RWL021 Master Remote Work with Tech Solutions: Insights from Industry Leaders on Boosting Productivity

Remote Work Life Podcast

Speaker 1

0:00

Hello again, it's Alex from the Remote Work Life podcast, where remote professionals from around the world come to grow and to learn from those who know the world of remote work best. Really, it's a virtual destination for you, and what I want to do, what I'll try to do, I'll share what I've learned from remote CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs and help you by also talking about my own experience as well, and the benefits as well of remote work, etc. Etc. So you know what to expect and how to build your own remote work life. And I just wanted to really say thank you for joining me, um, across all of these episodes and these episodes, this podcast is all about you. So if you have any ideas for future episodes, then please, by all means, do let me know. Drop me an email. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, because I'll leave my LinkedIn details in the show notes and we can, yeah, or you can tell me what you want to hear, what you want to know, and I'll do my best to make it happen. So, if you've been following this latest series of episodes, you'll know that I've been talking about the pillars of remote work. And what are these pillars? Well, these pillars are really, I suppose, ideas, they're actions, they're things I don't know, for want of a better expression their pillars of remote work that I have developed from my conversations with a number of remote leaders from a number of different businesses, because I interviewed a number of CEOs, leaders, founders, real experts, real luminaries in the world of remote work, to understand more about what it takes to be successful, how to thrive, how to avoid isolation, all those kinds of questions. And I, as I said, noticed a few patterns from all of the conversations I've had. And also, over time, I've obviously as well, I've networked with a number of remote professionals, I've talked to people who have challenges with remote work, both those who own businesses and those who work in the remote world, either as freelancers, as solopreneurs or just general workers. And these pillars have come about from all of those conversations.

Speaker 1

2:31

So what I've tried to do, as I said, I've tried to understand and put together, I suppose, recurring themes, and one of those themes which I'm going to talk to you about today, is technology, because I believe, and from what I've seen, remote workers are technology experts, and that's for a couple of reasons, actually. And technology because often a lot of remote businesses are built on technology, so that you find a lot of SaaS companies, software as a service, companies built around tech, but that's not to say that the technology gets in the way of what they're trying to do, because often they're building these technological solutions because they want to make people's lives better. They want to make people's lives easier and more interesting in many cases easier and more interesting in many cases and three of the people that I interviewed I interviewed, I think, 14 CEOs, founders, leaders from the world of remote work, and three of those people in particular stuck out for me. So Nick Francis of Help Scout, who's been a hero of mine for a number of years. Help Scout really has a mission to make every customer interaction more helpful and human and, as I said, it's a technological solution but it doesn't get in the way of trying to help people's lives better.

Speaker 1

3:51

Then I interviewed Sarah Park. Sarah Park is president of Meet Edgar. Meet Edgar is one of my favorite pieces of software which enables you to really sort of streamline your social media, make it a lot easier to communicate, post and schedule posts, to automate the process of content across Facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin as well. So, again, another software solution, but again it's the solution itself that makes people's lives easier. And then there's Steli Efti, who is the CEO of Close. Close is essentially a CRM system, but, as I said before, the whole aim of Steli's business is to help salespeople to make sales, essentially by automating certain processes email, for example, predictive dialers, lead management. So it's one of those things that all of these things, all of these CRMs, all of these CEOs, all of these founders have in common they're using technology, but they're using it to make people's lives better and easier.

Speaker 1

4:59

And it doesn't stop there with their expertise in technology, because and I've kind of experienced this myself their expertise also extends to using technology in their day-to-day work, in their day-to-day business, to using technology in their day-to-day work in their day-to-day business. And I think it's important for you to understand this if you're either looking to transition into the world of remote work or you already work in the world of remote work, because you need to, I guess, understand what each business is using, so that you can then either tell them that you're using the same things or try to use those things, so that you can be in a position to say, yep, I can use it, and that would make it for you much easier to fit within their team. But if you're a business owner, some of some of these um, some of these applications, some of these technological solutions might make it just easy for your team. And there's so many that I could. You know so many solutions and apps that I could mention, but I've just wanted to pick. I picked out a few of my favorites and a few that I'd noticed that a lot of remote workers use, and one one of my favourites, in fact probably my favourite app, and you get different variations of this app, different types of variations of this app. One of my favourite apps is Calendly.

