Yes, I Work From Home

Anaïs Comot is owner of HerCode Podcast and HerCommunity. In this episode, she tells her story about how she is originally from France and the corporate journey that led her to London where she is now a career strategist who helps women build a career they're truly happy with. Coming from a procurement and consultancy background, she has made multiple career transitions herself and experienced the struggles associated with a career that is not fulfilling, even impacting her own health and other aspects of her life. She has found connection with other expats who are living and/or working abroad and the unique set of challenges that comes with that. Ultimately, she is enjoying the freedom she can have to travel back home with the option to work from a traveling home office while visiting friends and family on occasion.Anaïs has worked with 200+ professionals from various backgrounds and industries, generally meeting with her clients in 1-on-1 online coaching sessions, but she also offers group coaching and runs HerCommunity virtually as a free space that includes weekly resources available to anyone looking to make the most out of their careers. She strongly believes that life is too short to fill unfulfilled at work and actively supports her community through various channels, including the HerCode podcast in addition to HerCommunity.Anaïs can be found in the following places:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaiscomot/Website: https://www.hercode.co.uk/

Joe Gallant is from Kent, England, and he is the owner of Be Gallant where he designs websites and other content and helps create visual identities for small startup businesses and charities. His passion is helping people and organizations to find their voice online, through effective branding and quality content.In this episode, Joe tells his experience of how he has worked for a variety of small companies and also churches and how his family recently made a move from a coastal location back to closer to home now that he has a wife and young daughter and dog and what it was like to build a home office that was more intentional this time around. Joe is officially leaving some of his former part-time and in-person work in order to dedicate his attention to his remote business at this time.Joe recommends finding ways to make a workspace enjoyable to be in and personally finds that starting his day with prayer and meditation sets his day on the right path. Joe believes if someone can find what works for them in terms of a routine, they can discover more productive times of day but don't sweat it if it doesn't always go to plan.You can find out more about Joe and his work at begallant.ukInstagram: Jgchurchcomms

Kelly McGinley, from Mechanicsburg, PA, is the principal consultant and owner of her company Function & Flow where she serves as a productivity specialist who loves to explore different tools and tactics for time and task management. She comes from a background of working in a remote job where she was working long hours and felt overloaded and working all the time and has transitioned to her new role where she has much more autonomy over how and when she works which has shifted her balance so that it feels so much closer to the perfect fit. In this episode, Kelly discusses how she organizes her work day and how she has had to combat letting her work bleed into the rest of her life life, especially when she didn't plan her downtime. She has put defaults in place so she can do a better job of enjoying life outside of work as well. She and her spouse have both been working from home, and she tells the story about how she's accidentally trapped her husband on one end of the house while conducting meetings in a shared space. Kelly offers productivity coaching for people and project managers and has actually just published her book Start With Better Meetings, a tool for managers of any kind of team, but especially practical for those leading remote and hybrid teams with an aim to help foster more effective meetings and ultimately restore about 2-3 hours of usable time to a given work week while still making steady progress toward goals and deliverables. She often meets with small teams remotely to work on meeting management and also offers group and individual sessions on calendar and time management help as well as assistance with task prioritization and teaches reflection. Her Procrastination to Action Package focuses primarily on identifying "procrastination preference," roadblocks, distractions, key goals, and a path to consistently make progress toward those goals. She comes with a rich history of working with nonprofits and other organizations including connecting classrooms to communities, designing productivity strategies for corporations and non-profits, and turning a maximum-security cell block into an award-winning, tail-wagging incubator for compassionate change at the HOPE Dogs Program. Kelly has spent the last 25 years designing and building programs, partnerships, and place-based projects and is a professional member of the National Association of Productivity and Organization Professionals (NAPO) where she serves on the Education Advisory Committee.Ever on the hunt for the best remote-work tools, Kelly has decided that ClickUp is her favorite app for managing multi-stage projects and loves how she can map a project any way she likes and then have reminders automatically integrate with her Google calendar. Kelly can be found on her website: https://www.findfunctionandflow.comInstagram: @findfunctionandflow

Steve Mellor is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA and he is owner and executive coach of Career Competitor LLC for 2 Years. His "first & final 30" advice is his key to every day where, in order to maximize productivity and mental health, he focuses on how he uses the first and final 30 minutes of his day in order to make the most of his time. In this episode, Steve shares how he feels that having commitments that intentionally pull you away from your desk throughout the week are vital for social reasons and to provide some variety for certain tasks.As an executive coach, Steves's motto is "pursue your optimal self," and he likes to bring everything back to clients who work from home to the importance of serving the optimal self. He works with clients currently on ensuring they are focused on their optimal selves so they can build a workday and lifestyle that embodies their growth of it. To this end, Steve wrote a book called "SHOCK THE WORLD! A Competitor's Guide to Realizing Your Potential" which could certainly be a powerful resource to anyone looking to better lead their work-from-home lifestyle. Steve actually has almost 2 decades of experience working with elite performers within high-performance environments as an olympic swim coach, and he talks about how Covid-19 helped push him into coaching for business execs and more. Whether in his role as an executive coach, culture consultant, speaker, or author, Steve's work targets bringing the best out of individuals, while ensuring teams and organizations are optimized through the process. This native of England, former top-50 world-ranked swimmer, husband, father, and lifelong competitor is driven to pursue his optimal self by working with those that are eager to do the same.Email: Steve@careercompetitor.com Website: Careercompetitor.comInstagram: @Coach_Steve_M

Jill Wright is is an author, podcaster, and coach at Grow Like a Mother based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She has two gigs and is currently commuting into the city for her corporate job while building up her coaching business with an eye toward perhaps eventually transitioning out of her 9-5 to focus solely on her own business. In this episode, Jill shares some time management and productivity tips for working mothers, including those who juggle things as work-from-home mamas. Jill shares some tips that might be of use, especially to single moms and those with shared custody, and gives some of her own advice about how she has managed her time around her family's unique schedule which, for her, sometimes means that her down time and a chance to decompress happens on her commute to her day job so that she has more time for focus on her coaching business and clients when she's working from home.Jill has dedicated the last 4 years to personal development as she grew her business and taught others how to achieve alignment and balance in all of their roles through a variety of techniques. She does have free workshops, digital courses, and offers 1:1 and group coaching, and is willing to share her free 5-day video series. She is an entrepreneur-turned-life coach focused on helping moms achieve alignment with themselves and balance in all areas of their lives.Jill can be found in the following places:Website: www.livingwithheart.caPodcast: Grow Like A MotherInstagram: @growlikeamother

Jessica Rhys-Griffith, from Shropshire, UK, is a work/life coach for female "mum" executives who are feeling not quite good enough. She helps her clients get to a place where they feel, calm, and confidently in control of their lives as the role model they want to be for their children and the leader they want to be in their professional life. In this episode, Jessica shares insight on her own journey coming from a corporate world where she was considered a key player in senior management to working from home for the same organization (1 day a week was adjusted to 5 days a week starting in 2020), and then the more recent transition to working for herself. She shares some of her personal experiences as she's made the shift and how she can now turn around and help others, including remote executives, in making their day-to-day better. She comes from the perspective of being someone who has had to juggle the challenges of building a supportive and positive home environment for herself and her child while handling the increasing demands and expectations of an executive role in what has become an increasingly volatile world. At the beginning of her remote-work life, Jessica experienced some discomfort with the changes and experienced some of the ups and downs but has worked to minimize the negative aspects and enjoy a more balanced life.Jessica now runs JRG Coaching, Ltd, and her coaching is centered around health and positivity, time management, and manageable to-do lists. She offers tips for connecting with children and different ways to keep them motivated in the home environment. Jessica enjoys being able to walk her child home from school in the afternoons and has just planned for that as part of her daily routine. Some of her strategies also include heading to a local coffee shop for a change of scenery and ensuring she has meetings scheduled to help with motivation and keeping engaged. She speaks about adjusting her mindset and being present for family and changes she made to herself as a leader to ensure that she keeps positive and energized. When she made key decisions around being clear on what kind of life she wanted for herself and her daughter, by setting boundaries, asking the right people for help, and changing aspects of how I worked, she found a way to enjoy home and work and even find time for herself!Jessica has always been motivated by working with individuals and teams to achieve their best and wants to take what she's learned to support others in similar situations to find their way to be their best selves and be successful at home and work. She does offer a 30-minute free consultation (with no obligation) to do a work/life balance audit and provides some practical tips that people can start to implement. Jessica can be found in the following places:jessica@jessicarhys-griffith.comhttps://jessicarhys-griffith.com/

Shane Spraggs left his role in the office at the start of the pandemic and joined Virtira, a Canadian company that helps organizations work without boundaries by optimizing their remote teams and processes. Virtira had been working remotely since 2007. It was interesting for him to learn their best practices while remote work was evolving as a result of the pandemic. He is now the CEO of Virtira. He lives in PST a few hours from Vancouver, but most of his team is out East, and the company serves teams in the USA as well.In this episode, Shane talks about his experiences working remotely as a CEO. He is passionate about remote management, strategic planning, and culture. They have a "no meeting Friday" policy at their company that is followed, for the most part. If someone can book at least a week in advance, they'll be guaranteed to be able to pick any time of day. He feels that at this point in his career and his role, he has a pretty good handle on being able to moderate his work with everything else and enjoys how he has the flexibility to go for a morning hike with friends every morning and can fit in the occasional urgent project. He shares some of his remote-work advice: "Don't eat at your desk - it's far too easy to overeat, plus you miss an opportunity to take a break." He's also a fan actually using his sit-stand desk. Shane has been driving successful projects for a variety of notable media and software start-ups for 25 years. Shane recently co-authored a book with Cynthia Watson, The Power of Remote, which just launched on February 7, 2023. Virtira's website offers a remote readiness assessment that reviews an organization's fitness for remote work.Connect via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-spraggs/Virtira website: Virtira.comhttps://books.forbes.com/books/the-power-of-remote/

