Luis:
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Distant Job podcast, your podcast about building and leaving awesome remote teams. I am your host, as usual, Luis. And today I have on the show as my guest, Nadia Harris. Nadia is the founder of Remoteworkadvocate.com and an international remote and hybrid work expert. Nadia, welcome to the show.
Nadia:
Thank you, thank you. It’s an amazing pleasure being here. And yes, thank you for sharing. Remote and hybrid, not that obvious, but one thing in common, definitely flexible.
Luis:
Yeah, exactly. Tell me and the listeners a little bit about yourself. Right? My intro was far from exhaustive. Right. There’s a lot more things that you do, so please tell us a little bit about that.
Nadia:
Absolutely. Thank you. So, yes, as you know, I’m the founder of remoteworkadvocate.com. I call it the go to place for companies and individuals that are willing to embrace the era of flexible working. And that means I work both with businesses, mostly with businesses in terms of making flexible working. So remote or hybrid working, a scalable business model. Right. And when we talk about it, it’s everything related to basically processes, procedures, communication tools, the legal perspective as well. I specialize in that now different hot topics, working abroad, misclassifications employment contractors. And in terms of individuals, I have also launched an online course for them because everyone these days wants to have a remote job. So now how do we get it done in the end of the day? So I also try to help spread the joy and glory of remote working all around the world, wherever I can.
Luis:
Nice. That is a good mission. Thank you for doing that. I try to do the same. And the more of us, the better. Right? So, yeah, how did it start? When did you have your first remote work experience and how has it led to this? Right. I like to ask how remote work has affected people’s career trajectory. Clearly your career trajectory was massively influenced by remote work.
Nadia:
Yes. So if there was no remote work, there wouldn’t be me professionally and I’m being very transparent about it. I owe everything to remote work and I would say, so why remote work? I think that before I figured out that I am a nonconformist and I didn’t think what it was. I already was one since I think, my early years. And so in 2015, it was actually a nice coincidence because at that time I lived in the States and I was looking for a job at that time. And so not knowing what I really am going to do, maybe let’s go back. I was actually a lawyer before that, trained lawyer. Then I decided maybe I want to be a little bit more global, this and that. So then in the States, I decided to look for something because I speak different languages. I started sending out my CV everywhere, wherever, no control over where I’m sending it.
Luis:
What are your languages? Just as a curiosity?
Nadia:
Oh, yeah. So English, well, what a no brainer? I speak English, everyone. Yes. I speak German, I speak Polish, I speak French and I speak yeah, it’s a Congo. Gives you a headache sometimes.
Luis:
Is that just an obvious of yours, right, learning?
Nadia:
I’m a multicultural child, so I am partially American, partially German and partially Polish. And French and Russian were the only languages that I’ve learned from scratch, so to say, because I knew all other three, right? So that was no challenge, even at school. So I had to do something challenging. So that’s why I speak.
Luis:
That’s awesome. Look, sorry for going on a tangent, but this show is tangent. This is tangent show. Right. And I always tell people that what really impacted my career trajectory was just the fact that I’m bilingual, right? It was the fact that because I’m born in Portugal, raised in Portugal, but I spoke English from a very early age and that’s why it opened all the doors for me, right? I would not be doing remote work if it was not for being bilingual. And so I do think that one of the best career moves that you can do is one if English is not your native language, get as close to native proficiency as you can, because for now and for the foreseeable future, english is the lingua franca of the world, right? And then branch out, the more the better, because to me, language has opened more doors than skills. It’s just easier to pick the needed skills as you go along than to pick the language. So that’s my attention. Please continue.
