I appreciate you

If there’s anything I learned about working in a remote-first team, it’s that it’s important to make each other feel appreciated for the blood, sweat & tears they put into making everything run like a well-oiled machine.

I’m not talking about making sure your team is aligned. Nor am I talking about making sure team members aren’t kept in the dark. No, I’m just talking about the foundational level of telling someone that you appreciate everything they do alongside you.

I’ll go first. I appreciate all the hard work my colleagues put in every day, and I can’t even imagine the workload everyone takes on. Here at Torre, we’re in the start-up world so everyone wears multiple hats, I’m sure you understand the gist. A situation that’s all too familiar. And to juggle being a remote-first, globally distributed team? We definitely have some added hurdles to jump over. Rightfully so, I appreciate my immediate team and the goals we work towards. I appreciate the underlying vision of making work fulfilling for everyone.

I appreciate our post-production head, Vanesa Monroy, for being a jack of all trades. Being able to juggle all the raw content I’m throwing at her, whether it be video, audio, stills — this position has given her the ability to learn and adapt quite quickly to all the formats we work with. Usually, you just get really good at one thing, but she’s had to do everything. So thank you.

I appreciate our one graphic designer/art director, Valentina Castillo, for having to keep up with multiple brand guidelines and being the only one executing within her role (at the moment). Here, I’ve got my team, but she’s the only one making all the assets we use at Remoter, Torre and more. I appreciate whenever she speaks up and offers her opinion on how we can improve our processes and streamline the way we work so we can understand how to better help her hit her goals.

I appreciate our Chief Growth Officer, Andrés Cajiao, for being so dedicated to the vision and to the team. For the enthusiasm and passion about the work we do and the challenges we’re trying to overcome. For hearing us out even though his plate is full all the time, and taking time to provide us with resources so we can do our work more effectively.

And so much more.

We’re all trying to hit our metrics, but don’t forget that at the end of the day, we’re all human.

Have you told anyone you appreciated them lately?