Janet McKenna Lowry is a small business owner running Massachusetts Tax School for Practitioners out of Greenfield, Massachusetts. Janet says that she is not a tax expert and never was particularly confident in her math skills, but she's learned that preparing taxes is more about organization, and there's very little math involved. There's a huge demand for the work despite more and more people having access to the software to do it themselves, droves of people would still rather pay for help. It's a great field for anyone who needs flexibility (moms, artists, people who want to travel so many months out of the year, gig workers who have a slow season, etc). Janet and her business partner had been running their course onsite at a local university but moved everything to an online format with the blessing of the IRS during the pandemic, and they've decided to keep it online as it offers more flexibility to the attendees. She's now wearing multiple hats as CFO, webmaster, marketing, registrar, and operations. This tax school partners with tax experts who teach the courses to meet the 72 hours of continuing education hours tax preparers are required to complete every 3 years. In this episode, Janet shares how the topic of tax preparation has become an especially exciting one, because she's helping get people access to flexible work in a way she wishes she had earlier in her life, like when she had younger children. There's actually an extreme deficit of tax preparers as many of the people in the field are entering their retirement years, so if people want flexible work or to just work 3-4 months out of the year, this is a great field to look at (and it can be lucrative too, especially for those who go on their own and/or take the extra steps to do business taxes and trusts and estates). Some big name tax preparation sites do require their employees to have a degree, but it's actually something that is available to people with or without high school diplomas or college degrees as the methods can be learned just by working alongside someone in the field and learning online, keeping up with the continuing education hours. Some people do go into accounting to have more consistent work throughout the year, but it's not necessary.Janet has actually been living the dream working from home on and off in different capacities for about 10 years, and currently she has gotten it to where she has a busy season where she's working 40 hours a week for a few months while they're putting on their course and then it relaxes down to about 25 hours a week for the rest of the year where she focuses coaching and consulting around being a better boss, skills like learning boundaries and negotiation skills as an employee. She went back to school at age 50 and earned her MBA from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Janet can be reached through her website at:Massachusetts Tax School for Practitioners mtsfp.comShe also has a podcast Working 9 to Thrive: https://working9tothrive.com/

Justin James owns Let Your Nerd Be Heard where he operates as a virtual event producer out of a home office in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. Justin offers oversight and technical support to make virtual events run smoothly for his clients, who are often entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, course creators, and coaches. Justin is brilliant with making Zoom look good and work well for his clients with all the bells and whistles. He helps with transitions and monitors the chat and managing any technical support issues that come up for guests so that the presenters can simply do the talking and still look and sound professional.In this episode, Justin talks about his work-from-home journey. He's worked from home for 9 of the last 23 years, first for 4 years, was back in the office for awhile, and then now fully remote again for the past 5 years. He currently has a three-monitor desk for his long-term day job work as a software developer and another with more like 9 monitors in the same office for his other production projects. He has a red and green busy light outside the office that functions as an "on-air" light, so that his family knows when they can enter the office and when to knock to ask to enter.Justin also offers event mentoring services. He has ranked 4 times as an Amazon International Best Selling Author and currently has an upcoming project, a course called The Tech Made E.A.S.Y. Solution: How to Keep Your Focus on Your Content, Offer, and Coaching, Not On Complicated Tech which can be found soon on his Let Your Nerd Be Heard website.Justin James can be found in the following places: Website: https://letyournerdbeheard.comBlog: https://blog.letyournerdbeheard.com/Facebook: facebook.com/letyournerdbeheard

Todd Paulsmeyer is a former software developer and consultant who has turned to product development of some innovative baby nail clippers he's selling on Amazon. He works from a home office and his garage workshop in Denver Colorado but is looking at expanding to outsourcing more of the manufacturing process once his production really takes off. He is building on his problem solving strategy from his previous line of work and applying the concept of working with experts for business strategy and leaning on the expertise of some coaches as he embarks on this new project. Todd has worked from home longer than a lot of people, with more than 3 decades working as a software developer, more or less logging on from a home office since 2003 when the internet was still just gaining popularity in private homes. For 28, years he was working as an independent consultant, working for large and small projects for big clients such as IBM, The State of Utah, The State of Alaska, General Motors, and the New York Transit Authority. He was managing and running his own software business for time tracking that tens of thousands of work-at-home consultants were using but, ultimately, went into consulting and is now dedicated to bringing the safest nail clippers in the world to help parents trim the nails of their tiny infants without risk of causing injuries and pain.Todd's invention, LuvClip nail clippers, has been awarded seals of excellence by three organizations who recognize safe and effective products for parents to use on their children and are getting good reviews from parents of young children and other caregivers. He attributes the development of this product to working from home when his children were first born because it allowed him to be more involved with their care including trimming their teeny-tiny nails. He painfully became aware of how all of the baby nail clippers on the market suffered from major design flaws which resulted in both him and his wife accidentally injuring their newborns fingertips even while trying to clip their baby's nails as carefully as possible. Working from home now, his time is split between preparing the LuvClip nail clippers for distribution versus the business development and marketing aspect of an entrepreneurial business selling physical products instead of services. With the change in workflow, Todd manages his time by exercising first thing in the morning to set the tone for the day and then utilizing Focusmate while he's in the office to help minimize distractions. You can find Todd in the following places: Facebook: www.facebook.com/luvclipWebsite: www.luvclip.com

Anna Burgess Yang is a former product manager turned freelance content marketer, journalist, and workflow consultant from Chicago. She is passionate about educating and equipping people to take control of their remote work lives and their careers. Anna has been working from home for 16 years now and currently works from home full-time, which for her is about 25 hours per week. She's worked in different settings in the past and appreciated the results oriented workflow and prioritizes working efficiently now to get a lot done in a short time rather than feeling a need to sit at her desk 40 hours a week. In the past, she was at one time the only remote employee, then she was with a company that transitioned to fully remote, and she's worked for a company with global remote employees. She's experienced different work flows and worked synchronously and asynchronously and even hired new remote employees. This all helped Anna build foundational knowledge about "what works and what doesn't work" for her.In this episode, Anna tells a few stories including one about a cat who likes to get into the ceiling and another about how she first started working from home which involved quitting her job to take a new job, with her boss letting her work from home to keep her with the company. Awhile back, she wrote a LinkedIn post about remote work and her husband quitting his job when his employer ordered him back into the office, and he decided to get a different job instead, one that allowed him to continue to work remotely as they both like to be able to share in the kid-related stuff that comes up during the day. They've noticed some differences in expectations from remote employers with some being more flexible (small companies) and others requiring people to be on camera and in meetings all day. Anna now works for herself and prefers to embrace flexibility which allows her to maintain a good balance, even when she goes to pick up her children in the middle of the day or go grocery shopping on a Friday morning. She doesn't think about working early or late as an inconvenience, because she knows she is taking control over her own life.In her work as a workflow consultant, Anna helps solopreneurs and small businesses automate workflow with tools like Zapier. She writes about working remotely in her Substack as well. Anna's goal is to educate others about remote work, the future of work, and how work can be better. She typically focuses on writing about fintech and product-led content. She's found many collaboration tools to make remote work easier now, including project management tools, video tools for asynchronous communication, etc, that didn't exist when she first started working from home.You can find Anna in the following places:Website: https://annabyang.com/Twitter: https://annabyang.com/Gumroad with free resources for solopreneurs: https://annabyang.gumroad.com/Substack: https://annabyang.substack.com/The Linkedin post that went viral (4 million views) and got picked up by LinkedIn's Talent Blog: Why Professionals Quit to Find Flexible Work: https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-engagement/viral-post-highlights-why-professionals-quit-to-find-flexible-work

Christine Reed is an author and freelancer who has traveled extensively around the states in three different vans as part of the vanlife movement, and she's looking forward to partnering soon with a company that builds out vans for people who intend to travel and live in them as opposed to RVs or other styles of tiny homes. She loves the rugged outdoors and long-distance backpacking and wrote her first book, a memoir titled Alone in Wonderland. In her book and in talks at events such as TinyFest, REI and other outdoorsy supply stores, Christine shares her personal journey from sedentary office worker/retail worker to a lifestyle of freedom and adventure. Christine likes to inspire people to see something bigger for themselves but is also quick to share about her own struggles with loneliness at times on the road or trail and how she's come to find ways of embracing some of that discomfort and connecting with her own self as well as with others.In this episode, Christine talks about what it's been like to be a self-published author on tour during a global pandemic and how that's affected the timeline of her book tour while also running a freelance business as a writer and social media manager. She does work from her home base in the Denver and sometimes Phoenix area, sometimes a few weeks or a month at a time. When she went from hiking extensively on the Appalachian and Wonderland Trail to staying somewhere different nearly every night while on tour, it was socially and physically exhausting for her as someone who tends toward the introverted side. She's learned to balance the amount of time she travels with the amount of time she can spend outdoors and working and resting. Her days are often spent at libraries and coffee shops for wifi, and she generally has signal and access to wifi as she generally stays close to metropolitan areas when she's working. Christine loves the freedom that her vanlife lifestyle has allowed, but she recommends that people who are considering it for the first time go ahead and rent a van first to see if it's something that they really want to invest in, most people know within the first 6 months if it's sustainable for them.Some of the tools and tips that Christine recommends for working remotely, and specifically while on the road to some extent, include keeping a structured calendar to avoid work creeping into free time and scheduling Zoom sessions with work-from-home and other vanlife friends for accountability and socialization. Her book was really a sort of a catalyst for her to get where she is now. It was the first move into a more alternative lifestyle, and she wouldn't be working remotely without it; but the book, at the same time, also helps give her the freedom to keep hiking every year. She intends to write her second book soon, so stay tuned!Christine can be found in the following places:Instagram or Tiktok: @ruggedoutdoorswomane-mail: ruggedoutdoorswoman@gmail.comwebsite: https://www.aloneinwonderland.com/

