CliftonStrengths Community Update for January 2020

Austin Suellentrop, CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager, was our guest on a recent Called to Coach. In this January 2020 Community Update, Austin shared the latest news about purchasing discount codes; Gallup's 2020 Learning Series for Certified Coaches, and how coaches can receive ICF certification for attending the Learning Series live; translations of learning content on Gallup Access; 2020 enhancements to Access and the important role of your feedback in this process; changes to the color palette for the 4 domains; and improvements to customer support and the best ways to access that support.

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including time stamps. Full audio and video are posted above.

Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison and live from the Gallup offices here in Omaha, Nebraska, this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on January 7, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:20

Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world. If you are listening live, we'd love to have you join us in our chat room available for you. If you have questions after the fact, you can send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And then of course, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast app, whatever that might be, on your phone or on YouTube. You can search for us: Gallup Webcasts through the podcast players or search "CliftonStrengths" on YouTube. Austin Suellentrop is our host today. Austin's the CliftonStrengths Portfolio Manager here at Gallup, and Austin, welcome back to the first Called to Coach of 2020.

Austin Suellentrop 1:01

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Jim Collison 1:03

We are excited to have you -- kind of the the goal of today, we're going to do some updating, but I kind of asked you to kind of kick us off from a strengths community perspective, from a CliftonStrengths community perspective -- a little bit of vision going forward, because everybody's thinking about the new year. So why don't you take a few minutes and talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing for 2020?

Austin Suellentrop 1:23

Yeah, sure. Fantastic. Thanks, Jim. So, you know, it's funny. I -- many of you know, I'm not a Facebook guy. I got off of Facebook, but I do love, I like LinkedIn a lot. I'm on Instagram. And I'm always sort of curious what people are sharing when they share like their New Year's resolutions, right? Because I've never been a big New Year's resolution guy, because it always seems like a bunch of effort in January, that's always gone by February. And I think that's indicative of a lot of goal-setting people go through in corporate world, a lot of goal-setting on the personal side is there's a lot of energy at the beginning of a new year, that when the reality of the real world kicks in somewhere around Martin Luther King Jr. weekend -- like, you get the first hiccup to the, to the schedule, to the routine, and we lose sight of things and it just sort of wanes over time.

Austin Suellentrop 2:15

So one thing I noticed in a lot of my friends and my network posts over the last couple weeks as the year ended in the New Year began: There's a lot of conversation about like the decade in review, and it's hard to believe that in 2020, right, we're starting a new decade. It's sort of the reset. And so I had a little fun thinking about the last 10 years, right, I don't -- I think that the last 10 years and the progress and the things that have changed in our world at Gallup in the strengths movement, because that's what energizes me about the next 10 years, right. So I've got high Futuristic, high Positivity. So I I'm always thinking about, you know, way down the road. It's a lot more fun for me than thinking about sort of reality sometimes.

Austin Suellentrop 2:58

And so if I think about what we've done, the progress we've made, Jim, 10 years ago, Called to Coach didn't exist. Right? I was I was giving Jim a hard time on the pre-show. But like 10 years ago, Jim was just a lowly HR, a lowly recruiter in the technology world, right? He was just sort of doing his thing, had a little podcast on the side talking about tech stuff. And none of this infrastructure, none of this community existed. And 10 years later, here we are end of end of the 19 into 2020. And we've got thousands of people across the world who are certified to go and spread this, this thing we believe in, in strengths. And it's exciting -- the impact that's being made every day on all corners of the earth. And 10 years ago, that wasn't happening this way. It was happening in pockets from people who organically loved it. But we didn't have this kind of structure, this cohesion, this community.

Austin Suellentrop 3:56

That gets me really excited and it reminded me of one of those sort of pivotal moments in my in my own life around my strengths journey, right. I think back, it was eight years ago, it was 2012 when I was first really formally introduced to the power of CliftonStrengths and the impact it could have in my life. When I was in Omaha going through my strengths training, with two tremendously powerful people, Mara Hoogerhuis and Curt Liesveld. And Curt had this way with words. Many of you are fans of Curt's.

Austin Suellentrop 4:33

If you haven't ever had the chance to listen to him speak, go back and watch some of the early seasons of Called to Coach and some of the early Theme Thursday stuff where Curt's on there. He was he was just blessed and gifted beyond belief at being able to talk about people's strengths. And he told me, he said, Austin, I know you I know you've got eyes on on big things in your company. You got eyes on, on things happening quickly. But he said, In my experience, people overestimate the impact strengths can have in their organization in 6 months. But they wildly underestimate the impact it can have in 2 years.

