Q: What are you excited about as we kick off 2022?
JoAnn: “I’m excited about opening a brand new office in Tampa. I’m excited to add to our team. We’re growing an even stronger foundation on which to serve our clients. That’s what most excites me. I think it’s going to be a really great thing for us to all work together and have a headquarters from which we can branch out. Right now, a few of us work remotely, and it works. But it could work better. We love working face-to-face with each other. It motivates us and makes us better at what we do.”
Q: Looking back at 2021, what do you want to continue to do in the new year and what do you want to see change?
JoAnn: “Bottom line, we want to continue to serve our clients well. Every day, that’s what we get up for: to make sure they are secure and can function with great efficiency so that their businesses thrive. And when their businesses thrive, so does ours. I would never want to see our mission change.
I think we’ve been pretty distanced from each other for a while, somewhat due to COVID but more because we do a lot of remote work. I would love to see us work more closely, face-to-face, to get that synergistic effect. That’s why I’m so excited to open our office.”
Q: As our team has been planning for 2022, we’ve been talking about how we’re going to best serve our clients. What do you think is the most important thing for us to remember as we begin working toward bigger and better things?
JoAnn: “I think it’s very important that we remember that we serve people. Yes, we work with technology. Yes, we do projects. Yes, some of our clients are large enough that we don’t know every employee’s name. But we should never slip into thinking that we’re just fulfilling projects when really, we’re helping real people. I would encourage us to always remember that there are people behind everything we do: a client, a patient, a student, a homeowner. Every ticket, every project, every call we get connects to a person whom we want to serve well.”
Q: As a team, we’ve been thinking about the past year quite a bit. Even though you’ve only been working full-time at Sterling Ideas since 2020, you’ve been here, behind-the-scenes, since the beginning when Charles incorporated Sterling Ideas. When you think back to the very beginning and you see where we are now, does that change your perspective on the coming year? How so?
JoAnn: “Absolutely. Those were lonely and quiet days. In those days, we were begging to serve someone. We just needed to establish ourselves in the industry, and that’s not easy. But now, we have such exciting times ahead of us. We have a team! And we get to see each team member’s strengths and how each person fits a perfect role that complements our other team members so well. It makes our company strong, and no one person—let’s face it, Charles–has to bear all the burden alone. It can be easy to get caught up in the to-do lists on our desks, and sometimes it feels like progress is slow. But when I look back at the beginning and see where we are now, I know this year will just be another year in the right direction.”