Jillian Yetter is a former high school English Teacher turned Audiobook Narrator who is based out of Delaware with her family. She loved working in the classroom but was strongly encouraged by a doctor to find a different profession so she could focus on her health; and, after a short stint baking macarons for parties, she discovered she could make a career out of reading books as a voice actor/narrator. Jillian dug in and started recording and engineering around 30 of her own books before hiring an editor to help more with the postproduction side and has been a narrator now for 4 years with about 80 titles in that time. She has a warm, bright voice with a youthful tone perfect for narrating young adult and new adult titles, and she uses a pseudonym if publishing anything over a PG13 rating.In this episode, Jillian explains that audiobook narrating takes quite a number of hours of work, researching, and editing for each hour of published audio. She been able to balance working while her kids are at school or sleeping. For those who are considering audiobook narration, she recommends doing the research as there is more to it than most realize at first. However, it is an industry that offers more flexibility than many others which has worked very well for her and her family. She typically schedules out her books with a turnaround date about three months in the future, and this gives her enough time to meet her deadlines even when she becomes sick or has a health complication, and she can accept jobs and record on her own schedule while still caring for her kids before and after school and in the summertime.Jillian has moved from recording in a closet to her very own in-home recording studio built by her husband, and she's upgraded her equipment a few times over the last couple of years as well (currently recording with a Neumann TLM 102 microphone). In order to give herself accountability while working on her own schedule, Jillian uses Focusmate or sometimes records live on TikTok, and she has joined groups for those in the audiobook industry and works with a mentor and coach for business growth. She is a member of the APA (Audio Publishers Association) and PANA (Professional Audiobook Narrators Association) and has worked with publishers such as Tantor, Brilliance, The Audio Flow, and Bloomsbury Publishing.If you'd like to reach out to Jillian, you can find her on the contact form of her website or on Tiktok.TikTok @jillianyetternarratorhttps://www.facebook.com/JYetter.Narrations/https://www.jillianyetternarrator.com/

Karen Cole lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is an experienced attorney who works from a home office. After law school, Karen clerked for a state Supreme Court justice, and then for a U.S. district court judge. These judicial clerkships provided a solid foundation for a career in civil litigation. After her clerkships, Karen practiced law, first as an associate and then a partner at a large law firm, and then as an associate and a partner for a medium-sized firm. Now Karen has her own firm, Premium Legal Writing. She works with other lawyers on their cases, thinking through strategies, doing legal research and drafting motion documents and appellate court briefs.More and more lawyers are finding that they don't need to work in law firms with brick and mortar offices. Karen says that most of the resources she needs for her practice are available via the internet. When she was in law school, students and lawyers used hard cover books to do legal research. Online legal research services are now readily available. Karen subscribes to a legal research service that she says is top notch. Zoom and other virtual services make meetings with other lawyers and clients easy. The pandemic led many more lawyers to work from home offices or in virtual offices. During the pandemic, bar associations started to make meetings and continuing education classes available electronically. Depositions in preparation for a trial that used to be held in an office are now handled electronically. And many court proceedings now take place via Zoom or a service like that. The shift to electronic meetings and court hearings that was necessitated by the pandemic will continue into the future. Electronic resources make connecting with people much more cost-effective than brick and mortar alternatives. That helps those working in the legal system generally, but particularly those who work from home offices. Karen discusses these and other issues in this podcast.For more about Karen or to reach her, go to her website: www.premiumlegalwriting.com

Marshall O'Leary is known as Mister Marshall in his city of Richmond, Virginia, where he was a traveling music teacher for many years. However, in the last three years, once he switched to online lessons for pandemic purposes, he decided to teach online only. Marshall has retained some of his original local students who have made the switch but is now expanding to accept students from other regions who, for whatever reason, also prefer online lessons. Teaching remotely has not only saved time and gas money, but he's appreciated some other nuances as well, such as not being limited to working with students who are within driving distance only, the ease of arranging make-up lessons when someone has a conflict, as well as having his own piano in his studio so he can play along with his students.In this lesson, Marshall shares some tips for online music students. In the first few online music lessons, he and his students (sometimes with the help of parents) work to establish preferred camera angles and get familiar with the technology. It eventually becomes second nature in future lessons once everyone knows how to get the camera set up correctly so both teacher and student can hear each other properly. Marshall has learned it's completely worth taking the extra time to get these set up so that it's easy to see and hear at least 90% of what's happening in the lesson. This cuts down on having to repeat himself or the student missing a concept because they couldn't see or hear well or vice versa. Another tip for online teachers is to make sure that your marketing is such that the clients/students know that you only teach remotely to find clients who are looking for the same thing to avoid a mismatch, as it's so much better to teach to someone who expects and wants lessons online than someone who is settling for online when they really want in-person lessons.Marshall O'Leary has been teaching for 17 years and playing music for 39 years. He plays and teaches the guitar, piano, and saxophone and also performs with his band, Glass Twin (they make music similar to what might happen if Pink Floyd met Radiohead). Currently, he is teaching out of his home, which is also a home recording studio called Rabid Ears Recording, run by his friend. Marshall can currently be found in most places under Mister Marshall Music but will soon be adjusting more of his branding to his name, Marshall O'Leary.If you'd like to reach out to Marshall, you can find him in the following places:Email: marshall@mistermarshallmusic.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mistermarshallmusicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshalloleary/Rabid Ears Recording: https://www.facebook.com/rabidearsrecording/

Renee Seevers has lived in a tiny home for several years and is now in a “shorty” school bus. Renee is the CEO, a.k.a. crazy event organizer of TinyFest. This event helps give people exposure to more options for their life, a gathering for people who live in or want to consider living in tiny homes on wheels or on land. In this episode, Renee talks about how her lifestyle with a tiny house on wheels gives her a chance to explore all over west of the Mississippi without ever really needing to pack. She loves how she can drive to work at a coffee shop and pop back into her house to make lunch. She's become an expert in adjusting and adapting to each situation, including the neverending changes in technology and ways to connect to the internet for work. She sometimes stays in one location for six weeks to six months to get to know the area and meet some people or prepare for her next event. Now that she's recently married, she's sharing the living space, but her husband works primarily outside and doesn't need desk space. Currently, she and her husband have a home base in Oregon on 160 acres of land where the short 5-window bus is their home. Renee hasn't always lived in a tiny house. After living and maintaining a 3300 square foot, five bedroom, four bathroom house – Renee decided in 2015 to sell it all after her youngest daughter was heading to college. She bought her first tiny home on wheels – an 87 sqft home nicknamed “Big R” she towed with her truck and took to a few festivals in 2016. She kept thinking, “We need to have more of these festivals because it gives people a great way to experience tiny living, ask questions, and see things in person.” Renee has met a lot of entrepreneurs and remote work folks through TinyFest and is part of the tiny living community herself. She recommends that everyone “enjoy the quest for balance and the quest to understand what that balance is for you and at which point along the work/life scale you are most happiest now. It will likely change later, so be ready to go with the flow!”For Renee, the idea of “Going Tiny” is more than just buying and moving into a moveable home. It's about fun, sustainability, autonomy, flexibility, and freedom--financial freedom, freedom of mobility, freedom from stuff and stress. At the TinyFest events, they have two stages with people teaching about the tiny living lifestyle; because she feels that, more important than simply buying or building a tiny house, Renee wants to help others understand they can create a life that serves them well - including topics of housing, travel & entrepreneurship. TinyFest started in the midwest, in Des Moines, Iowa, and has branched out to TinyFest California, TinyFest Northwest, TinyFest Texas & TinyFest Southwest. TinyFest is a great place to explore alternative living options for work-from-home people. There are two upcoming events on December 3 & 4 in Phoenix, Arizona, at WestWorld (Scottsdale). The next one will be on March 11 & 12 in San Diego, California, at Del Mar Fairgrounds.If you'd like to learn more about Renee, TinyFest, or see who is going to be at her next event, you can find her in the following places:Website: http://tinyfest.eventsEmail: info@tinyfest.eventsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TinyFestEvents

For the last few years, Jason Dion was running his cybersecurity training business, Dion Training, from his guest room in his home in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. However, his remote-first company recently acquired office space near Orlando, Florida, where he and his family are now located. Although he does appreciate moving his office and recording equipment from his house to a shared location, he continues to work with his employees and contractors in six countries using primarily remote-work strategies. Some of these strategies include asynchronous communication using Slack and offering flexible work hours for everyone, except for their once-weekly meeting. Jason makes his own hours and still works from home on occasion; so, he feels like he has tremendous flexibility, even as the lead instructor and founder of a growing business.In this episode, Jason shares how he transitioned from a naval officer to a college professor. He has worked as a network engineer, director of network operations and security center, and as an information systems officer for large organizations around the globe. He eventually needed more flexibility with his schedule, which led to him teaching cybersecurity courses on Udemy. Between the basic Udemy courses and the more robust courses on his website, his training program has grown to 1 million students. Dion Training now prepares students for IT, project management, and cybersecurity certificates. Many people who go through this training program will end up in remote-work positions, as IT work lends itself well to working from a home office.Jason explains that there are dozens of roles within the cybersecurity realm, with something for nearly every personality type. Of note, most entry-level cybersecurity positions do not require a college degree, so he encourages high schoolers and recent high school graduates to seek experience in an IT help desk situation while earning certificates so they can enter a career position making $70-200k within a couple of years. Job seekers need to obtain specific certificates for different fields, and sometimes a combination of more than one is required. Jason personally holds multiple information technology professional certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Network Defense Architect (CNDA), Digital Forensic Examiner (DFE), Digital Media Collector (DMC), CySA+, Security+, Network+, A+, PRINCE2 Practitioner, and ITIL, among others. He also holds a master of science degree in information technology, specializing in information assurance, but he reminds the listeners that the bachelor's and master's level degrees are usually only needed for management and higher positions. Dion Training does offer a track that includes career counseling which is especially useful for those who are pivoting their careers. Anyone who would like to hear more about how to get into cybersecurity can find Jason and the podcast Your Cyber Path and can also contact him through his website with the same name.Jason's podcast and contact info can all be found on his website: https://www.yourcyberpath.com/Some products that he and his team use and recommend include Descript and Restream. Descript website: https://www.descript.com/ Restream website: https://restream.io/