Nadia:
I just want to say 100% agree. I mean, I can’t even agree more. So although didn’t know what I really wanted to do back then, I knew what I didn’t want, and I didn’t want to be stuck in a box where everything is too predictable. And then so it was a coincidence I was applying everywhere and I still got an office job back then where I thought something was wrong with me. Turns out it was wrong with the system. But I also got a remote job that I thought was a scam in the very first beginning. Yeah, I was hired. Well, no surprise. Taken into account the language facts that you now know about me as a life interpreter in California, remotely. So suddenly I started working with people all around the world, non English speakers, but people who spoke all the languages that I’ve just mentioned in all kinds of scenarios. And in the beginning, I thought, well, you can’t really make money on that. It’s not an office job. It has to be kind of super stable and everything. And I thought, well, with time, I very quickly came to knowledge that, well, you can actually make more money on side hustles like that than you would make on your full time job. That was a big price. And then with time, I thought, well, if I pulled this off once and I’ve had this for a really long time until today, I do some gigs. They say that if you switch from language to language, you lower the possibility of having dementia when you’re old. So I’m really very cautious about that. So I still jumped. That’s the reason. But anyway, what I’m willing to say is that I thought, okay, you pulled it up once that you’re completely location independent, you’re going to do it again. And I did it again, as a matter of fact. And I had set up different profiles on platforms for freelancers. And then I started working in the field of HR very naturally, I think because of already being in the business environment and already because of the languages, hiring people all around the world, looking for people in different locations, relocating them this and that. And then it kind of clicked in my head, and I thought, well, why are all these companies relocating the people? Like, what the hell? Why do they have software companies, ecommerce, that are providing services to customers remotely? So what the hell is wrong here? And then I got sucked into, if I can call it this way, the remote world. And not to this extent that I am not even able today to imagine a different reality. I mean, I know it exists, and some people are biased and they don’t understand what remote is. But for me, it’s everything. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a career. It’s the possibility of having clients. Now, currently in Africa, in Namibia, I have clients in Switzerland, I have a client in India, in the States, in Belgium, in Germany. This is completely crazy. It would have never happened if it wasn’t for the remote reality.
Luis:
Exactly. So I want to go a bit deeper in that situation. You said that you wouldn’t exist professionally, right, if it wasn’t for remote work. Right. What was the alternative? You said the office work didn’t work. Right. And that remote work, in a way well, maybe save you is a strong word, but it’s kind of what it feels like. I feel a strong kinship to that because that was definitely similar to what happened to me, where I’m classically trained as a dental surgeon, right? And I was having fun being a dental I was having fun being a dental surgeon. Making a decent amount of money and surgery still is fun for me. But I was getting really depressed just being stuck in a cubicle for 8 hours a day or sometimes more, because dentists and dental surgeons and doctors in general work late, right? So it was rewarding professionally, but it wasn’t a lifestyle that I felt that I could keep up for much longer. So I started branching out and writing during writing gigs, right? And those were online, of course. And eventually that’s transitioned to full time remote work. So I definitely feel a bit like, tell me the story, if you can, about how you figured out that the office is not the place for you.
Nadia:
Sometimes you may feel lost and you may not know, as I’ve said, what you want, but you will know what you don’t want. And so, again, I know that there are people who may listen to this and say, like, well, but it’s my dream to have a nine to five job, something that I was trained for ten or 15 years, and she’s crazy. That’s what they will say about me. And I’m fine. I just want to say upfront, I’m not judging anyone. I have intro like this before I say what I’m going to say. So I’m totally fine. People are different. Everyone has a choice, and that’s it. But now about me. So I graduated from law school. I started getting ready for my bar exam, and I started like a training, a professional training to be an attorney and everything. And then I remember I was thinking, okay, so what’s next? I did not really see myself in a huge international corporation because there would need to be an office primarily for me in a really big city, in one of the European cities. I lived at that time in Europe, so that would mean relocation fully where I was married at that time as well. My husband also had a career in one certain country, so it wasn’t like, let’s burn all bridges because this is what I want right now. That would be ridiculous. Plus, it’s the unknown. So I knew either I go if I want to work with people all around the world and use all the languages, I have to start climbing the