Austin Suellentrop 5:12

And for somebody like me, who's really impatient, right, Activator No. 2, I don't like to wait for things to happen. I like to see I like to see things happen now. And I'm always thinking about down the road. That was a really poignant and powerful quote, and having it come from somebody I respected and believed in so much. It's one of the things that's resonated with me for last 7, 8 years of my life is -- How do we, how do we stop in the moment and sort of temper expectations on the impact we're having in the short term and step back to appreciate the impact we're having in the long term?

Austin Suellentrop 5:49

And so when I think about this coaching community, and I think about the people who are listening live, who are listening to this on the podcast; who are on airplanes, flying to go see clients; who are on trains going, going home after work -- all the different ways people digest this information. And I think about the impact this community has had over the last 8 years. It is mind-boggling to me. Right? How many people's lives have been enriched, have been improved? How many teenagers are thinking about their futures differently? How many parents are looking at their kids differently because of the work that the people who are paying attention right now are doing every day?

Austin Suellentrop 6:38

That -- that's the stuff that gets me out of bed every day. It's what gets -- what -- it's what makes me excited to answer emails and and deal with questions and deal with frustrations people have because I know the impact we're making. And it's not something that happens overnight. And it's not something that happens easily. It comes from passion. It comes from commitment, and, to everybody, I just want to say this blanket statement: Everybody who's ever given us a piece of feedback on something we're doing that you love, or something we're doing that's really driving you nuts, please know how much we appreciate it. Because I know, I know personally, it's coming because you're trying to make an impact in people's lives. And at Gallup, we're either making it easier for you to do that or making it harder for you to do that.

Austin Suellentrop 7:31

And I get driven by the fact that it's, it's, it's working, what you are doing is working in the world. I genuinely believe that. So that's what drives me is I get excited about the future. I think about this community and how much it helps drive us to improve as an organization so that we can continue to make the impact we're making every day. I looked at some some numbers the other day. In December of 2019 -- think about this, just the month of December, which is traditionally a bit of a slow month -- there were about 125,000 people globally to take the CliftonStrengths assessment. 125,000 people globally that took the assessment and discovered their strengths for the first time. That's a remarkable number. And it gets me so excited for what 2020 is going to bring, and for the continued impact in '21, and '22 and '23 down the road.

Austin Suellentrop 8:25

If you had shared that number with, with Don Clifton. If you'd say, hey, Don, in one month, we'll be able to have 125 people take the assess -- 125,000 people take the assessment, get the report, learn something about themselves and start taking action, he'd have been blown away. I can, I can believe he would have been blown away by that kind of a number. And that's because of the impact in the effort of all the people paying attention today. So again, going into this year, we got some new things we're excited about. We're continuing to improve and push ourselves. We're trying to get better at everything we do. It's just really exciting as I reflected on the decade that closed, that was where my mind went, was was Curt telling me to to step out and sort of step back and not get frustrated by the the short-term things that I was dealing with, but to appreciate the impact we can make over a long term. So, Jim, that's sort of my, my kickoff for the day.

Jim Collison 9:17

Yeah, no, I appreciate those numbers, Austin. It was -- in pre-show, you and I were talking about that. And you were you mentioning, like, hey, think in 2010, and I was thinking about what I was doing in 2010. And, you know, we had not even -- I had been podcasting, but we had -- I'd only asked, Hey, if we're ever going to do anything like this, I want to be in on this. And so it took us a while to get it going, but, you know, some 650 or 700 podcasts later, we -- with all the work that we've done, it has been as much fun, I think, for me as it has been for you. We've got some things going forward as we're thinking about what's coming up. What do we want to remind -- we -- from a community standpoint, what do we, what do we want to remind people?

Austin Suellentrop 9:56

Yeah, absolutely. So you know, I think, knowing it's the first week of January is just that you're back, you're back into the swing of things. Make sure you remember, as certified coaches, you get your discount code. It's the same discount code in 2020 that you had in -- at the end of 2019. Right? When we, when we changed systems and platforms, and you got that promo code to get your 350 discounted codes that you can purchase. It's the same code. You don't have to get anything new in 2020. You can use it online for purchases now. So it reset on January 1; you should have a whole new batch of 350 codes. If you, again, if you lost that code, if you can't find it, if you don't have it, please reach out. You can email certification@gallup.com and our friends will be able to get you your unique code. So at the moment, we're reminding us on that.

