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Navigating a Pandemic with the Support of Your Team

As the Account Director at Dotted Line, I have the privilege of being a champion for both our clients and our team. During these unprecedented times, that means listening often, checking in frequently on more than the status of work, and trying to offer support at the other end of a Zoom call. While there is no rulebook or YouTube tutorial for how to best navigate a global pandemic – believe me I’ve looked – what I’ve learned is sometimes the best guidance and solace comes from the support of your team.

While acknowledging the oddity of our situation, as a person who likes to have a plan, wading through these uncertain times is a wholly uncomfortable experience. As I often do in instances where the path feels a little shaky, I found myself turning to the experts and came across a Brené Brown podcast that really captured my emotional response to this experience in a way that only a nationally accredited author could; we are in what Brené calls a FFT (freaking first time). And during this wobbly FFT, we all need a collective reality check. We don’t know how to do this, we’ve never done it before and we’re not going to have all the answers. But we need to realize that is all right. Reconsider your expectations and rely on the support of your team to get through.

Even with this understanding, this pandemic is indiscriminate – it affects everyone personally and professionally. Like so many other organizations, Dotted Line is facing new challenges every day; adapting to new routines and schedules, juggling parenting and working from home, and trying to figure out if we have always looked this tired or if that is just the camera adding bags under our Zoom-overloaded eyes. Things we previously took for granted, such as morning coffeeshop catch-ups, brainstorming sessions in the bullpen and popping by someone’s office for a quick question, are becoming magnifications of just how impactful those in-person touchpoints are and how severely they are missed in this “new normal.” But through the ebbs and flows of each day, the one constant thing that keeps pushing me to do more, both as a team member and a leader within our organization, has been the people I’m constantly cheering for and supporting – our team.

At Dotted Line, amidst all the uncertainty, we’ve continued to stay connected, add new motivational elements, build in surprises for our team with kind gestures, and push to help our clients and community above and beyond the normal call of duty. While it was difficult to know exactly what to do or where to start, we just decided to trust that if we stayed committed to our mission – and to one another – we would emerge from this situation for the better. Below are a few efforts and gestures our team has made and the impact they have had on our business and culture:

Team Zoom calls that resulted in a brainstorm for a future Dotted Line Tik Tok, April Fools jokes to remind everyone not to take the day too seriously and the constant reminder that someone inevitably is still on mute when they start to talk.
- Remember that the office banter and sidebar conversations that had you laughing for no reason can still happen! We’re proof of that.
Helping Celebrate RVA with a campaign to continue supporting their mission to give children a memorable birthday during uncertain times.
- Recognizing that families and children will be affected in ways that those of us without children can’t even imagine. Being able to help an organization working to do good gave us all a smile.
Sharing personal COVID-19 wins and fails during an agency meeting – telling stories of learning how to do fractions, still trying to track down toilet paper and enjoying more time with family and neighbors.
- It’s the vulnerability and honesty that signifies a human connection no matter how far apart we are.
Hosting a surprise birthday party for two team members by inviting everyone to a “fake meeting.”
- Taking the time to celebrate one another and the milestones that continue to happen even while we’re apart.
Sending our team gift cards for Door Dash to help make family mealtime a little less stressful.
- While we can’t eat together or try the new restaurant down the street, we can remember that mealtime should be shared and treasured and we can support local businesses that need it most, while we do it.

No one can say when this pandemic will be a thing of the past and what our world will look like when it is, but while we’re going through it together, we need to focus on how we can make the most of our opportunities as a unit. When approaching a crossroads or a difficult proposition, have faith in what got you to where you are and rely on the support of your team to get you through. If that’s the guiding principal and compass rose we are all using, more often than not, good things will come out of even the darkest of situations.

