart, I’m always trying to figure out what are the best sourcing strategies? What’s the most cost effective? And where are you going to get the most reliable high quality candidates? Tell us a little bit about your thoughts on sourcing.

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely. This is actually, so if the vision of the role is the least expected, least paid attention to, sourcing is the absolute highlight issue or challenge, I’d say, the challenge that a lot of companies deal with. And funny enough, once more and more clients came in, we were like, Oh, this is the struggle? This is actually the easy part for us, sourcing was never, it was never the issue. We were like, Oh, we just got, we posted a project manager role a few months ago, yet 600 applications. We didn’t know what to do with them, you know what I mean?

We were so surprised when people kept saying sourcing is the issue, I was like, what? So to answer your question, there’s a few things that we’ve really done that has changed the game for us. And again, it’s because we’ve really tried to avoid the stereotypes, the usual, “here’s what you need to do to source,” because it doesn’t work or it works very poorly. 

Now, here’s what I mean by that. So for example, we don’t like LinkedIn for sourcing. I truly believe right now there’s so many amazing people in the remote space and head hunting is in the past. Unless it’s a nine-figure business looking for a COO, I completely agree. For everything else, if you’re a small to medium business you’re growing and even higher leadership positions, we’ve hired for C-level positions. I hate LinkedIn, I’m so sorry.

Folwell: No, you’re all good, you’re all good.

Shcherbyna: Honestly it’s 80% of the work for 20% of the results. I did a bit of work for an online tech company and they’re like, “Anna, only LinkedIn.” I’m like, why only LinkedIn? I remember spending so many hours with almost no results. I’m like, this is ridiculous, my team finds 300 candidates in three days and you’re telling me to do two weeks of LinkedIn with nothing. What’s the point of this? 

And the thing that we found that has really transformed sourcing for us is we actually find the platforms where we can invite candidates manually to apply. Now, I know you mentioned Upwork, and we love Upwork as well. But there is this stereotype around Upwork that, oh, that’s only for freelancers. I’ve had clients tell me, don’t hire an Upwork, Anna. That’s not for the long term, that’s not for leadership positions. I’ve had that and I’m like, okay, look, trust me this once, and then if the candidates don’t come in, if the quality is not there, we’ll talk again. Just let it be, just give it to me this once. 

And what’s interesting is, and a lot of people don’t realize, a lot of entrepreneurs don’t realize this is that most people on Upwork, if they haven’t made it, and most people haven’t, let’s be honest. But it’s true, right? Most people, they’re not making a hundred thousand dollars a year on Upwork. They’re there because they’re looking for an opportunity. But at the end of the day, the motivation behind that is “I don’t want to spend all this time hustling for clients. I want to do marketing, I want to do customer service, I want to be a VA, I want to do operations for an Amazon business. Not, I want to write cover letters for a hundred companies every month in hopes of getting a job.” It’s really not what people want to do. 

And I think that just those stereotypes about Upwork is really what’s holding a lot of people back. But there’s so much opportunity there and we get so many of our amazing full-time staff from Upwork, to be completely honest.

Folwell: Oh, wow. That’s amazing.

Shcherbyna: Yeah. Because we’re looking at the ones who are new to the platform that don’t have that rep. It’s completely the opposite of what people look for, they’re looking at the reviews, they’re looking at their proven experience and we’re doing the opposite. We’re saying, “Have you not succeeded here? Do you want a full-time job? Do you want a career with this remote company?” And they get so excited and they light up and they go through a process and then they say, thank you, we loved your process, we’d do it again. 

So Upwork is a major one, we of course use Indeed is a great one, AngelList is another one. There’s a lot of platforms that we test and try for every position. We’re always, always trying to look for new opportunities. We’re always testing and trialing. But I’d say that every platform has its own limitations for the type of positions that you can find on there for the geographical, even remote positions. Some are very US focused like Indeed, mostly for US candidates like North America. But Upwork is a beautiful resource if you know how to use it.

Folwell: I couldn’t agree more. With the digital agency, Upwork was instrumental for growth, and there were a couple people that worked with there for a very long period. Still have contacts that I’m working with sometimes there, that’s amazing. Anything else on the sourcing front? Are you guys doing anything with referrals? I have to always gotta bring that up, get my affinity there?

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely. So it’s a little bit different for us. We’re actually more on the, there’s two major things, so one, as I said, we actively invite candidates, so we invite about 150 to 300 candidates depending on the position. And that really eliminates long-term work, so it’s a short-term investment of time for long-term results. Most companies try to save time by posting on some job boards and then hoping for the candidates to come in. What happens is the quality, and over time you will spend the time anyways trying to find those candidates, whether you’re going to wait longer or whatever it may be.

