Making Remote Work, Work

Pagely is a distributed, location-independent company. We have employees around the globe, and while a chunk of our folks are in the Phoenix area, the majority live and work elsewhere.

It’s an amazing gift to be able to do your job from anywhere in the world. I chose to embrace the idea and take it to the extreme, working from 4 continents, 14 countries and 46 cities around the world over the past year.

Here’s the talk I gave at PressNomics 5, which distills the key lessons I’ve learned during the course of my truly remote year:

Slides here:

And I’ve included links to all the apps, products and sites I mentioned in the talk below.

Every situation is unique, but this foreign, nomadic remote working arrangement has worked particularly well in my situation. My monthly sales numbers are up 44% on average during my time abroad 70% year-over-year measured at the end of the program. The experience has yielded creative inspiration that enabled me to develop two game-changing systems for Pagely, and I’ve found a rejuvenated social life from the camaraderie of the folks traveling on this year-long adventure. Ultimately it’s been a sabbatical of sorts, but paradoxically, I’ve delivered some of my most valuable, productive work for our company.

I believe we’ll see this type of arrangement become more commonplace over time, in the same way that exchange programs in universities are now the norm rather than the exception. The win-win benefits for employees and employers alike are compelling. Programs like Remote Year (the one I’m currently on) are essentially nomadic working as a service, and make this type of working global adventure feasible.

I hope that by sharing the experiences and lessons above I can inspire people who are considering taking the leap to go for it. It’s hands-down the single best decision I’ve made in recent memory. You can read more about my experience in the feature that Remote Year recently ran. Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments below. And if you want to work with the Pagely family, we’re hiring.
UPDATE 1/1/18: I’ve gotten a number of inquiries on this subject since doing this talk and post and ended up creating this eCourse as a 14-day self-guided tutorial on everything involved in how to become a digital nomad. Hopefully you find this useful.
UPDATE 7/24/18: I’ve also launched a podcast aptly named Nomad Podcast that exposes conversations with nomads, founders and domain experts to demystify the art of location-independent work. Enjoy!

Products

Anker iPhone case/charger
Mophie power brick
La Cie Firewire/USB HD
TRX Suspension Trainer Mobile Gym

Apps

Cloak VPN iPhone | Android
BlaBlaCar iPhone | Android
Skip Lagged iPhone | Android
Hopper iPhone | Android
Sky Scanner iPhone | Android
Slack
Calendly
Uberconference
Zoom

Services

Hero Themes knowledge base software
ActiveCampaign (platform Leviathan is built on)
Draw.io flowcharting software