corporate ladder, I have to relocate, okay? And I have to start very small with a really low amount of money, which was already the problem because I was doing five gigs and making more than my colleagues on other things than just being, like, a lawyer in a corporation to start with. Okay, so that was a clash here. So I wanted to travel, go here, there. But here you have to sacrifice that. You have to say, no, we are moving to a big city, renting, like a small room, whatever, and we’ll just make it work. Starting from scratch. Having this nine to five mindset, because it’s the only opportunity. The second option that I had was like, okay, go get this done, get my license, and then have my own boutique, local boutique law firm. And then I thought, if this is something I am supposed to do for the rest of my life, I lost my purpose immediately. I cannot do this. I cannot imagine to drive 15 or 20 minutes to my own practice where I will have situations around me that won’t inspire me. I need inspiration, I need cultures, I need people, I need diversity, things like that. Something that challenges surrounding everything. So both options were, like, made me quite unhappy. Also knowing today I’m back in the remote work law field. But that is something that didn’t exist back then. It wasn’t, right? Exactly. So I knew very corporate. Right? And then I’m also a very creative person. You said you like writing and you started I love writing. I write articles all the time for my blog. I produce things. I produce content. I like to ask the question Why? And keep challenging myself, challenging others. Why is it this way? Why not a different way? And as I’ve said in the beginning, I’ve always been a nonconformist. So I thought, well, it was a hard decision. And everyone looked at me like I was completely crazy and I lost my mind. But I was one year. Yeah, I’m not kidding.
Luis:
And I’m familiar with that.
Nadia:
Exactly. So you’ll understand, right? It’s not that common for someone to get a license to actually be an attorney or someone who’s, like you said, dental surgeon, to suddenly say like, no, but that’s what I want. So it is for the environment. Kind of like she lost her mind or you lost your mind. And so I kind of burned almost all bridges. And I said, no, this is not what I’m going to do. One life. I’m going to try. Although my family is partially American, as I’ve mentioned, I didn’t tell anyone. That’s the fun part. And I bought a one way ticket to New York. No kidding. And my husband, he took a sabbatical at that year, and also he’s like, okay, let’s see. You really want to see what’s going to happen? Let’s make it work. I had no bloody idea what’s going to happen. I thought, I want to travel. I want to live there for a while as well. Let’s go see how we make it work. If I like it, we’ll figure something out. Let’s just travel. Let’s just check it out. Let’s see what happens. And then it happened. And that changed my life totally. We moved back to Europe because my husband also had a career here, as I’ve mentioned, not in the States, and that’s fine, but with zero sacrifice from my perspective and actually being able to build my professional profile and career from scratch. And then throughout time, I said, I started in talent acquisition, HR. I did an MBA in a hybrid way in Massachusetts, in the States. Look, hybrid. This is ridiculous. I would have to live there again, relocate and say like, no, I have to move. What, am I going to get divorced? Or what the hell am I supposed to do? I want to study there. I could do it. Hybrid. So this I did then I did my LLM degree in law, also remotely. And I started working with companies all around the world. I built my website. Finally, in 2018, I launched my own brand. Before, I didn’t have a brand so I was kind of in the shadows already, knowing how the system works, knowing how to apply, knowing how to monetize my skills. And then I launched my personal brand saying I want to get out of the shadows and here I am. So it’s everything to me. You must understand.
Luis:
Of course, it was pretty good timing, 2018, pretty good timing to launch a website making remote work work, right?
Nadia:
Yes, I heard proactively ultra spoiler. I had no clue about the pandemic.
Luis:
No, exactly. We’re not looking to point fingers here, right? Very unlikely. Very unlikely. Yeah. Pandemic hits us all hard, right, in different ways, right? Mostly personal and family wise and any, et cetera. But if there’s a silver lining, the silver lining was for remote work. Now, in a world that’s being increasingly remote, and listeners should know that we’re saying this three weeks ahead of the running remote conference, which we are both attending, right, and meeting remote people in person, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because even the most ardent supporters of remote work enjoy hanging out in person, right? Remote work doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy hanging out in person. But a lot of people that are starting on this career path now, like I did years ago, it was 2017 for me, right? You it was before that. But you got the website established in 2018. A lot of them are wondering, how do I do this? How do I find my clients? How do I find my community? How do I find my people without being in a physical location? So when you say that you have clients in Africa, clients in Switzerland, et cetera, how do you go about showcasing your talents to people from so many different locations?
