What Makes a Remote-First Company Culture with digital nomad Chase

“Really good functioning remote teams generally have a lot of trust baked into the way that they work”

Meet Chase Warrington, the Head of Remote at Doist

His first nomad adventure was in 2014 and since then he has been enjoying different locations. His digital nomad journey started by just trying it out and pushing boundaries geographically. He currently lives in Spain with his wife and Husky Koda and loves to explore different European places.

Today we see many digital nomads leaving their stuff behind and living the digital nomad lifestyle. Of course, it looks great on Instagram but what you don’t see is if that many digital nomads actually slowly transitioned into the lifestyle.

How does digital nomad Chase make a living?

Chase has a remote job but is very entrepreneurial as well. Next to his full-time job as head of remote at a software company Doist, Chase has his own podcast ‘‘About Abroad’’ and is an advocate for remote work. Many digital nomads are multi-passionate and have a side project or other income streams outside of their remote job. So if you are thinking about becoming a digital nomad but aren’t excited about starting your own business or becoming a freelance, please don’t hold back! There are many remote roles on offer, and we see this number growing daily!

The head of remote at Doist

A new role that we see popping up in companies is Head of Remote. Typically these are remote-first companies and remote work and asynchronous communication is normal. Chase’s responsibility is to ensure everything works well and that the company delivers an awesome experience to its team. His focus also represents that to the public so Doist actively attracts new talent.

Listening to Chase, assigning someone responsible for how work is done remotely and how the company communicates remotely is a smart way to build a thriving remote-first work environment.

We asked Chase what pillars are necessary to create a remote-first company culture. His job is basically to look at everything they are doing through the lens of doing it remotely. He also focuses on how they can level up and improve as a company. He shares that there are a handful of pillars and let’s look at a few important ones at Doist.

Remote work pilar #01 Employment connectivity

After the pandemic, the connectivity in the workplace was disappearing so that was his main focus back then. A big question was ‘‘How do we build employment connectivity and culture and bring people back together in real life?’’

Even though Doist is a remote-first company and the companies work from wherever two weeks a year, they bring everyone together for in-person time.

Remote work pilar #02 Trust

As a company, you want your employees to do their work and trust that it will get done without tracking them intensely. For example, time-tracking software or having a million zoom calls to stay in control doesn’t demonstrate trust. Instead, focus on outputs rather than inputs.

‘‘A really good functioning remote teams generally have a lot of trust baked into the way that they work.’’

Remote work pilar #03 Transparency

As a software company, Doist is an expert in building remote-friendly tools for teams to collaborate and communicate, promoting transparency of information that most people can access. So creating an online platform where all information is accessible for everyone at any time.

Remote work pilar #03 Asynchronous communication

Embracing working whenever works for you and your team and becoming a master in Asynchronous communication. So examples are to respect time zones and hours by setting guidelines on how to communicate with your people a 24-hour window to reply to messages. 

The future of remote work environments

So Chase’s core focus is solving challenges around culture and meeting goals. Even though these goals can be aggressive, it’s never about how many hours someone worked but Doist looks at if goals are achieved and if not, how they could improve. Finally, Chase shares that in his experience, a highly functioning remote team should focus on trust, transparency and asynchronous communication.

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Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet the digital nomad entrepreneur Jeanna

Follow him on Twitter via @dcwarrington

Follow him on LinkedIn via @chase-warrington

Follow him on Instagram @dcwarrington

Other episodes you might like:

🎧 Episode 38: How Leaders Can Strengthen Remote Company Culture with Jürgen

🎧 Episode 41: The 5 Key Ingredients To Work Remotely Effectively with Anna Maria

Looking for a remote job? Check out the episodes below:

🎧 Episode 12: The Secret Of Finding A Remote Job With Jordan Carroll

🎧 Episode 37: How To Find A Remote Job And Take Ownership Of Your Career With Juliana

🎧 Episode 48: How To Set Boundaries and Why You Want to Go Slomad with Kristin

🎧 Episode 53: Must-Know Resume Tips To Land A Remote Job with Michelle

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Must-Know Resume Tips To Land A Remote Job with Michelle

“One of the main things I always say is to not leave anything up to assumptions.’”