Moving Toward Better: My Interview for Greenhouse Culture’s Podcast

“There’s rarely a straight line from here to better. But there’s usually an arc. The slog won’t last forever. And winning streaks aren’t endless, either. As we move through time, we’re often presented with opportunities that are carefully disguised as problems. And every day, we’re forced to make a choice. The default might be to hold back, but it’s not the only option. The chance to move toward better can become a habit.” – Seth Godin

When I look back at the major shifts I’ve experienced over my life, both personal and professional, the cause wasn’t a single decision or audacious goal that propelled me forward. It was the collection of small, oftentimes daily, decisions I made as a result that had the greatest impact. I love Seth Godin’s quote because it talks about the power of habits as the catalyst for moving toward better—habits, compounded over time, making a world of a difference.

In a recent interview for Greenhouse Culture’s podcast, I shared parts of my journey in starting Dotted Line and the three small, yet impactful, habits that have served me best through the ups and downs.

To set the stage, the idea for Dotted Line started years before I officially formed the company. I grew up in a family of small business owners. My grandfather, who owned an oil and gas company in a rural part of Virginia, held strong beliefs around business purpose and community enhancement, and I grew up with conversation about the subjects taking place frequently in my home.

I have often written and spoken about the impact his funeral had and how it shaped me as a leader. I have vivid memories of listening to the hundreds of attendees share stories about how he used his business, leadership, and resources to enrich their lives. Those stories, coupled with the behavior I bore witness to, are like a north star for me and how I run Dotted Line.

In the six years since the company’s inception, our team has grown and I’ve experienced my own opportunities for learning, personal growth, and leadership. Much of that type of growth starts with small habits. For me, moving toward better starts with better management of my time and the way I think.

Learning to manage stressors and distractions.

Throughout the day, distractions come up—childcare questions, team member challenges, sales prospect requests—so it’s important to have a system in place to put them aside for the moment and focus on the task at hand. I do that by allocating time in my schedule to work through just those sorts of challenges. And because the time is already on my calendar, I know they won’t build up and become a source of stress.

Setting intentions at the start of every day.

I used to think this was hokey, but now I’m hooked. Spending five to 10 minutes thinking through my schedule at the start of every day also helps me maintain perspective. I think through the ways I can be bold, drive excellence, and show up for those around me. I also jot down some of my responses to these themes. At the end of the day, I look back to see what progress (or sometimes lack of progress) I made.

Making time to think and dream big.

This is such a big one that people miss! It gives me a future to look forward to and keeps me energized in my work as I know I’m moving toward bigger, better things ahead. At Dotted Line, when we’ve looked to launch a new program or venture, this dedicated time has given me the space to think through all the possibilities without being interrupted.

When things feel out of control (like in a pandemic) or if I feel stuck (often because I’ve gotten caught up in things that aren’t part of the big picture), it’s hard to focus on moving toward better. I have found that this time at home the last few weeks can eat me up if I don’t maintain a focus on my small habits. So if you’re looking for ways to make the most of our current situation, I encourage you to think about one or two small habits you can start today that could have a lasting impact, far beyond a pandemic.

Onboarding in a Global Crisis

In 2019, HR tech company Hibob conducted a study that revealed an illuminating fact; 64% of new employees are less likely to feel welcome if they experience a poor onboarding process. Making things even more dire, only 12% of companies are seen as having positive, repeatable onboarding procedures. Having experienced onboarding in a wide swath of industries from financial compliance to specialized polymer sales, I can personally attest to these sentiments. I lead with this data to suggest that Dotted Line had their work cut out for them when bringing me on as an account manager just days before COVID-19 disrupted seemingly every normal business practice.

Onboarding can be a bear for an organization and take an emotional toll on new hires in normal circumstances. In novel and adverse environments like this, the task of joining a new team and assimilating into their culture seems herculean in nature. But with ample compassion, transparency, and vulnerability from Dotted Line, I have been a able to experience a truly complete and accepting onboarding process, while going through one of the most alarming crises my generation has witnessed.

