On Friday it was time to farewell an original RedBallooner - Sarah was with us in the very early days – and has seen the business grow from 9 people to its present 50. She has caught the entrepreneurial bug and started her own show a named ‘Lady Bug’ as a fully fledged interior designer. As I listened to Sarah’s farewell words, I felt so very very fortunate, knowing that every person at RedBalloon is what makes our culture. We have lot’s of laughs – but have also worked so hard and achieve much (we still have so much to do… of course – we are not ‘there yet’).
Sarah described what RedBalloon was like in the early days, how she met me for her interview at the local pub and joined the tiny chaotic team. This little group was set on creating a house hold name, focusing on being ‘a little dog with a big dog attitude’ – playing bigger than we really were.
Sarah then went on to manage our Customer Experience Team (formerly known as our Pleasure Relations Team as coined by Sarah). She played such a part in shaping the culture at RedBalloon, living our value of sense of humour and fun by running weekly trivia’s. Even on her last day Sarah arranged for three RedBallooners James, Thi and Kate to come across a riddle they had to solve on Monday. The riddle involved hidden clues to find a gift Sarah had hidden for them somewhere within the building. When they finally cracked the riddles (which kept them entertained for an hour) they found handwritten notes from Sarah. It’s good to see on her final day she kept the culture of personalised recognition and appreciation going!
The most rewarding thing for me to hear was when Sarah explained that she has been living her dreams for the past 5 years at RedBalloon. She described how proud she is to have been a part of the RedBalloon journey for so long, from a business that was relatively unknown, to meeting people and hearing them say “RedBalloon – what a fantastic place to work” to even seeing us listed as the ninth Best Place to Work in Australia by BRW (for the second year in a row).
Sarah’s story reinforces that trust is the foundation of a Best Place to work. Trust in the leadership and colleagues. No matter the challenges, whether it be difference of opinion, new ideas versus old experiences of the brand – it’s about believing that you support each other, work together and stay true to the overall purpose of the business.
To be continued…
Imagine running a business based on fun - that's what I decided to try when I left a very serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon...
