The Future is Remote w/ Kenneth Hellem: Recent Episodes
Kenneth Hellem
The Future is Remote is a podcast about the Future of Work, and particularly Remote.
Hear from leaders, thinkers, and doers, shaping the future of work, discussing topics such as remote and hybrid work, gig economy, automation, and AI, and how to lead remote teams.
In a special crossover episode titled "Transforming Teams," Kenneth Hellem from "The Future is Hybrid" and Anna Rex from "The Remote Lab" join forces to explore the challenges and opportunities of transitioning teams from traditional office settings to thriving hybrid and remote work environments.The Remote Lab Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/05DvkeJqkkYsCqPfSXDK2G?si=5ca1c1a6b3fb4766LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-rex-838b3a2/About The Remote Lab and Anna Rex The Remote Lab is a knowledge node within the future of work, and work in collaboration with research institutes, public and private companies to increase the body of knowledge within the field of the future of work. Anna Rex, an analyst at the Remote Lab, is passionate about is passionate about any and all emerging paradigms in how we organize work, and what that might mean for individuals, organizations and societies. As the host of The Remote Lab Podcast, Anna shares her insights, experiences, and interviews with experts in the field, to help professionals and businesses navigate the world of remote work with ease.Find more reports and insights on remotelab.ioEpisode HighlightsKenneth, the Head of Hybrid at Beleco, believes that living the remote experience and sharing its benefits are crucial for a successful hybrid and remote work environment. Anna Rex, a fellow remote work enthusiast, echoes these sentiments and emphasizes the importance of exploring the human side of remote work.Together, Kenneth and Anna discuss the unique role of a head of remote, agreeing that it requires a delicate balance of people management, HR, enablement, operations, leadership, and finance. For larger organizations, top leadership buy-in is essential to ensure the head of remote can manage this complex matrix of components effectively. With HR becoming a more strategic component in organizations, the head of remote plays a vital role in marrying theories of economics and psychology to create successful hybrid work environments.During the podcast, Kenneth and Anna explore the challenges of change and remote work, emphasizing the need for individuals to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Kenneth shares an insightful quote, "If you can't define why you're going remote or going hybrid, you're never gonna succeed." Anna Rex adds that understanding the underlying human component of problems is essential before attempting to solve them. The focus should not only be on productivity increases but on the personal benefits of remote work as well.Both Kenneth and Anna believe that as more people live and share the benefits of remote work, a playbook of best practices will emerge to help companies tackle the unique challenges they face. In the meantime, organizations need to find their own way to create flexible and intentional hybrid work environments.Listen or Watch To learn more about Kenneth Hellem, Anna Rex, and their insights on transforming teams for hybrid and remote work success, tune into the special crossover episode titled "Transforming Teams" and don't forget to follow Kenneth and Anna on LinkedIn for more insights, tips, and thought-provoking discussions on the future of work.
In this podcast episode of "The Future is Hybrid," host Kenneth Hellem welcomes Job van der Voort, CEO and co-founder of Remote.com - a platform for managing distributed teams. Job has been a remote work pioneer for over a decade and has a wealth of experience to share.Van der Voort shares his experience building a remote-first company, discusses the benefits of remote work, and the challenges of transitioning from in-office to hybrid.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jobvo/Summary of the podcast:Van der Voort talks about his background and how his experience working remotely for GitLab inspired him to start Remote.com. He discusses the importance of building trust and communication in a remote team and how he and his team manage to maintain a strong company culture without physical office spaces.Job believes that the greatest benefit of remote work is that it gives people more freedom. "You are not actively making people's life worse by restricting their freedom," he says. "If you do work that doesn't necessitate being physically in a particular location, requiring people to do so means that you are restricting their freedom, freedom in time, but also their freedom in space. They can't live in the location that they want to live in. They have to live close to an office. They are not fully in control of their time because they have to commute. That is very rigid."Having different groups of people (remote vs. in-office) creates a multi-class system and is not effective. Van der Voort also shares his insights on the future of work and the shift towards remote and hybrid work models. He emphasizes the importance of leadership buy-in and setting clear expectations when transitioning to a remote or hybrid model.Throughout the conversation, Van der Voort stresses the importance of flexibility and autonomy for employees and the need for companies to adapt to the changing work landscape in order to attract and retain top talent.There is no good reason for a company to require employees to work from an office if the work doesn't necessitate physical presence.Remote work has become increasingly popular in recent years, and Remote.com has been at the forefront of this trend. However, building a remote company from scratch is easier than transitioning an existing company to remote work.About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast)Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/#TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #JobvanderVoort #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #Remote.com #WorkCulture #HybridCulture
Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Florian Jacques, CEO of Midstay.He founded a music festival in Belgium that reached 20k+ festival goers at the age of 23.He has traveled the world to work with startup founders and helped them reach their business goals with innovative user experiences. San Francisco, New York, Australia, Barcelona, SEA... are some of the places where he has worked closely with Executives to help them design their products. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-jacques/ Summary of the Podcast:Midstay is a company that provides team retreats for businesses struggling to communicate their company culture. They offer certified local concierges to manage the retreats and provide local knowledge. Midstay has seen success in their B2B services, with over 250 requests and 27 companies in negotiation.The Importance of Retreats: Companies are investing in retreats to bring employees together for team bonding, annual planning, onboarding, and rewards. The goal of the retreat should be established first to plan activities and bookings accordingly. Retreats create intentional employee experiences and memories, which are important for retention and attracting Gen Z workers. Companies are willing to invest in retreats multiple times a year, especially as they reduce real estate costs.Planning a retreat is a big job and companies should consider reaching out for help. Midstay is a solution for any companies that are willing to bring their team together, boost company culture, and reduce turnover. Companies invest in team retreats as an important investment in building company culture and reducing turnover.About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast)Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/#TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #FlorianJacques #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #OfficeRetreat #WorkCulture #HybridCulture #RetreatForTheCompanies
Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Dave Cairns, Office Futurist & LinkedIn Influencer.As an independent-minded person, he started off his career out of university as a professional poker player where he was ranked as one of the top 100 online tournament players in the world for a time. Along with his outstanding team, he focuses on working with high-growth companies in the tech sector, Space as a Service Operators (#SPaaS) like Convene, financial services firms like CIBC, and also with landlords representing each of them on their office leasing needs (which are increasingly becoming “non-traditional”). Summary of the Podcast:In this podcast episode, sponsored by Beleco, commercial real estate agent Dave Cairns discusses his belief that remote work will not kill cities but will instead reinvent them. Cairns coined the term "Homad" to describe his second coming as a digital nomad, living in a place he loves while still being able to work remotely. He believes that remote work allows him to live his best life by choosing where he wants to be and still being able to work with companies globally. Cairns sees a huge opportunity for the commercial real estate industry to play in the middle space between going to the central office or staying at home. He believes that technology will help nudge us in the right direction in terms of how we co-locate with one another productively. The landscape for what's available in terms of office spaces is poised to change greatly towards branded spaces that are managed and serviced by operators, which comes with a huge opportunity to buy space in many permutations of on-demand. Cairns thinks that this shift can also shift culture for companies to unbundle how people come together.About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast)Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. When companies no longer have to hire within a 60-minute commute radius, a world of opportunity opens up. You can now hire the best regardless of where they work, and your people can have the flexibility and freedom to work when and where they prefer.He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/Website: https://www.kenneth-hellem.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f1SO9rBLFONKhzUmVdfZ3?si=49fee0a3d3eb467e&nd=1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefutureisremote4533/videos #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #DaveCairns #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #OfficeFuturist #LinkedInInfluencer #HybridCulture
Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Jordan Carroll, the rockstar of the remote.Jordan Carroll, The Remote Job Coach is also the author of the book “Remote for Life. How to find a flexible job and fast forward to freedom” Check his book here - https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Life-Flexible-Forward-Freedom-ebook/dp/B0BKLX9P6DYou can also listen to him on his YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@JordanCarrollMore about Jordan: Jordan Carroll has worked remotely, consistently, upwards of 8 years for:↳ A global Fortune 50 tech company with over 400k employees (IBM)↳ A fully distributed, remote-first travel company with 150 employees (Remote Year)↳ Multiple other startups with a range of 2-50 employees as well as my own businessesWebsite: https://theremotejobcoach.com/Show Credit Sources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc3csM8YdxEhttps://www.kenneth-hellem.com/ikigaihttps://runningremote.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-sellhorn/About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast)Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. When companies no longer have to hire within a 60-minute commute radius, a world of opportunity opens up. You can now hire the best regardless of where they work, and your people can have the flexibility and freedom to work when and where they prefer.He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/Website: https://www.kenneth-hellem.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f1SO9rBLFONKhzUmVdfZ3?si=49fee0a3d3eb467e&nd=1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefutureisremote4533/videos #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #JordanCarroll #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #TheRemoteCoach #RemoteRockstar #HybridCulture
Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Christian Lustig, Co-Author of the Digital Work Experience.He talks about how to succeed in with distributed team & shares learning from his book https://booksrun.com/9781471776748-digital-employee-experience-put-employees-first-towards-a-more-human-digital-workplaceMore About Christian:Christian supports organizations in the field of internal digital communication, services, and collaboration so that they can better facilitate work. He helps professionals to make good working agreements, with themselves and their colleagues, so that they experience headspace and heart space in hybrid organizations. And he ensures there's cohesion between digital systems to create a more efficient and effective digital workplace.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiaanwlustig/About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast)Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is hybrid.When companies no longer have to hire within a 60 minute commute radius, a world of opportunity opens up. You can now hire the best regardless of where they work, and your people can have the flexibility and freedom to work when and where they prefer.He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/Website: https://www.kenneth-hellem.com/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f1SO9rBLFONKhzUmVdfZ3?si=49fee0a3d3eb467e&nd=1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefutureisremote4533/videos#TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #ChristianLustig #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #DigitalEmployeeExperience #HybridCulture
Video episode available on Spotify and YouTube.