Speaker 1

6:22

Now, have you ever been in a situation where you're trying to arrange a meeting via email or via phone, whatever it may be, and you're trying to find a time that is kind of mutually agreeable to to all parties? I've been in that situation where you've been backwards and forwards, up and down, and it takes, it could take a little while to see and to sort of agree on a time, and calendar just makes that so much easier. And you find that a number of remote businesses use apps that you can just essentially see each other's calendar book into each other's calendar and bob's your uncle, you could just have your meeting there and then, and you know, combined with google calendar itself, it just makes if you know if you're calendarizing your meetings. It just makes things so much easier. So that's another solution that I found, or at least another type of solution, I guess, that a lot of remote workers use, especially because often they're working across different time zones. Then another one of my favorites is HubSpot. Hubspot, again, it's a CRM, but it's much more than that. Just it streamlines your marketing, your sales, your ability to organize your contacts and let other people see where you're up to in certain points of contacting people. It just makes things so much easier and more efficient. And again, as I said to you at the top of this particular podcast, technological solutions are there to make people's lives easier, and these are my favorites because they just do that. It's just so simple to use that you almost forget that you're using an application. It just it's just very, it's very, very easy, very intuitive, lots of these applications.

Speaker 1

8:05

Cloud as well is a big thing. Cloud is a massive thing when it comes to work in general, to business in general. But remote teams often use cloud things like I don't know um. For me, g suite is is the one I use. I like google apps, so um g suite is the one I use. I use google cloud to collaborate, to share files. Hold off my my um on my Mac. I don't like sharing things, sorry, I don't like storing things on my Mac, it just slows it down. Um. So you know, and a lot of uh, remote workers will use, use things like this, just so that they've got you know, they can either back things up or just store things in a place that you can really access it easily and collaborate with your colleagues wherever they may be in the world and in real time. So cloud as well. Cloud is another big thing that remote teams, remote people, remote businesses use.

Speaker 1

9:03

Another thing, another well, not another thing, but another application by Google Google Hangouts, similar to Skype in many ways. You can use that for audio meetings, video meetings, if you want to do that. Again, another application that brings people together. It's all about people, about FaceTime, about getting together, about collaboration and communication, which was one of the pillars I'd mentioned previously. Where else, what else have we got? So we've got also Trello as well. Trello is another application, another piece of technology that I use, and similarly, other remote businesses use applications like Trello to, I suppose, manage projects so that they can allocate work, so they can delegate tasks to different people. So again, another application just to make your life easier, and probably an application that a number of different remote teams use, or at least applications that are similar project management style applications.

Speaker 1

10:09

And then of the whole idea, I guess, of, I suppose, promoting conversation, collaboration, friendship. That's one of those things that's really quite difficult when you're working remotely Because, you know, you don't have the eye contact, you don't have body language to go on. A lot of people are working in their own time on, you know, because a lot of remote work is is really organizing your own time to your own schedule, obviously making sure that you've got the outcomes there. But if you've got those sorts of scenarios, then it makes it that more challenging to have conversations, because everybody's working essentially in isolation. So to avoid that isolation, or to release less than that isolation, it's important to have those conversations, both spontaneous conversations as well as conversations around the work and tasks that you're doing, and whatsapp is is good for that.

Speaker 1

11:09

I find especially the personal conversations, because I tend to, throughout the day, just nudge my friend, for example, who works remotely in the UK. In fact, I've got a couple of friends that I use WhatsApp with. I also use Skype quite a lot as well to do that sort of thing, just to have you know. It may be text conversations, it might be just, uh, recording my voice and then my friend recording his voice, voice in return to just to just to sort of make the conversation a bit more realistic, I guess. And then, um, things like slack as well. You can do that on slack and there's certain applications on slack that just really promote like sort of like a water cooler type atmosphere where, as I said, the conversations are a lot more spontaneous. So all of these applications, all of this technology, all of this. You know, this conversation and communication is brought about by the use of technology.

Networking and Community Building Tips

Speaker 1

12:12

But, like I said, technology does not get in the way of the productivity and the success of remote workers, remote teams, remote businesses. So for me that was definitely a massive pillar, a massive, I guess, a massive theme that I noticed, a recurring theme that I noticed in the theme that I noticed in the conversations I've had with people, how they love the technology and the technology is there, but at the same time it's one of those things that can really sort of spur them on to do really good things in the world. So, what technology? Tell me what technology you're using. What apps do you use? What do you use to make things easier for you, your team? Is technology important to you and I suppose, what effect has it had upon you and on your team as well? I know we're in a world where we run our phones quite a lot, we're on our computers quite a lot, so we have to get a balance. We have to strike a balance where the technology is concerned, but we can't escape the fact that technology is just really an important part of our lives. So that's it for me for now.

Speaker 1

13:27

I'm going to be covering another one of the pillows in a later episode, so look out for that. As I said, get in touch, join the group on facebook. There's a remote work life accelerator group where I help you to understand how to make connections with remote businesses or remote workers, and you can also connect with me on linkedin. By all means, say hello, let me know what you want to hear. As I said at the top of the call, what sort of, what sort of themes you want me to cover? Who do you want me to interview in the next episode? And I just want to wish you all the best with what you're doing. Don't be isolated, you know. Reach out to your friends, reach out to me, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.