This is a first-person testimonial by Brittany Martin (COO, Hello Seven) describing why she joined the COO Alliance. She says she joined about five months prior and values the virtual events, Slack community—especially the "Give Ask" channel—access to member-site recordings, and the in-person retreat where informal conversations and speaker sessions produced "aha" moments. A central theme is the loneliness of the COO role and how the COO Alliance community provides peer support, accountability, and practical shared experience when she lacks answers for her CEO or team.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Brittany Martin with hello7 and I joined the COO Alliance, I think five months ago. And in that time I have taken advantage of the virtual events where it's been really nice to connect with people. I've been in the Slack community and I find the Give Ask channel to be probably the highest leverage thing so far until I came to this event where I have met folks in person and, and one of the biggest reasons I joined the CEO alliance was because it can be really lonely being a coo. You know, in my accountability group I said that sometimes you feel you can't admit to your CEO that you don't have the answer or you don't know. Sometimes you can and it's appropriate, but sometimes it's not appropriate and you need to be the person either with the answers or to say, you know what, I don't have an answer for you right now, but I'll be back with you in 24 hours. And so that has always been one of my favorite parts of being a CEO and being solution oriented and being someone who can come to the table with solutions and I can rely on my team, but sometimes there are things where I simply can't rely on my team because we're in new territory or we're experiencing things we haven't experienced before. It's a growth opportunity. And so here at the COO alliance, there are people who are ahead of me in business. They're maybe where I was a year ago. And there's something to learn from both sets of people just at this experience. The in person retreat. Is that what these are called? Retreat in person? I have had several aha. Moments sitting in the room, listening to speakers and also just while having dinner or drinks. There is a really high value to the content that is in the community, but there's also content inside these people's minds. So with the COO alliance, yes, you get access to a member site where you're going to get past recordings and that's all great. And I like to schedule an hour in my week to go tap into those resources. But the real value is also in the community that's been formed because whenever I have one of those scenarios where I don't know the answer for my CEO, I know that I can come ask in the community and no one's going to tell me what to do, but rather share their experience. And that has been very high level, very high leverage. And also I know that I can work things out and share things with other people as well. So especially coming out of a pandemic. The sense of loneliness that comes with being a coo. No one else in the business, there's no one else you can really talk to. You're the answer person to your team. You're the answer person to your CEO, to your cfo. And so I think community is probably my favorite part.