Erin Tennant of Columbus, Ohio, is the owner of Grow Well Coaching. She is a mindset and weight loss coach for wellness who meets remotely with her network of local clients and those from other regions. She built her coaching business after losing 130 pounds to share how she's transformed her mindset from reactive, ready to sit on the couch eating, to an intentional mindset that doesn't automatically think about food, even when she goes through the kitchen. In this episode, Erin shares how she has built a routine for herself where she practices time blocking for her morning and afternoon work schedule and then takes a two-hour lunch each day to get out of the house and hit the gym. Time blocking prevents her from getting distracted with household tasks. She recognizes that she performs best when she keeps conversational work, such as interviews, to the earlier morning hours. She then reserves her afternoons for focused and active listening when meeting with clients. Erin and her husband work out of the same office space in their basement, which works well for them since they rarely have overlapping meetings.Erin views her brain and body as tools and likes to remind her brain of why she loves working from home. Many of her clients work from home for various reasons, some temporarily and others permanently. She talked about some challenges she and her clients face regarding motivation, scheduling, and transitioning to and from the home-office setting. Erin describes herself as someone who specializes in helping people live a better quality of life, based on improving their wellness through their relationship with food, their bodies, and themselves. Whether they're "looking to lose weight, create healthy habits/behavior changes, improve their perspective, attitudes, emotional management, time management, decision making, or problem-solving skill, through the lens of wellness," she is ready to help. Erin has personally invested in personal coaching for her own life and has found it helps her manage her mindset and emotions to improve her own work-from-home experience, as it can be isolating.If you'd like to learn more about Erin, you can find her in the following places:Website: www.thegrowwellcoach.comIG/FB @growwellcoachingLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-tennant-b77626245/

Sarah Duran is a freelance project manager based out of Denver, Colorado. She's the founder/CEO of Fruition Initiatives, where she works with clients she's acquired through referrals, generally comprised of research teams at universities as she has a background in curriculum design. On top of that, Sarah also runs her own podcast, The Freelance Revolution Podcast, and coaches freelancers, consultants, and solopreneurs on business strategy, time management, goal setting, and confidence.In this episode, Sarah talks about the paradox of working from home which is a topic she's addressed in a blog article with the same title awhile back. She's noticed that freelancers and remote workers often either hyper focus on their work without taking care of their own needs or, on the contrary, find themselves getting distracted by household responsibilities and other demands on their attention. She's adjusted her own work day, including when and where she works, especially now that she has a 4-year-old daughter and can't just work from bed all morning like she could before kids. She's also gotten creative with how she divides childcare between preschool and some local family members, and it certainly helps that she comes from a family of self-starters, with her parents and sister also working for themselves with some degree of flexibility to spend time with her kid when she has client calls. Sarah recently published her book, Instant Freelancer: How to Start a Business of One; and she is also opening registration for her Solopreneur Collaborative Mastermind now through November 11. She's taking the methods and strategies she's taught to her one-on-one clients into a group setting to help even more people and organizations turn their ideas into action and bring their goals to fruition. She's an operational expert and has been a project strategist for over a decade, designing and leading projects for a variety of organizations, helping businesses refine systems and processes, and providing support to researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.You can find Sarah, her blog, her podcast, and her upcoming mastermind in the following places:Website: https://www.fruitioninitiatives.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fruitioninitiativesIG: https://www.instagram.com/hustlers_manifesto/Substack: https://hustlermanifesto.substack.com/Referenced blog post: https://www.fruitioninitiatives.com/blog/the-paradox-of-working-from-homeSarah recommends:Instant Freelancer: How to Start a Business of One (Freelance for Freedom) by Sarah Duran: https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Freelancer-Business-Freelance-Freedom/dp/B09YQF2PDZ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1666316275&sr=1-1Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes: https://www.amazon.com/Happier-Hour-Distraction-Expand-Matters/dp/1982148802Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport:

Molly Rose Speed of Destin, Florida, loves to help people take skills they already possess to start a virtual assistant business. Molly is an expert in creating time freedom for clients and is the founder of Virtual Assistant Management which provides virtual assistant training as well as solutions and flawless tech execution for busy entrepreneurs. In this episode, Molly Rose talks about how and why she created her company to help provide stable work for military spouses and others who needed to move often. She shared what skill set and personality traits are typically a good fit with this line of work and some of the variety of clients the VAs partner with. There is a demand for virtual help, with tasks that range from social media marketing to administrative assistant work and more, and VAs are a valuable resource for any entrepreneur or company needing more support. Molly Rose is the go-to professional for some of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the financial and personal development industries. Molly's own work has opened up flexibility and freedom for solo travel, and she's expanded her offerings from supporting her own clients to preparing to launch new offerings. She's been a remote work business owner since 2013 and has a lot to share as it relates to balance, time freedom, traveling while working remote, and training others to create work-remove careers with my Virtual Assistant Academy and is in the process of launching a program, The Online Business Accelerator, a one-stop shop program to put new authors, coaches, and speakers on Kajabi. Molly shares how she recently hired a health and nutrition coach at the beginning of 2021 which has been a game changer for her overall health and physical strength as well as helped her posture and eliminated pain from working at a desk. To compartmentalize her different hats, she often changes areas of the house to work in or goes to a coffee shop when she switches from one project to the next. She also swears by her priority 5 notepads, which outline the top 5 things she has to prioritize each day which she feels have been a game changer. You can find Molly Rose and her information at the following places: Links: Virtual Assistant Academy: http://www.virtualassistantacademy.com/ (http://www.virtualassistantacademy.com/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mollyrosespeed (https://www.facebook.com/mollyrosespeed) Instagram: @mollyrosespeed E-mail: hi @ virtualassistantacademy.com

Chris and Jordan Fischer of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, are the creators of WALK-i-TASK, a treadmill workspace that can be added to most treadmills. While working from home, they designed and developed a height-adjustable desk that attaches to the arms of a treadmill in order to help people do things that they would ordinarily do while seated, working, watching something, etc. They are motivated to add more movement into their own day and help others who work from home to find ways to keep moving while working from home. Chris talked about how, before he began using a treadmill desk, he began experiencing the many negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle including weight gain, fatigue and negative mental health. While they were talking today, Jordan was downstairs and using the treadmill desk, as they shared how they alternate who is using it throughout the day, depending on what tasks they're working on. In this episode, Chris and Jordan open up about their experiences working from home as a couple, how their dynamics affect their business and situation when working, and how they value wellness in accordance with their ideal living situation as remote workers. They also discussed some of the positive productivity effects as well as the negative wellness impact of working from home. The Fischers co-founded WALK-i-TASK while working other jobs but were eventually able to make it their sole focus, and they are continuing to update their desk so that it includes more options and can fit even more treadmills. Their goal is to help others that work from home get rid of that sedentary lifestyle by sitting less and moving more by incorporating a treadmill desk as a health and fitness tool. If you are in the US, you can order their treadmill desks and get a 50% discount if you use WFH50. WALK-i-TASK: https://www.walkitask.com/ (https://www.walkitask.com/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkitask (https://www.facebook.com/walkitask) E-mail: chris @ walkitask.com Instagram: @walkitask  Discount code: WFH50

Ashley Connell of Austin, Texas, is the CEO of Prowess Project which supports caregivers and those who took an extended parental leave who have previous work experience, skills, and education. Prowess Project can help those who are in need of upskilling as well as those who are ready to return to the work force but in a flexible capacity. Prowess Project matches applicants with corporate partners who are ready and willing to work with job seekers looking for part-time and full-time work. In this episode, Ashley describes how and why she became an advocate for those wanting to return to the workforce, especially women who have taken time away from work to raise their children, as she was anticipating starting her own family. She had spent 15 years in a busy career as an award-winning tech marketer in both Austin and London. Now she's committed to changing the lives of overloaded employers, women seeking rewarding work, and doing all she can to close the gender gap. Ashley has worked from home for awhile, but now she has experienced taking a maternity leave of her own and returning to work and how that has impacted her schedule and lifestyle. She's now commuting again, in order to bring her daughter to childcare. Links: Join Her Masterclass: https://www.prowesstalent.io/going-from-home-to-hired (https://www.prowesstalent.io/going-from -home-to-hired) Prowess Project: https://prowessproject.com/ (https://prowessproject.com/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prowessproject (https://www.facebook.com/prowessproject)

Rachna Mathur of Arizona works in STEM education and educational research, currently working on a doctorate in education. She's the founder of Stemology and has worked with students K-6 in coding, Lego Robotics, and combining STEM topics with literature, teaming up with an elementary teacher for a summer camp called Books and Bots. In the past, Rachna was a software engineer/architect for 10+ years where she spent some time working from home during one of her pregnancies, but she pivoted into education by starting her own company in 2019 with clients like Khan Academy and Arizona State University (ASU). The majority of her work, as well as schooling happen online, with the exception of some monthly meetings and some speaking engagements. In this episode, Rachna talks about her and her husband have reframed their working hours and cut out some extra activities to rebalance and manage their "home operations" as a unit. As a family with two parents, they've done their best to be intentional as they're trying to figure things out with work, school, activities, personal time, health, etc. They treat their jobs and everything they do as needing to be in sync (taking on more or fewer projects based on each other's schedules), with Rachna dropping off the kids in the morning and starting her workday a little later and her husband working an earlier schedule so he can be done in time to pick up the kids from school. They have some time in the evenings together, but then she blocks time for studying after their kids are in bed. The way they've set up their home is also intentional and conducive for play and learning with a play structure in the living room and lots of tech supplies on hand for their curious kindergartener who likes to take apart old electronic devices. Rachna and her husband are continuing to work out their home office spaces with some trial and error. Still, Rachna swears by having a larger monitor which has been tremendously helpful in her educational research and writing, something her husband was able to donate from his own setup as he doesn't require more than one screen. In the end, Rachna says that sometimes it had nothing to do with tech, equipment, or any apps, but just getting out of her home space and working in a coffee shop or a quiet library is helpful for change, especially with noisy kids when they are home early or she needs to focus. If you'd like to reach out to Rachna to discuss teaching artificial intelligence (AI) topics or STEM and Stories, such as how to incorporate STEM learning into literature studies in an elementary classroom, you can find Rachna in the following places: Email: rachna @ stemology.club Website: http://www.rachnamathur.com/ (www.rachnamathur.com) Twitter: @STEMologyClub

