How did you get started with remote work?

Interview with Shelly, CEO of Fire Engine RED & remote work pioneer

We’ve been fully remote since I founded the company in 2001.

In fact, Fire Engine RED was one of the first all-remote companies in the U.S., possibly the world.

I’d love to say that my decision to start a 100 percent remote company was part of some grand vision (like, “This will be the future of work!”). However, the truth is, Fire Engine RED began operating as a virtual company out of pure financial necessity.

Twenty years ago, Shelly started one of the first all-remote U.S. companies. See how remote work has given Fire Engine RED a competitive advantage & the four most important words in the employee handbook.

Read full interview from Interview with Shelly, CEO of Fire Engine RED & remote work pioneer.

Interview with Phil Strazzulla, an entrepreneur enjoying the health benefits of remote work

I have always been curious about working remotely, but I was afraid I would procrastinate too much. It was something my colleagues had also wanted to try, and so we just took a few days to do it one week and found we all loved it.

You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to. –C.S. Lewis, author

A curiosity for remote work led Phil to make it a primary work arrangement. Hear how it has helped to improve his health and impacted his approach to rest.

Read full interview from Interview with Phil Strazzulla, an entrepreneur enjoying the health benefits of remote work.

Interview with Grainne, a professional writer and content marketing manager who works remotely

I started freelancing a few years ago after building up over ten years of in-house experience in marketing, business dev, advertising, and content writing. I studied Media in college, followed by digital marketing a few years later.

I always wanted to be a writer, so content marketing was the perfect fit for me!

My sales experience also came in pretty handy initially when it came to pitching for work, and I never really had a problem with identifying and approaching potential clients.

After about a year of freelancing fulltime for a number of clients, I was approached by Buckets.co to work on their content and social. I focused primarily on Buckets for the next three years, and I definitely became a huge remote work advocate during that time!

Buckets is an online task management platform, so it's an excellent tool for collaborating with clients and team members across the world when you work remotely.

Grainne's freelance work led to her landing a remote work job—see how she manages distractions and balances her work with Buckets.co and her clients.

Read full interview from Interview with Grainne, a professional writer and content marketing manager who works remotely.

Interview with Mindi, a content manager and social media strategist

I started my first remote work gig on a hand-me-down IKEA desk in the corner of my attic bathroom while trying to write my first (never-to-be-published) novel.

I was delighted to get paid $10/hour to work on my first social media campaign for a budding nonprofit, and I was hooked!

Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I knew I could turn this into a business somehow. Though it took me a few false starts working in co-located offices, I eventually discovered that I do my best work remotely.

A ten-dollar per hour social media gig got Mindi hooked onto remote work—see how she meets her client and business goals and manages time zone differences.

Read full interview from Interview with Mindi, a content manager and social media strategist .

Interview with Josephine, an integrated content producer traveling the world

I used to work in an in-house production/post (full service) studio in Toronto. My background is in media production, and I really enjoy what I do, but I was tired of commuting and being stuck in one geographical location.

I happened to apply for a job with my current company Torre for fun—the job posting said, "travel around the world and create content," and I said, "no way this is real" as I proceeded to apply.

Then I got the job. Now I'm working in a fast-paced start-up environment, excited about the challenges to come!

The switch was a learning curve—they say you need discipline, but you don't really know how much discipline you need before you get thrown into the deep end!

Josephine got a dream gig of traveling while engaging in her passion for digital storytelling. Hear about the work she is doing to bring awareness to remote work.

Read full interview from Interview with Josephine, an integrated content producer traveling the world.

Interview with Mike, a business developer with a one task a day remote work routine

My first encounter with remote work was back in 2008. It wasn’t really successful, and after several months of working remotely, the company decided to open an office in my hometown.

Now when I reflect on it, I think it was partially because the quality of internet connection twelve years ago was far from what we enjoy now, and partially because I and several of my coworkers were fresh graduates.

I’m still not sure if hiring junior employees remotely is a good idea, especially if you’re not a fully-distributed company.

