Tom Hunt is the Founder and CEO of Fame which builds profitable podcasts. Tom is also host of the podcast “Confessions of a B2B Marketer”. He leads a fast-growing fully-remote company and shares his journey intentionally learning effective leadership styles, management methods, and organizational practices. Tom discusses what he looks for in successful leaders and how he purposefully develops and upskills inexperienced employees.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:02] Why Tom went from chemistry to consulting.   [04:11] Luck is always part of how we land pivotal roles, but the experience gained becomes instrumental for the future.   [05:19] Tom realizes traditional employment is not his thing and takes the entrepreneurial route.   [06:32] Tom's first venture leverages his experiences outsourcing for large companies.   [07:33] Tom’s personal opinions strongly influence his ventures.   [08:41] The ability to fail and keep going is one of the best predictors of success.   [09:53] The genesis of Fame and how they landed their first client.   [11:19] Tom shares the benefits of being transparent about Fame’s earnings.   [13:36] Empathy is a key leadership quality that Tom finds harder to demonstrate in distributed settings.   [16:13] At Fame, they continue to assess how best to nurture their culture and connection.   [20:51] Tom shares how Fame employees are trained in interview techniques.   [23:19] Office space has been considered and Tom explains what issues it would create.   [25:00] Fame's business is output-driven and well-defined supported by strong, positive performance management to be effective.   [26:59] Tom explains how intentionally they manage and train people at Fame.   [30:14] Flat organizations pose particular challenges for GenZs and Millennials when it comes to career advancement.   [31:34] One employee's career development and why upskilling people builds strong cultures.   [33:03] Tom’s frustrations as an employee of not being allowed to do what he wants leads Fame to encourage pivoting and skill-changing.   [33:57] Tom shares the most impactful advice from his favorite author on management.   [36:24] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: For leaders of fully distributed teams, use live interaction time with team members wisely to collect and convey information to improve people’s work lives. Don’t take those meetings for granted. You have to do your best work as a remote leader.     RESOURCES   Tom Hunt on LinkedIn X @TomHuntio Instagram @TomHuntio Fame.so Confessions of a B2B Marketer podcast     QUOTES (edited)   "The thing that I was looking for most with angel investing was founder resilience. Had this founder failed before and kept going? The ability to pivot, tweak things, and then go forward is probably the most important at that very early stage."   "Empathy for each individual is one of the crucial aspects of leading. If you understand how each person is feeling, you can tailor your approach to working with them to maximize the output for both them personally and their group."   "We decided that if a team member meets another team member in person, whether they’re doing work or not, they get an allowance for that meeting to be spent on anything. It’s a decentralized campaign that promotes in-person interaction, which benefits the company and the individual."   "It’s not a process in which we try to fire somebody. It’s a process in which we’re looking to support someone to perform better."   "One way to destroy culture is to bring in people from the outside that don’t fit. You can mitigate the risk by bringing in entry-level people because you're bringing people in who can be molded into your culture."   "If you have something that you want to learn or do, that there’s a business need for that thing and you’ve mastered your current role, then you can do it. You just have to find the person who’s gonna replace you."