Linda Brandt of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a self-declared "practical renegade community builder." By day, Linda promotes healthy workplaces at Hennepin County Public Health, including Hennepin County Health@Work which provides low and no cost employee health promotion to human resources professionals. The health department she works at in Minnesota was looking for ways to improve rush hour congestion around the area, and having more employees work from home was a solution to that problem, so she's happy to skip the bus ride and packing lunches part of her trip to the office every day. She's embracing the work-from-home lifestyle and invests in equipment that helps her stay comfortable while working such as LifeSpan treadmill desk, stability mat for when standing, and a shoulder strap for posture. In this episode, Linda talks about how being a community builder comes naturally for her and what that looks like as somone who works from home yet still has a drive to get together with people. Linda works from home, as does her partner; but they have different personalities and lines of work but do still try to get an occasional walk in when possible. She also uses a peer accountability website called Focusmate with over 7000 sessions and has other people she talks with on the phone while taking walks. Linda's currently planning on a Treadmill Desk Race coming up on August 19th with Justin Higgins (see episode 39 on the Yes, I Work From Home podcast).   Linda is also deeply involved in a growing network of Lean In circles inspired by Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In." The Lean In Together MSP Network has grown from 12 people nine years ago to over 7,000 across six continents, and Linda helped grow this locally and globally through a LinkedIn group of 6,300 members. This positive community building experience motivated her to build and manage Health@Work's LinkedIn group and five subgroups on the virtual coworking platform Focusmate.  If you'd like to connect with Linda, you can find her on LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/390021064439745 (https://www.facebook.com/groups/390021064439745) LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindabrandtmph/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindabrandtmph/)| More info about the lean-in community: Website: https://leanin.org/together (https://leanin.org/together)

Kris is the founder of Reminiscence by Kris LeDonne. She is a New Jersey-based legacy maker who focuses on memory preservation by assisting her clients in finding lost and current memories from videos and pictures and organizing and protecting printed and digital memories. She believes in preserving, managing, and enjoying photos on a new level. A former educator, Kris was working with photo albums on the side and has over 18 years of experience in memory preservation and still enjoys designing elegant albums and photo decor such as gallery walls. She understands the technology frustrations and organization hurdles that people face and approaches her work with compassion and discretion and enjoys educating adults in this way as well, outside of the classroom. Her services also help small businesses who need to organize videos and images of their work for marketing, and she offers a full-service option for people or businesses who need hands-on help but is also willing to teach her clients how to organize and manage their own print and digital memories. In this episode, Kris talks about how she found her passion in providing people happiness through photos and videos, and how she continued to grow as a work-from-home business, transforming captured memories from chaos to simple digital systems. Originally, Kris was primarily working with physical photos for the people in her region, driving around and picking up and dropping off photos and working with them in her home office area. She sometimes works side-by-side with her clients but was able to continue working with a lot of no-contact porch pickup options during the height of the pandemic. Now, she's able to help more people remotely as more and more people are shifting their photo and video storage to the cloud. For those who have piles of paper photos or don't have all their digital photos off of old devices and organized into one place, Kris is offering a course called Digital Peace for those who could use the extra support in getting it all under control so that the photos can be enjoyed and preserved and passed down. You can find Kris, her course, and her website below: Grab Kris's freebie here: https://mailchi.mp/krisledonne/tidyup (https://mailchi.mp/krisledonne/tidyup)  Digital Peace Course page is: http://krisledonne.com/learn (krisledonne.com/learn) Blog:  https://krisledonne.com/blog/ (https://krisledonne.com/blog/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrisReminisce (https://www.facebook.com/KrisReminisce) FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/368987655268991 (https://www.facebook.com/groups/368987655268991) CRM link: http://www.lessannoyingcrm.com/invite/5E958 (www.lessannoyingcrm.com/invite/5E958) Creative Memories (if you were curious) https://www.creativememories.com/cm/kris (https://www.creativememories.com/cm/kris) 

Sabrina St. Peter of Chicago is the owner of SmartSpark Business Solutions which provides bookkeeping services for service-based small businesses, especially those in the marketing industries like content creators, public relations, marketing, advertising, using a digital product to help people track their income and expenses throughout the year. Currently, Sabrina sets up her main workspace so that it all tucks into her hall closet and uses Focusmate for virtual coworking accountability. She generally splits her time between working on her booking business and leading her team and also does the books for several clients as well. In this episode, Sabrina shares how she has a side business where she often dog sits for several of her neighbors and people in her area and has been preparing to embark on a digital nomad lifestyle by housesitting and/or dog sitting while traveling abroad and stateside as well in order to cover her lodging. She has invested in a portable second monitor that attaches magnetically to her laptop and is able to travel with her home office setup with just a carry-on and personal bag. She has been looking into the option of long-term renting her condo out while she's out as well. Since she doesn't have her own animals, she has the freedom to travel freely and also stay locally with some friends and family and in the homes of clients who need pet sitting when she's in the area. She's also planning on staying in co-living spaces designed for digital nomads. If you'd like to reach out to Sabrina to learn more about her bookkeeping business, you can find her in the following places: Website: http://www.yoursmartspark.com/yesiwfh (www.yoursmartspark.com/yesiwfh) E-mail: hello @ yoursmartspark.com

Debbie Page, of Harrisville, New Hampshire, has worn several hats during 18 years of her work-from-home journey, starting as an RN and eventually also as a lactation consultant who met with clients in her front office. She started to work part time with her now late husband with the business he owned, downsizing a warehouse as they embraced drop-shipping and brought the offices home. Debbie eventually took over the Louis E. Page fencing supplies business after he passed away and is still doing that alongside of some of her other projects.  In this episode, Debbie shares some of the ways that she and her husband were able to work separately in different parts of the house but still got together every hour for some dancing to make sure they kept on moving and drank enough water. She and her husband would spend some time every morning discussing their plans and goals for the day. Now that she is living alone, her routines have changed; and Debbie has turned to more journaling and routines to keep herself motivated and find her own rhythm. She now is able to work from more than one place in her house and breaks up her day with several exercise routines as well as several minutes of cold water in the shower (and is considering taking it to the next level with ice in the bathtub as part of her healthy lifestyle). She finds that writing things down before she starts working really helps her focus on her own work and then also uses Calendly for appointment scheduling.  Debbie is now the founder and owner of Woman Emerged as teaching and coaching are her passions, and she is always excited by people who live to learn. She's also finishing up her new book: Woman Emerged: Create the Life You Desire, By Becoming the Woman You Love which should be available this fall. She continues to support moms through the Inspired Mom Summit which is coming up again this September 29-October 2. She is passionate about working from home and wants to empower others to pursue the opportunities.  Inspired Mom Summit: inspiredmomsummit.com Links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.page (https://www.facebook.com/debbie.page) Website: debbiehpage.com If you'd like to contact Debbie, reach out to her assistant to get connected: Jenn @ debrapage.com

Jubee Vilceus is a co-founder of Yellow Tail Tech, an EdTech company based out of Silver Spring, Maryland. His wife, Paloma, is his co-founder; and they started a training company for people with no technical background who are looking for a career change, teaching them either Linux operating system or AWS cloud computing. They work with their team to set up their students for success, including help preparing for interviews, so they can land jobs and make a great income out of the gate as they break into the IT industry after just 9 months or so of preparation. Originally, Yellow Tail Tech had a relatively large in-person training facility with their student base made up of people who lived within driving distance in their local area near Washington DC; but when everyone ended up going remote in 2020 and they changed their classes to a flipped classroom model, they made the decision to expand for any US-based student to attend virtually. This change allowed them to grow quickly but still downsize to a smaller office for their headquarters as all learning is now happening remotely. In this episode, Jubee talks about his daily routine of starting his work day with a couple of hours working from home. He then transitions to his office space after lunch most days of the week, using a docking station and laptop to transition from dual monitors at both of his desks. He and his wife have their home offices set up in different parts of their house and have a very short commute to and from their other office just a few minutes away, often coming and going at different times in order to take turns when it comes time for school drop off and pick up. He has embraced some of the flexibility of being able to work remotely when it suits him for things such as getting back from the gym and checking messages and planning his day. Still, he also appreciates the reset that happens with the change of pace once he heads to the office after lunch for his deep-focused work as well as collaborating with his team a few days a week. However, all the students he works with are remote now and often land work-from-home jobs. Jubee is responsible for enrollment as well as employment outcomes and has found that using online classes helps the students make the transition to the real-world tech environment since most tech companies out there are pivoting to having a remote environment. You can learn more about Jubee and Yellow Tail Tech in the following places: Website: https://yellowtail.tech/ (https://yellowtail.tech/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yellowtailgo (https://www.facebook.com/yellowtailgo) Email: hello @ yellowtail.tech

Michelle Fernandez of Miami, Florida, runs a boutique marketing agency where she and her team of remote contractors work with Facebook and Instagram ads and funnels. Michelle came to the entrepreneurial side after working a long time in the mortgage industry and speaks about how she has handled the switch and which routines from that time she's retained and how she's traded the extremely long hours for more flexibility and freedom.  In this episode, Michelle discusses creating boundaries at home while working as she works to balance a relatively flexible lifestyle while maintaining structure during the workday. She also talks about knowing oneself and how personality plays into whether someone might want or need to work from another location at times to keep things fresh as her daughter does or to be around people, like her husband prefers. Michelle has learned that she can build her time off around her clients' promotional schedules and is to the point now in her business that she doesn't have to work from the road when she goes to visit her adult twins, even though she could. She views working from home as a discipline where she needs to have the discipline to get up and work as well as the discipline to set boundaries and expectations with clients and herself to remember to stop working. Michelle recommends Clickup software as it has been crucial for her as she is managing the team routines, projects, workflows and tracking deadlines. With her office in another room of the house as well as other family members living in the same household, she has learned to set limits on what she will and won't do during her regular work day.   If you'd like to learn more about Michelle, check out her podcast: The Traffic & Conversions Show with Michelle Fernandez. Links: Website: http://themichellefernandez.com/ (http://themichellefernandez.com/) Instagram: instagram.com/themichellefernandez

**** Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! You can check out all about this episode on: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/92 **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Sara Hudson is back for a follow-up interview after a job change where she's now working on the benefits operations team at Google. She's still based out of her same home office just outside of Houston, Texas, but she made a leap and said goodbye to the company she had been at for 15 years. In the past couple of years, Sara has also gone from being relatively new to LinkedIn to seeing the power it has for job seekers and recruiters to find each other and attributes the connections she made through Linkedin to her ability to find a relatively lateral position that doubles her previous salary. In this episode, Sara tells her story about how she went from applying at smaller companies to interviewing for a position at Google and how it felt for her as someone who works in HR to go through the interviewing and hiring process. She is now onboarding with a company where she will help make sure that the benefits materials are clear and easy to navigate for new hires. Please also see Sara's original interview from Episode 46: Working From Home Through the HR Lens https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/46 (https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/46) You can find Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hudson-texas/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hudson-texas/)