I have now been with Dotted Line for 26 days, only five of which were spent in the office. Luckily, all five took place in the first week and allowed me to have some semblance of normalcy before it was stripped away with the growing severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated closures of out-of-home workplaces. Before my first week was in the books, it was determined that we would work from home for the next two weeks. Our imposed seclusion was then extended to four weeks. Then, upon the Governor’s recommendation, our target date to return to the office moved another 10 weeks, into mid-June.   It took a great amount of self-regulation and introspection for me to appreciate the difference between adapting to a new work environment and adapting to the new universal constraints of the pandemic. I continued battling these competing thoughts until I allowed myself to fully appreciate Dotted Line’s continued support for its employees and clients. This concept of unity and togetherness sparked a notion that the storm on the horizon presented an opportunity for our growing team, as opposed to an insurmountable problem. It helped me realize I wasn’t the only one trying to find my way in a new environment. Everyone was adopting new practices and learning together how to operate within this “new normal”.

That realization eased my remaining anxiety stemming from being the “new guy”. Accepting that each day was new for everyone, I no longer felt trepidation when suggesting a solution, offering advice, or volunteering to take on work. Where previously I may have tried to avoid stepping on toes, I was now eager to prove that I was willing and able to contribute, however I could.

Not every organization will be as accepting and encouraging as Dotted Line has been during this crisis, but what they were able to orchestrate and manufacture from a genuine care of their employees, clients, and community has been a true blessing for me. Every day since I began this role, I have taken time to appreciate how fortunate I am to have a job that can operate effectively while working from home and that I have a manager and team supportive of both my business practices and my personal and emotional health. The number of “check-ins” and assurances facilitated by management and the operations team at Dotted Line has been as comforting as it was unexpected.

As I look ahead to next week, next month, and even next year, I don’t know how the pandemic will affect our business, others’ businesses, or the world around us, but I know exactly how our team will approach each and every day – together, as a unit that cares deeply for each other, our clients, and our community. For that, I could not be more proud of being part of this great team and am extremely thankful for them and the opportunity they have afforded me amidst a very trying time I otherwise would have had to navigate on my own.

Why we must sharpen our communication skills during crisis

As marketers, we always talk about the power of words and the need for brands to choose them wisely. But as the world shifts into crisis mode with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, words and their consumer impact are heightened and being felt more intensely. And as operations leaders turn their focus towards implementing organizational shifts to enable remote workers, marketers will need to carry the load creating measured communications to their most important constituents – customers and business partners. But what does that mean for your organization and how should you go about building what is already a nuanced message remotely? We’ve come up with several considerations for marketers.

Know who you are

Organizational branding runs the gamut – anywhere from a light touch with a simple name, logo and mission to a more thoroughly expressed identity with brand guidelines that include set typography, color families and clearly defined values and employee behaviors. Regardless of what your organization has in place, the common thread among organizations that effectively communicate is that they know what they do well, and they have a set of core phrases they use consistently to convey their value. And those descriptors don’t stop at the what – the what is easy and often quite evident. Effective communicators focus on the why.

Think of the why as the roots system for an organization’s communications. When a wild wind (or pandemic) threatens to uproot the tree, its roots ground the message and serve the audience’s needs, reinforcing its value. Conversely, when we stray from what the audience needs and expects, the roots are unearthed and the message is more likely to be lost, because we didn’t provide that value.

Contextualize but Stay True to Who You Are

As COVID-19 expands indiscriminately, we are all feeling its impact. But simply because we’re all experiencing the same event doesn’t make us all experts. As organizations begin to contextualize their brand message for the current crisis and its impact on priority audiences, remember to stick to what you know, the areas where you excel and the information your audience has come to expect from you.

For instance, if you are a consumer brand that produces cleaning supplies, stick to your knowledge of the product and your organization’s why. Straying to related but tangential topics, for instance human tendencies surrounding hoarding of cleaning products in times of crisis, is not part of your wheelhouse and has the potential to fall flat, or even worse disappoint your audience. Preach what you know and lean into that…but try to avoid overstepping. It’s a fine line.

As you begin to find that fine line for your organization, be aware of your consumers’ sensitivity as they work through their own anxiety and figure out their new normal. While humor is oftentimes an incredibly effective tool, at least for the immediate future, it should be used with great care. Also, bear in mind that delivery is central to whether a joke lands or falls flat. It’s hard to show inflection through the written word and that may very well dampen your delivery, or worse yet, offend your audience.

Get Internal Alignment

Once you’ve reexamined your areas of excellence and the expectations of your audience, take the necessary time to socialize your thinking with senior leadership. Various key roles – the CEO, the COO, your people officers – will process this event from a different lens, so it’s helpful to collaborate and understanding the problem and its most affected audiences from various perspectives. After that exercise, develop a simple, focused message that reiterates your why, bridges the gap on how that may change during this crisis and identifies the means by which your audience can communicate with you in this new normal. Circle back with your team to ensure you’ve hit on the key messages, and then you’re ready for an external audience.

Lend a Human Element

There are several funny memes and a piece from the NY Times that talk about how extroverts are struggling with the isolation of social distancing. And while they’re made in jest to help lighten the mood during these trying times, the message is important. We will NEED each other in order to get through this mess. And while that won’t be face to face for quite some time, brands owe it to themselves and their audience to take this time to develop real relationships and create ways in which to connect in meaningful ways. That can be in the form of humanizing the people from your organization – giving a face to a voice people hear on a regular basis – or creating digital opportunities to operate as a community. Not only will these events strengthen your connection with your customers, but it will provide a real benefit to their peace of mind, something we can all use a little help with.

Organizations are still in the early days of navigating what it means to operate in a COVID-19 era. But as we turn the page on a second week of working from home, and prepare for what could be several more weeks of a digital-first interactions, it’s critical that we spend the time now, if we haven’t already done so, to make sure we communicate with care and lead with the needs of our audience, first and foremost.

Marketing Agencies Make West End Moves

Dotted Line has set up shop in Henrico County’s Forest Office Park, one of several local marketing agencies to recently migrate to Richmond’s West End. CEO Lauren Sweeney spoke with Richmond BizSense about how the 6,600-square-foot facility (which we share with Spinnaker Consulting Group) perfectly fits the needs of our fast-growing company.

Continue to Richmond BizSense.

Dotted Line Named A Top Marketing Firm in Richmond

Each year, Richmond Biz Sense presents a list of top advertising, marketing and public relations firms in the Richmond area. This year, Dotted Line Collaborations was added to the list as a top marketing firm in Richmond.

Find full list here.

Ad Rewind: memorable advertising

Richmond BizSense
Ad Rewind: memorable advertising and marketing moments
By Jonathan Spiers

From wind sprinting and yoga posing chia bars, to slow drawing sloths and “awful” Cobb Technologies coworkers, Richmond’s advertising industry gave us lots to look at in 2017.

It was a year that saw CarMax go “all in” for a used car in a parody ad, power-walking pickers turning into junkyard mechanics, and a new Richmond agency giving its first crack at a campaign for its one, and so far only, client: Google.

Here are our picks for this year’s standout locally produced ads, in no particular order, pulled from The Pitch and other BizSense coverage:

PARK GROUP/WORK LABS – HEALTH WARRIOR ANIMATED VIDEOS

Featuring 3-D animation created in Cinema 4D and After Effects, the four 15-second videos for local health food company Health Warrior feature its protein and chia bars weightlifting, running a marathon and performing wind sprints and yoga poses. The videos were a collaboration between production studio Park Group and brand agency Work Labs.

Barber Martin’s campaign for Chesterfield Auto Parts included 15- and 30-second TV and online video spotsfeaturing a mechanic speaking with someone else’s voice who’s revealed to be a young man or woman. The campaign targeted young pickers and females with television, digital, radio and outdoor advertising.

DOTTED LINE COLLABORATIONS – “THE SOUTH, SOUTH OF THE RIVER”

The ad giant’s latest campaign for longtime client Geico kicked off with this 30-second spot starring a sloth drawing pictures at an extremely slow pace, followed by a spokesman saying, “As long as sloths are slow, you can count on Geico saving folks money.” The campaign, called “Count On,” came on the heels of the final spot for Geico’s long-running “It’s What You Do” campaign.

Known for its ubiquitous radio ads, the local office equipment supplier worked with Studio Center to release its first pair of TV commercials, which feature the company’s employees and voiceovers by owner Freddy Cobb.

