The Remodeler Digital Playbook Podcast

Blueprint for Success: Business Advice from Google Maps VP Miriam Daniel

• Rathna Ramakrishnan • Season 1 • Episode 5

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In this episode Miriam Daniel, the VP of Google Maps, discusses the various features and technologies in Google Maps that are beneficial for small business owners. Miriam also explains how voice-activated search is changing the way users interact with local search and provides insights into the integration of AI and machine learning in Google Maps. 

Additionally, she shares her personal interests and tips for time management, emphasizes the value of mentors, and recommends the book 'The Culture Code' for building a strong team culture.

📌 KEY MOMENTS:

- 04:39: Exciting Features and Technologies in Google Maps
- 10:20: Leveraging Google's Local Search for Business Visibility
- 17:16: Beneficial Features for Small Business Owners
- 31:58:The Importance of Mentors and Mentoring Others
- 35:19: Book Recommendation: The Culture Code

🌟 What You'll Learn:
- ACTIONABLE TIPS for business owners to boost their visibilty.
- INSIGHTS into Miriam Daniel's advice for business growth. 

🔨 Essential listening for remodeling contractors seeking to advance their digital marketing strategies.

🎧 Tune in now to transform your approach to digital marketing!

Ready to see real results from fellow General Contractors?

→ Step 1: Join our FREE Digital Dominance Club for Remodeling Contractors

→ Step 2: Follow us on Instagram

→ Step 3: Schedule a 1:1 call with Rathna now!

Let's rock your remodeling journey! 🛠️💰

Rathna Ramakrishnan (00:02.126)
Hey, remodeling contractors, I am super excited today to have Miriam Daniel, the VP of Google Maps. I am so honored and humbled that she's taken some time from her busy schedule to chat with us. Today, you're going to get the ins and outs of how Google Maps works and how it's becoming more and more user-friendly. So let's dive right in, Miriam. Thanks again for taking the time.

Miriam Daniel (00:29.714)
It's a pleasure and we work a lot with small businesses so thanks for having me here.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (00:35.766)
Excellent. Can you share your story of how you began your journey in tech, leading up to your current role as the VP of Google Maps for consumers?

Miriam Daniel (00:46.446)
Sure. I started as a young kid when computers were coming in and was really eager to start playing with them and have the opportunity of working with them. And thankfully I got into a good engineering school that gave me the exposure and the opportunity to work with computers. And as I migrated to the U.S. I happened to work in really...

good companies like Intel and Amazon and now with Google, where you're working with a lot of smart people who are inspiring and motivating you and innovating all the time. And you learn with them and you learn through your career journey on how to make products and technology work better for, and users work better for everyone as they go about their everyday lives. So this has been a great journey for me, myself, as I have learned as a user.

And as I watch my kids work and play with technology, how technology has evolved and how we as technologists can make things better, make lives better by putting our products and services to better use.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (01:57.278)
Very cool. So what aspect of your work at Google Maps do you find most fulfilling?

Miriam Daniel (02:03.106)
You know, it's a hard question to answer because there's a lot of things that's fun about my job. But maybe I'll try to tell you something that you may not actually immediately think about when you say Google Maps. First of all, I find it really fulfilling working with a team that we have, and it's a very, very talented team. And everything starts with great team, great culture, great collaboration for us to amplify and have bigger and better outputs and, you know, in service of our users. But, you know...

We always, all of us as end users, think about Google Maps as a tool that allows you to find a place, find directions to a place, and go there. You know, so you're going from A to B. But the Google Maps team actually works a lot behind the scenes with local authorities, with cities, with governments, and we're trying to do things at a massive, massive scale that actually benefits the population. One example is...