Liam Martin is a Canadian remote-first expert who cofounded Time Doctor, a time and productivity tracking tool, as well as Staff.com, an outsourcing company. Liam is also a co-organizer of Running Remote, a conference for those who are building/scaling remote teams. Liam is passionate about using transparency in time management in companies from the top-down, building trust, and empowering teams to work whenever and wherever they want. He has worked remotely for about 20 years at this point and loves to research and discuss the evolution and future of remote teams. He recently co-authored a book, Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World's Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers about remote work methodology such as asynchronous management. In this episode, Liam introduces us briefly to his family. He also shares a bit about his personal routine and home office. When asked about what he did with all of his clothes in his closet when he decided to work from that space, he shared that he built some of his routines around saving his decision-making capacity for larger-scale projects, so he has invested in multiple copies of the same outfit and keeps it at various locations around the world that he likes to frequent. He is currently prioritizing speaking on podcasts in anticipation of the upcoming conference and book release, so investing less time in decisions about things like what he'll eat for breakfast opens up more time for these other priorities. He speaks about how innovation in the remote working industry will change the way we work and argues that 20% of someone's workday is doing work, and the other 60% is doing things around work. Liam and his team use Time Doctor to share with one another how they're spending their time and making the most of their time at work, freeing up more time for the things that are important to them outside of work. You can find Liam and his suggestions in the podcast on the following links: Running Remote: https://runningremote.com/ (https://runningremote.com/) TimeDoctor: https://www.timedoctor.com/ (https://www.timedoctor.com/) Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/runningremote (https://www.youtube.com/runningremote) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liammcivormartin/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/liammcivormartin/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/liamremote (https://twitter.com/liamremote) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liamremote/ (https://www.instagram.com/liamremote/)

Mark Williams is a controls engineer at Egan Company who is living in South Saint Paul, Minnesota with his family. He is working in a flex/hybrid role where he can work nearly all of the time from his home with the option to use a drop-in desk as needed on a location about 45 minutes away. Like many others, he and his coworkers at his previous job unexpectedly started working from home when the pandemic hit; however, his role was more hands-on there as he had to do measurements in person at times, and his team eventually went back onsite. Mark feels that his experience in field service helped prepare him for working remotely. He was often out and about at various job sites in his prior role and needed to communicate from a variety of locations, including when he was traveling out of state or internationally for days or a week or more at a time. Working from factory floors, hotel rooms, planes, helped him feel more comfortable with the nomad side of remote work, with the downside of being away from his wife and kids. Now that Mark has a new degree, he is working in his preferred role at a different company where roughly 95% of his work can be done from home. His employer also allows him to have a fair amount of flexibility in his schedule, and he has tried a few different schedules in the past, including waking up at 4:30 am to get to work onsite by 5:30 am so he can get home before dark which was especially important for him when he was working in factories during the daylight hours. Currently, now that he doesn't have to commute, he gets a bit more sleep if the kids don't wake him up; however, he also gets a lot more family time and can help run errands or pick up the kids from school midday and sometimes works something more like a split shift and wraps up in the evening hours once they're home from school or in bed. Mark and his wife just moved into a larger home, and he sometimes has to change location within his house to catch a quiet spot to take a call, but he is generally able to work from his kitchen and living room where they have a nice morning and afternoon light which is important to him. In the evenings, once their four kids are in bed, Mark and his wife both head down to their large basement room where she works on writing novels, and he works on a board game or two he's been developing. They're excited about their three-season porch and backyard with plenty of room for a large deck and are talking about putting a desk out there as well once the weather warms up a bit come springtime. Mark can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwilliamsfst/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwilliamsfst/)

Mark Degallier, owner and web developer at Little Light Media, appreciates the benefits and challenges of working from home. Being empty nesters and working from home, Mark and his wife, Elisabeth, moved from Wisconsin to sunny Arizona in 2018, specifically to Oro Valley, of the greater Tucson area, after researching the best place for them to settle down. Before entrepreneurship and working from home was "cool", they tried it when they were first married and having their first child back in 1990. After several false starts and many years of struggle, the benefits have paid off and they are now at the place they imagined all those years ago.  In this episode, Mark talks about how he remembers thinking about what he wanted to be when he grew up, and that was to be a "dad". He also wanted a big house, fancy cars, a plane, etc. As he started adult life, his top priority of being a father who was present for his family rose to the top, and he felt self-employment would help him achieve his goals. He tried several times to start businesses and work from home, but the sales weren't happening and they didn't always have the financial margin to sustain the start-ups. After working for several small companies that demanded many hours, mediocre pay, no benefits and long commutes ... he started freelancing. After a few years, Mark was making as much freelancing as he was in his day job for only a fraction of the hours. He and his wife decided to go for it again since it was not sustainable to continue working two jobs, one had to go. Since, his employer already didn't offer great pay or benefits, he started the current business of 15 years! Mark has decided there is more to life than big houses and private planes on a private lake. He decided if he wanted to be his idea of the ideal dad, there would be a cost, and for his family it meant sometimes not having the full benefits package of a traditional job. It has been said, "If you want something of value, there will be a cost.” Mark found that one of the biggest headaches (literally) has been healthcare, especially as he and his wife have had some medical issues. However, working from home and as his own boss has also made it easier to make medical appointments and take the time to manage their conditions. Mark mentions that the cost of healthcare for self-employed people is ridiculous, so he was happy to take on a few additional classes, teaching at a local college from where they lived on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border that eventually provided benefits has eased that pain this year. Mark can be contacted through the contact form on his website: https://littlelightmedia.com Covid project: https://litebook.app

Eric Warner is an IT compliance analyst for Kaplan, Inc, who currently lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin, a small city on the Mississippi River at the Minnesota border. Although he worked in the office in the past, his direct team was not in his local office but rather based all over the place, where there would sometimes be people in conference rooms meeting with people in other offices, including home offices. So, when everyone started working remotely, his direct team members were accustomed to working from different locations across several time zones. He speaks about how his supervisor trusts him to do his job and manages in a way that still offers a good degree of autonomy. This helps him to feel like he can find ways to connect with coworkers as well as keep a firm stop time, regardless of being done with work. Although Eric works with IT folks, his background is actually quite diverse. He originally traveled quite a bit and served in the United States Coast Guard and eventually ended up with a history degree and then a law degree and worked as an attorney in different capacities for a while. He's taught at his local community college as well, and the combination of his experience helped him transition into his current role with Kaplan, where he's been for the past 7 years. He has grown college-age children and recently remarried so is looking at embracing some of the flexibility that remote work can offer such as the possibility of international travel in the future since his wife also works from home.  In this episode, Eric shares some of his tips for remote work including incorporating natural light into the workspace. He's an avid bird watcher and enjoys being able to see out his window while working. He feels that it's important for people to set up their home workspace in a way that is pleasant so that they don't mind being there for an 8-hour workday. Eric and his wife work on separate floors of their home but have been able to establish a routine where they are often able to step away for a walk or even take a nap during a lunch break, and they feel that they've been able to balance their degree of conversation and productivity throughout the day with little breaks here and there. Eric can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-warner-b2b43253 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-warner-b2b43253)

Emily Langr currently lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and works as an account executive for Metro Sales Inc, a local office supply company, specializing in photocopiers and the like. Although she works directly with clients and travels within her territory in her city, Emily was given the opportunity to work from home in a hybrid model about 2 days a week. She does meet with some of her clients virtually so schedules their Zoom appointments for the days she's working from home. In this episode, Emily chats about her background as a home educated student helped prepare her for working from home in terms of time management. Emily has had a variety of IT jobs in the past and also rose to the director level when she was with Mary Kay, got the car and everything; but she took a step back from the extra long hours on top of her day job and made a decision to be more available for quality family time with her husband and daughter.  Emily and her family just made a move from about 45 miles away as she had been commuting nearly an hour on a stretch of interstate that is known to be extra rough in inclement weather. Emily's husband, Ryan (from Episode 1), also works from home, and their daughter is part of an online school, so they decided to move closer to the office so that when she does need to go in a few days a week, the commute is easier. Emily has embraced some aspects of minimalism in the past in terms of using a capsule wardrobe, but when they downsized from a three-bedroom home with a basement to a two-bedroom apartment, she went from having a full office with a closet to working from their bedroom at a small folding table that she keeps under their bed when she's not working.  You can find Emily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekalangr (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekalangr)

Paul Glover is a performance improvement coach based out of Downers Grove, just out of Chicago, Illinois. He started working from home 20 years ago and has found that he can connect and listen well through voice calls with his clients. He focuses on empathetic listening and questions as a way to build relationships and connect with his clients.  In this episode, Paul shares a message about the importance of self-care for those who work from home and feels that self-care requires discipline in 3 main areas: Sleep/rest, exercise/diet, and relationships. He talks about the various "circles of love" in one's life representing the different levels of relationships and how to know when it's time to take a step back from certain kinds of relationships, including cutting out toxic people in order to work on time and stress management. Paul describes himself as the No B.S. Workforce Performance Coach, a "recovering trial lawyer," an ex-felon, an unabashed Starbucks addict, a Chicago Bears fanatic, an online course creator, a speaker on business and leadership topics, and a member of the Forbes Coaching Council. He has a presentation entitled "Everyone Needs a Fool in Their Life," referring to the concept of a king having a jester in his court as a kind of advisor who could openly challenge decisions the king would make in a way that others couldn't. Once he got out of prison, Paul took stock of what skills he had and became a performance coach as he feels that, had he listened to someone willing to share truth, it would have changed the trajectory he was on for a while when he ended up starting from scratch after losing his ability to work as a lawyer. Paul is the author of WorkQuake™, a book that came out before its time but is especially relevant now. It can be found on Amazon. Paul can be found in the following places:  Website: http://paulglovercoaching.com/ (http://paulglovercoaching.com) Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/paul-glover-coaching (https://www.linkedin.com/company/paul-glover-coaching) Email: paul @ paulglovercoaching.com