By spending a week on sourcing and actively inviting candidates that have an 80%, 70 to 80% match with our position, we get so much higher results. So we only are getting maybe 50 to 100 candidates in our funnel for a position, but most of them actually are relevant and have the experience. So I’d say that’s a big one.

And then obviously we’ve now built an entire database of very popular positions like operations and marketing. And we keep tapping into that as well for people who were amazing, but just weren’t hired. Funny enough, we actually had a girl apply six times and then she got the job. So she got it for a project manager and her superior who was the COO, a week later, he quit and recommended her for the interim position, and she was like six times this girl applied through us. And on the sixth time, not only did she get a position, but she got to lead, now she’s leading the business, and she’s the COO of a major Amazon seller company. It’s amazing what these people can do. So yeah.

Folwell: That’s incredible. That’s incredible. So shifting away from sourcing a little bit. Tell me about some of the challenges you’ve had with growing the business. What are some of the struggles that you’ve had over the years to get to where you’re at and how have you overcome those?

Shcherbyna: That is such a great question. Actually, one that I almost no one has ever asked me before. But it’s such a great one, because like I said, what’s interesting with a lot of business owners, most business owners, their background is in marketing. They are these hustlers that know how to find leads, find clients. And so the growth is so easy for them naturally, almost every single business owner I talk with, not just marketing agencies in general. They’re like, we’re the marketer of the business. I’m like, okay.

And then with me it’s like, I’m operations and recruitment. I had no idea about marketing. And so my business was like, I provide, my background is in service businesses, I’ve always helped a lot of service businesses, I’ve worked in service businesses. And so for me, it was like providing excellent service and then they’re going to come back and they’re going to recommend us.

And so I just grew the business that way and it’s completely referral based, at this time, most of it is referrals, but I have learned to do marketing and I have fallen in love with, especially inbound marketing. But it was through a marketing coach. So I started working last year in Q3, Q4 started working with a marketing coach and he completely shifted my understanding of marketing. Because I was like, “I hate marketing, this is all BS, this is all about selling people.” And I just don’t like selling. I really don’t. I like bringing value into the world and helping people and making a difference. And I always thought that’s the opposite of marketing, to be completely honest with you.

And so having the opportunity of working with a marketing coach who has a very, I know this word is going to sound kind of weird, but kind of a holistic approach to things, having “we’re here to help, we’re not here to sell.” It really changed my perspective and we’ve now able to do content, we’re now able to grow in a lot of different areas of marketing with a mindset of “we’re here to help.” So, I’d say the number one struggle for me has always been and probably will always be marketing.

Folwell: That makes sense and it’s funny when you talk about that. I’ve built a couple of different sales organizations and I’ve had people that have moved over from kind of more of a marketing or operations role into sales, and they’re always like, they have such a bad rap, they’re like I don’t want to do sales, that’s not what I’m about. And when I think of sales and marketing, it’s you’re helping to inform people accurately so they can make informed decisions about what’s good for them.

And I think that so many people feel like it’s like convincing, it’s bad. I’m convinced selling snake oil, and it’s like, no, if it’s done correctly, you’re educating and hopefully helping people. And I’ve had quite a few people who have changed their mindset on that, where they’re like, “Oh, this is actually really great, I’m just providing information,” and it’s like, yes, yes, that’s true.

Shcherbyna: Yeah, marketing has a bad rep. I could speak to that. Marketing has a very bad rep, but that’s because there’s so much of that in the space. I mean, we’re looking through social media and it’s like, “buy this, do this, sign up for that.” And I’m like, Oh my gosh, do people feel like that when they see my stuff as well? I don’t want people to feel that way.

Folwell: Well, from somebody who’s been in marketing for most of their career, I will say that your brand, it’s a beautiful brand. Your website looks great as well, so nice work.

Shcherbyna: I appreciate it.

Folwell: It looks like you’ve embraced marketing quite well. So the marketing coach is pretty, cool that you stepped out, recognized the gap and went out and did that. Have you used coaches in other areas or has that been something you’ve done consistently?

Shcherbyna: Actually, yes. I was quite resistant to it, because I come from a culture where kind of the mindset is a little bit every man for himself. And it’s, you can help others, but you can’t really ask for help yourself, because that’s the sign of weakness. I mean real Russian culture, so to speak. Nothing against it, but that is a mindset of being highly independent, you don’t need help, you can do it yourself. And that is part of the culture that I came from, and it was really hard to learn.