Austin Suellentrop 10:47

And then the second thing -- it's it's coming hot and heavy, the summit. The summit is coming up in a couple months. The Gallup at Work Summit, June 1-3 in Omaha, as -- if any of you have come in the past, you know hotels book up quickly, right? So if you're looking at making your reservations and your plans there, make sure you get some reservations booked soon. Would hate for anybody to want to come and either attendance be sold out or not be able to find the kind of places that you want to find. Check the newsletter this month, right? So the newsletter, the Certified Coaches Newsletter, goes out, I believe, on Thursday of this week. So keep your eye out for that. It's got more information and details on the summit and, and how you can register there. So those are the two things sort of big and broad to remind us about.

Austin Suellentrop 11:36

But I wanted to give you two a little bit more short-term tactical reminders as well. The first is around the 2020 Learning Series, right. So our Learning Series, which is exclusive for our Certified Coaches, is coming up in a couple weeks. So it starts three weeks from today. So January 28, 29, and 30, we're doing our Learning Series. We've been doing this now -- gosh, Jim, how many years have we been doing this?

Jim Collison 12:02

I think it's our sixth, our sixth year, yeah, doing it.

Austin Suellentrop 12:05

Sixth year of the Learning Series. And every year, we learn a little bit more, we get a little bit better, we get feedback from you on the kinds of content you want, the kinds of topics you want to spend time on. So we shared some information last month in the Coaches Newsletter about the Learning Series. And again, on Thursday, when this month's newsletter comes out, there'll be even more. But you can register for that and sign up. We've already got great numbers that I've seen signed up for the Learning Series.

Austin Suellentrop 12:30

I'm going to give a special plug for one of the sessions. And one of the sessions in particular I'm really excited about because it's titled "Straight From the Source," which is a really, kind of, I don't know, was it alliteration? Is that what it is? Yeah. Anyway, Straight From the Source. I'm going to be spending time with Jim Asplund. So our Chief Strengths Researcher, the two of us will be on there. And it's your chance as coaches to hear straight from Jim on any questions you have around the research of the assessment. Things we're looking at, connections of strengths to other things, and what might our chief researcher on strengths be thinking about?

Austin Suellentrop 13:07

So I'm really excited for that session. It's going to be sort of an open Q&A type of thing. We are soliciting questions ahead of time as much as we can, to make sure we're able to answer effectively in the moment, right. So if we need to pull some some resources or have some things on hand, we can. So be on the lookout in the Facebook group, the Certified Coaches Facebook group. After this episode today, our friend Jim here is going to post a link to a quick sort of chance for you to post questions you have for me or Jim Asplund, so that we can sort of filter in and get the top questions on the front end, make sure we answer them in the moment. But then any extra time we have there in the session beyond that, Maika is going to be hosting it. She'll be able to help sort of field some questions from the group so we can give you the insight you're looking for. I love spending time with Jim Asplund; he is, if you haven't had a chance to interact with him In a session like this before, he's fantastic. He knows the science of strengths better than anybody else that I can think of right now. So it'll be a great session.

Austin Suellentrop 14:08

So that's what I'm I'm looking forward to. Also in the Learning Series, we've got, we'll have sessions dedicated on learning about how to leverage Gallup Access. We'll have live coaching demonstrations, right. We did one of those last year and it was received really well. We're actually going to have two of those this year where you can come in and, and actually sit and listen to one of our coaches coach somebody live. But this year, we're going to do a little bit more on the debrief of it and so forth. So we're excited about that and presenting you the chance to learn in ways that you want to learn and continue to enhance your coaching acumen there. So that's coming up January 28, 29, and 30. We changed the the time zones we did them in. We're doing them -- on two of the days, the 28th and 30th, we're doing a early morning Central Time Zone session, a midday time zone session and an evening timezone session. So we can try to make it a little more accessible live for our friends in Europe and Asia so that we can include all of our global partners in this. So we're really excited, looking forward to that. So if you haven't registered already, make sure you go out and do that.

