Being yourself at work — the differentiator in a tough market.
Every Friday, the entire team at Osano comes together for Show + Tell, an informal way to end the week — with kudos + appreciation, tales from the week, things that went well, what we learned, and lately, getting to know one another.
With our new “Get to know an Osanian” topics, the intent is to encourage understanding, visibility, connection, and empathy across the team. The best (and crucial part), there’s no defined instructions — it can be anything they’d like to share about themselves, in whatever presentation form they’d like to create, all within 10–15 minutes.
So far, we’ve had several individuals share a glimpse into their life, how they got to Osano, and a topic of their choosing. Each with their own style, creativity, and topic to share with the team. It’s been a beautiful thing to glimpse into someone else’s life, especially outside of work.
From the presenters so far, the topics covered include:
- system architecture
- cooking for dogs
- ophthalmology
- music distribution
- international travel adventures
Why?
It’s a common thing at work: we tend to see others by what they do, their role, and often, their title. Having been on the receiving end (as well as the one swept up in titles), I can promise you:
Everyone has more to their life and knowledge than what their job title represents. We are more than our job, and that’s the goal.
For instance — I’m currently leading People + Culture at a startup, but previously, I’ve managed:
- Event planning
- Non-profit fundraising and development
- Contracts administration, SLAs, negotiations
- Customer renewals and terminations
- Software implementation and training
- Founding and operating a startup venture
- Consignment in a record store
- Being a badass barista at a coffee shop
Recently, I was one of our “Get to know an Osanian” presentations. I decided to take the time and walk down memory lane, sharing how I got into startups after starting my professional career in non-profits and event planning.
It was such a joy to talk about the various roles and industries I’ve been in, and also what it was like to found, build, and run a bootstrapped startup roughly 5 years ago — has it been that long already?
Plus… my presentation just so happened to be on the same day I released a new song — “What I live for” 🎵
Before I presented, I mentioned I had a fun surprise at the end. Most folks already know I’m a singer-songwriter (especially since I’ve recruited half the company at this point), so some took guesses:
- are you going to be playing a song for us?
- are you going to teach us about how to write a song?
Instead, my fun surprise was promoting my song in front of 75 people and showing what the production looks like in Logic. Some data:
- Fun fact: most mainstream songs have 80–100+ tracks. My DIY self-production has 33 total tracks, most of them are my voice.
- 2 months after my presentation and song release, I saw a 480% increase in streams across Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify.
- I made ~$26 across: Apple Music, Spotify, and Bandcamp (huge thanks to the colleague who bought my song for $25! 😄 Yes, that means I made ~$1 from 150+ streaming plays)
There’s so much joy in sharing ✨ my life’s work ✨ — the music I work on, the ideas I assemble in my job + personally, the stories I tell, the energy I cultivate.
I rode this dopamine for weeks. Plus, the weekend after my presentation, I had several colleagues text me a picture of my song playing in their car or letting me know the song played with friends/family. How cool is that?
Having the ability to bring your full self to work, and not putting a part of it aside when you walk through the “door” every day, is the environment more companies need to create.
For those that do, it’s the differentiator to encourage and build space for authenticity at work. We all engage with sales, customer support, engineers, and leaders (again, professionally + personally), and we want to engage with people who are real.
There’s a reason why culture recruits incredible talent, and it’s also why people choose to stay.
There’s a reason why companies who have a diverse team and treat people authentically bring in more business (aka: money + revenue). It’s also why their customer retention rate is so high.
It matters who we work and engage with, especially from leaders who inspire us and keep us excited. So if that’s you, please lead the way first.
p.s. shout out to Arlo Gilbert (Osano’s CEO) for listening to my song and immediately responding: “why is this not already on your Spotify?”
New here? Welcome!
I’m Kelsey 👋 a singer-songwriter + People Leader in tech. Some of my favorite topics to write about, read, and discuss are: #startups #people #culture #music and #futureofwork.
You can learn more about me + my background 🤘 You can also listen to my music 🎵