Sebastian Rudenstam is the Founder and CEO of Beleco, providing Subscription Based Furniture for Office Spaces and Home Offices. In this episode, Sebastian shares his vision for how Hybrid and Remote work will have an equally big impact as the car had back in the 20s.
We discuss the recent Swedish #Hybridfight and aka #distansebråket, innovation adoption curves, and maturity models. And if you stay to the very end you'll get a sneak peek of what we've been collaborating on for the last couple of weeks.
Ben Hamley, Work Futurist and Collaboration designer at JLL, strapped EEG to people's heads to learn what they're brians really thought about Hybrid Work.
The results are not what you might have expected.
Nini Fritz is the founder of The Work Happiness ProjectAs a Remote Team Building Coach, she wholeheartedly believes that when people thrive, organizations thrive! Therefore she is convinced that the freedom to work from anywhere shouldn't have to come at the sacrifice of our need for human connections & a sense of belonging.
Steve Cody the CEO of Bunking.com has a wealth of knowledge and truly understands the value of creating world class software, building stellar teams, and connecting communities around the world by providing everyone with equal access to online marketplaces.
Having accumulated over 30 years of experience in building and selling companies that have employed thousands and generated over $750 million in lifetime sales, Steve has had success in multiple industries including software, marketplaces, services, and rentals.
Link to Kenneth's Bunking Pod
In this episode, Henry O'Loughlin shares his experience building remote teams since 2014, and jokes about the bad advice given to companies forced to work remotely during the pandemic. We examine the most reason trend of companies wanting their people to return to office, and spoiler alert, we still believe the future is remote.
With his company Build Remote, he's helping small companies avoid the same mistakes he encountered, and accelerate their success in a remote world.
Kekke Hyvämäki is writing a Master thesis about Remote work, and is the creator the invaluable Notion page: Rock the Remote.
Mentioned Episodes & Resources
🎙 Tony Jamous (https://spoti.fi/3hd1TL7)
🎙 Nicolas Cava (https://spoti.fi/3h36QWE)
📜 The Future of Work Newsletter (Hanna Larsson)
The COVID Pandemic and our response to it caught millions of businesses completely off guard. This does not have to be the case in the face of the unfolding climate crisis. We need to take all the lessons learned during the pandemic and apply them, especially in the ways we get work done from anywhere.
Peter du Toit is the founder of FutureWorkIQ, who assists leadership teams develop resilient workplaces to mitigate against the impact of the climate crisis.
In this crucial episode, Peter shines a light on the climate crisis and explains the impact of Remote work, and what we can all do to make a positive impact.
Dannii Mathers has been in sales for over 20 years and has had her fair share of questionable bosses. After two decades of observations, she realized that the effectiveness and engagement of people at work is largely down to how a leader intentionally coaches, so she decided to become a coach (https://www.danniimathers.com)
Dannii now helps eliminate the gap between leaders and sales folks so that leaders become better coaches and salespeople get the coaching they deserve to thrive and feel valued.
In this episode, we discuss the differences (and similarities) between coaching remote teams vs. in person. And how to become a better coaching leader. We talk about how to implement feedback loops and explore various frameworks such as OKRs, Traffic Lights and Sentiment Tracking.
Referenced episodes:
🎙 Chase Warrington on Humanizing Remote (https://spoti.fi/3U7N8b7)
Alex Olthoff is on a mission to change the world through remote work. When he is not doing his day job, he is focused on supporting Pakistani talent or remote founders who want to build startups.
Listen to his inspiring story of why he focused in on Pakistani talent, and how he went viral by being authentic.