Jim Collison 15:10

Let me let me cover the a couple questions we got on that going forward. So if you're not on Facebook and you didn't get the email from us with the with the announcement of it twice, send us an email: certification@gallup.com and just say you need an invite to the, to the Learning Series. It will be available. We want you to register because we're going to contact you with some more details going forward. So make sure you get registered and, again, certification@gallup.com. Ask them to be included in that invite for the Learning Series showing that we can get you signed up. 1600 people are already registered for that, Austin, so we're really excited. It'll be a big, it'll be a big deal.

Jim Collison 15:49

We record everything in case you're new to this. So people are freaking out, like, hey, I can't I can't make it. It's OK. We'd love to have you be there live. Angela would kill me if I didn't remind you, you do -- there are ICF credit pieces available. And we've got them listed in the -- what is and what isn't -- inside the invite, but you can, by attending live -- so you can watch the recorded, but you get these credits if you listen live. All those details are in the invite and some of those pieces. So again, certification@gallup.com to get to get registered, we'd love to have you there.

Austin Suellentrop 16:25

Absolutely. Good, good reminder, Jim. And I think this is a great time. And I know oftentimes with our, with those of you who are joining on this webcast, this podcast right now, we're preaching to the choir in terms of the ones who are plugged in to our communications and you know what's going on. This is a great time. Our Certified Coaches Newsletter, we have all this in there every month, right? And we include the links and the information. So over the last couple months, learned about a lot of people who have changed email addresses and so forth, and for whatever reason, didn't get updated on our end to keep you getting that newsletter. So if you're not getting our Certified Coaches Newsletter on a monthly basis, again, certification@gallup.com, we'll make sure we get you updated. Reach out to us, we want you in the loop, we want you to know these things. So please make sure we've got the best contact info for you there.

Austin Suellentrop 17:18

So that's that's the big thing coming down the month. And then in our, I got to say, it was probably December when I was on. And we were talking about digital kits and we were talking about content and translations was a big conversation. I wanted to give you an update on some of the learning content on Gallup Access and the -- and the plan for translations and languages, right. So if you haven't been, if you weren't like me on your on your vacation around the holidays, just hanging out on Gallup Access around the end of the year, you may you may have missed we've updated our first language for translations of learning content. On December 20, our learned content was translated into Spanish. It's now available. So those printable learn, learn resources and learning content is available now in Spanish on Gallup Access.

Austin Suellentrop 18:06

And by the end of the first quarter, we will have four other languages available: French, German, Japanese, and Chinese. So French, German, Japanese and Chinese are coming by the end of the first quarter. So we're very excited to continue to expand what we're offering on Access to make that as, as globally supported as possible, right? That does not include the digital kits, right? The digital kits will continue to be English-only in the short term. We are continuing to work on on international and sort of multilanguage offerings like for digital kits type of content, but all that learning content and the resources that you see on Access are coming in that sense. So wanted to make sure I got that out there proactively. Because I know that's been a concern and a question for many people.

Jim Collison 18:58

If you haven't checked out your new digital kits, you should. So go to access -- gallup.com/access, sign in, Courses and Workbooks. And you'll see the kits are available there. You can access them in that way.

Austin Suellentrop 19:11

Yep. So again, thinking about the the big plan, where we're going with things, right, and how things are working on Access, we have -- many of you have been very instrumental in sharing feedback around how you're using Access, what's working, what's not; the things you like, the things you don't like. And I'd say the last couple months, Jim, our team has been sort of digesting and gathering all of that feedback, and continuing to proactively reach out to other people for other perspectives. And we're getting this great web of feedback on what's working and what's not.

Austin Suellentrop 19:46

And so in 2020, we are continuing to release enhancements to Access itself. So we think about, you know, some of the features and where things click and how things look, and things along those lines. We're continuing -- we have a whole map of plans for enhancements around that. But we're also looking at how do we best support the questions you're asking? How do we best support the needs of our coaching community? And so there are plans in place; we've got some great things coming in 2020 around how we can best continue to support you; how we can best continue to provide you on-demand resources to get you what you need to answer your questions.

Austin Suellentrop 20:25

You know, end of last year, we had, we had a sort of a big bottleneck with a lot of the demand on learning the new system and getting the new platform and, and so forth. And we had a lot of issues, which we've we've talked about before and we've talked about at length. We've got a lot of those things sort of resolved and addressed in the short term, and moving forward, really excited to, to help you all leverage what the new things are in Access; to leverage and how to take advantage of all the new content that has been created. The gallup.com/cliftonstrengths site with all the videos and marketing material and access to things that in the past you've had you haven't had at your fingertips, helping you understand all the things that we do have available to you. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to helping with more in 2020.