Nadia:
So the first thing is, if you don’t put yourself out there and you don’t start showing value, no one will know that you exist. This is the first thing. I know that there have been quite several opinions in the past that, oh, if I show too much good content, for example, or examples of things, how some, I don’t know, policies or things can be structured that people should pay for this, never give too much value. I don’t agree with this. I try to make tons of stuff free, accessible for people. And in addition to that, what I also do, and this is something that changed with time. Because in the beginning, you see, I wanted to be a person who is just accurate, just accurate for everyone, for every environment, how I dress, how I look, how I speak, how I whatever. And trying to be like, maybe I didn’t have like a target group. In the end of the day, I thought, okay, is it going to be corporate? Is it going to be startups? I didn’t know that. But then with time, I stopped thinking about how do I fit in? But I was like, forget it all. I’m not going to fit in at all. I’m just going to be myself. You take me as I am with the expertise. So to the content that I started producing, both the videos, podcasts, well, my book, my articles, everything that I do, and all the products and all the courses, I was just myself. So except of sharing all the knowledge and producing tons of materials and putting to life all the cases that I have delivered in the past, also. So sharing obviously not saying this client was bad or this client was good, but giving examples of real life situations that people identify with, trying to be authentic as possible. And in addition to that, I would say adding the credibility of who I am because in the beginning I heard, okay, like your personal lifestyle, whatever, is a completely separate thing from business life. And we know this from the corporate world. You put on a mask, a uniform, uniform, a suit, and here you are. Right? No, like, you have kind of almost have two personalities in one ridiculous. And I thought at one stage, I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m a normal human being. I like traveling. I like, I don’t know, a dress or whatsoever. And I don’t care. And this is me today trying at the same time to be professional. So if I was to advise to someone, I would say, try to think of the skills that you can monetize something that you’re good at. It’s not about and I speak with many people who tell me, all right, do you think I should attend another course or another school or another degree or whatever? I’m like, no, I’m not don’t get educated, because that would be too much. Of course get educated. But first you have to start producing something based on the skills that you have. Something tangible, something that can be monetized, something that adds value. It can be anything in the world. It can be the simplest thing in the world. But think about it, tons of money and be super rich and travel the world. If you know how to do it, tell me because I’m not there yet.
Luis:
Just a second, please. I’m going to make a note here because there was a cut, I don’t know in his connection, right? So can you please go a bit back and restart from the place where you said that the product that you generate can be anything, can be even the smallest thing.
Nadia:
So the thing that you generate can be anything based on your skills. Think of the skills that you have and how you can monetize them. It can be the simplest thing that you can imagine. But literally think about what adds value, what can help others. Like, what can I really do rather than kind of postponing this in time? Like, I will do it when I get another degree. I will do it when I get more knowledge. There is no good moment to begin. When I look at my beginnings, how I started, I want to delete everything, like, right away. Trust me. No kidding. You have to start with something.
Luis:
I was good at video games, right? During university, while I was having my formal education, I wanted to play video games, but I couldn’t afford it because taking a medicine course is expensive. So I wrote for video game websites, right? And I got free video games out of it. A lot of them, actually. To this day, I still have a room full of old video games. And then fast forward ten years when I decided that I wanted to have a remote job, what I knew what I could offer was that, right? I started writing at a ridiculous low price. I think I was earning something like $50 for 1000 words writing strategy guides for online card games, right? So it was definitely not glamorous, but it was something that’s how I started learning the ropes of making a living online. That’s it.
Nadia:
You know what? That reminds me of my story pre 2015. I was always a person who liked inspiring places and great food and so on. Obviously, I couldn’t afford to go to expensive restaurants to eat, like, expensive food. So what I thought I can do, because of the languages, I am going to translate your menus that you have for free. If you give me vouchers for food. No kidding, I would go to the.