When there's a crisis scenario, bringing you weather alerts, bringing you wildfire alerts, or helping you with governments with flood forecasting, that actually helps keep all of our users safe. And so we work with governments to do things like that. On the other end of the spectrum, when you actually put an address on the map, life changes for people in some parts of the world who, all of a sudden, they can have.

access to electricity and deliveries and things like that. Another way that it's really, really fulfilling is, you know, when you think about the planet and how we can all contribute in our little ways to save the planet, we introduced a feature called eco-friendly routing. Sometimes on the map, you might see a couple of alternate routes, and one route might have a little leaf on it, but it might be three minutes longer or five minutes longer, but it might actually tell you that you might save.

maybe 5 to 7 percent in fuel and hence carbon emission. And imagine the world's population, if everybody contributes a little bit, we can save millions and millions of megatrans of carbon emissions. So I hope you will all do your bit and that's what makes our jobs really fulfilling.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (04:00.448)
Pfft

Rathna Ramakrishnan (04:16.054)
Amazing. I did notice all of those alternate routes recently when I launched Google Maps. So thank you for queuing me into that little leaf and features. So I'll be sure to be on the lookout and use it because we all need to do our share to save this beautiful Earth. So let's dive right into Google Maps. What are some of the features or technologies in Google Maps that businesses and local service providers should be excited about today?

Miriam Daniel (04:40.97)
Well, first of all, if you are a business owner or a small business owner, Google Business Profiles is a great way to take control of how your business is actually represented on Maps. First, claim your profile, and then once you've claimed it, you can add important information about your business. You can post content for your brand. You can gain access to that small business filter, and a lot of end users look for small businesses so they can actually help the community.

and you can make sure all of your attributes are well represented. And very recently, we launched the social media links on that business profile page as well. So when you go into Google Maps and if you claim the business, you see that business profile page and you can edit it and you can engage with it, add your social media links. So your users in the community are able to find valuable information about your business in the way you would like them to see your business.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:39.078)
Absolutely. I think the Google Business Profile is such a fantastic panel of information that empowers business owners to feed information into the Google search algorithm, to tell the world about who they are, who they serve, why they're unique. And one of the features that I recently noticed when I was editing one of my clients' Google Business Profiles was a woman owned. And you could check it off. And I thought it was such a fun feature.

It's cool to tell the world if you're a woman-owned business or not. All right, so in your view, what are the key factors that contribute to a satisfying local search experience for users?

Miriam Daniel (06:19.598)
It's a good question and hopefully we are interpreting how users search, you know, the right way. But when we say local search, it means you're looking for things to do or places in your area, in your community, in your location. Or you might be doing some research before you go on a trip somewhere, so you're researching something about an area that's very far away. Our job is to make sure that the information we provide you is reliable.

right? And we need to make it easy for you to find that information. And the foundation of all of this work is that, you know, the work that we do to actually keep that information fresh because the world is changing every single minute, even as we are talking, the world is changing, right? And to keep up with the rapid pace of change that's happening, you know, like, just to give you the magnitude of this, there are about 50 million updates we make to Google Maps every single day.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (07:16.614)
I'll help.

Miriam Daniel (07:18.334)
Now the source of these updates, it could be coming from authoritative sources like cities and governments, it could be users like you who are editing the map and telling us, you know, some road is under construction or has changed. It could be users telling us about traffic. It could be you writing a review about a business. Or you could be, you know, the person that's editing your business profile. But all in all, put everything together, there's about 50 million updates happening to Maps every day.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (07:47.686)
So...

Miriam Daniel (07:47.79)
And our job is to make sure we're processing all of that in real time, as fast as possible, making sure it is trusted or trustworthy, and making sure it's available for everybody to search on. And to more than that, once you know that the information is there, we have to make it more natural and intuitive and consider all the possible ways in which people might look for information. Sometimes they are very, very specific.

they have a clear idea as to what they want. They might actually put an address and say, I want to go there. Many times, people are just looking for general inspiration for things to do. And they might simply search for things to do. That's one of the very popular search queries. Or they might search for restaurants near me. And we try to give them a great experience. We want to organize the search results. When you have this broad query, we want to organize it in a way that is easily understandable.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (08:20.863)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Miriam Daniel (08:45.11)
digestible for the user that is doing this search. So for example, if you're visiting Tokyo and you just say things to do in Tokyo, we might actually bring you collections of, here are places you can see cherry blossoms, here are places you can see art exhibitions, or where you can see anime related places. And, or if you just say coffee shops, we might actually show you a collection that says, places with interesting latte art.