Austin Suellentrop 21:14

And I really look forward to helping sort of demonstrate to you what we're doing with your feedback. I think it's one of those things we have to do a better job of at Gallup, which is we, we value it, we take your feedback, we do things with it. We don't always do a great job of showing you what we've done, and helping you, helping you see this is what's happening with your feedback. So that's one of the things on I'm committed to you in 2020 is helping come back to you on a more regular basis with, Hey, we got your feedback, and here's what's happening with it. So that that's one of the things that I look forward to being able to come back in the next couple weeks in the month to show you, here's what's happened in the last month with the feedback you've given us because it's something we are taking very seriously.

Jim Collison 21:56

Austin, a little bit of that was in the kits. And our old kit vendor was OK, but we got some major upgrades with the kits that came out now. Ralph was asking if there's a teaser or previews for the digital kits. And yes, we actually sat down with Patrick in December and we did a whole session where we rolled through the kits. So if you want to see what they look like, need help with them, have some questions on that, maybe even before you go out there, that may be a video you want to watch. It's on our CliftonStrengths page. So go to youtube.com and search "CliftonStrengths," and you can see all the videos. By the way, they're all there, in case you want to bookmark that -- and -- all 700 of them are there. And you can -- but we did that in December. So you can go back with Patrick, and he kind of walks through the kits may give you a good primer before you jump in.

Austin Suellentrop 22:40

Yep. And then when I was on in December, I think I showed a quick sneak at the PowerPoint deck that you get with as part of that kit. Right. So there's a lot of there's a lot of great stuff we've got out there and on past episodes that should have hopefully will will show you that

Jim Collison 22:57

And Ralph is asking, with -- from a, from a color palette standpoint, we've had a lot of, Austin, we've had a lot of talk about that. Old, new where are we at with that?

Austin Suellentrop 23:07

Yep. So we had, I guess, I guess it was December that we showed -- I'm not sure -- we shared the new color scheme for the 4 domain colors. And reiterate this: Our main motivation with with changing and tweaking the colors for our 4 domains was to make sure that they were fully ADA compliant and visible by all of our users who may be colorblind because the current colors we have, when printed in grayscale or viewed in grayscale, they're very difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish a couple of the color differences. And so that was our main driver and we were looking at it through the lens of that as well as brand alignment, as well as trying to keep them as similar as possible.

Austin Suellentrop 23:51

And so those colors, introduced to you in a sample report in a previous coaches newsletter. They -- if --there are some spots in the digital kits, if you go on to Courses and Workbooks, and you go and log in to your kit, you see like a little thumbnail version of the kit. You'll see the new color scheme there. So because they're there, we wanted to make sure you were aware, Hey, these are the new colors; they're coming. But all the actual content inside the kit right now is still in the current color scheme. We did that so that you weren't downloading and printing resources with a new color scheme that's not being seen anywhere else, right. It's not in Gallup Access yet. It's not on the reports that you're printing and passing out yet. So we wanted to make sure we had some consistency there.

Austin Suellentrop 24:40

I was actually with the team this morning, talking through our plan and our rollout strategy for when we're going to implement those. Those colors will be introduced throughout 2020, right? So it's not going to be like one day we wake up and flip a switch, and everywhere that we have our colors are now the new color scheme. We'll be phasing them in throughout the year of 2020, and we are we're finalizing sort of that rollout plan right now. I assure you of this: When we know what our rollout plan is for certain, we're committed to it and we get, and we get the I's dotted and the T's crossed on when that's going to happen, I'll be sharing that timeline with you. So you can know when to expect it. So you can know when you'll see it in places like Access; when you can see it in places like your reports; when you can see it in places like gallup.com.

Austin Suellentrop 25:25

We have a lot of places we need to update these colors; we understand that. But again, that will be something that we phase in throughout the year. I'm sort of wanted to make sure that we were as transparent with you as possible, and gave you a heads up as early as we could that these would be coming. The last thing I wanted was any of you to log into the digital kits, see them -- even if it was just a thumbnail -- and go, What the heck is that? Where do -- where are those coming from? And, and sort of react that way. So that's why we were trying our best to share with you proactively. So there will be a lot more communication around that as the year progresses. Hopefully, hopefully very soon I'll be able to share with you a better idea on the timeline.