Meet digital nomad and remote job specialist Michelle

Michelle has been nomadding since 2018 and is currently talking from the beautiful island of Bali. She has 8 years of experience as a recruiter and knows very well what companies are looking for in candidates and how they select them. Originally Michelle was supposed to get back to the office, but when she found out she got Miss C, she couldn’t take her flight and the decision to stay in Bali and work remotely was easy. Michelle is the second recruiter joining the podcast, Juliana joined us in episode 37 How To Find A Remote Job And Take Ownership Of Your Career With Juliana.

After Michelle quit her job, she developed a program The Remote Job Academy which is part of her Remote Rebellion Community. Michelle is utilizing her experience as a recruiter and helps people to create strong resumes and improve their online appearance. She also shares how to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile and offers support to master job interviews.

4 tips for creating a strong resume to find a remote job

Creating a resume or updating your resume to find your dream remote job can be pretty daunting. It makes sense that you are unsure what to add or take out and what your resume should look like. Michelle shares 4 must-know tips for remote job seekers

🌟 Don’t leave your resume up to assumptions. So make sure the other person can quickly understand who you are and your top skills.

🌟 Avoid lengthy resumes with pages of text. Michelle shares that on average, recruiters spend only 6 seconds per resume. If the most important information is on the last page, they will not see it and you won’t be seen as an exciting candidate.

🌟 Choose content over design. These days it’s easy to create a beautifully designed resume using tools like Canva BUT Michelle shares it’s better to make it look plain with good content and copy. Of course, you can still use colors but don’t hang too many bells and whistles on your resume.

🌟 Emphasize what you are good at and prove or demonstrate with metrics/passed experiences. For example, the skill adaptability can be explained by showing that you have spoken and interacted with other cultures, collaborated with different departments, or worked across multiple time zones.

What skills do you need to work remotely?

Doing your work remotely isn’t easy for everyone and even today, companies seem to struggle. Michelle shares some important skills remote job seekers need to possess to make themselves more attractive: remote communications skills, managing your own time and technical capacity specifically focused on remote work. If you are new to this then familiarize yourself with commonly used tools like Slack, Zoom and project management tools like ClickUp of Asana and Loom.

Like we mentioned before, finding a remote job can be pretty hard and sometimes even overwhelming. However, with the right support and tools, the process can feel less overwhelming, and you can even land a remote position faster.

Michelle’s process for Remote Rebelion covers it from start to finish with 10 modules. It’s a self-paced online program, and she also offers to connect calls so you can implement what you learned, ask for feedback and become a strong candidate to land your dream remote job. She also had a LinkedIn Group with tailored job offers that are 100% remote. Michelle shares though that there is so much groundwork to do before revamping your resume or looking for jobs. Many people skip this part and therefore need help finding a remote job. Questions you can ask yourself are:

What do you like?
What do you enjoy doing?
What are you passionate about?
Are there any brands that you like? And why do you like them?
What is important for you? Flexibility? Money?
What are your non-negotiables?

Lastly, an often overlooked but an essential tool is LinkedIn. The professional social platform is a source of information and a great network to connect with the right people. This is one of the places you really want to spend more time on when you are searching for a remote job.

Michelle gives a 10% discount on her program so if you are interested and want to look for a remote job with her use the code RR-DND.

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Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet the digital nomad and remote work expert Michelle

Follow her on Instagram via @shellisremote

Follow her journey on LinkedIn via @Michelle Coulson

Check out her website and join Remote Rebellion Remoterebellion.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧 Episode 12: The Secret Of Finding A Remote Job With Jordan Carroll

🎧 Episode 37: How To Find A Remote Job And Take Ownership Of Your Career With Juliana

🎧 Episode 48: How To Set Boundaries and Why You Want to Go Slomad with Kristin

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Connections Stronger than Wifi With The Bucket List Queen Nini

“I figured out that as much as I like being free and working from any place in the world, it can actually feel very lonely at times.”

