Why I work remotely

I’ve spent a lot of my career working with people who want to create change in their life. Often, they find themselves prevented from following what they know to be right. When we explore their thinking it’s all too often down to a fear of making a new leap.

We all have this side to us. Reasons not to do things. A million ways it could go wrong. The warmth of the safety net. Sometimes that’s helpful, very often it’s not.

I’d started to feel an itch about living in the UK for some time. I’d always wanted to travel the world but found a million reasons not to.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a little hypocritical. Especially since I was supporting clients to be brave, courageous and follow their intuition.

Then COVID struck.

It was a cataclysmic time for a lot of us, but it did show that we could still function, perform and invent without being in an office.

I have always been a strong advocate in being more focused on outcomes than where those outcomes get done. It seems so much of our office life is ritual rather than results focused. I don’t believe that’s right, or healthy. It breaks my heart to see people having to spend 3 hours in traffic jams rather than spend that time with their family or their passion – for no other reason than “that’s how we do things”.

What it also taught me was, in a majority of cases and with a bit of inventiveness, I can be just as useful to clients regardless of my location.

And so, rather that rest on my laurels, I embarked on my own adventure.

To date, I have road tripped over 4,000 miles across Europe and backpacked my way through Central and South America – all while doing what I was doing in a poorly lit meeting room with stained carpet tiles.

It’s allowed me to follow my passion as a photographer too, which you can check out at Fascintoria, and pursue my love of mountaineering. For me, summiting a 5,000m mountain one day and working with great people the next is what brings me joy. And isn’t that the point of all this? Working out what brings you joy and doing it.

As an unexpected consequence, my clients are now global too. I’ve met some amazing people along the way who I also get the pleasure to work with.

Working while I travel isn’t without its issues. But neither was working in an office. I’ve certainly had better wifi in the jungles of Costa Rica than I got in a Costa coffee. It’s also not for every client. But if you try to appeal to everyone you appeal to no-one.

So, if you’re still reading this, that’s why I now work remotely with clients. If I’m going to help clients be brave and find the courage to follow what matters to them I should really be doing the same.