Jim Collison 26:05

That's kind of been a shocker to me, Austin, I'll be honest with you, I was not ready for all of the color debate and, and all the questions around those. We have been talking about -- the No. 1 question I get is -- when can I get the color, the access to the hex and those colors? When will that be available?

Austin Suellentrop 26:24

So that will be coming very soon. Right. So it's, it's, I've been talking with a couple people internally about that. We do have a lot of people asking for them. Here's the thing: The only reason that we haven't shared it at this point is because we haven't publicized the new colors on any of our content other than there. We would, we would hate for there to be sort of this misalignment or just sort of incongruent look out there for strengths, right? So when we share that plan, the rollout plan and when you can expect it to come, one of the things you can expect to get at that same time will be, Here are the details on what those colors look like. So if you have materials of your own, branding that you use that you can be in alignment, we understand that is important. And I will ab -- we will absolutely be sharing them with you.

Jim Collison 27:10

Yeah. And if you have materials you've printed or whatever, you get questions about it, we're in the -- you know, we're in the midst of transitioning these things ourselves. So simply say, Hey, over the year, over 2020, these colors are in transition. If you want to use up the materials that you have with the old colors, certainly do that. Like don't throw things out. There's, by the way, there's going to be no "branding police" that will come around and say, "You're, you're not compliant!" Right? We're working on it ourselves. We have a lot of resources out -- physical resources that are out that have to be flipped and switched and changed. And we've got a lot of, you know, a lot of code that needs to be changed. It's going to take us a good amount of time to work our way through it.

Jim Collison 27:48

So I just want to say relax a little bit. It'll be fine. We'll get through it. If you have materials printed, use them up, reprint with the new colors when you're getting ready to get that done. And so we appreciate your patience on this. Again, I didn't, I didn't see it coming, Austin. When we first started talking about this, it's like, I gotta just, it's just some colors. But certainly they've created a lot of, a lot of conversation around that. We'll we'll keep you guys posted as to exactly what and when and why and how coming forward. Austin, anything else?

Austin Suellentrop 28:18

Yeah, I just I just, again, I did not want to catch anybody off guard and have them see the colors without them know they were coming. So we gave you a lot of lead time on when this is gonna, when these colors will be changing. So yes, we'll continue to communicate more, more and more details as we finalize them.

Jim Collison 28:33

Yeah. What else?

Austin Suellentrop 28:34

Yeah, in terms of in terms of updates on this end, stay tuned to the Coaches Newsletter for more and more details around some of the things I've been talking about. I want to continue to to ask you to share feedback with me; share feedback with the organization. We crave it; we're looking for it; it's helping inform the decisions we're making. So just keep it coming. And Jim, any hot questions we can answer, I'm happy to drive.

Jim Collison 28:58

Yeah, let's, let's -- first of all, we've talked about additional subscription models going forward. The one that's there on Access is available. We'll come back to that here in just a second. Any update on any newer models coming from, from Access or from the subscription?

Austin Suellentrop 29:13

So right now, if you think about what we have in Access, right, there is a consumer model. So the free, anybody who takes the assessment, they can log in, and they can see things and do your sort of standard stuff that's there. And then we have really one level of subscription available. In 2020, we are working to make more options available on that I don't have a definitive timeline as to when that will happen, or what those details of that other offering are. But I know the idea of a coaches subscription is something that I'm committed to; it's something that we as an organization are committed to, in creating an offering specific to your needs and specific things that we know coaches want to do. There are some things we've got to build in the platform to make that work. Right? And so that's Is something coming, I would say, latter, latter half of the year will be the more accurate way of thinking, rather than maybe short term in the next couple of months. Right? That's something we're working towards the latter half the year, the earliest that we'd be, we'd be getting that.

Jim Collison 30:14

OK. Do we plan to publish the current Access subscription benefits versus the free model document out there?

Austin Suellentrop 30:22

Yes, yes. So I'm working with my marketing team right now to get something up and online here on that, not so, not so far away. So one of the things we did do, based upon your feedback as a community, you know, in 2020, we extended this offering -- we had an offering, where for the cost subscription could be covered by purchasing codes, right. That was something we had in 2019, Certified Coaches. In 2020, we've extended that ability to use so if you were to buy $1500 worth of codes in 2020, that could cover your cost of an, of an annual subscription.

Jim Collison 31:00

Can I use my disc -- can I use that in conjunction with my discount?