Luis:
Most expensive, literally working for food.
Nadia:
Yes. But I thought like, oh, it’s Sunday. Let’s just dress up whatever best I have at home and go to this extremely expensive restaurant and eat for free because I have a voucher, right?
Luis:
Yeah. That’s great. That is so cool. Yes. But I totally understand what you’re saying, and on the education part, absolutely get an education. But I would say that you should be cautious because there’s a lot of people there that are making courses that are totally not qualified for that. Right. As a writer, I usually say to my fellow starting writers that want there are people out there hawking $1,000 and $1,500 master classes on writing. And my advice to them is you should learn writing from a writer. And the way writers teach is by writing books. So if you want to be a writer, get a book about writing. It cost you five to $10, and you’ll probably get more out of it than from a video course that’s $1,500. So be cautious. Instead, look for people who have actually made it. Right? Let’s say that you want to become online, fully remote lawyer, right? Then you probably want the course from someone that is acting as an online, fully remote liar and that does the course. And decide instead of going to a platform full of courses and picking something that has, like, lots of five star reviews that they probably bought on ebay for $100 and something like that. The educational piece is very important and I feel that the public service announcement is important to make that when you get education, do your due diligence and get the education from someone that has achieved at least some measure of what you’re after because otherwise you’re not guaranteed to be having quality info.
Nadia:
I completely agree. And I think the reason for people still doing it the other way around is this kind of number one, maybe insecurity, but then kind of thinking, what is going to increase my chances to succeed? Because I’m so afraid and I trick myself into believing that I’m doing something to get closer to my goal, but I don’t focus on the priorities at all. That’s true. Right? And the thing is that in the beginning you can fail. I mean, how many clients have I spoken with? How much time have I dedicated so that they never responded to me in the end of the day, some of them I had trouble to getting paid, to get paid in the end of the day, of course, that’s the way it was. And I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t or I accepted gigs that today I was like, were you out of your mind? Or on upwork where I had to back then build my profile. I’m not there now, so I just recommend no one should look at me. But back then it was something. So I would do gigs for 510, $15. That would take me several minutes just to get a good opinion at five star. Because I knew the more five stars I have, the higher the possibility that someone then will reach out to me. And it happened. I remember once it happened, I think I did several for $5715. I was like, why am I even doing this? It doesn’t bring me any money. I have to build up my professional expertise and have some testimonials that I am actually qualified to do something. And then right away, suddenly I remember several months after months, I mean, three, four months later, I think I got an offer back then that was a translation thing. It was again in 20, 15, 16, offering me $2,000 for something that I knew I would spend 7 hours on. And I was like, this is the golden ticket. Like, what the hell? And I did it. And that was my reward.
Luis:
These days, people these days, right? It’s been like 27. Yeah. Wow, it’s been a long time. I feel old now in seven years, right? And people ask me, how do you become director of marketing, right? Fully online, fully remote, fully remote director of marketing. And I’m like, well, you start as an underpaid freelance writer. That’s how you do, right? That people talk about overnight success and say, oh, I want to do this, I want to do that. Maybe you can look out, maybe you can look into finding something that’s exactly your dream job and your dream pay and et cetera, out of the gate. But more likely, you’re going to have to start, if not from scratch, from kind of close to scratch. That’s just how the world works. You pay your dues in office or remotely. There’s no freelancers, right?
Nadia:
100%. And if someone doesn’t want to, you don’t want to abandon everything that you have. That’s what gigs are for. 100%. You don’t have to say, as of tomorrow, I’m quitting all my jobs. I am ready to have no money for food. Don’t do it. Start.
Luis:
Probably a bad idea. Probably a bad idea, right? Yeah.
Nadia:
Okay.
