Apogee Brunch and Learn – Professional Development

Apogee pushes for the personal and professional development of each employee. This year, the growing Apogee team has welcomed a monthly “brunch and learn” session from our strategic advisor, Carolyn Kmet. Each session brings everyone together to discuss a different topic, and the results have been amazing. Carolyn has introduced pivot tables, reporting strategies, and client retention methods, but the conversation invariably branches off into team brainstorming by the end of the hour.

The feedback from the sessions is always valuable, but last Friday's was the best ever. The 90-minute lesson centered on mock client meetings. Carolyn drew on her vast experience in management to ask direct questions in the role of a client. Each role catered to a different personality and different reporting results. As a result, everyone on the team witnessed the good and the bad—how the meeting can be great or how it could go downhill rapidly.

Our standard is to manage expectations and boundaries while showing value and proving our expertise. Our teams—pods—are built for maximum impact on achieving goals set forth at the beginning of our relationships. We want the pods to be confident, knowledgeable, helpful, and in charge of the flow of the meetings. Most importantly, we want them to listen and read the room. We are the experts at affiliate program management, but our clients are the experts on their branding and products. Together, we facilitate growth in the affiliate channel.

We're fortunate to have a veteran leader like Carolyn available to us. The conversations have been inspiring and brilliant, and I'm excited to see how the rest of this year unfolds for our clients.