And a good friend of mine at one point in my online journey said, “Anna, you have to learn to ask for help. You can’t do anything alone, you can’t build a business alone, you can’t get to where you need to be by yourself, you need to start asking for help.” And there was that moment where I was like, okay, got to try this out, got to try this asking for help thing. And it changed my world.

I started working with different coaches, I’ve had a personal coach to help with personal growth, because that affects it. Why take care of ourselves, when we show up for ourselves, we can show up for other people. But I’ve had the chance to really work with all kinds of different coaches and that’s been an amazing experience and learning to accept help, learning to have support and seeing the gaps in the business where, no, I can’t do everything. Yes, I want to, but I really shouldn’t, and I should ask for support and I should ask for help from others. Whether that’s a team member or a freelancer, a coach, whatever that may be. So, I have definitely used coaches and I will continue doing so.

Folwell: That’s a great recommendation and something that I’ve contemplated, and I think you might’ve just sold me on it. So I think I might, I probably needed you to step into that realm as well. Shifting gears, actually, anything else related to the remote recruitment specifically or any kind of summary statements? I have some fun questions that are a little bit more on the personal side here to end with, right? Is there anything else on the remote side or staffing angle that you’d like to jump into?

Shcherbyna: Yeah, I guess one last thing I want to share here, I’m not going to go into our whole “build the process,” which I can, and I do that quite often, but yes, build the process, but I think I’ve really good takeaway and something to keep in mind as people do remote recruitment, that I think is really, really important. And I say this to my team so much. Put on your detective hat, I know that sounds a little bit corny, but when you’re out there sourcing, vetting, interviewing, look at those people and look at the gaps, look at what’s missing, look at the red flags.

And I feel like with traditional recruitment, it’s not really like that. It’s like, here’s my CV, here’s where my qualifications are. You look like a decent person, let’s give you a try. It’s kind of how that is because you’re inviting that person into your office, so you know there’s more security there. Whereas in the online space, you’re working with someone from an entirely different country with a different culture, a different mindset. You’ll probably never see them unless you actually go there and visit them.

But it’s really important to understand that, yeah, it’s really important to have that in mind. Putting on that detective hat, really taking a deep dive into your process, into that person, into what they provide and truly listening to this story and seeing does their story align with what you’re looking to bring on and what you’re looking to provide? So just that little bit, little piece of advice.

Folwell: That’s a great piece of advice, and I think I would just add to that, thinking about remote hiring is different. I mean, I think that people are trying to apply old school methods to it, and I think recognizing that it’s different, that there are nuances, that having somebody that specializes in it can be super valuable or at least recognizing that there are nuances and you need to change how you’re approaching that is a key component of that as well.

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely.

Folwell: So, with that, I’m going to jump into a couple of fun questions. So in the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?

Shcherbyna: I think I already mentioned that actually, asking for help has been the number one biggest transformation for me.

Folwell: That is great. And this might be, we might be coming back to ask you for help again, we’ll see. What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made? It could be an investment of money, time, energy, et cetera.

Shcherbyna: I think an investment in your network, and really showing up for the people. For me it’s intertwined, my friends are the people I work with, the people that I go for drinks with, the people that I hang out with, it’s very intertwined in the online space, but I think investing in my network and understanding the value of that, of actually caring for those people, whether those are my friends that are business owners, whether they’re trying to be business owners, it doesn’t matter what stage they are in, in their journey. For me bringing value into every conversation, no matter the relationship and really putting in the time into my network has been game-changing. So an investment of my time into my network is the answer to that.

Folwell: I think that’s a great recommendation. Also you mentioned the friends, well, two things, so one I’d like to hear what specifically you’ve done in terms of investment in your network. Are there conferences that you go to, or any groups on LinkedIn? Are there any resources that you would recommend or tactics that you’d recommend for our listeners?

Shcherbyna: Well, I actually got an opportunity to join quite a few years back. Well, it’s an organization called the Dynamite Circle, and it’s specifically an organization, a community for online business owners, and it has been transformational, because they are all over the world and you get to connect in all of these, every time you go into a hub, one of the hubs all over the world, you get to be like, “Hey guys,” you kind of drop into a WhatsApp group or Facebook group, wherever they are for that city, and be like, who’s up for some drinks or who’s up for hanging out? Let’s get a get together.

They have something called Juntos, in Spanish is junto. But they call it Juntos, all over the world where you pop into Mexico City or Playa del Carmen, which usually I’m based out of, and there are these monthly events. So you get to hang out with all these people, we’ll talk shop or talk about life or whatever it is, and connect with people who live a very similar life. And they have a lot of, well, not obviously last year, but most years they have two main events, which are like, DCBKK is the one in Bangkok and then DCAustin, which is in Austin, those are the main ones.

