Left Hand Agency is championing flexible work
A year after the pandemic swept us all down paths of the unknown, Lauren Ridgley dreamed of creating an agency that allowed her to balance her creative strengths and media buying expertise with the freedom that comes with owning your own business.
Since inception, this powerhouse woman has grown the Left Hand Agency team with folks across the country, choosing to prioritize talent over square footage. And as a fully-remote company, she’s balancing boundary-setting with adapting to how people do their best work in the modern workplace.
Recently, Radious’ CEO Amina Moreau, sat down with Lauren to chat about her experience leading a remote-first company, how she navigates some of the challenges inherent to remote models, and how she’s been utilizing Radious to deepen bonds among her local teammates.
The conversation below has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
It feels like asynchronous work is just as important as flexibility in where you work. Are you finding that your team is working pretty much anytime they need and want?
Left Hand Agency in this Radspace
Our particular clientele requires us to be online at certain hours of the day. But if we discuss it in advance, our team can work asynchronously. For example, we have an employee traveling to the East Coast, so she's going to be working East Coast hours next week.
But I need to make sure I’m thinking about this from the perspective of “the boss”. If I send an email at 8:00 PM, it may set a bad precedent. I don’t want them to feel obligated to respond. So we have discussions where I say, if I need you after hours for some reason, I will tell you. This can be a challenge with remote work — we don’t want to cross into your personal time.
But at the same time, I personally tend to hit a slump around 2:00 PM every day. I’m not as productive so I take that opportunity to go for a walk or take a break. Then I work a little more in the evening. So it’s important to recognize that everyone works in different ways and is most productive at different hours.
There are populations, like women, working moms, caretakers, and communities of color that have more barriers to commuting to the office. Did you consider that in your decision to be fully remote?
We are very cognizant of that, especially because we have a handful of people working in the Portland area and everybody else is spread across the country. And there are a lot of people who are fantastic employees, but they need the type of job where it’s remote and flexible, for whatever reason. But we wanted the best people, so we spread the widest net and chose to be remote.
And another issue that bothers me too, along with forcing people back to the office who don’t have access or means of transportation, is the impact on the environment. Radious is great because I can make work where I need it. Traffic is bad enough in the metro areas, you know? Why are we contributing to it with these arbitrary rules that don't fit for everybody?
Did you ever consider getting an office?
I started to work remotely in 2016 because I was having a child and I really didn't know what to expect for the time commitment. Then in 2021 when we started Left Hand Agency, we considered converting my colleague’s garage into a studio where we could do more video production. But then we asked ourselves, what do we need from a workforce perspective? We need people that have a TV background and who could be trained to do marketing. That meant we needed to look nationwide. That’s when we decided to be fully remote. It allows us to hire the best people wherever they are. I don’t think we’ll ever go back.
“That’s when we decided to be fully remote. It allows us to hire the best people wherever they are. I don’t think we’ll ever go back.”
And how awesome is it that your employees can now live anywhere and have the lifestyle that suits them and their families?
It's amazing, right? Some of them have even moved while working for us to places where they wanted to live, whereas before they had to live where their office was.
And how was it when you got your local folks together at a Radspace recently?
Everyone was really excited to get together, which they try to do from time to time. They were excited about the neighborhood and all the food places that were walkable. Also the fact that we were in a neighborhood, rather than, you know, a stereotypical office space.
It was a good mix of our local introverts and extroverts. I’m an extrovert so I thrive off of the energy of other people, so getting together is great. And then we have some introverts, for whom getting out of the house and experiencing a change of scenery is important to their mental health.
Just getting out of your regular space can energize you in a way that you don’t expect.
To learn more about Left Hand Agency please visit, www.LeftHandAgnecy.com
To browse Radious listings and book one in your neighborhood, visit here.