If you're looking to break into remote work and you are from Pakistan, check out his app: https://www.paktalent.app/
Michelle Coulson is the founder of Remote Rebellion
With over 8 years of recruitment experience, Michelle has seen thousands of CVs/resumes, and interviewed/hired hundreds of people in Marketing, Tech, Digital, Admin, and Design.
In this episode, she shares her story of how she founded Remote Rebellion and gives her advice on landing your remote job.
In this Podcast takeover, Anna Faber takes the host role, and interviews Kenneth Hellem about how he became the Remote Evangelist.
We start by talking about Kenneth leaving his dream job at Google, to move to Spain. How the wrong job and a breakup left him feeling lost. And how using IKIGAI and 50 virtual coffees helped him find purpose.
Kenneth shares how he decided to become a Remote expert, by launching this podcast, and by getting to know the leaders of the industry. And how this has all been part of his (not so) hidden agenda to find his dream job.
Show Links:
Kenneth's IKIGAI: www.kenneth-hellem.com/IKIGAI
Blogpost: How to discover your purpose using IKIGAI
First ever Video episode on The Future is Remote podcast (Spotify only). Watch until the end to get a product walkthrough of jobgether.com
Jobgether was "born and raised" during Covid times based on the strong belief that the future of work will be flexible and the observation that the future is actually happening now.
Listen to Alex Hernandez talk about remote and the story of how they founded Jobgether.com
Referenced Episodes:
- The Benefits of Remote w/ Tony Jamous
- Humanizing Remote w/ Chase Warrington
What is Co-living? And is it more than a dorm room for adults?
Listen to this special collaboration episode with Andrew Williams from Remote Tribe
Remote Tribe is a magazine and community that empowers people with knowledge to design a lifestyle around working remotely while traveling the world. We write about working spaces, travel, remote lifestyle, finance, and other things that will help you escape the 9-5 grind.
Check out this great article on the topic: https://www.remotetribe.life/coliving/best-coliving-communities-asia-usa-europe/
Follow Andrew and Remote Tribe on:
Website: https://www.remotetribe.life/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RemoteTribeLife
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remotetribelife/
More information about K9 Coliving (previously Tech Farm) here.
Darcy Boles is a "Dinosaur of Remote" - She was leading remote teams before it was “a thing.” She pulls her design architecture from global experiences and cultures from around the world, using positive psychology research to align company ecosystems with shared intrinsic values and experiences.
Her deepest why is that work doesn’t have to suck, and she has dedicated her career to ensuring that it doesn’t.
In this episode you'll learn how to build a remote-first culture, and the importance of being intentional, e.g. by putting in place a Head of Remote.
https://www.shiftwithdarcymarie.com/
Chase Warrington is the Head of Remote at Doist, the remote-first company behind Todoist and Twist, which collectively supports 25 million people globally. He is also a regular contributor to the leading remote-work organizations, conferences, and publications – earning him a spot on the 2022 LinkedIn Top Voices for Remote Work and in the 2022 Remote Influencer Report.
Chase has worked remotely for over 12 years, as one of Doist’s 100 employees in 35 countries. He is a regular Forbes contributor, instructor, and consultant to many of the leading remote work organizations, as well as the host of his own podcast, About Abroad.
In this episode lifestyle coach, Kristin Vierra, shares her journey from ex-pat to "slowmad". She talks about how the pandemic helped her pivot her coaching practice to help others wanting to make the transition to remote, and what to think about if you are considering a remote lifestyle.
Read more about Kristin at www.kvierracoaching.com
Tony Jamous is the CEO and co-founder of Oyster, a leading global employment platform that aims to remove the barriers to remote work and distributed hiring.
In this episode, he shares his story of building Oyster and helping 1000s of companies "go remote". We explore the benefits of remote work, including the benefits for Business, People and Planet.
If you want to support the show, the number one thing you can do is share it on your social media, tagging me and the guest. That helps me get the word out and I'd really appreciate it!
In this episode, Nicolas Cava, Engineering Manager at Zendesk shares how Async saved his life, and his lessons implementing asynchronous work at Zendesk.
To learn more, check out his content on LinkedIn and at https://www.nicolascava.com/
Erik Olsson, VP of Operations @ Omnipresent talks about how they scaled the team from 12 to >400 people, and the benefits of operating globally.
Ten thousand years ago we were hunter-gatherers. Later the Industrial revolution brought us to cities, and now we're trying to escape our cubicles.
In this episode, we discuss how work has evolved, and begin exploring the future of work. Paula Melbourne shares her journey as a global talent professional and reflects upon how the world has changed.