Luis:
So I want to ask you a bit about what does your work method, work life look like? What is your daily work experience, or maybe weekly, if no day is quite the same? What does your virtual office look like? And by virtual office, I mean the browser tabs that are open as soon as you open your browser. The app that auto start when you open your laptop. What is your work environment? Integration.
Nadia:
So that is natural if you are also in a position like me, that I have several engagements that I work on, obviously. So that’s what I’ve chosen. So my days differ based on where I am, if I am literally working from home or from the location where I normally live. My daily routine is different than it is when I travel, because I also travel. I call myself a part time digital nomad, because I do have a place of residence where I stay and I have a home. I have a bed that I won’t give away for any money in the world. I need to sleep there. That makes me very happy. Yeah, exactly. When I am at home working from the place where I live, so to say, then my routine is pretty straightforward. I am not an early bird. I don’t wake up at 06:00 in the morning unless I have to, because it’s urgent. And I know that because of the time zones. For example, once I did a completely crazy thing. I was working with a company in Australia, so I had to be ready for a meeting at 530 in the morning, my time. Good luck. Yeah. It didn’t last too long, but I knew I had to do it, so that was one thing. But normally, no, I start about 910 o’clock in the morning. 910 o’clock in the morning, before it would be very unproductive. I fall asleep. Exactly. And so I open my laptop. Sometimes I go to the gym. Sometimes I start with the gym at 08:00 in the morning. Obviously. I eat breakfast.
Luis:
Whatever.
Nadia:
I open my laptop and there I usually have tons of things open in my browser that I think are super important or were super important the day before. But when I wake up and in the morning I look at them, I have no idea what. They are about anymore. So I most probably close them and start from scratch just to be in the same situation on the next day, you know what I mean? Exactly. So this is what’s happening in terms of the apps that I use on a daily basis, there are different ones. So I work with two infrastructures. Mostly it’s the Google infrastructure and all Google products because most of my clients work on it as well. However, I also have some clients who use Microsoft. So then obviously teams OneDrive and so on, I have that too. So I have both. That being said, I obviously use Slack as well on a daily basis, like all the time. What else do I have open? So yes, so Gmail, Slack, Spotify, I have to I can’t live without it. It’s like a working tool. Of course. Obviously, I have zoom. I have teams open here. I have an app called Crisp that I sometimes use when I go to a cafe. Because when I feel uninspired at home and it happens a lot that you have the same surrounding, I’m like no, I’m just not going to work here. Exactly. What’s going to happen? After our recording, I’m going to a cafe that is really nice with French music. Everything is made out of wood and the people are very nice and friendly. I will work from there. But if I have a call and I know that I will, I will switch on the software that mutes my background noise. Yeah, and then in the evening, usually I finish working at about 08:00 at night, sometimes at four, sometimes at five. See, the thing is that when I have a client in the States, that also happens. Then I would have a call in the Pacific Standard Time Zone then, because I’m in Europe, I would have a call with them at 09:00 at night. Sometimes they have to go the extra mile. But it’s up to me, I’m on a full flexible schedule. So whenever I feel like taking a break for 4 hours during the day, I can do it. Why not? But then I know that I have to make it up. And sometimes I will also work during the weekends just because, for example, I’m like I’m just not going to work on Friday because I go to the, I don’t know, hairdresser and I meet my friends and whatever, I’m like no, today I just don’t feel like working because no. And then I will work on Saturday because I feel like working Saturday. Like why not? When I travel it’s a bit more complicated because I want to be everywhere and experience the beauty of all the places where I go. Then I usually wake up earlier, like at 07:00 or 630, I work for 3 hours to get things done, like really all the urgent things before the people wake up and start chasing me. So I already have them done and I schedule email responses. So like, okay, this response came in at eight, nine or 10:00, but by ten or 1030 I’m already out doing whatever, wherever. Then I come back to take a break at about 304:00. Then I work for 3 hours, more or less and then I leave for the evening again. So this is my routine.
Luis:
No, those are great points. I was having a drink with a friend that’s also a big remote worker last evening, right? And he actually doesn’t say he says something similar to you. He says that he lives in remote work life fusion. Right. Not integrate. Because look, that’s it. He has two kids, right? I just had my first kid recently, right? So we want to spend time with the kids, but at the same time we’re all in in our work, right? We are literally all in. The time that we don’t spend with our wives and with our kids is usually spent either working or researching something for work or learning. And remote work enables us to do that in a way that we don’t burn out. Because going back to my colleagues in dental surgery, 100%, I spend more time with my kids with my kid than they do, right? Absolutely. 100%. Because I get that control over the time. Now, sometimes my kids are asleep either in the early morning or in the long hours of the evening and I’m working. But that’s fine, right? Because what I found out, I’m sure you’ll agree, is that 3 hours of work while everyone is asleep is basically the same as 8 hours of work during the day.
Nadia:
That’s why I love working during the weekend because I get things done and I’d rather take a break during the week knowing that I’m not having all this noise around me and I can actually have this structured. And I 100% agree.
Luis:
Yeah. So tell me something, during the past, let’s say arbitrary period of time, let’s say six months to a year, what was the purchase that you made that impacted your work life integration the most?
Nadia:
I don’t know if impacted work life integration, but maybe yes, I bought a really expensive camera because I record videos when I travel and I record online courses as well. And I thought that I need I used to do it in a studio and I still do it in the studio, but then I thought to spice it up content wise, I’m going to record it also as I travel and that’s why so I use it for personal purposes, obviously, but also for business related purposes. So it’s very, I would say concise all the things that you set up that it’s not shaking and so on. And so I bought it and I’m very happy with it. It’s great and even reduces background noise and yeah, that was a very good purchase and I think I bought it.
Luis:
The model.
Nadia:
Yeah, it’s a Sony camera. It’s an influencer camera? I don’t know. That’s what it says, but I think it’s a z something. Yeah, but it’s quite popular. So if someone types in Sony camera for influencers or whatever, YouTubers, they will see it right away.
Luis:
I’m not, sadly, an influencer quite just yet. I think I classify more as micro Internet celebrity, I think that’s the word. Right?
Nadia:
I don’t know how I classify, but that’s what the camera is called. So I’m just sharing the name.
Luis:
Exactly. But hey, life goals, right? Use the influencer camera and maybe we’ll get there. What about books, right? If you were to give someone who wants to learn more about business, remote business, maybe leadership, maybe building their online business, et cetera, but apart from your own book, right? What book would you give them?
Nadia:
That’s a very good question. See, I have to think about a response now because the books that I love the most, Harry Potter, it’s really no kidding. So because of the imagination that I really I listen to audiobooks as a lot of audiobooks. But my favorite topic is actually psychology as a hobby. Yeah, listen, I would have to take a look at it. So in terms of psychology, I have to look at my app. Give us a psychology books about working environments, psychopaths at work, toxic relationships, those kind of books. I think a book, a title in terms of a topic that I’m also very passionate about is intercultural communication. So there’s a really good book called The Culture Map. If you work with people from all around the world but why I said psychopaths and psychology, it’s just because the remote world is about and remote work for me is about figuring out a lifestyle that really suits you. But in order to find this out, you have to understand yourself, the people around you, how they interact, what happens at work, workspaces, different types of character, what people are, I don’t know, great toxic, their behaviors. This is why I’m so interested in it. Especially that when you collaborate with the whole world, that’s what happens. But in terms of starting an own business, well, I can tell you the resources that I read, basically. So in terms of articles and magazines, I really like The New Yorker very much. It’s maybe not 100% business oriented, but I like it because it questions a lot and shows things from a different perspective. So it kind of helps you shift your mindset a lot. Definitely, yes. I also read tons of Harvard publications. When it comes to anything related to work in HR, definitely. Take a look at Management 30. I think that’s what it’s called in terms of management. But basically to get inspired on how to start your own business, it’s hard to tell. I mean, I think that I read a lot on many newsletters and I read a lot of content. I follow people on LinkedIn, for example, that are interesting to me that share quality content and they comment on it. So in the end of the day, I think you either have a spirit of an entrepreneur and you just find the things that support it. But if you’re, like, unsure if this is what you want to do and what drives you, I am not sure if I can recommend you any literature that will convince you to do it or not. Very hard to tell. I think I’m all around the place picking the things that just interest me.
