Remote Career Development: Danielle Cobo On How To Advance and Enhance Your Career When You Are Working Remotely

An Interview With David Liu

Set an alarm clock when it’s time to shut down work and enjoy quality time with family. I’ve found putting a time limit on tasks helps me stay focused.

Career development is the ongoing process of choosing, improving, developing, and advancing your career. This involves learning, making decisions, collaboration with others, and knowing yourself well enough to be able to continually assess your strengths and weaknesses. This can be challenging enough when you work in an office, but what if you work remotely? How does remote work affect your career development? How do you nurture and advance your career when you are working from home and away from other colleagues? How can you help your employees do this? To address these questions, we started an interview series called “How To Advance and Enhance Your Career When You Are Working Remotely.” As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Danielle Cobo.

Danielle Cobo is an Elite Career Coach with 15 years in corporate America, among seven years leading a team for a Fortune 500 company. She is a published author, corporate trainer, keynote speaker, podcast host of the “Dream Job with Danielle Cobo” and featured on FOX News, ABC world news, and Good Morning America.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. What is your “backstory”?

I’ve gone from clothes stored in trash bags to leading a team for a Fortune 500 company with no previous management experience. I’ve experienced success firsthand, earning four back-to-back Presidents Circle for top performance, leading the poorest performing team to #1 in the nation, earning Region Manager of the Year, and empowering thousands of professionals to achieve the same success.

I wouldn’t say my success was an easy road. At two years young, my bi-polar mother kidnapped me, met my dad at 15, and then lost my mother to suicide. I’ve learned how to transform self-doubt into resilience, drive, motivation, and confidence through these challenges. I believe our biggest challenges can become our greatest strength.

Now, I help professionals transform from feeling stuck, frustrated, and discouraged to energized, empowered, resilient, and connected. The result is professionals accelerating in their careers and thriving in all areas of their life.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Growing up, my vision was to be a relator, then I was informed realtors work weekends, so my career dreams quickly shifted. My mom was in medical sales, and eventually, my goal was to follow in her footsteps. It’s hard to break into the medical sales industry. Most companies ask for 5+ years of outside sales experience; however, I was 23 years old and had only six months outside sales experience in copier sales. It was up to me to take ownership of my career and be creative in my approach to my dream job. A friend of mine was in dental sales, and she let me borrow her name badge to sneak into a tradeshow. With a binder of resumes, I worked my way around to each booth, asking to see the hiring manager. Most hiring managers request a performance book, also known as “brag book,” with proof highlighting a proven track record of success. Since my sales experience was limited, I included my driving record and credit score with 700+ FICO to show I was responsible. I ended up interviewing with a company at the tradeshow, then one month later offered the job. During my tenure with the organization, I earned four back-to-back Presidents Circle awards for top performance.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I received my first iPhone, I didn’t realize text message previews automatically pop up on your display screen (even when locked.) While I was working a tradeshow, my phone dinged with a new text. My co-worker grabbed my phone and said, “Danielle, you may want to put your phone away.” It was an intimate text message from my now-husband when I looked down, and I was mortified. I learned to turn off text message display when your phone is locked and have a dedicated work phone when possible.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“People don’t get promoted for doing their jobs really well. They get promoted for the potential others see in them to do more” by Tara Jaye Frank, VP of Multicultural Diversity at Hallmark, Inc.

I believe in excelling in your career; you must take ownership and invest in your personal growth. When you speak up and ask to get involved projects, you expose yourself to new opportunities. Also you put yourself in a position to be approached with promotions and job opportunities.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees thrive and avoid burnout?

1. Respect your employee’s time. Lead by example that you value quality time with family and respect your employee’s time. This includes no email, text, phone calls, and social media messaging after work hours. If you are working late, several email platforms have the feature “Delay delivery,” with an option to schedule emails for the next business day.
2. Invest in wellness workshops. Whether your employees work remotely or in an office, I believe it’s beneficial for employers to invest in the well-being of their employees. When you empower your employees with the tools to reduce stress, improve communication skills, live a healthy lifestyle and build meaningful relationships, your employees will thrive in all areas of their life and be happier.
3. Offer paid volunteer time. Volunteering benefits the emotional and physical well-being of your employees. Volunteering supports interaction and community beyond the workplace. Working from home can feel lonely at times, and volunteering creates relationships, boosts confidence, provides a sense of purpose, and energizes people.

Ok, let’s jump to the core of our interview. Working remotely can be very different than working with a team that is in front of you. This provides great opportunities, but it can also create unique challenges. To begin, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main benefits and opportunities of working remotely?

The advantage of working remotely is reduced time on the road, allowing for more productive working hours. In addition, flexible schedule for drop off/pick up of kids from school, doctors’ appointments, and household projects. We’ve all experienced a time when the internet goes down, an appliance needs to be delivered, or something breaks around the house. Then the company gives you a 5-hour timeframe, and when you work in an office, you must take time off work. Imagine if you worked remotely and you had the flexibility to say “yes” to anytime frame.

Can you articulate for our readers what the five main challenges are regarding working remotely?

The five main challenges of working remotely include.