The Richmond ad scene’s newest kid on the block released a campaign for Google Chromebook – the agency’s first work for Google since launching in November.

DREAMS FACTORY – ONE BELT, ONE ROAD PROMO VIDEO

While produced by China’s CCTV to promote the country’s One Belt, One Road trade initiative, it took Richmond-based filmmaker Sunny Zhao’s Dreams Factory to bring this 90-second spot to life. Zhao spent 10 days shooting in various countries along the trade route, directing and taking turns behind the camera. The video opened a two-day summit in Beijing and aired as the initiative’s first commercial on CCTV, China’s main state-run television broadcaster.

NDP – “GIVE THE GIFT OF MAYMONT”

Playing on the 19th-century estate’s history as a gift to the city, the pro bono campaign’s posters advertised gift boxes from the fictional “Maymont Memory Company” containing Maymont-specific items and experiences, such as skipping rocks at the Japanese Garden koi pond and blades of grass on Maymont’s rolling hills. Billboard ads promoted such deals as “Free Vitamin D with every visit!” and “Get one grass-stained knee, get another for free!”

Barber Martin’s latest campaign for Virginia Lottery presented lottery scratch games as holiday gift ideas. Including two TV spots, two radio spots, a digital video, and outdoor, print and point-of-sale ads, the campaign involved video production work from MadBox and audio work from Red Amp Audio.

CARMAX – “CARMAX GOES ALL IN FOR ’96 HONDA ACCORD”

The used car retailer created a 90-second video to respond to a parody ad that went viral on YouTube. The parody ad, by California writer-director Max Lanman, offered to sell his girlfriend’s 1996 Honda Accord starting at $499. CarMax responded with its own video, produced by North Carolina-based agency McKinney, offering to buy the car and other items in the ad for $20,000. Lanman would take CarMax up on its offer, while CarMax’s video, starring McKinney creative director and Brandcenter alum David Sloan, rode the wave of exposure with more than 293,000 views.

Continue to Richmond BizSense.

Ad Rewind: 2017’s memorable advertising and marketing moments

Earlier this year, Dotted Line partnered with Chesterfield community Magnolia Green to create what Richmond BizSense called one of 2017’s most “memorable” ad and marketing campaigns. With design emulating vintage posters, the campaign showcases the community’s new homes through print and digital ads, as well as a website refresh and other creative marketing methods.

Continue to Richmond BizSense.

Tory Burch Foundation Fellowship Announcement

Dotted Line CEO Lauren Sweeney is honored to receive a Tory Burch Foundation Fellowship. Through virtual workshops and intensive courses, the year-long program helps to grow women-owned businesses and the entrepreneurs that lead them.

Check out Lauren’s fellow profile here to learn more about Dotted Line’s service-oriented mission and some of Lauren’s top goals for the company.

Tory Burch Foundation Honors Dr. Brite’s Paris Sabo

WWD.com
Tory Burch Foundation Honors Dr. Brite’s Paris Sabo
By Rosemary Feitelberg

Tory Burch said she and her fellow jurors found the final decision to be excruciating since all 10 finalists were “insanely worthy” of winning.

Dr. Brite, a little-known natural and organic personal-care Irvine, Calif., company, is about to amp up its wattage as the winner of this year’s winner of the Tory Burch Foundation’s Fellowship Program.

Burch revealed the winner at a luncheon for the 10 finalists in the Tory Sport West 19th Street offices here on Thursday. What started as a pool of 800-plus contenders was first whittled down to 30 finalists and then 10 thanks to a public online vote. As the winner, Dr. Brite founder Paris Sabo walked away with a $100,000 business education grant.

Sabo’s fellow finalists included Anit Hora of Mullein & Sparrow, Kimberly Jung of Rumi Spice, Katalina Mayorga of El Camino Travel, Jennifer Saxton of Tot Squad, Allison Schickel of Brobe International, Anita Shepherd of Anita’s Yogurt, Lauren Sweeney of Dotted Line Collaborations, Eliza Whitman of FlyDog Yoga and Janel Young of Nava Pets.

Continue to WWD.com.