Meet digital nomad entrepreneur Nini

Nini started her travel journey by ticking off her bucket list. It was her dream to live in Australia and while she was there, Nini joined a coaching company called The Bucketlist Company. One of the reasons for joining this company was her interest in a special bucket list coaching license. At the time, Nini couldn’t afford it as she was using her savings. Instead, she joined the company and got the license in exchange for her work. She also landed a remote marketing manager job at The Bucketlist Company and enjoyed her life abroad.

She really loved Australia and had no intention of leaving but during her visa run to Bali, Nina couldn’t return to Australia. This was at the beginning of the pandemic and since the Australian borders closed, Nini was basically stranded in Bali. The marketing role didn’t feel like her true calling and she focused on remote team building through interactive virtual workshops using her bucket list coaching license and this is how Theworklifehappinessproject.com started.

Like many digital nomads, Nini fell in love with the Bali lifestyle. Her ideal way of living is enjoying the summers in Europe with family and friends and heading to Bali when winter kicks in.

How digital nomads can design better balanced days

Tips on how to turn your life’s mission into a thriving business
Nini’s mission is connecting people and this is what she has been focusing on. Of course, this has been challenging and finding the right balance is challenging. We interviewed digital nomad Ali in the previous episode about finding balance and if you want to learn more about that, make sure to check it out. Click here to listen to episode 51: How To Live A Balanced And Joyful Remote Life With Ali

Nini describes her entrepreneurial journey as a rollercoaster. There were moments when she felt super creative and passionate and did not feel any spark of magic. It’s common to feel this way, and we hear that creative and passionate digital noma entrepreneurs deal with the ups and downs. Nini shares some mindset tips that have been helpful for her.

🌟 Accept that there are always roadblocks that you cannot control.

🌟 Know that whatever happens, it always makes you stronger even though it doesn’t feel like it and helps you grow.

🌟 Entrepreneurship and starting something new always involve trial and error. So be patient and see what works and doesn’t before jumping to conclusions.

🌟 (We love this one) Be grateful for all the baby steps

🌟 Focus on maintaining your connection and surrounding yourself with like-minded people.

🌟 Create routines, including daily movement, meditation and use affirmations.

🌟 Be in alignment with what you say you will do and what you are actually doing.

Creating deeper connections with the EyeConnect Game

Looking at the tips we just shared, appreciating the baby steps is really important because there is so much to learn from your own entrepreneurship journey. Nini developed her game eyeConnect during her workshops and this was a stepping stone to how it looks today. It wasn’t an overnight process and we love your humble honesty about this.

So eyeConnect – Connections stronger than Wi-fi is the conversation-sparking game she just launched. It’s an offline social networking game to help you disconnect from your phone and reconnect with the people around you. You can play it with your family, friends and your co-workers. By playing this game, you will get to know your environment differently and learn unexpected things about the environment. So this game is perfect for anyone who prefers real smiles over likes and true emotions over emojis.

Our Digital Nomads Daily community now gets a 10% discount on the website. Go to www.eyeconnectgame.com and use the code ”DND10” and have more meaningful and fun conversations!

Share this episode on your favorite channels 📲

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet the digital nomad Nini

Follow her on Instagram via @nini_quarantini

Follow eyeConnect on Instagram via @eyeconnectgame

Follow her journey on LinkedIn via @Nini Fritz

Check out her website and buy the game via www.eyeconnectgame.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧 Episode 49: 8 Freelancer Mindset Challenges to Overcome For Success With Steve

🎧 Episode 41: The 5 Key Ingredients To Work Remotely Effectively with Anna Maria

🎧 Episode 22: Facing The Realities Of Online Entrepreneurship with Anne

🎧 Episode 04: How to Combine Entrepreneurship and Travel With Kristina

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Creating Your Career Around The Lifestyle You Want To Live With Natasha

“It comes back to believing in yourself and getting clear about you are worth and what your skills are worth and know your value and standing your ground.”

