We all know that companies need to nail their marketing and customer service.

But what I didn’t realise was that marketing and service isn’t just something that companies need to do with their customers. They also need to do it with their staff.

This was a lesson I learned from Joseph Fallone, the 25th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers.

Joe owns an HR consultancy called Silver Lining HR, and has a lot of knowledge covering human resources, workplace relations, recruitment, training and compliance.

As Joe explained, companies need to constantly communicate with their employees – partly so everyone understands where the company is going and what its values are; and partly so everyone feels respected and that they can grow with the company.

Succeed with ‘internal PR’ and you have loyal, motivated staff; fail and you have high turnover and low productivity.

Besides being an entrepreneur, Joe is also a family man, who couldn’t resist whipping out his phone to show me photos of his two beautiful children.

Joe has great warmth and energy, which is probably why I felt so drawn to him. We’re planning to catch up again in 2020. I can’t wait.