IMWT Welcomes Gabriele Bernotaite, Sales Specialist
From learning the ropes at your new job, to not getting all the inside jokes on Slack, being a newbie is often challenging, to say the least.
At In Marketing We Trust, we acknowledge these challenges and the excitement that comes with new beginnings and we would love to share these unique experiences with you.
Gabriele Bernotaite (known as Gabby, inside IMWT) is currently chasing big sharks as part of her Sales Specialist role while living in Bali, the Digital Nomad’s paradise. Originally from Lithuania, Gabby joined the In Marketing We Trust family 4 months ago and is one of a handful of newbies from our ever-growing team. We asked Gabby a few questions about what it’s like being a newbie at In Marketing We Trust.
Sales Specialist Interview with Gabriele Bernotaite
It’s commonly known that the beginning is the hardest. What was the hardest thing for you to overcome when starting at IMWT?
One of the hardest things was to take ownership of the tasks without always having the context or a clear understanding of expectations. One of the reasons was due to the fact that I felt slightly intimidated when joining IMWT due to the high standard of professionalism and experience in the field that people possess here.
Four months into the role I am definitely more comfortable
Remote Work
What was your first remote job?
My first remote job was as Brand Manager and Content Creator for a Swedish keynote speaker.
How was it?
It was very new and different from everything that I’d imagined. I was guilty of some misconceptions about remote working and one of the biggest, for me, was that with a remote job, you can actually work from anywhere.
Productivity is of the essence when working remotely and, for me, this was challenging at the beginning. Two months after working from home and coffeeshops I had to admit that this was not working for me and that I needed a more ‘professional’ environment with fewer distractions.
The ideal solution for me was finding a coworking space and I now work from one everywhere I go!
What motivated you to pursue a remote job?
To be honest, it was not the whole ‘travel the world’ concept, as I felt that I could travel with a regular job as well.
Having a 9-to-5 is great until you start questioning if this is really what you want to be doing. I felt that I am so comfortable and I knew that ‘there is more’ out there.
Ultimately I wanted to learn and to evolve, so I simply had to leave.
In my opinion, the most growth comes from the people you meet and the experiences you get and, after moving away for almost 1 year now, I now see all the difference it can make challenging yourself to get out of your comfort zone and put the extra effort into pursuing your dreams.
What are your best tips for working remotely?
The most important aspect for me is having a routine. I have managed to do that here, in Bali, but while I was travelling, I always took these steps in order to achieve a satisfying routine in a timely manner:
- Giving myself buffer time (at least 2 days, when I don’t expect to be productive)
- Scouting and finding a coworking space (as they have the trial option, I can try them first before choosing the one that best suits my needs)
- Figuring out transportation
- Making time for social activities and hobbies
There are still a lot of misconceptions around working remotely (e.g. remote workers are less productive and more lonely). Which do you think are the most common? Did you have any before starting working remotely?
I would say that these are the most common ones:
- Remote workers are less productive
- They are working by the pool all the time
- You can’t have a career if you have a remote job
As mentioned, I had at least one misconception as well, the biggest one being that you can work from anywhere.
I could be working by the pool for an hour or two but I don’t see a way of me being productive for longer than that unless I’m in a professional environment.
How do you sustain a healthy work-life balance?
In the beginning, having a routine was the first step to sustain a healthy work-life balance.
Right now I am trying to recognise different needs during different parts of the days, in order to be as effective and fulfilled as possible. For example, I do most of my challenging work in the morning, as I am most productive during this time.
At midday, I usually need a boost of energy so I try to workout or light exercise as much as I can. I tend to work in batches, as I find it most efficient and it also gives me the time and energy to enjoy other activities as well.
What is your biggest tip on working remotely in sales?
Question how you imagine sales! There is the ‘classic path’ of cold calls/emails -> meetings -> offer.
It still works, but it can be done in a different way. I don’t do cold calls but I am sending videos, the purpose is exactly the same!
Inbound marketing has changed sales so much and there are so many ways to interact with clients that are more advanced, specific and productive than just doing calls and emails.
Once you put your work together with marketing and target your audience in different ways while also approaching them on different channels, this is when you learn that you can do sales remotely.
What is the best thing that you’ve learned so far at IMWT?
That you can run a very productive, efficient, tight company and have it 100% remote. I think an often misconception with a remote company is that you often lack structure, processes or culture and IMWT just slams all these myths.
I’ve been so impressed with how people communicate and how much structure there is across the team.
I have been working in companies where we met up every single day and spent time together in an office but the efficiency and productivity were way lower than what IMWT has.