Luis:
Okay, yeah, that’s fine. That’s great, actually. So, final question for you, right. Say that you’re hosting a dinner because I know now that you’re a foodie that you really like nice restaurants. Let’s say that you’re hosting a dinner with influencers and top decision makers from big companies from all around the world. And of course, the topic of the night the topic of the evening is remote work and the future of work. Here’s the twist. The restaurant you pick is a Chinese restaurant. So you, as the host, get to choose a message that goes inside the Chinese fortune cookies. What is your message?
Nadia:
Oh, God. Now that is a difficult one.
Luis:
It is. I saved it for last.
Nadia:
I know what restaurant it would be to start with. Okay. If it’s a Chinese restaurant, it would be a restaurant in London called the Ivy Asia.
Luis:
What?
Nadia:
Ivy Asia?
Luis:
The ivy asia.
Nadia:
Yes.
Luis:
I think I’ve been there spectacular when.
Nadia:
It comes to the surrounding. Yeah. So I went there, I think, two weeks ago to eat, and I loved it. But I don’t think it’s a good fortune cookie. That’s beside the point. So in the fortune cookie, I would say I know what I would say. I would say it’s time to choose what’s right rather than easy.
Luis:
It’s time to choose what’s right rather than easy. I like it. I like it. Good fortune cookie. Congratulations.
Nadia:
Thank you.
Luis:
You passed the fortune cookie test.
Nadia:
Thank you very much.
Luis:
Now, I want to be respectful of your time. It’s been a while, and I appreciate immensely you coming here and having this conversation with me. We’ve been all over the place, but it was super entertaining, and that’s what this show is about. It’s about being all over the place within this universe of remote work. So I had a great time. Thank you so much for being here. Now, I would like you to tell the listeners, where can they continue the conversation with you? How can they find out more about you, find you, and learn more about your business and what it can offer?
Nadia:
Thank you very much. Equally, it’s been an amazing pleasure to start with or to finish with. Yeah. So where everyone can find me in my remote virtual home remoteworkadvocate.com. From there, it will just show you the right direction to my LinkedIn profile, to my YouTube channel, to my Instagram, facebook, most probably as well. But all the content that I’m sharing. So it’s all me, what I believe in, and what I want to share with the world to really start doing what’s right rather than easy.
Luis:
All right, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure having you here, Nadia.
Nadia:
Thank you.
Luis:
And it was a pleasure having you to dear listeners, to The Distant Job Podcast, your podcast about building and leading us in remote teams. I was your host, Louise. See you next week.
And so we close another episode of The Distant Job podcast, and if you enjoyed the episode, please, you can help us out by sharing it on social media. That would be great. It’s how we reach more listeners. And the more listeners we have, the more awesome guests I can get in touch and convince to participate in these conversations that are a joy to have for me, and I hope they’re a joy for you to listen to as well. You can also help a lot leaving reviews on itunes or your podcast syndication service of choice. Reviews are surprisingly helpful in helping the podcast get to more listeners. Now, another thing that you might want to do is go to Distantjob.com blogpodcast, click on your favorite episode, any episode, really. And subscribe by subscribing you will get notification whenever a new episode is up and whenever we get the transcripts of the episode up, so you can actually peruse the conversations in text form. And, of course, if you need to find a great employee for your team, a great remote employee, you should take the whole world into consideration and not just look to hire locally, not just look to hire in your country. Look around the whole world, because that’s the talent pool that contains the best talent. And to help you with that, again, Distantjob.com is the perfect place to start. You will tell us who we need, and we will make sure that you get the best possible candidate 40% faster than the industry standards. And with that, I bid you adio. See you next week on the next episode.