Austin Suellentrop 31:03

You can -- use that in conjunction with your discount. That's something we would connect you with one of our team members to sort of talk through the contracting on that. But that was something based upon your feedback that we took to heart and made an adjustment to how how we operate on that end. So that's something you can continue to leverage through 2020.

Jim Collison 31:19

One of the things I want to say is, if you're interested in that at all, it's really -- the best-scenario experience on that is to contact us directly and get a demo. Everybody's situation is a little bit different. This has been the hard thing to kind of get through on the social sides is that we really want to customize that experience for you. So as we're giving you the demo, we kind of understand what you're doing and you can ask those questions directly. Videos are great. I do find a lot of people don't watch them. So we'd love to have you -- we'd love to have you contact us.

Jim Collison 31:49

So if you're a certified coach and you're thinking about an Access subscription, at this point, or even if you're an organization and you're listening to this for whatever reason, and you're not currently using or have an actual subscription, let us chat with you before you make that decision. It's not -- doesn't always end in a payment of some kind. So, we'd love to have you contact us. The best way to do that is send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And we'll have one of our, one of our Access specialists call you back and give you a demo, walk you through it. It's just a way better experience than a PDF online. And even if you have an inkling of a question, like, should I or shouldn't I do this? It's worth 30 or 45 minutes of your time to spend some time with one of our specialists to get it done. It's just a much richer experience that way. I've been real hesitant to have some of that marketing out there just because it gets misconstrued or misunderstood. And it's just way better when we have one of our professionals work you through it.

Austin Suellentrop 32:44

Yeah. So, you know, when we think about the evolution of Access and how Access -- what it, again, talk about what it looks like a year ago versus what it looks like and feels like today, a lot of change in the platform and what it can offer and how it can work. And there will come tend to be a lot of enhancements made.

Austin Suellentrop 33:02

One of the things, the big things that we're working on, that should be coming here in the next couple of weeks to within that next month, right, for those people who do use a subscription, who are on a subscription of the platform, we're looking at the ability to have batch printing of reports, right? So that you can get -- rather than having to manually select and download 50, 100 reports at a time, you can, within a couple clicks, have an entire team's reports right there emailed to you in a PDF, right. So you can -- makes printing and workshopping with, with groups much easier in terms of getting your materials ready. Those kinds of things that we're working on enhancing -- we'll stay tuned and communicate with our subscribers much more sort of clearly on that. Those are the kinds of things we're working on to try to enhance the experience for how you use it; for how you use Access and how it can help you make the impact you're trying to make.

Jim Collison 33:52

Austin, one more thing. During the conversion, our customer support was overwhelmed and we spent a bunch of time -- Jane came on last year and talked about it. Over the holiday, we have really reinforced that, that group. And so, whatever you heard on Facebook or whatever your experience was in the past, we are seeing very consistent support times come way down. And so, don't feel like -- if you're having an issue with us, don't feel like you can't contact us.

Jim Collison 34:22

While email is very, very convenient, and you can do it right off of the site, it is our slowest method. So it takes us a while to get back on those. We do have, during operating hours, or during business hours here in the United States -- so basically 9 to 4, Monday through Friday -- we have chat that's available. And we are working on expanding that out to be a service that's available all the time. Not available today that way, but 9 to 4 here in the United States -- so Europe, in the evenings for you -- chat is available. That's super fast, actually.

Jim Collison 34:50

I got in the other day, I had a problem. I went to our chat room there on Access and asked the guys there, Hey, have you seen -- and ladies -- have you seen this? And I was No. 2 from the second I came in, right, so this was during the holiday, so. And if you need to call us, you can do that. The Help link at the bottom of Access, just go to gallup.com/access; there's a help link at the bottom. Click through any topic in our -- it says Contact Support -- that is there; that gives you both chat and the phone options at Aria; we cover a good percentage of the globe with the phone. So don't I know -- we had, we had, we were pretty slow at launch. We got overwhelmed. So did Disney, so we -- I'm just throwing them under the bus. Why not? But we -- it's better. It's, so now, so don't be afraid to contact us via support on that. It -- they are even faster than Facebook. So I know you want to post those questions on Facebook to see if anybody else has had that problem. Just give us a call or chat with us. We'd love to do that. Even in the off hours, we have someone there 24/7 available for you in most cases. In fact, the evening and overnight hours can sometimes be faster than business hours. Because the times folks calling in just goes way down. So don't be afraid to contact us.