Meet digital nomad content creator Natasha

Natasha saw many places growing up and traveling around the world wasn’t a new concept for her. In fact, she was a 3rd culture kid and kind of a nomad growing up. Traveling with family is very different from exploring the world on your own and Natasha also had to design her digital nomad life.

At the beginning of her solo journey, she chose to teach English online. She was a teacher in the USA and doing it online made the most sense at the time. While teaching English, she also worked on her passion for becoming a full-time content creator. Many digital nomads approach the lifestyle this way because a online job is safe and secure so you have time, money and energy to build out your next big thing.

Before her dream kicked off Natasha wasn’t feeling fulfilled in her teaching job was just enough to pay the bills and live comfortably. Remote work was popular (and we all know why) and she got a remote full-time corporate job. This was a huge shift and very different from her life as an online teacher. A big lesson for her was that the job and demanding work culture wasn’t her thing and completely burned her out. So she quit her job, took time for herself, and rethought her strategy.

Hard work and willpower paid off; today, she is a full-time digital nomad content creator. She talks about travel, self-care and balance, and you can find her on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The life of a full-time content creator

Many people, including digital nomads, dream of becoming a full-time content creator. We already learned on the podcast that this job is not for lazy folks and an uncertain path. Digital nomad Isabel talks about this in episode #32 How To Become A Travel Blogger And Make Money Online. We love Natasha’s tips in this episode and here are 4 things she shares with us:

Since she quit her job cold turkey, she did not have a plan. Natasha had some savings but felt the pressure of performing and really making it happen.

Charging for brand deals and collaborations was a new way of making money. So in the beginning, she needed to figure out how much to charge and set her rates. Doing research, asking around and slowly bumping her rates up is how she did it.

Knowing your worth is a big confidence booster. So this is something that happened after her first bigger deal. From then, she started asking for more with confidence.

Natasha describes her content creator career as an iceberg. What people see of her and her confidence didn’t happen overnight and it’s almost 10 years of hard work and a rollercoaster ride. What people see is just the tip of the iceberg.

Tips on how to prioritize work-life balance

One of the most important things we need as a human is self-care. In the digital nomad community, many people talk about this and topics like mental health, physical health, and well-being are openly discussed.

At Digital Nomads Daily, we love asking our guests what is important for them and how they do it. Natasha shares what works for her:

🌱 Prioritizing her health and sleep is essential to be productive and feeling good.

🌱 The digital nomad lifestyle often allows you to set your own schedule and she includes things to nurture and respect her body’s needs.

🌱 Always do more self-care than you think you need. So make sure to move your body and mental nurturing like meditating or journaling.

🌱 If you don’t have a schedule set in stone, try to do what tasks feel most natural to you at that time.

🌱  Lastly, if you are a digital nomad girl, experiment to work with your cycles. So approach your cycles as seasons and use your natural energy in your everyday work and personal life.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet the digital nomad Natasha

Follow her on Instagram via @thenatashaibrahim

Follow her journey on LinkedIn via @Natasha Ibrahim

Check out her YouTube channel via @Natasha Ibrahim

Get a copy of her e-book here

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #51: How To Live A Balanced And Joyful Remote Life With Ali

🎧  Episode 10: Working Remotely From A Van With Digital Nomad Chelsea

🎧  Episode #04 : How to Combine Entrepreneurship and Travel with Kristina

8 Freelancer Mindset Challenges to Overcome For Success With Steve

“You have to have a deep pool of self-belief resilient to the tremendous amounts of lows you will probably experience.”