But then they have all of these DCX events, kind of like TEDx, but they do DCX all over the world. So I’ve been to a ton of the events, and honestly that community, it changed my life.

Folwell: That’s amazing.

Shcherbyna: Honestly, the people I met and now, I can go to almost any of the hubs in the world, some major cities all over the world, and there’ll be always people I can meet up with, connect with and find the people who really understand me, my tribe so to speak. So that one has been transformational.

Folwell: That’s incredible, I’ve not heard of that, and I’m going to be looking that up as well, I’m getting all kinds of tips here. The other thing that you just mentioned, I think it’s such a great way of looking at it, you mentioned that your friends are coworkers, coworkers are friends. I still find it funny that people try to separate fully business and personal life. It’s like, if you’re spending 40, 60 hours a week with some people, you should like them.

I think it’s important that you like them and that they can be your friends so that you can connect with them. So I second you on that one as well. A couple of questions left, so what are the bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

Shcherbyna: Bad recommendations. Do you mean from colleagues or entrepreneurs or in what sense?

Folwell: Yeah. Just if you have anybody that’s, when it comes to the staffing and you hear advice out there that you know is potentially leading people astray.

Shcherbyna: Yeah, absolutely, no, I get what you’re saying. I’d say, so the two things here, one what’s interestingly enough, the reason why we’ve been able to be so innovative and ahead of a lot of recruitment companies, is we’ve kind of just stayed in our lane. We’ve tried to avoid the masses and the massive information that’s out there and just try to be in our own lane, creative searching, always iterating.

So I can’t say that I’ve heard a lot of bad information or misinformation. But at the same time we have attended certain courses or lectures, just to see what’s really out there. And I just say people are trying to recommend different things for remote recruitment that are not accurate.

Whether that is the sites that you should source from. For example, hire remote staff, but go for local city job boards, which is completely okay if you are looking to get someone in a specific city for a remote job, but it’s going to be so much harder because they don’t know the mindset of a remote job, they don’t really fully understand how it works, how it functions. And you have to explain it, convince them to work online, and you have no guarantee. There’s just so many risks, because they need to get there on their own to be able to then say, okay, this makes sense. You know what this is, you know what’s going to work for you.

So, I think there’s a lot of information where companies are trying to teach remote recruitment. But the practices that they’re trying to teach people, the kind of tips and tricks and things like that are not always accurate to what is, I would say what are best practices. But again, those are things that I have found, or my team have found.

I think a big takeaway, and I just really want to say this, a big takeaway with remote recruitment and recruitment in general, and that a lot of companies would disagree in, I don’t think there’s one right way. I really don’t. That’s why we’re always iterating and always trying to improve. There are not-so-great practices, they’re not wrong, but they’re maybe harder. I do think something that has to change in recruitment is continuing to be innovative, continuing to test and trial, continuing growing. And I think a lot of companies don’t do that, hence the misinformation.

Folwell: Yes, I think everybody’s looking for that silver bullet and everybody’s like, “Oh, what’s the one thing we need to do?” And it never exists. So we got to do a bunch of other things. So, last question, one unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?

Shcherbyna: An absurd thing that I love. Oh, that’s such a tough one, oh my. An absurd thing that I love. Oh, okay. I don’t know how absurd this is, I think it’s just a preference, and something that is a bit of a pet peeve for me, I would say. I really dislike not getting on video. A lot of people do audios, team calls or sales calls. I’ve even had a coach, so I got on a call with the performance coach, because I was looking to be more productive. I’m always trying to expand.

Folwell: Level up.

Shcherbyna: Yeah. Level up. And our entire call was voice. And I was just like, how can you tell what I feel? How can you tell what I’m struggling with? You don’t see my face. It’s a big pet peeve of mine, honestly. So I absolutely love when people can see me and who I am and I can really see them and who they are. So yeah.

Folwell: And for those of you listening to it, we are on video right now. So we can see each other and we are both smiling.

Shcherbyna: Exactly.

Folwell: So, that wraps it up for the questions that I had. Any last comments, anything else you’d like to share?

Shcherbyna: I would just say, for anyone who’s looking to do remote recruitment or going out and finding remote staff, I would just say continue learning, continue being curious and research, research, research. Those are my final words.

Folwell: I love it. I absolutely love it. Well, Anna, thank you so much for joining us today. Super exciting to learn about you and what you built with Remotivate. I’m hoping you all the success and thank you again for sharing some of your insights.

Shcherbyna: Thank you so much David for having me.