Austin Suellentrop 36:03

Absolutely, completely agree and, and we -- and for our certified coaches, one of the things that we've been really committed to is, is making sure we're getting an eye on the trends and what you're facing and the question, the common questions you're asking; the common hurdles you're running into. Because you matter. You are very important to us. And so we've got a team who is dedicated to helping sort of look at those things and figure out, you know, why does this keep happening, why do we keep running into this? How do we, how do we address it? How do we resolve it? How do we give the kind of support you deserve? So we're learning, we're evolving. We're getting better at this. As Jim said, we're, you know, I think, the experience today is significantly better than it was in October. I know, my life -- my quality of life is better today than it was in the month of October. But I want to thank you all for your continued support, for the continued impact you make every day.

Austin Suellentrop 36:56

I go back to the story at the beginning of our, of our time together today. I think about Curt, and I think about all the people Curt had the chance to influence in his career, and all the things they're out doing now. And the people's lives they're touching now. And what gets me excited, it's not just the 125,000 people in December who discovered their strengths. It's the thousands of coaches who are having that ripple effect in their communities. And that you're out there working -- I saw a picture somebody sent me the other day of a of a nonprofit who was doing like a Toys for Tots drive. And at the Toys for Tots drive, they were sitting down and wrapping presents and talking strengths with kids. And they were helping kids understand -- they were using StrengthsExplorer to help kids understand what was right with them as they were wrapping presents for kids. It was one of the coolest applications I've ever seen -- I was like, I don't think of this stuff! I don't -- I can't come with these ways of using it. But our network, our community, you guys are! All of you out there are doing this. And that's what makes the movement work.

Austin Suellentrop 38:03

So, on behalf of Gallup on behalf of Curt, and on behalf of all of us who believe in this, Thank you, and keep, keep pushing us to help you more.

Jim Collison 38:12

Yeah, Austin, I think one of the things, and I'll -- I can maybe wrap up with this, we want to hear more of those stories that are happening, whether you're posting those on your own blog; whether you're posting on Facebook. And we'd like to kind of feature some of them on Called to Coach. And we can't do all of them, but we'd love to hear from, from you on those. And we'll have more of those coming up in 2020.

Jim Collison 38:31

So if you've got one of those kind of cool stories and you want to share it with us, put that together, send it to me in an email: jim_collison@gallup.com, and we'd love to consider that as well. Anything else, Austin, before I wrap it?

Jim Collison 38:45

Nope. I appreciate it.

Jim Collison 38:46

You bet! With that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantages of all the resources we have available now on Gallup Access easy to find that: gallup.com/cliftonstrengths is a great shortcut to get there. That's where the audio and video and full transcripts now are posted. So if you want to go out there, you can check those out as well. And while you're there, sign up for the new CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter. It's available -- there's a link at the very bottom of each one of our posts that has that ability to subscribe. And we'll send that to you each and every month and stay informed. Links to subscribe are available at the end of the post; you can also catch the recorded audio and video of this program as well as all the past ones. We make those available on YouTube. Just search "CliftonStrengths" from YouTube, or if you want to listen to them as a podcast, you can find us look for "Gallup Webcasts" on any podcast player. You might see a bunch of our other ones that we do there as well. Lots of information for you to take advantage of. If your organization is struggling to implement anything we discuss or you have any questions at all, you're welcome to reach out to us. Send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. I mentioned a little bit earlier. You can find a complete list of all the courses we have available, both in person and virtual; they're available on our courses page: courses.gallup.com. If you'd like to sign up for future webcasts, head over to gallup.eventbrite.com and follow us there. You'll get a notification every time I add one, and I'm getting pretty good at spacing those out so I don't overwhelm you with 60 at once! Those are over there as well. Make sure you follow us so you get that email. Join us -- Austin mentioned this -- join us for the 2020 Gallup at Work Summit here, June 1-3. Details on that -- and more details will be coming: gallupatwork.com. Join our Facebook page facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. I am always surprised how many of you find that by me saying that. And I think Mark does a helpful link in the bottom of the transcript as well. And if you enjoy this podcast, we ask you to share it. You can share it with anybody that you'd like. We'll look forward to the next Called to Coach, which is actually coming up on Friday. We have a whole new series on teams and managers coming for you this season on Called to Coach. And those kick off Friday. We'd love to have you join us live. Want to thank you for joining us, joining us today. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Austin Suellentrop's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Communication, Activator, Futuristic, Belief and Positivity.