My second attempt with remote work began about two years ago after I joined Reintech. It’s a hiring platform for tech companies looking to hire remote software developers in Eastern Europe. Naturally, Reintech embraced remote work from day one, and so far, it works great.

Mike had a lackluster experience with remote work 12 years ago. Today, he has embraced location-independence. Hear about his "one task a day" routine & vital tip for job seekers.

Read full interview from Interview with Mike, a business developer with a one task a day remote work routine.

Interview with Drei, a WordPress Developer describes her methods for staying focused

I kept getting sick from the demanding work hours of office-based life. At first, I didn't want to leave that world, but my body couldn't take it anymore.

Long commutes and long work hours resulted in a physically damaged version of myself.

The transition was quite hard, and it was like being a fresh grad again and starting from scratch. It took me about two months to find my first client/employer. It was part-time work that paid hourly.

I stayed there for about a year until they didn't need me anymore. After that, it was simpler to find a replacement since I already had the remote experience that everyone was looking for.

A demanding office job gave Drei the motivation to seek out remote work. See how two surprising entertainment apps & a six-hour workday allow her to live her best remote work life.

Read full interview from Interview with Drei, a WordPress Developer describes her methods for staying focused.

Interview with Wilbert, an ESL teacher that remotely teaches English to kids

I’ve just started doing remote work again after God knows how long. Before I decided to go back to do remote work, I previously worked in an office based setting for the past 10 years. 8 years of that were more on the BPO industry while the remaining 2 years or so as an office based ESL teacher.

Everything was all good while I was working in an office setting, you get up in the morning then go to work, and afterwards you go home and rest. Then you do the same thing all over again on the next day and get paid each month. Sounds easy right? Since most of us have done this kind of thing in our everyday life.

However, after doing the same thing over and over again for the past 10 years, you would soon realize that what you were doing was kind of boring and tiring at the same time.

Especially the daily commute going back and forth from the office. Sure the advantages for working in an office setting is that you get paid for sure by just being in the office as well as getting health benefits. But sometimes, that’s just not enough and you don’t get much free time in doing things that you want to do.

That is why I decided to go back in doing remote work again just to have that extra freedom. Though it wasn’t easy considering I don’t have much feedback or experience to show to online companies when I would apply for a job. Luckily there was a lot of opening for online ESL tutor and it was easy for me to get hired considering it was related to my last job.

Usual challenges at first is that you tend to get lazy when you're at home or you get preoccupied because of family matters or housework. It took a while to get used to, but after a few weeks, that’s when I started to get serious with my daily routine.

Wilbert is an ESL (English as a Second Language) Teacher that made the jump to remote work to gain more freedom from his office job.

Read full interview from Interview with Wilbert, an ESL teacher that remotely teaches English to kids.

Interview with Rose, a co-founder growing the impact of remote work

I'll draw a slight distinction between "working remotely" and being a "remote worker." I got tuned into the idea of working remotely many moons ago! It might have been through reading a book from Tim Ferris (or a similar author) that I really took on the idea that there could be location flexibility or independence from the work I would do (be that client work or working for a company).

For me, initially, it was about working for myself and being able to serve my clients from where I wanted to be.

But over time, I started to learn more about remote working as an employee, and I was brought on the journey of Grow Remote. From there I actually took on a part-time remote position this year which has freed me up to do so much with developing Grow Remote as well as my own client work.

Rose balances part-time SEO work with leading Grow Remote—see how she optimizes her time to build a community and resource for remote workers.

Read full interview from Interview with Rose, a co-founder growing the impact of remote work.

Interview with Emma, a founder helping companies shape their remote work policies

My first experience with a remote job was in early 2014 as a freelancer for a legal precedent writer.

I loved the freedom of working remotely (as I had a young child at the time) and actively looked for a remote role to better manage my work/life balance.

I began to work as a lawyer at Partner level in a law firm in late 2014.

I worked for four years in that law firm before starting my own virtual law firm in early 2019.

Emma carved out her own remote work niche—see how she manages her own virtual law firm while maintaining work/life balance.

Read full interview from Interview with Emma, a founder helping companies shape their remote work policies.