Our Business Development Manager, James Kearney joined us 3 months ago (wow that’s flown by), at the time we asked him to answer some fun questions to break the ice. Now we are 3 months in, we decided to see how he is getting on and what his perception was of our services before and after working at Koala Digital

So, James how have the first 3 months been?

It’s been really great actually. It’s always a bit frustrating when you join a new company and everyone else is doing their bit and you’re the newbie just waiting to get up to speed, but the team has been great with me, especially as Boris decided to throw us into lockdown as soon as I started the job! 

That can’t have been easy, learning the ropes whilst being in lockdown?

I was a little nervous at first, as I just wanted to absorb as much information as possible. But fortunately for me, having worked with the whole team for 4 years previously at another company, I didn’t need to get to know the team like you normally would when starting at a new company. Technology these days made it so easy for us to all keep in contact with each other.

What would you say has been the best and worst part of your first 3 months?

Ohhh, need to be careful here! The best part of the first 3 months has to be the 4-day working week. With having a shorter working week, it’s easier to put personal things off that are less important to the Friday, therefore, removing the distraction. The worst thing has to be making silly mistakes. Even though the team has gone easy on me, I’ve tried to run before I could walk and that has lead to a few mistakes which have been poop! 

Before joining, what was your view on the services that Koala Digital offer?

At first, I thought that promotional marketing campaigns were at the forefront of the business. Now I know that it’s actually SEO and Website Design that is our bread and butter, amongst our other services of course! 

So what was your knowledge of SEO and Website Design, on day 1 of joining and today?

I had a vague understanding of what SEO was before joining, and I did read up on certain bits too but it’s so complex that I had so many questions for day 1! With website design, I also understood lots of different brands (WordPress, GoDaddy, Wix) but didn’t know much about how they are used etc. After 3 months though, I’ve been learning on the job first hand about SEO, putting in the research, backlinks, site audits, writing blogs, and seeing the results too.

The same goes with Websites, I wasn’t sure how we built our websites and thought there was loads of coding involved. Whilst there is some coding involved, a lot of the magic comes from our design work and I understand that now.

So now that you’ve bedded in, what is next for you?

I guess I’d better start repaying Koala Digital’s investment in me! I’ve got the tools around me to push forward with our growth. I’m a firm believer in creating brand ambassadors and so is the company, we get so many referrals from happy clients and friends of the business, so my job has been made easy by the great work the company does for every single client. I’m far from the finished article so I have enrolled in some mini-courses to help sharpen my knowledge and I will continue to network, meet new people and push the Koala brand. 

Great stuff, how is the networking coming along?

Brilliant! I’ve been attending the Federation of Small Business’ virtual networking for both East Anglia and Essex, and also Excel Elite Business Networking. I’ve met a great bunch of business professionals and we’ve recently built a website for one of them which we are super happy with. I’ve also jumped on the Clubhouse bandwagon too. It’s only on iPhone and despite being an Android man, I managed to get hold of an iPhone just for the app (ridiculous, I know). If you’re unfamiliar with Clubhouse, our director Carla Beard has written this blog about it.

Are you looking forward to restrictions being lifted and being able to go to face-to-face meetings?

Yes, I am, however, I cannot see many meetings taking place like they used to. There is a value to your time, and with the advancement of video meeting technology, we can now have 2 or 3 virtual meetings with zero travel expenses, instead of 1 face-to-face meeting. I think that many, like me, will be a little more efficient with their time.

Thank you, James Kearney for an insightful Q & A to life, working at Koala Digital.

If you haven’t already, connect with James on LinkedIn.