Meet digital nomad and freelance writer Steve

Steve has been traveling since 2014 but he only started her digital nomad journey 3 years ago. He has worked in tourism and was a photographer and video maker. When the pandemic hit, he couldn’t produce much so he shifted careers and decided to become a freelance copywriter. Even though he has experience in the creative industry, copywriting was a new career for him and came with its own set of challenges. Challenges he had to overcome as a creative freelancer.

A simple hack that worked for Steve was sharing his news with his sister. He shares that by saying it out loud to someone else, it would keep him accountable.

The first thing he did was tell his sister that he was going to be a writer, just for accountability. He needed to say at loud to someone that he was going to be a writer. The next step was registering for a freelance platform so he could get his first gigs. With so many online job platforms out there, Steve focused on only one platform: UpWork.

We wrote an article about the best job platforms for freelancers and remote jobs. Click here to see the list of 10+ links.

Steve focused on sharpening his profile and started with very low-paying jobs. Digital nomad Jaimi did the same thing but this is how they both gained practice, built a portfolio and got positive reviews that led to more work with less effort.

We understand that it doesn’t sound great but the truth is that you can learn many things along the way which are essential for your success. Steve shares:

It’s part of the mindset you can’t get paid well until you get paid poorly.

Common mindset challenges every freelance experiences and how to overcome them.

Freelance life advice #1 Be conscious about your working hours

One of the biggest challenges he encountered was being resilient to the tremendous lows you will experience. We get it! This doesn’t sound sexy but it’s part of the freelancer life and even more so when you are a digital nomad freelancer. So how to overcome this? Here are a few more challenges and tips Steve shares in this episode:

Freelance life advice #2 Connect with your willpower

Keep on trying no matter how hard it is. You basically have to be able to take all the losses and say let me try one more time and one more time. Tweak your process little by little and start finding what works and what doesn’t work but don’t give up.

Freelance life advice #3 Accept the learning curve

Have an open mind and accept that any new career is a huge learning curve so you can learn from the good and uncomfortable experiences. So be easy on yourself and approach everything as a new learning experience.

Freelance life advice #4 Build a thriving community

Surround yourself with like-minded people and folks who relate to your work and your lifestyle. This means you will look for a community where the focus is on things that matter to you. For Steve, it meant surrounding him with people interested in mindset, personal growth and professional growth.

Freelance life advice #5 Be critical of your flaws and superpowers

Identify the things you can improve in your work and how you can become a more successful business owner. Next, you need to take action and learn how to solve it so it doesn’t become an obstacle to your success. For example, Steve didn’t feel confident in the business side of things. So he took on a business coach that helped him with simple but important things like contracts and his sales process.

Freelance life advice #6 Working on your mindset

You don’t have to be always happy because this journey will have ups and downs. Working on your mindset and engaging with things and people that will help you grow will create a perspective contributing to your success.

Freelance life advice #7 Don’t be afraid to start your freelance career

The last piece of advice Steve shares is that you shouldn’t be afraid to start, especially when it comes to writing. There is so much work available these days and there are two things to keep in mind, according to Steve:

Freelance life advice #8 His final advice is simple but true: believe in yourself and stay hydrated.

That might sound fluffy but the truth is that if you don’t believe in yourself, other people cannot believe in you. So continue to work on your confidence so you can.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet the digital nomad Steve

Follow his on Instagram via @Finally.made.it

Follow his journey on LinkedIn via @steve Tsentserensky

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  50: Creating Your Career Around The Lifestyle You Want To Live With Natasha

🎧  18: Selling Sheep To Start A Travel Lifestyle with Micaela

🎧  49: 8 Freelancer Mindset Challenges to Overcome For Success With Steve

🎧  35: Building A Successful Creative Freelance Career With Suzanne

🎧  32: How To Become A Travel Blogger And Make Money Online With Isabel

🎧  09: How To Achieve Financial Freedom With Digital Nomad Dean