Category: Remote Work

I like to travel solo and am very independent.  I love having experiences, overcoming the unexpected, challenging myself and figuring things out.

I also love that you meet random strangers who become friends in a very short period of time.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about community and just how important it is to curate.

StartupBus

I went on a week-long adventure on StartupBus.com.  I rode on a bus with 30 other people from NYC from New York to San Antonio, Texas.  We spent 3 days on the bus, building a startup.

I had been to Startup Weekends, LEAN Startup Machine, and every other startup event under the sun.  Plus, I love to travel.

So, I thought I had it figured out, easy trip.  But this was definitely not the same as any other event.

We were thrown under the bus a few times.  We needed to build a startup, in 72 hours, legit, no excuses.  Nobody could leave, nobody could back down.  After 2 hours of sleep, and in sweatpants, we unexpectedly pulled up to Georgia Tech, where we were called – in random order – to give our company pitches to a group of VCs, dressed in suits.

This is one of many examples of throwing our group into the unknown.  By the end, I had never felt more like family with my team.  We were under a lot of stress, running on no sleep, and we had our bouts, but I had grown close to my team, my bus, and our fearless leaders – our conductors.

I went in expecting a Startup Weekend.  I came out with a group of friends, people who were like me – crazy enough to ride a bus and build a startup.  I gained a group of lifelong friends on a 72 hour trip.

The illuminati of the startup world, experiencing trauma like military squadrons,

Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat.  In fact, I’m seeking it out, and I’m trying to create more experiences like that in my life.

StartupChile 

Prior to StartupBus, I went to Santiago, Chile, to give an Ignite Talk.  When I arrived, I had expected the same old routine of traveling solo.

But I hung out with generations 8 and 9 from StartupChile.  (I had applied for gen. 8 but got denied, but visiting my friends who got in).

At the ending party to celebrate the last class and welcome in the new, I felt a lump in my throat and a tear roll down my cheek as the coordinator from StartupChile started to get choked up in his speech. He said it was always so hard to say goodbye and that so many experiences and memories had ensued.

I felt it in the room.  I saw it in the friendships, the smiles, the hugs.   This was no easy goodbye.

It reminded me of my trip in Spain, when I was 20.  Then suddenly things that I had never put together before started making sense.

Spain 

My trip to Spain changed my life.  Not only were the intense challenges that I overcame and grew from life-changing, but I suddenly realized that it was the community that made my visit most worthwhile.

My 21st birthday was not spent barhopping and getting wasted in Wisconsin.  I was surrounded by a group of lifelong friends, in my favorite pub, and Happy Birthday was sung to me in 5 different languages.

Every night after classes my friends and I would go out to barrio Humedo and have a beer and talk about our experiences that day.  I never smiled so much, never felt happier or more at peace.  I looked forward to every moment I’d spend with them.

Leaving Spain was one of the saddest days of my life.  I’ll never forget the bus station, Jamie and Nina hugging each other for support as the bus rolled away – all of us with tears in our eyes.

When Mattias sent me a virtual beer months later while I was at work, it was much more than an email, it was an emotional hurricane.  The virtual beer was just a mechanism that rekindled that deep connection.  It affected me so much that it was the reason I built Beer2Buds.

It was too expensive to travel to Sweden, England, and Germany on a regular basis.  I wanted to never lose touch no matter how far apart we were.

I went back to Spain a year later, after finishing school and saving all my pennies.  But it wasn’t the same.  I walked the same streets, ate the same foods (mmm tortilla!), visited my old schools, and even had a beer in el Humedo.

It felt lonely.  I had a few friends there.  But that short period of time, with a blend of people in a similar situation, experiencing the same things at the same time, was the key to my experience.

In Chile, I bonded with the new and old class (primarily the new one) and even in my short 3 weeks my heart broke when going home.  My face hurt the last night from smiling and my feet from dancing, just from a spontaneous dinner meeting at a friend’s house – a friend who was a stranger only a week before and is now a lifelong friend.

In Summary: 

Mutually parallel experiences bond people in ways that will never happen otherwise.  And having the right mix of people can change the way you see the world.

Someone asked me once “how do you get your sense of community”.  For years this question haunted me – I had no good answer.

Now I believe I do.  I find like-minded people and curate life-changing experiences, particularly related to travel.   This makes me feel whole with a sense of belonging.

What about you – how do you get your sense of community from your world?

“Growth hacking” is a technical term for customer development. Essentially, it involves figuring out what your customer wants without ever having to talk to or interact with them.  How?

By using tools like Optimizely, Google Analytics,  and KISS Metrics, you’re able to learn more about your customer based on a specific set of metrics. These types of programs allow you to discover their likes, dislikes, and interests solely by monitoring their Internet usage and what sites they frequent most.

So, what’s the problem with customer development via growth hacking?