Andrew Jones is a data analyst who, prior to March 2020, was working from home just once a week as a way to help with his hour-long commute. Andrew is originally from San Diego, California; but he has lived in Arizona for 8 years. He's worked in various analyst roles since 2014. In 2016, he completed an MBA and started working as a senior quality analyst for an identity protection firm. He now works as a data analyst for a consulting firm and is part of a small team that is contracted to work for multiple state agencies around the country. Due to the pandemic, he now works from home full time with an occasional trip to the office to complete some paperwork about once a month. Initially, when he started working from home five days a week, Andrew's productivity was through the roof; because there were some extra fires to put out at work, and, since he didn't need to spend two hours on the road, he got more done on the computer and was catching up on things throughout the evening as well. However, that eventually led to burnout; so, he and the rest of his team have been trying to be more diligent with managing their work schedule, and many shifted their hours slightly earlier as well so they can get off work early enough to still run errands before places close. Andrew primarily utilizes the former commute time for activities such as exercising or chores around the house, and he tries to make time to be intentional about including movement throughout the day, whether it's chair yoga from the office or taking a walk around the neighborhood for a lunch break away from the computer. In this episode, Andrew shared how he likes to keep his work tasks and household tasks separate. His wife is back to work onsite, so he's home alone with their pets throughout the day. He uses a task organization app to help keep track of things he wants to get done at the house when he has availability, setting reminders to get started on certain things outside of his working hours. As an extrovert looking to maintain some in-person interaction, he's been also setting aside time with friends who are vaccinated after the workday is done.   You can find Andrew through Linkedin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-jones-mba-144666b2 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-jones-mba-144666b2) Some things Andrew recommended during the interview: Yoga with Adriene: https://youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene (https://youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene) Any.do app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/any-do-to-do-list-calendar/id497328576 (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/any-do-to-do-list-calendar/id497328576)

Megan Burke is a certified feng shui consultant based out of Brooklyn, New York, who has taken a special interest in home offices and started WFH Feng Shui. She is passionate about helping her clients feel good in their work spaces and homes by using feng shui principles in ways that are easy to implement. She initially worked as a foot reflexologist all over NYC doing corporate health fairs, and this led to an interest in Chinese healing arts that focus on balancing the five elements in our bodies and environment. Now with a feng shui certification, she empowers people to feel harmony in their homes through elemental balance, space clearing, and beyond. In this episode, Megan talks about several elements of Feng Shui that go beyond simply placing furniture in a pleasing manner. She talks about how people generally go home to rest and recharge, eat, and sleep. When someone needs to be productive and active in that same space, there are certain things they can consider as they set up a dedicated work space. Megan provides those who are new to feng shui a deeper look into its fundamental principles, considering things that affect all five senses. Megan created a digital product "Getting in Command, Change Your Life!" and offers video consultations on making your work-from-home life productive, efficient, and full of energy.  Megan can be found in the following places:  www.wfhfengshui.com (home office specific) or www.samadhi.com (general principles)

Ellen Goodwin is a productivity consultant, TEDx speaker, and author who uses neuroscience-based principles to enable individuals and businesses to overcome all types of procrastination, be more focused and manage their energy instead of their time so they can be more efficient and effective with their lives. Ellen believes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to productivity, which is why she advocates for experimentation to find the tools and techniques that will work seamlessly with your life and your business, no matter what you want to accomplish. She is the author of DONE: How To Work When No One Is Watching and the co-host of The Faster, Easier, Better Show podcast. Facebook: facebook.com/EllenGoodwincom Website: http://ellengoodwin.com/ (EllenGoodwin.com) Check out her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/done_the_book/ (https://www.instagram.com/done_the_book/)

Chris Addams is a digital transformation specialist, software architecture consultant, and podcast host of That Tech Show, the podcast that reveals the magicians behind "magic" in the technology industry. His background includes helping bring Amazon's Prime Video to the UK, and he's worked for other large corporations in the past as well. In this episode, Chris talks about how he's been renovating his home in London for 4 years. When he's not working from home; and recently he's been eating, sleeping, and working from the same room as he makes a big push to the finish line to get the biggest projects done sooner than later. He talks about how the renovations have affected his ability to cook and exercise so hoping to finish soon so that not only will he and his wife have a dust-free house again, but he's also looking forward to dedicating more of his time to starting a new business relating to automating things in hotels. Chris coaches and consults and discusses technology with other tech experts, though the teams he's worked with aren't necessarily all home-based. However, even before video conferencing was common, he was experienced in connecting with teams from remote locations around the world, sometimes an entire conference room of people connecting with another conference room. Now, the dynamics are somewhat different as people are logging in from home. In That Tech Show podcast, they often talk about working from home as we all figure out how to deliver the technology in a post-pandemic world. Chris can be found on his podcast's website as well as on Twitter: https://thattech.show/ (https://thattech.show) Twitter: @ThatTechShow_

Katie Matthews works from her home in Portland, Oregon, as the leader of the Customer Success team at The Presentation Company, a women-owned consulting firm helping enterprise customers create a culture of storytelling within their teams. Katie has worked from home with TPC for nine years, but she's been working from home for 15 years altogether. She's been the director of Global Accounts & Training Operations, with rare onsite or work trips. In this episode, Katie shares how she spends time leading her team as well as communicating with clients directly and is on Zoom a fair amount. As someone who is mindful of how she presents herself on camera, she didn't usually divulge that she was working from a home office but appreciates that it's become normalized as of late. She was able to set up her office in a portion of her basement and decorated the background where she takes her calls with shelving, books, and a chair with a decorative pillow. Katie has a 14-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter, who have typically been in summer camps or school while she's working, though she was able to adjust her workflow and schedule somewhat during the pandemic to accommodate sharing homeschooling along with her co-parent. Her team is in a season of growth, and she talked about how there needs to be an open conversation with an employer around expectations relating to remote work, especially around issues such as childcare. When she's not working, Katie enjoys traveling and running with her group of local moms. If you'd like to learn more about Katie, you can reach out to her via email or on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/katielmatthews (www.linkedin.com/in/katielmatthews)

Elissa Unton is the CEO at ArcVida, a modern career guidance company based out of Los Angeles, California. Elissa partnered with career happiness coach Anna Hunter, and together they've been able to take career coaching to the next level. ArcVida uses an online software platform that provides ambitious U.S. professionals with the structure, expert guidance, and community to find and land fulfilling work, faster. Prior to founding ArcVida, Elissa spent several years mentoring college undergraduates while also recruiting and hiring professionals for her own corporate finance teams. She mentioned several helpful blog articles on their website that will be useful for professionals who are looking for a change. In this episode, Elissa speaks about her past and present experience working corporate jobs, how she transitioned to working from home, and she lays out some of her experience as a serial entrepreneur. While earning her bachelor's degree, she started her career in investor relations, working full time at a small agency and then, after graduating, working in communications and investor relations for a small B2B e-commerce company. She moved to work at a larger investor relations agency before transitioning to strategy consulting. While working full-time by day in construction rental fleet and enterprise valuation, Elissa earned her MBA at night. Later, she managed and led financial planning and analysis teams. In 2015, while working full-time, Elissa also co-founded the Skid Row Spa, a volunteer project that resulted in the Refresh Spot, a publicly funded, 24-hour hygiene center for people living outside in downtown LA. Elissa talks about how prioritizing exercise every day has been really important for her physical health and focus, and she loves her Pelaton and the Peloton app as well and doesn't mind taking a call while on a walk around the neighborhood as walking and talking is her favorite way to hold catch up and networking conversations. She also shares about how she's been exploring different ways to do her shopping and trying out meal delivery services. During the heat of the pandemic, she and her family tried many different services but landed on a balance with a weekly grocery order delivered by the local market weekly and one meal planning (recipe and ingredients) delivery a week for four meals. She finds that this is the right blend of convenience, cooking, health, and quality; because she discovered, by trying delivery of fully-cooked meals, that the ritual of listening to jazz or folk or whatever happy music, after lighting a candle while cooking for her family makes for a happy bookend to the workday. Elissa enjoys mentoring first-time founders and strategizing on start-up financial models. She also volunteers as a finance consultant for her church and is excited to lead the local elementary school's book fair in Spring 2022! You can learn more about ArcVida or contact Elissa in the following places: Website: https://arcvida.com/ E-mail: elissa @ arcvida.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArcVidaInc Twitter: https://twitter.com/arcvidacoaching Also, don't forget to check out some of the helpful blog articles that Elissa mentioned during the episode: https://arcvida.com/blog **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/79 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories...

Tina Sequeira recently left a full-time remote work position in order to focus on Trouvailles, her travel-themed subscription box business that she had been developing on the side. Tina is well-traveled and is currently located with her husband and daughter near Montreal in Quebec, Canada; however, she originally spent the first 15 years of her life in Dubai, UAE, which was an excellent launch point for her family to travel internationally each summer as they left to enjoy cooler weather elsewhere. Tina launched Trouvailles, a bi-monthly travel subscription box, last year during the pandemic. In March 2020, when pandemic lockdowns began, Tina was preparing to go on year-long maternity leave. Shocked by the mass travel shutdowns worldwide, she began to think of a safe way to bring authentic travel experiences directly to people's homes. As she had more time on her hands, she found herself researching and creating a detailed business plan, all on her phone while holding a sleeping or nursing baby. By October, she had launched a fast-growing innovative subscription box service that delivers a curation of authentic imported foods and lifestyle products from new destinations every two months. Now, a year later, it has been named amongst the "Best Travel Gifts of 2021" by Air Canada's enRoute magazine. In this episode, Tina speaks about how, over the course of her 8 years with her previous company, she experienced working remotely, working onsite, and a hybrid of each before entering into the lockdown stage of the pandemic where many colleagues ended up working remotely unexpectedly and how that affected some who had worked remotely for some time. For the past year, she was continuing to work her full-time job in addition to launching the subscription box company, and as of October 2021, she was able to resign from her previous job and took on a part-time position with a company out of the UK. She talks about some of the struggles and freedoms she's experienced and some creative ways she was able to keep a two-year-old happy and busy while attending zoom meetings during a season when their daycare was closed. You can check out Tina's subscription boxes here: https://trouvaillesbox.com **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/78 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Carol Delmonico of Bend, Oregon, is a life coach, mentor, and author with a background as an RN in health coaching. She enjoys helping people focus on their mental well-being and now works with people who are discouraged by the current status quo lifestyle and want to live in line with their deeper values and have more meaning and joy every day. Carol has been helping her clients transition through some of the changes the pandemic has brought into the lives of so many, and she is quick to say that it's not so much about work-life balance that people are looking for but simply life balance. In this episode, Carol shares how she's been able to connect with others through laughter yoga, even online through Zoom. Getting down on all fours and baa-ing like a sheep is a great way to set the mood and lighten the atmosphere to help people move into deeper laughter and the feel-good hormones that come with it, even for those who might not initially feel like laughing. She also talks about the importance of celebrating small wins by taking mini-breaks about 2 minutes long. Carol feels that adopting an attitude of wonder can be life-changing, and she encourages others to ask questions that start with phrases such as "I wonder what would happen if..." and "I wonder how I can..." Carol and her co-creator, Casey Davis, wrote guidebooks for Wonder Uprising and host workshops in person and online together. They offer mentoring and classes where people can reflect, consider, and unfurl a wider and deeper wondering. Carol works the majority of the time as a solopreneur and loves to mentor people who feel disconnected from parts of themselves and are looking for greater well-being through reconnecting. If you'd like to reach Carol, she can be found through her website: Website: https://wonderuprising.com/ (https://wonderuprising.com/)

