From London to Melbourne: how Justin Williames leaned into our flexible work culture

Senior CRM Manager Justin Wliliames joined Linktree to build out the CRM (customer relationship management) function, but he knew it wouldn't be straightforward in the beginning; he was based in London while most of his colleagues were in Australia. He wasn’t sure exactly when he'd be able to make the move back home, but he took the chance and embraced Linktree’s flexible work culture and emphasis on asynchronous communication. His love for coffee was also a huge help.

We caught up with Justin to find out how he made the time difference work and what it’s like to be back in Melbourne after two and a half years away.

Can you tell us a bit about your role and what the CRM team does?

Totally! CRM is essentially the voice of the business; we’re the folks that tell our Creators what’s happening, what we’ve released and what’s important for them to know. We work closely with many folks across the company including marketing, product, product marketing, design, copywriting and more. What I love about working in CRM is that we get to wear many hats. We’re analytical, we’re creative and we get to code! If you’ve received an email, push notification or a pop-up message from Linktree, that’s come from myself or one of my awesome colleagues (please add us to your email contact list!)

When you learned about your role at Linktree you were in the UK and you knew you’d be working primarily with an Australia-based team. What made you decide to take the leap?

As someone who had worked in tech startups for a few years prior in London, I’d fallen in love with the space. I love working in tech businesses with lots of vibrant and exciting people and great products. Linktree was one of very few Aussie tech companies that was globally recognized and it was growing very quickly. I was already a Linktree user and very familiar with the brand – I was very excited for the opportunity to play a real part in helping grow the Aussie tech scene. When I had the opportunity to build out the CRM function for Linktree it was something I couldn’t turn down.

What were some of the challenges you faced as a result, and how did you overcome them?

At first it wasn’t easy. My wife and I couldn’t make the move to Australia immediately as my sister-in-law was getting married a few months after I took the job, and due to COVID, I didn’t want to risk not being able to return to the UK. So I embarked on a journey of about 6 months of asynchronous working, countless recorded Looms, many scheduled Slack messages and lots of late night meetings. But what made this all bearable was the amazing supporting colleagues, people telling me to get off the computer and go to sleep and a really employee-first culture. Once I started to build my team, I was able to share the workload and hand off some projects which meant the async working was so much more sustainable. I felt super supported by my manager and the leadership team throughout this whole process!

Do you have any hot tips for others working across very different timezones?

Hot tips hey? Take the time to set up 1:1s regularly. Stay connected to your colleagues, and don’t always talk work. Remote workers don’t get time to chat at the water cooler so we need to be intentional about building working relationships. And take advantage of all the deep work time you have! Oh, and of course make use of Loom, Slack and any other async tools your business provides!

I imagine COVID must have made it difficult to see your family since they were so far away in Australia. What are some of the highlights of your time back home?

Look I’ll be honest, COVID was a tough time. Funnily enough, I was on a flight home from Australia in March 2020 when the government decided to lock the borders. Little did I know that would be the last time on Aussie soil for 2.5 years. It was a time of a lot of homesickness, and many Zoom calls.

While I was in the UK I got engaged to and married my now wife, but sadly due to lockdowns and border restrictions my immediate family and friends weren’t able to attend…but this gave us a great excuse to have another little vow renewal in Australia with my immediate family. Since then I’ve done a two week road trip down the east coast showing my British wife the likes of Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Sydney, Canberra, and we moved to Melbourne.

It’s amazing to be back here in Melbourne, the true home of coffee (sorry Italy!). I’ve been able to meet so many of my colleagues in person for the first time since joining the company about 10 months ago and have been able to rekindle friendships with people I haven't seen for a few years.

We heard you’re into fancy coffee and some would even say you’re an influencer. How did you get into the coffee world?

To say I’m into coffee may be an understatement. I’m obsessed. My journey into making my own barista-quality specialty coffee at home came about when we first went into lockdown in the UK and all of the cafes in London had to close. I wanted a caffeine hit, and my V60 just wasn’t cutting it.

Bought myself my first ever espresso machine and a cheap grinder and cracked open an Instagram page. I met a bunch of awesome baristas and people willing to teach me how to make coffee and started to document my journey (with so many fails!). From there I went on to modify my machine, and buy/sell a few. I’m now on my fourth espresso machine since 2020 which may be a problem. It’s an ECM Mechanika V Slim for anyone wondering.

I got into content creation and built a bit of a following through satisfying Reels and educational IGTVs. Had a bunch of fun doing so and I now have about 7.5k followers with my best Reel getting 76k plays. I’ve even served coffee with a popular London roaster at the London Coffee Festival. It’s a great excuse to keep drinking coffee.

Where can we find your coffee content?

You can find my coffee content on Instagram @justins.coffee.station or by visiting my Linktree at linktr.ee/justinwilliames and clicking on “The home barista hustle.”