The Problem with Growth Hacking

You can’t growth hack your way into your customer’s mind.  Sure, you may gain a little understanding about them thanks to the software program, but your growth will be faster if you actually keep a finger on the pulse of your customers. How do you do this? By having real conversations with them.

The software developers responsible for creating these types of programs are partially to blame. I’m not saying that they are schmucks, but not all of these growth hackers are worth the beaucoup bucks they’re generally paid.

A large number of software developers (and non-savvy business developers) have the illusion that “if they build it, they will come.” In this case, the second “they” refers to the customers who they expect will adore everything they do and flock to their software simply because it exists.

In all fairness, this way of thinking is not entirely their fault. We fawn over stories of icons such as Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook and dream of being that one in a billion.

However, overvaluing software developers and undervaluing business developers can give software developers a giant ego and false sense of worth. Unfortunately, it is this inflated ego that can drive them to quit projects midway through to pursue their own passions. And, why not? They can, right?

While it’s great for anyone to follow their passion, this is bad luck in these types of situations. Plus, it’s just awful for the teams they leave behind.

Growth Hacking Can Be Good…Within Reason

Personally, I love the concept of growth hacking. In fact, by definition I am a growth hacker. But I also know that you cannot – 100% cannot – grow your company without getting to know your customer face-to-face.

For instance, consider the concepts behind Lean methodology which forces you to GOOTB (Get-Out-Of-The-Building) and talk to your customers. It’s so much better! Why?

It makes your potential customers part of the growth process so you become customer-centric. When you follow Lean methodology, you are constantly putting your product or service in front of them to test their response, giving you immediate feedback that is essential to your growth power.

One way to do this is by signing up for Lean Startup Machine. This is a three-day course designed to teach you the process by which you can learn enough about your customer base to make your business more successful.

When it comes to Lean methodology versus growth hacking, Lean methodology wins every time!

Customers Aren’t Numbers

Customers aren’t just numbers.  They have a voice.  So, hiding behind the numbers and hacking away at code, pretending that you’re staring at a matrix screen that somehow tells you all you need to know about your customer… that’s all bunk.

Your front end sales people have the pulse on your company.  Your business development people actually know what your customers are saying – and they’re worth listening to.

That’s why I believe that growth hacking is seriously overrated and may, in fact, be one of the worst effects of modern tech culture.

What’s your opinion on growth hacking? Do you find it helpful or not? We’d love to know your thoughts!

Today I received a fax with a 12 month lease and deposit for my rental in Seattle. After 2 months of being vacant and going through 30+ inquires and applications, the house is finally rented. All done from New York City.

This is a topic I’ve always wanted to write about. I’ve always wanted to have my own place to call ‘home’, a place to rest my stuff when traveling.

Here, in Seattle, I bought a house and I’ve been renting it out for the past 6 years. I had two houses, but sold one as I downgraded to 4 boxes. But after learning about the housing market, and having refinanced to an interest-only loan that was just at the end of its 3 year pre-payment penalty, I realized that I would have to sell the first house.

The second one, the one in the picture, I remodeled and turned into two full living spaces with separate entrances. I’ve discovered that you need to have coverage of at least 25% in order to break even from maintenance, vacancies, and so on.

Becoming a virtual landlord isn’t easy, but it’s doable—from anywhere in the world.

Before leaving Seattle for NYC, I filmed a video tour of the house and put it on YouTube. When prospective tenants would call, I’d send essentially the same template that would include:

• More information on house, deposit, neighborhood, etc
• Pet deposit (if applicable)
• Asking the prospective tenant’s current living situation, number of total tenants in consideration, when they were looking to move, and what they did for income
• A link to the YouTube video
• Scheduling tools for setting up a time/day for a viewing
• A link to my Google Voice number (if I were posting from Chile, I would still have a US number and able to take/return calls (see previous post))

I purposefully hid a key before I left. After qualifying the tenant and arranging a day/time to meet (and after I’d send the video so they were able to see if they liked it before either of us would waste any more time), I would then send them to the house and tell them I had a friend place the key and that they would be by, but not until after their set time.

Finally, after several potential tenants and one guy falling through (not once but twice), I got the signed lease faxed today to my Ring Central number. Done!

There were a few hurdles along the way, such as a friend going over to open the house and accidentally locking all doors which locked out the potential tenants when they arrived for their scheduled visit. Then there was the time my sister and her new husband crashing at the house and locking the key inside —I had to make key copies made and overnight to Seattle. But other than those snafus, it all worked out. I’m able to enjoy my time in NYC with the peace of mind of my house being rented. Totally worth it.

Ditch your cell phone! Your cell phone plan, that is. (Pay attention AT&T, the world is getting even more connected)

One of the most challenging things about traveling is avoiding international roaming on your cell phone. Why can’t the phone companies all just get along? As soon as I cross the border from Seattle to Vancouver, I’m be forced onto another cell network and forced to pay double the price.

I’ve been starting to use my Google Voice number more often, which uses a Seattle-based area code. It’s currently forwarding to my cell phone, but it takes a message and sends me an e-mail if I’m not available.

I open the Google Voice app on my phone or via web browser and find the voicemail has been transcribed to text!  It’s not 100% accurate, but I get the gist.  If I want to hear the message, I just hit the play button.

Pretty great stuff! It means I no longer have to pay an expensive telephone bill.  But Google Voice only lets you forward to another US number. What if I’m out of the country and I can’t forward to my cell phone?

The best solution I’ve found, if you want to be “in the office” and not force someone to leave a voicemail, is to purchase a Skype online phone number. For $60/year and 2 cents/minute, I can be making and receiving phone calls to and from any US number from my own US Skype number.

Even for business lines at Beer2Buds, we use RingCentral. RingCentral allows you to get a toll free number and fax for $100/year. You can forward your number and/or any extension to a cell phone, Google Voice or Skype number.

My last AT&T phone bill was nearly $200. For around the same price, even though it’s less convenient (you need Wifi), I carry around a Clear modem for when I need to contact someone. Even if there’s no wireless but there is 3g/4g, you can still be “connected.”

Oh and I almost forgot to mention—SMS is such an integral part of my business life. With Google Voice, you can also send AND receive text messages! And you don’t pay $19.99/month like you will with AT&T.

This is a text message I got today that popped up on my phone from Google Voice.

The world is becoming more connected. The cell phone giants will have to start playing fair or the growing VoIP services of the world will be the dominant players, which is already starting to happen.

Because everything I do has completely morphed to online.  I haven’t lost a file, thanks to Dropbox, and with Google Apps have been able to:

• Create and Share Company Documents
• Maintain and Share Spreadsheets
• Create a mini-CRM system
• Connect a Domain Name from GoDaddy and create company email account
• Use Google Sites to create company wiki pages to manage daily operations manuals, sales sheets and employees, human resource and legal documents, and the list goes on and on

Google Apps makes it possible for you to truly run your business from anywhere.  I use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to create documents sometimes, but as often as I can and especially for collaboration, I’ll use Google Apps.  I post my MS docs, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoints into my Google Site wikis.

When traveling, from any computer, you can be instantly working and collaborating online.  I’ve tested this in Argentina, Hungary, Costa Rica, and all over the US.  By slowly switching everything over to Google Apps and Dropbox, your files will be completely mobile!

About two years ago I was introduced to two file sharing services have that saved my life: Box.net and Dropbox.com (formerly GetDropbox). As a traveler, I’ve had to deal with countless number of files lost after computers hard drives simply crashed. If it wasn’t that, I had to deal with laptops being stolen, or even external hard drives going bad (or, honestly, going out of date!) Then I found Dropbox.

Dropbox is a service that allows you to store your files online.  I pay for their 50 gig service, which runs me only about $100 a year. Much better than having to replace laptops and external storage drives, and I never have to worry about anything going out of date.

Best of all, with Dropbox, you can synchronize your folders online with your local folders. It’s a seamless experience!  You use your folders like you normally would, then when you connect to the Internet everything syncs  up to the server and stored automatically.  If your laptop is stolen, as mine was, you can en-sync that computer just by going onto the website.

Why wasn’t this invented sooner? It’s breath of fresh air! You can get Dropbox here—you’ll be helping me out by giving me extra storage if you sign up using my link, and you get more than the average amount of space for accepting my invite. Another reason to love Dropbox—a great affiliate program.

Box.net is another great service I use, but it’s less suitable for the independent traveler and more so for the corporate group looking to share files.  There’s no desktop component (as of this writing).  The biggest plus to using Box.net, in my opinion, are its easily shareable links to files.  As a company, we store information both on Dropbox and Box.net. Both handle information in a way that is accessible, editable and secure. We can even share the information with others we work with outside of the company.

The shift to mobile file storage makes it possible to be working from a desktop computer in an internet cafe in Argentina, from your iPhone in NYC, or your laptop in Seattle… and stay on top of it all. It’s so important to have a virtual file system in place!

What are your favorite tools to use to manage files while traveling?

As I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires, meandering nonchalantly like a fly in winter, I thought about the concept of productivity and temperature. Specifically, their correlation.

Why is it that cities that have seasons or are in colder temperatures tend to be larger, have more companies, more business, and more wealth?

But if the summer heat slowed me down so much, then my theory about different seasons didn’t hold. Then I thought about air conditioning. I decided to look up the effect on temperature and productivity, to which I found a lot of information.

For example 1/3 of participants in a CareerBuilder survey said their productivity was affected by temperature. If an office is too hot or too cold, it’s practically impossible to concentrate. I found the same when traveling in Central America. Even if the WiFi was working, all you could think of was the beach and fast-melting ice cream.