So we like to surprise and delight our users a little bit, but there's that spectrum we're dealing with where people know precisely what they want to people that are giving us open-ended search queries. But everything in between is important too. Like everything from showing them reviews about a place, showing them the offerings about a place, like you just said, highlighting that it is women-owned or this is accessible or...

you know, pointing out that this is a vegan restaurant. You know, many of these little attributes actually matter. And so when people can quickly find that information, make their decision and be on their way, we've done our best then.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (09:52.018)
That's exciting to hear that there are that many updates. And indeed, Google is the world's largest search engine working hard to be the world's best. So it's good that the information on the search engine is reliable and credible. And this becomes more and more important for a small business owner. If you're trying to be the best known remodeler in your area or the best known luxury kitchen remodeler, then you can be sure that if you have fed your business panel, your Google business panel

then Google is working on the back end to showcase you as the best remodeler, be it Chicago or Los Angeles or wherever you're headquartered in striving to serve that 50 or 100 mile radius of homeowners. This is exciting stuff, Miriam. How can small businesses like remodeling contractors leverage Google's local search to increase their visibility in specific geographical areas?

Miriam Daniel (10:49.238)
Well, remodel is just like any other business. You have to start by creating that business profile that we talked about earlier, right? And once you've claimed it and you've updated it with your business information, photos about your business or maybe photos about the products or output, you know, after having completed some remodels, you know, and you can see reviews and you engage with people who are giving you reviews. You can, you know, point out that small business attribute.

And this collection of things, even maybe putting a photo of your storefront is really, really key. So people know that, oh, I remember seeing that photo. That's the place I'm going to. All of these little things matter. And especially in areas that are highly congested, like downtown areas, you even walk into a strip mall and there is, you might be going around a little bit trying to figure out where exactly that business is. So putting a photo of that storefront.

actually helps them visually identify where they want to go. And we encourage small business owners to showcase their store by describing the store in more detail, describing what you do in more detail, and link it to your social media links. So users can actually easily find whichever way they come in. They can find it and understand what you do and what you have to offer. And

If you go into that small business tab, the business profile tab, there are some recommendations of things that you can do. So there's some tips that you might see in there as well. Make sure you edit your store hours and store information, your location, your contact, what amenities you have. And lastly, you can try to promote your business, sign up for ad services as well.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (12:34.794)
Absolutely. So Miriam is touching on storefronts, and there are a lot of remodeling contractors that work without an office, right? They are either home-based or, and Google's been very generous in allowing these service-based businesses that do not have a storefront or a physical office to still claim and optimize your Google business profile by verifying that you're indeed an honest business owner with hopes and dreams that wants to serve a population of people around

even though Medium is giving us the example of a storefront, it absolutely translates to any business owner who does not have a physical storefront, a brick and mortar presence, because Google again is only trying to help people by being the world's best search engine, that they want real business owners to claim that business panel. And lately the process is very simplified in terms of claiming your business panel if you do not have a storefront. And so Google's actually

where you can actually go and claim your business profile as a service-based business owner without a storefront. But the things that mediums recommended in terms of posting photos, collecting those reviews, interacting with those reviews, it doesn't matter. No matter what kind of a brick and mortar or not kind of a business you are, those things that mediums recommending absolutely applies.

Miriam Daniel (13:57.922)
Totally.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (13:59.446)
So what features?

What strategies should small business owners adopt, manage, and respond to online reviews? And how does it impact their local search ranking? Because reviews is a huge piece today. I think Amazon has kind of trained us to think like that when we try to even buy a pair of socks. Our eyes are drawn to that four star, five star. And you're like, OK, it's a 3.9. I don't want it. I want a 4.9 kind of a thing. So what strategies do you think small business owners can adopt when it comes to the reviews

Google.

Miriam Daniel (14:32.75)
Well, this is a good question. Users are now trained to go read reviews. And like you said, many companies have actually made that a possibility for us. And this is just a normal part of how people, it's like asking your friend, what do you think about this place before you go there, or you eat somewhere, or you employ a service. So when you get, if you have this Google Business profile,

Rathna Ramakrishnan (14:36.646)
Thanks for watching!

Miriam Daniel (15:02.634)
a review submitted, a message comes in. So you can immediately engage with some of those reviewers. And it's a way for you to respond back to your customers as well. And you can also build trust with them, with your future customers, if you're making sure that you're watching the reviews and your customer service is great. And that can help strengthen the relationship with your existing and future customers. And I would actually say, we put in a lot of effort to make sure that

the reviews mechanism is not abused. You know, we're always looking for abuse vectors. If somebody's just spamming, you know, you can definitely, you know, report that and we will, you know, investigate and take action. But more importantly, you know, paying attention to what your customers are saying about you and responding to them and engaging with them, it's a virtuous cycle that helps, you know, build your business.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (15:43.814)
Yep.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (15:58.102)
Absolutely. So it's very true because I am a Grow with Google partner. So Google launched this Grow with Google program, I believe about seven years ago and local business owners were invited to be a part of the program and it's kind of a tedious application process. But what it has really opened up my eyes is to the fact that Google actually has a small business team which is part of Google that really sits there and responds to if there is a fake review, if there's a spam and you report it, it's not just going.

into a black hole, there is actually a group of people that I have personally spoken to and interacted with that review it, and if it's a valid review, they bring it back. If it's not a valid review and it's just spam, they are happy to remove it. So again, if you think about it, Google's in it to make sure that they're having available all of the relevant pertinent information for the user. So they are going to help small business owners if there is an issue with your reviews or how it's being portrayed or your business profile is not showing properly on map.

So what features in Google Maps are most beneficial for small business owners who often travel to different sites because it's typical of remodeling contractors to serve about 30 cities from where they're headquartered. What features do you think they can tap into?

Miriam Daniel (17:17.142)
Well, first of all, if you are somebody who's traveling, I'm sure you're getting directions and you're getting using a Google Maps for navigation. And it's really useful for us if you're reporting that there might be an incident or we are constantly working on giving you live traffic updates that are more accurate, giving you better ETAs. You might be rushing from one place to another to keep an appointment. So we're constantly working on ensuring

we give you the best ETAs. Now, sometimes you might be in a city where you're taking the Metro. And so we're working on improving the Metro routes and ETAs for those as well, including the time it takes to walk between different platforms or the exit and entry, or even get out of the Metro and get to your final destination. So regardless of what mode of transport you're using, we're constantly...

Rathna Ramakrishnan (18:03.44)
Ha.

Miriam Daniel (18:13.078)
wanting to make sure that we're giving you the most reliable, accurate, trustworthy information. In addition to that, I would say if you are actually looking for places, we have recently introduced a feature where you can actually tap on the map and tell us if that building has a certain number or an address that you would like to edit the map.

And think of this as when you provide edits, you're helping everybody else find that address as well. And hence, if more and more people in the community can help with editing and giving us updates, everybody benefits. So that's a way in which we get the community to help each other as well.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (18:55.146)
Amazing. So how can small business owners effectively showcase their work portfolios and local search results to attract more clients?

Miriam Daniel (19:05.042)
I would say there, I think we discussed that part before, like, you know, the more they can make their business profile look attractive, the more they can lead users to their social media pages, I think is when they're going to be attracting their clients. And we want to make sure we're providing all the tools that enables them to do that.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (19:23.71)
Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit here and ask you a question about voice, right? How is voice activated search helping small business owners or how does it change the way users are interacting with local search today, especially with maps and what should businesses do today to adapt to this trend?

Miriam Daniel (19:50.582)
Yeah, you know, more and more users in mostly Asian countries is where we're seeing that people are starting to use more voice search because it is really using for them to articulate what they're looking for without having to type it up. I would also say that, you know, with voice, if you're on the road, okay, where you have to have your eyes on the road, hands on the wheel.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (20:04.166)
Thanks for watching!

Miriam Daniel (20:19.882)
Don't get distracted, please drive safely. That's a great time to actually remember something or ask for something. And you can quickly ask for that by voice without missing a beat. And people might actually look for specific situations and say, find me a gas station on the way, or find me a place to pick up milk on the way or something like that. You can just tap your microphone and talk about it, and thereby having a very safe drive.

So we're seeing a little bit of that where your hands are occupied and voice is a better mode of communication. We see people using more voice queries. That's in some parts of the world. And in other parts of the world, it's just harder to type all of that information and voice is like a shortcut. It's very intuitive. It's easy to learn and easy to speak. You don't have to learn how to adapt to technology. You know, you just say what you're thinking and, you know, hopefully get the results back. So.

We see the spectrum of voice use cases and we want to make sure we're serving our users better with voice.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (21:17.87)
Very cool. So from a small business owner, if you have your Google Business Panel optimized and has all the relevant information and somebody uses voice search, the voice search is going to behave exactly like a manual text search and you're still going to get the benefits of having optimized your profile and still be showcased on search. Is that correct? Okay, cool.

So let's talk about a topic today, which is huge, thanks to Jack GPT. It's big on everybody's minds. And there are several remodeling contractors that I know that have adopted AI. And so I thought, let's talk a little bit about how is Google Maps integrating AI and machine learning to enhance local search experience for users today.

Miriam Daniel (22:06.294)
Well, it's a great question, but I just want to remind everyone, we're not new to AI. AI has existed for a while. There are different types of AI and models that are being used. And when it comes to mapping, I can give you so many examples of where AI is used. Even as we are getting these 50 million updates every day, without the power of AI, we will not be able to process them as fast as we are processing it. You all know about Street View. It's a much loved feature.

You go look at Street View for any part of the world. But as we capture Street View, we're also able to extract businesses out of Street View and put them on the map. And this might be a business that has never had an online presence until then, but for the first time they're appearing on the map and all of a sudden, so much online commerce is possible. Users are able to find them in that community the minute they're on the map. And that is a huge advantage for somebody who's just a small business.

but they might have in some parts of the world, just a name outside the store and now it gets picked up. So we've been using AI in a lot of different ways, but there's another good feature for local search. Imagine somebody walking around trying to find your business and instead of constantly trying to search and get directions, now you can actually, with a feature called Lens and Maps, you can lift your phone up,

point in the direction around you, and it'll actually show you some of the local businesses that might even be slightly hidden out of sight. Maybe it's shown around the corner. And it shows you all these businesses so you can easily find them. And that is done with a combination of AI and augmented reality. We figure out where you are in the world, we look at all the street view and aerial images in that part of the world, and we try to match it to which way you're facing, and we say these are the businesses in that direction.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:42.006)
Wow.

Miriam Daniel (24:03.522)
And that even if even it's in a place that I've lived for the last 10, 15 years, sometimes I walk around the local area and I point the phone and suddenly I'm surprised by a new, you know, gym or a new store that has come up in the local neighborhood. So this is a feature called Lens and Maps, which is also powered by AI. We it's available right now in about 50 cities around the world. So there's lots of different ways in which, you know, you can find.

Finding a business online, as we talked about, where we even show interesting clusters of like you might be interested in this or that, you know, that might be from the comfort of your couch in your living room, or if you're out in the real world walking around looking for a business. So we try to make sure that people can easily find businesses in this entire spectrum.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (24:32.086)
Okay.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (24:52.89)
So currently it's available in 50 cities, but just like anything else that Google does, it's just a matter of time before which it's gonna be available in all the cities the world over, I assume.

Miriam Daniel (25:01.878)
Yes, yes. The features that I just mentioned are available.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (25:05.93)
Okay, give me your insights on generative AI.

Miriam Daniel (25:11.582)
It is the buzzword, isn't it? Funnily enough, just this week, we announced a feature that allows you to discover places with generative AI in maps. And we're only opening it up as an experimental feature with some of our really engaged local guides community. And if you don't know what a local guide is, a local guide is someone who's actively posting reviews, photos.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (25:13.191)
Yes!

Rathna Ramakrishnan (25:40.57)
Cough cough

Miriam Daniel (25:40.906)
you know, and useful information about local places. And the more they contribute, they kind of like, you know, go to a certain level of a local guide. So these highly engaged local guides are gonna get early access to, you know, a feature that we call Discovering Places with Genitivia. Let me describe that a little bit. If you really know exactly that you wanna go to this small business, you're on your way. But many times people are like, wanna be inspired.

They might say, what can I do on a rainy weekend like this in San Francisco with kids? So you're just trying to, you have all these constraints. It's raining, you're in this area, you've got kids with you, what do you do? And you might come back with suggestions that say, there's these museums you could go to or these indoor playgrounds or these comic book stores or things that might be interesting that you might not have thought about otherwise. So this experimental feature is about

helping you find places to go to and things to do. You know, it's just the beginning, we're getting started with this. We're really excited about how this could expand and help end users find new things to do.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (26:58.134)
Amazing. So this is AI supercharged then, because it's going to give you suggestions and ideas. And so then it's fair to hope that as a small business owner, as a remodeling contractor, Google could eventually get to the point where the AI is so supercharged that if somebody comes in and says, you know, luxury remodeling, $75,000 budget, you know, give me the best local remodeler that can help me, you know, build the kitchen or home of my dreams, then Google could potentially,

to pull that data.

Miriam Daniel (27:30.61)
Yeah, that is possibly the future. And how do you prepare for that future? You prepare by making sure your business profile has all the right information, the right photos, the right descriptions, making sure you're getting all the reviews from your users and staying engaged. And the more content that is there, the more AI can work on your business.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (27:52.378)
Fantastic. Very cool. I'm excited to see this feature. So let's talk a little bit about you, Miriam. What do you like to do for fun?

Miriam Daniel (28:05.634)
Oh, you know, I started doing a few short hikes in the COVID year, so I still like to do that for fun. It really helps me connect with friends that I might not find time to connect with otherwise. So I just reach out and see if I can do a hike on the weekend with friends that I can, you know, share some time with. So that's something I really love. Now I do love travel. So it's a little serendipitous that I'm here within Google Maps.

So wherever I go, I am very eager about actually using the product. I submit my own reviews and take photos and things like that. And it's a great way to actually have fun while you're working because this is my job. My job is to make sure this product works really, really well, that Maps can actually serve users like me and you.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (29:01.838)
Fantastic, very fun. So you put your wanderlust, your love for travel to use with your work. So I'm sure you must be very busy managing large teams, deadlines, budgets that you manage, and so forth. How do you manage your time? Because for remodeling contractors, time management is a huge piece of how they can stack projects and succeed, because they are in people's homes and expected to deliver high quality. So it's one of the conversations that I always have, where you get them high quality

and they're not able to convert them to clients because of a lack of time. And so would you be willing to share with us some of your tips, tactics, you know, tricks that you have for time management?

Miriam Daniel (29:42.926)
I must say that maybe my job description is slightly different from what you just described, but I think we all face the same constraints in the real world. There's only so many hours in the day and you have to be somewhere at a certain time. And this is where Google Maps actually comes in handy as well because before I leave for the day, I check the traffic and I make sure that if I can make it to the office and, you know, the time to arrival is pretty accurate within what...

one or two minutes, if I can make it to the office in time for my meeting, I'm going to head out right away. If I think I'm not going to be there, then I might actually finish a couple of meetings and then drive out. So it's a little bit of time management in the moment, but you know, it's a great way. Sometimes you have to meet people outside of your office space as well and to plan for travel, you know, checking into Google Maps. Sometimes you all, you know, Google Maps is very useful because it...

gives you something called busyness. It tells you how busy a place is gonna be. So maybe you don't wanna go into that retail store in its peak hours. Maybe you wanna go when it's not so peak hours so you can be in and out quickly. So there's some little things like that you can use to really plan your time better and your activities better around the world. And of course, I have my team that's really good at helping.

me stay on time. So thank you very much to my team as well.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (31:11.642)
Very cool. So it's funny how you just put the tool that you work on to use to time manage. And it's definitely something that we all innately do, but probably don't attribute to time management. Because sometimes I actually map out my path the previous night to kind of predict how long it's going to take me the next afternoon to drop my kid off at a soccer tournament or whatever. So very cool.

Miriam Daniel (31:33.55)
likely.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (31:41.696)
a mentor, you know, going through this process because there's several young remodeling contractors that listen to our podcast and I always like to ask my podcast guests if you've had a mentor and what value you got from having a mentor in your life.

Miriam Daniel (31:58.41)
Well, first of all, no question, everybody needs mentors and we actually also need advocates like sponsors as well. And it all, it doesn't matter how early you are in your career or middle career or late in your career, there's always useful advice and inspiration that you can get from folks around you. Early in my career, you know, mentors sort of just developed organically because of the kind of

discussions you have, the topical, you know, conversations, in the moment conversations, you know, so if I didn't actually go around and say, can you be my mentor, but you meet someone interesting, you know, and you have a conversation with them, it's you've realized that it's eye opening for you, or you realize that you learn something from them, then you might go back and have a few more conversations with them. That might be the start of a great mentoring relationship. And it's built up organically. And who knows?

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:27.334)
Thanks for watching!

Miriam Daniel (32:55.99)
what some of those mentors might actually become advocates and sponsors for you. They might actually recommend some business to you in the future, you know, through word of mouth, you know, by giving you a, you know, high rating and recommendation. So, you know, you don't know how these relationships will develop, but in other cases, let's say you're in a fix or in a fork in your road and you want to figure out if you have to go this way or that way in your career or with your business or, you know, how to grow your business. You know, sometimes when you're, when you feel like,

You don't know how to proceed. You know, just picking the phone and talking to some of your mentors might actually open things up for you. It might actually open up your mind to possibilities that you may not have considered otherwise. So anytime you're in a fix, you can now lean on them. It's not just for the good times, it's for the challenging times as well. So I've had a whole slew of mentors along the way and I continue to enjoy conversations with them, you know, even after 10, 15, 20 years.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (33:33.536)
Absolutely.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (33:54.658)
Amazing and do you mentor other people considering where you are in your career? Do you work with you know younger engineers? You know dreamers. Do you have the opportunity you're able to make the time to mentor other people?

Miriam Daniel (34:07.466)
Yeah, you just have to make that happen. I do mentor a lot of people both in work from my previous jobs. And I actually enjoy mentoring a lot of young people because my kids are actually, they went through high school, college, they're just entering the workforce. Having seen them go through that, I know how much support and guidance they needed. And a lot of others stepped in to help support and guide them and network with them.

So it's our opportunity to give back by working with other young people and helping them make a connection with somebody else, helping them find somebody to lean on based on what they're doing or a mutual area of interest or just having a conversation with them to expand their thinking. Anything you can do, small or big, is going to be useful. So this is something we all have to do to give back.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (35:01.586)
Excellent, good point. Another favorite question that I ask all my podcast guests is to speak about a book. A book that's your favorite, a book that you've enjoyed, a book perhaps that somebody gifted you or made a difference in your life. So share with me a book that you'd like to speak about.

Miriam Daniel (35:19.974)
Let me actually pick a book very recently. I shared with my team and it's actually a book that somebody else had given to me. It's called The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. And this was a book that resonated with me because, you know, by creating a great team culture, a collaborative team culture, a culture where everybody trusts each other, everybody's lifting each other up.

everybody's leaning on each other to do bigger and better things. If you can actually create that culture, your output is amplified, the team's output is amplified. You can do bigger and better things for your users. And so this is something that really resonated with me because I've been two years at Google now, and so I gifted it to all of my team members as well. And you now have a shared...

language that you can use, examples you can point to. Sometimes it's even warning signs. Remember, we read about that. So here's a warning sign. Let's try not to do that. And let's support each other. So this is a book that allows you to continuously improve the team culture and collaboration and trust.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (36:33.122)
Amazing, I think culture code can apply to anybody, whether you are a small contractor with a bunch of subcontractors and an admin and a small team, or you have seven sales advisors and you have a huge team, culture, and what everybody subscribes to and follows and believes in ultimately makes you be successful or not. So thank you, I can't wait to grab that book and read. This brings us to the end of our conversation. I've really enjoyed speaking to you

all of that exciting stuff that's coming up with Google and the neat tips and tricks for business owners, small business owners that can be found on Google Maps. So thanks again, Miriam, for your time.

Miriam Daniel (37:17.186)
Well, thank you so much. I will just say that it's been a real pleasure being here and the opportunity to actually focus in on what it means to small business owners. So thank you for having me here.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (37:31.674)
Thank you.