1. Distractions at home: Staying focused on work with household distractions, laundry piling up, kids wrestling in the background, significant other walking into your office, dogs barking, solicitors ringing your doorbell, and package deliveries can be challenging.
2. Turning work off: Without a dedicated time to leave your office and drive time home to cook dinner, people can get caught in the trap of working extended hours.
3. Lack of dedicated workspace: When you work at an office, you physically relocate yourself from your office to your home. When you work from home you are either relocating yourself a short distance from one room to the next, or you don’t have a home office, and your house becomes one big office.
4. Lack of Motivation: People may find it challenging to feel motivated at work. This could result from working in a silo away from the energy of an office environment or lack of motivation to break from spending the day in loungewear.
5. Disconnected: Lack of “water cooler” conversations can result in feeling disconnected with your peers. Working remotely takes more effort to foster and build meaningful relationships.

Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges? Can you give a story or example for each?

1. Create boundaries: I have 4-year-old twin boys, and when they come home from preschool and when they walk in the door, the first thing I hear is two little voices calling “mommy.” While it doesn’t work out all the time, I try my best to work meetings around the time they come home so that I can greet them with a hug and smile. The rest of the time, my office doors are shut, and I have a curtain to provide separation and limit their temptation to push their faces against the glass of my office door and make silly faces. My nanny is also great about redirecting my boys to activities away from my office.
2. Set an alarm clock: Set an alarm clock when it’s time to shut down work and enjoy quality time with family. I’ve found putting a time limit on tasks helps me stay focused.
3. Design a dedicated workspace: Working at your kitchen table or in your bedroom can be uncomfortable and create clutter in your home. Design a dedicated workspace with a comfortable chair, a place to store files, and a place you can shut the door and leave behind with family. Incorporate live plants to improve clean air, boost creativity, and something beautiful to enjoy throughout your day. I frequently host virtual trainings and recently redesigned my office with plants and artwork. I love walking into my office because I created a beautiful place to work.
4. Create a morning routine: The first hour of your day sets the tone for your entire day. Create a morning routine that sets your day up for success. I start my day around 6:00 am. The first 30 minutes are dedicated to self-care. I brush my teeth, grab a glass of water and ride my Peloton for 30 minutes while listening to my favorite podcasts, including Confidence Creator by Heather Monahan, She Believed She Could by Allison Walsh and The Smart Woman Show by Tara Oldridge. Then I get ready for the day. I believe in dressing the way you want to feel. The first steps I took to overcome postpartum depression were regaining my routine and shifting from maternity wear to creating fun outfits and dressing up. I apply the same mindset when I work from home. Whether I work in an office or remotely, I always dress up; with that said, I shift from a suit to a blouse and jeans when I work remotely.
5. Take a creative approach to team building: Team building takes more effort when remote employees. Schedule team-building activities during work hours to preserve the culture and connection with your team. Virtual team building activities can include charades, dance parties, jeopardy, etc. My favorite virtual and in-person activity is “Guess the Fib.” Each person shares with the group 3 exciting things most people don’t know about them and one fib. Everyone then guess which statement is the fib.

Let’s talk about Career Development. Can you share a few ideas about how you can nurture and advance your career when you are working from home and away from other colleagues?

Whether you’re looking to get promoted, find a new job or launch a business — it’s easy to feel stuck when you don’t have clarity on where you want to take your career or how to get there. The risk is missing out on promotions, unclear on how to break through the glass ceiling. Investing time and energy in yourself means you are taking ownership of your career and are willing to do the work to make your goals happen.

Here are a few steps to accelerate your career while working from home:

1. Mindset: Identify and eliminate your negative self-talk. With this, your potential becomes limitless, and confidence goes through the roof. A vital element to build a thriving career.
2. Clarity: Understand what a thriving career means to you and map it out into a clear roadmap.
3. Strategy: Break down your roadmap into specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & time-bound goals, so you approach your career strategically.
4. Action: Invest in a career coach, align yourself with mentors, take online courses, read books, listen to podcasts, ask to get involved with special projects.

To advance your career, it takes commitment and action. Your manager and mentors can show you the way; it’s up to you to make it happen. Readers can download my free digital “Career Accelerator Workbook” at www.DanielleCobo.com with actionable steps to accelerate your career to the next level.

Can you share a few ideas about how employers or managers can help their team with career development?

Your people are your biggest asset. The development of your employees goes beyond the initial onboarding. A study by Middlesex University for work-based learning found, 74% of employees feel that they’re not achieving their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities. Invest in the development of your employees, and it will pay you back 10x! The more valued your employees feel, the more motivated & productive they become. Hiring & retention gets more accessible, and you become more profitable. Every company and employee is unique, so good training programs go beyond cookie-cutter workshops and are customized. For example, I take 360 approaches meeting with the leadership team and employees to understand each organization’s strengths, pain points, and opportunities and customize a training program to meet their unique needs.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I believe we can turn our biggest life challenges into our greatest strength. Our challenges in life shape us into who we are today. When we transform self-doubt to confidence and courage, we become limitless. When I let my guard down and opened up my heart to share on LinkedIn the biggest challenges and the steps, I took to overcome them, I received an outpouring of messages from people all over the world thanking me for sharing my story and how it has helped them in their life. Now my favorite aspect of my business is speaking engagements and making a positive impact on people’s lives.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers contact me at www.Daniellecobo.com and can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Readers can also tune into my podcast “Dream Job with Danielle Cobo.” Each week I interview women who have overcome adversity and leveled up their careers and life.

Thank you for these great insights! We wish you continued success.