Below is a productivity graph from productivity-science.com.

“As you can see, the productivity changes significantly and highest performance achieved in relatively short peak between 70° F (21° C) and  73° (23° C). Outside 63° F (17° C) and 82° F (28° C) temperature range the productivity decreases more than 5% and significantly impacts on workers ability to work and even can influence health”

This makes sense now, as I searched for a place with air conditioning to help dry my sweat and allow me to concentrate. So I were in the perfect temperature all along…

Trying to pack can be one of the hardest things to plan, especially if you’ll be gone for several months and through changing seasons or across several different climates.

To save you a few hair-pulling hours, here are some of the basic necessities.

The more creative you can be, the fewer situations you’ll find yourself in where you cannot find a way out.  Be creative, have patience, be resilient, and try to experience both the good and the bad with a smile on your face.

Onto the list….

Must-Haves / Necessities:

Do not leave home without these!

1. Extra cash and credit card in your carry on.

Cash – $120-$150.  $20 each way to/from airport.  $100 spending money for snacks and incidentals.

2. Passport

3. ID

4. Credit card

5. Credit card backup

6. Debit card

Note: Some ATMs around the world will not let you take cash out using a credit card, even if you have a PIN number.

7. Digital photocopy of your passport

8. Digital photocopy of your ID

9. Secure site or location on the cloud to store your photocopies and credit card numbers

10. Change of clothes in your carry on

With the items above, you can assure you won’t get stranded.

Tip: Separate your card from your backup card and your ID from your passport.  This way, if one of your bags is stolen or you happen to get mugged (not likely but just in case), then you’ll have some sort of backup and you’ll spend less time looking for help.

Tip:  I would also carry an extra set of clothes in your CARRY ON if you have room.  Even just something light, like underwear and a t-shirt.  Don’t forget toothbrush, wet wipes, and deodorant too!  This way, you can take a “shower” (wet wipes) if you get stuck on an unexpected layover and deodorant ensures you’ll still have friends.  You can also purchase what you forgot with your spare cash.

Clothes:

1. Underwear – enough for 1-2 weeks
2. Socks – 6 pair
3. Flip flops – 1 pair (optional shower pair also)
4. Tennis shoes / walking shoes – 1 pair
5. Dress shoes – 1 pair (optional)
6. Jeans – 1 pair Pants – 1 pair
7. Shorts/Capris – 2 pair
8. T-shirts – 3
9. Tank top – 2
10. Long tops – 2 (best if these can go over the tank tops, good to pack layers to put on and undo)

Tip: Cut out anything and everything that you can.  Bring the basics and you can buy the rest if needed – purchases while traveling double as great souvenirs.  Study the season(s) beforehand.  Is it cold at night?  How do they dress?  Will you be doing hiking? If you are in a very hot climate, you won’t need much at all.  If it is temperate during the day but chilly at night, pack smart layers.

Technology:

1. Travel laptop

Tip: If you’re working, I would recommend a travel laptop.  If you want to save weight/space and travel free of worry, I would rely on trusty, cheap Internet cafes.

As of this first writing, I was using an Acer netbook.  Then, I traveled with an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard.  For the past 3 years I’ve been using a MacBook Air.  The key is light and functional.  That will depend on you and how much you need to work while traveling.  I recommend a 11 or 13 inch Mac Air.

2. Pocket-sized camera + camera card

Tip:  If you aren’t working on a photo or film project, why not just get the practical, cheap camera that you wouldn’t cry over losing?  I sold my two nice Canon cameras and bought a Canon SD-110.  I don’t have to worry if it’s lost or stolen and I back my pictures up regularly online.

3. Smartphone

The smartphone doubles as a camera, so save on the space if you can.  I always travel with my unlocked iPhone.

Tip: Back up your phone and laptop regularly.  Technology can be replaced; photos and memories cannot.

4. Mi-Fi / Mobile Hotspot

With your unlocked smartphone, you can get a local or International SIM card with a data plan.  But, you can also get an unlocked hotspot that will allow you to have a multi-connection, speedier, mobile Internet hotspot without draining your mobile phone battery.

Toiletries / Other:

1. One bar of soap in shower-friendly container
2. Shampoo/conditioner combo in small bottles
3. Toothbrush with cap, small toothpaste tube
4. Razor(s)
5. Makeup – only necessities
6. Towel – microfiber towels are light, easy to travel with and dry quickly

Remember: You can always buy more when you run out.  Travelers are also great at helping out if you are in a pinch.  It’s tempting to load your bag with innovative travel kit accoutrements, but it’s even more fun to go to the store to find what you need in a foreign country and you’ll be happy you’re carrying less!

Well, this is my list.  I would love to see your list.  What am I missing?  What can you not live without?