Jennie Whitt is a busy mother of two in Indianapolis, who has undergone a lot of changes in the past year or so, including buying and moving into her neighbor's house, starting a doctorate program, leaving a role in a corporation to branch out as a consultant, and starting a pop-up craft store in a former dental office inside of her home. In addition, she's actively involved in her local community in more than one capacity as well as has created a couple of online communities, including one for people who found themselves working unexpectedly in remote-work positions, temporarily and permanently, Remote Working Community. She's also the admin of a more intimate yet growing Facebook group specifically for women who are juggling life with kids and work, Remote Working Mamas. In this episode, Jennie talks about how she spent 16 years with a company and kept busy with a number of projects in a tech marketing, learning/development field roll, software project manager, kind of a jack of all trades. She ran a sales team and customer service group, supported hundreds of sales reps, did a big migration of data, and did some big launches. However, she recently chose to change paths and start a consulting firm. Jennie describes herself as passionate about connecting users with the software that makes doing what they do possible, well-rounded experience in software product management, project management, accounting, and marketing. She's currently working on finishing up degrees in instructional systems technology and adult education at Indiana University. Jennie also shares about some of the ups and downs of traveling away from her family for several weeks last spring, moving, what it was like trying to find in-home help for her kids, how her husband ended up taking over her office at one point, and some of the ways she combats a desire to work longer and longer hours to keep her family as her first priority. Her former colleagues knew her as Jennifer Whitt, but as she is transitioning into her new consultant role with new clients, she's embracing her preferred nickname and owning it. You can find Jennie in the following places: Website: https://www.verandaindy.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniewhitt/ **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/76 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Elizabeth is a grant writer with a background in plant biology, dance, and public administration as well as education. She has worked remotely for VIPKID and Orange English as well as writing grants remotely. Website: https://fundforempowerment.org/ (https://fundforempowerment.org) Contact: info @ fundforempowerment.org **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/75 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Louise Hopkin is a professional organizer and owner of a business called The Space Reclaimers, based out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She's originally from New Zealand, so has made a few big moves in her lifetime; and, over the years, she has been on a quest looking for a job that suits her well and has done a mix match of full-time office work and some administrative assistant work. About 5 years ago, Louise was drawn to helping others reclaim their space by helping them downsize, declutter, and organize their belongings. Louise says that she is not a naturally organized person, though her husband is; but she quickly discovered that having a clutter-free life is the key to keeping organized. She is able to help others create the skills and have the tools to go from chaos to calm in their homes and their lives! She's spent the last several years working out of her home office as a base and then spending a good portion of her time working alongside her clients as they make decisions about what they want or need to keep, be it paperwork or in their kitchen, garage, closets, etc. As people gain control over their personal belongings, they not only reclaim their space but also have more time as they're not always looking for things. In this episode, Louise talks about her own minimalistic home office in what was the mud room area of their townhome. She has divided some of her working hours between a part-time administrative assistant job and her professional organizing work. With the decluttering business, she originally was spending about 70% of her time working directly with her clients and about 30% of her time on her own administrative paperwork at home; but with the pandemic and pivoting and all of the things that have changed in the past year and a half, she has flipped to doing more like 70-80% of her work from her home, taking on more of a coaching and training role, motivating people to work on their own belongings by helping them address the psychological ties they have to their stuff. She teaches about other time-saving strategies such as meal prepping and setting up routines and daily habits so that things don't pile up when life throws a curveball. Louise has a Podcast called Inspiring Calm. Louise can be reached in the following places: Website: www.thespacereclaimers.ca E-mail: info @ thespacereclaimers.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespacereclaimer **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/74 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Jan Heirtzler has been sewing ring slings for babywearing families for 20 years out of Durham, New Hampshire. She is well known among certain pockets of the babywearing community, and her company Sleeping Baby Productions was considered by many to be the gold standard for handcrafted ring slings. She was busy sewing 40+ hours a week for a few years; however, things have slowed down, and she's ready to consider her next adventure. Jan has announced that she will be changing gears and closing the chapter on her sling business by the end of 2021, and she was willing to share her story about what she's been up to most recently (which includes making a lot of face masks). In this episode, Jan shares that her career goal as a child and teenager had always been teaching; but, when it came time to do an internship, she quickly realized that she didn't feel that she had the stamina to be the kind of teacher she wanted to be. A series of temporary jobs led eventually to part-time work alongside her husband, doing outreach and web design; and when her first child was born, so was Sleeping Baby Productions. In the beginning, she was working part time doing freelance web design, and productivity was possible only when the baby was sleeping; but wearing her homemade carriers in town, Jan saw interest in her ring slings and started sewing them on the side. It wasn't until a couple of years after TheBabyWearer [dot] com (a website and forum devoted to different styles of baby carriers, a market largely dominated by work-at-home parents in the mid-2000s) went online that the custom sling business really took off. Once it did, it was an uphill trajectory through the height of the market in 2014. At that point, Jan would open the store once every three to four weeks, take in 300 orders in a couple of hours, and then close until she'd sewn through those. She talks about those years as being overwhelmingly busy at times, where her kids would play in the backyard where she could watch and talk to them through the window next to her sewing machine. Fast forward to 2021, as the baby carrier industry has evolved, sales are now going mainly to mass-produced and -marketed carriers, with work-at-home parents making up only a tiny fraction of the customer base at this point. As the handmade babywearing market is slowing down (and expenses related to safety testing for baby-related items and business insurance have increased), Jan feels that it seems like a good time to leave the industry for something else. She's pursuing some part-time work again, helping underserved children have better access to STEM education; however, she's still on a quest to find something again that would feel as meaningful as empowering families to hold their babies close. She's starting to clean up her sewing room/workspace and sewing her slings with her remaining inventory but transitioning most of her fabric stash to quilting fabric for face masks which she continues to make and sell online. She will be keeping her Facebook group, but her Sleeping Baby website might eventually get shut down. However, Jan doesn't plan to stop sewing any time soon, and she's dabbling in other crafts and creations, so you can look for her under the future site and/or on social media under Jan Andrea Handmade to see what she's up to next. You can find pictures of Jan's sewing room and workspace on her Sleeping Baby Productions Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sleepingbabyproductions Website: www.sleepingbaby.net Contact: info @ sleepingbaby.net Also, search for Jan Andrea Handmade to see what she is making after her ring sling store closes at the end of 2021. **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/73 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate

Sarry Ibrahim has been working from home for the greater part of the past 10 years, currently working for himself in Chicago, Illinois, as an independent financial advisor/coach and independent insurance agent. He's been living in an apartment close to downtown Chicago but is closing on a house about 45 minutes away in the suburbs this week. In this episode, Sarry chatted about some of the challenges of apartment living in the city while working from home, including the smaller living space and ability to hear neighbors while on calls. He is looking forward to some of the changes that will bring in terms of having more space and being able to set up his home office away from the busier areas of their household. Sarry has worked office positions as well as held remote-work positions as he's worked for other companies. He was eventually able to grow his own business in the hours outside of his 9-5 position and got to a point where he had enough of his expenses saved up for that he was able to leave his job and go out on his own. Sarry helps real estate investors, business owners, and full-time employees grow safe and predictable wealth regardless of market conditions using a financial strategy that has been around for over 160 years. He started this journey when he was in grad school completing his MBA. He originally worked for companies like Allstate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Healthspring, and Humana before founding Financial Asset Protection, a financial services firm that focuses on one sole concept; the Bank On Yourself Concept, also known as the Infinite Banking Concept. He gives away two books on his website and offers a one-hour consultation with people on his website for Financial Asset Protection. You can find Sarry in the following places: Website: https://www.finassetprotection.com **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/72 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Mark Asquith is a public speaker and the CEO and co-founder of Captivate FM, a podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization platform based out of the UK. He's built several businesses since he started working for himself and with partners in 2005, and some might dub him a serial entrepreneur. Although Captivate FM is a newer podcast hosting option on the market, Mark and some of his colleagues have actually been hosting podcasts on their platform almost since the beginning of the podcast era when they started a tech startup called Poductivity for podcast interaction as well as Podcast Websites, another global success as the No. 1 managed WordPress solution for podcasters. They've made their way up the ranks as podcast hosting platform and were recently ranked in the top ten, among some of the oldest and largest hosting services. In this episode, Mark shares about some of the renovation projects in their new home, how they're currently using a kitchenette that's part of his above-garage office space while redoing their main kitchen. He and Sam are preparing to expand their family soon so found a home that would have enough bedrooms and still allow them to maintain separate offices as their roles in their company are very different. Mark has gone back and forth from working from his home office and a more formal office setting as well as a hybrid for much of his working career, even more recently; but he's currently exploring the pros and cons of keeping his office and podcast studio space versus having his team meet up in other locations as needed for collaboration as they all primarily work remotely for the time being. Mark and Sam have traveled quite a bit, especially right before the pandemic, networking and collaborating with other podcast experts in the States and other places around the globe. He has personally recorded over 1200 podcast episodes and was recording out and about as he traveled, and he talked about some of the gear he has used for years and has access to in his recording studio. He's currently recording a podcast about Star Wars as well as The Podcast Accelerator, where he talks about all things relating to growing and monetizing your podcast. You can find Mark in the following places: Website: https://www.Captivate.fm Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrAsquith **** Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/71 Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! **** If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity