Matt Vance: Welcome everyone and thanks for being with us today. We’ll be talking all about remote work and how it impacts people and business. Joining us is Alex, Helsen founder of Destination Remote. The newsletter that takes you around the world. Thanks for being with us Alex.

Alexandre Helsen: Thanks Matt and Crista super happy to be here and to be able to talk about My passion with you guys.

Matt Vance: And where are you calling in from today?

Alexandre Helsen: So today I am in Belgium but I am only here for summer because I live in Mauritius. So we’re here to visit family and friends and in a few weeks, we’re heading back to our home place in Mauritius, which is a very, very small island on the eastern side of Africa.

Matt Vance: Wow, that is pretty cool. I like it. That’s all right.

Alexandre Helsen: it is We can say that.

Matt Vance: Tropical. So let’s learn a little bit more about Alex is a remote work advocate who helps other advocates speak up and build an authoritative brand on LinkedIn. He founded the destination. Remote newsletter Weekly tips for remote workers to be more productive in the newsletter. He meets remote Founders, employees and freelancers worldwide.

Matt Vance: So just to kind of kick things off. Alex, tell us why you started a destination remote.

Alexandre Helsen: And with better. So basically I recently quitted my full-time job to go all by myself. I always knew it’s been a few years that I’ve been really passionate about the remote work, like some of my friends call me Mr. Remote because I’m always talking about remote work on LinkedIn and

Alexandre Helsen: there’s a lot of people creating newsletters and everything for at the moment and I also wanted to share something but I didn’t really know what I knew it would be around remote but I just didn’t want to be yet another newsletter. And then one day I stumbled upon a guy who took challenges all over the world and it gave me an idea. let’s talk about remote and challenges all over the world. So I was like, Hey, let’s meet one remote worker in every country of the world and have them share tips. And the fun part is these can be Christmas said, in the intro freelancers, it can be founders of companies. It can be just employees.

Alexandre Helsen: It can really be anyone. so I just wanted people to share their tips, both on the company side as on the person working site. So I wanted to share this with people and make it fun. Have people also meeting new people. So, yeah, that’s a bit where it all started and it all came from.

Matt Vance: What a journey? That’s awesome. So looking back,…

Alexandre Helsen: It is.

Matt Vance: I think a lot of people think about during covid, how there’s this huge shift to remote work. And now companies have kind of called a lot of employees back to the office and some have still embraced that either fully remote or a hybrid situation. So for you you’re an advocate of remote work. Tell us from your perspective how culture can drive greater profits.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah, and that’s really interesting because I really am an advocate. But I’m kind of not someone who wants to do remote work and this is again responding to your question about the culture, the flexibility to people to choose from where they work and have kind of a flexibility. That’s where you can really make a difference. The hard part is for many companies, it really has to be intentional about it. You really have to go for it and create a remote first culture. Where you give the opportunity to people who come in the office, but also who work remotely. to get the same opportunities within the company to grow, but also you give them the same tools to be productive there. So often we see that.

Alexandre Helsen: Companies saying, Okay, we’re getting people back into the office thinking that people are gonna be more productive in the office. I mean, spoiler, It doesn’t work like that. It’s just about how you manage the people and I think this is really important in remote work. It’s all in the company culture. And I have a really good example about it. After covid, I switched jobs, I worked at a Unicorn tech company in Belgium which was really nice. And the company had a great culture because we really could work from anywhere we wanted. They were really flexible around the timing we wanted to work and people just were more productive and worked better and we’re more motivated because we got this flexibility in our employees, who really trusted us. So it was not like,

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Alexandre Helsen: If I wanted to go to the hairdresser at 10 am for one hour, I just went to the hairdresser and there was no problem about it and people were just like, okay, as long as his output is good, his job is done. We’re happy about it. And of course we had coaches and everything to be productive. We did, there was real support.

Alexandre Helsen: But there was not this micromanaging part, where you had to be present in the office to make sure that your manager could pass by check on your computer, if you were actually working or if you were rather chilling on Facebook or something. So, this is where,…

Matt Vance: Right.

Alexandre Helsen: For me, on the culture profit is gonna come by itself. You don’t have to do anything more, of course you still need to put the effort in it, but for me, it’s one of the main points to have a profitable company to have people who are really motivated and who want to deliver good work because they know you trust them. So this is really my opinion. So it’s not about forcing people into remotes or forcing people back to the office. It’s about giving them the flexibility to work At their And when they are most product and at the places where they can be most productive,

Alexandre Helsen: Absolutely.

Matt Vance: Trust the culture.

Alexandre Helsen: Absolutely and I think like you said, some people will feel better going to the office sometimes weak or even full-time, others won’t and that’s the beauty of it. For me to remote work, is more a word from anywhere where rather than work from work in the office. It’s really about flexibility. So Totally. You got it. That’s what 100% what I meant.

Matt Vance: And one other thought that I had just kind of heard Crista statements and also your experience, Alex is I’ve done a lot of employee engagement surveys over the years and I’ve seen that trust is a critical driver of employee engagement. And oftentimes what

Matt Vance: leads to trust from the employee side is opportunities, both with projects, but also not filling micromanage. I would see the word like micromanaged or phrases that describe micromanagement or as a lack of trust. And it feels like You’re not free to do your best work because someone’s always looking over your shoulder, whether that’s physically in the office, what you said, your manager walking by and seeing if you’re on Facebook, or if you see that your managers always chatting you, hey, how much progress have you made on this project?

Matt Vance: I’m aware of the due date. I’m working on it. I’ll keep you posted, like that feeling whether it’s, in the office or remote there can be a feeling of empowerment or feeling of micromanagement. And I think it’s important to have that trust in place.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah, 100%. and I think this is exactly like what you’re describing. This is exactly where we’re gonna see a big shift in the coming years and while talking about profitability because it’s the main topic here also, but it’s gonna lead to it because I mean people who if you get the trust, you don’t want to break the trust you want to be trusted because, that if you’re trusted, you’re gonna keep growing, you’ll get new opportunities to grow within the company. But also on a personal level, and once you lose the trust,

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Alexandre Helsen: better switch jobs because it’s really hard to really create the trust that you had in the beginning. This is 100% something super important to build trust and to show it to your employees. Not tell them, I trust you, but just show it for example, like perfectly said, by not asking every five minutes, Hey, where are you standing? How far are you in the project? Yeah, it’s not just to give them a date and if at the end of the project, they’re not done. Then maybe you can trust them because they didn’t respect the deadline. But if everything goes every time just leave them and if the work gets done the work gets done. So

Matt Vance: Totally, I agree with that. Yeah, and I think what we’ve seen and what we just discussed a little bit is that there’s some drawbacks in person, always in the office work and there can be some downsides. Also to remote work and maybe the hybrid is the answer. But what advice do you have for someone who’s looking to work with whatever drawbacks there may be?

Alexandre Helsen: Episode.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah, so that’s something really interesting because that’s one of the main points that I personally want to address about remote. because a lot of people here or you get the freedom, you get the flexibility and wow, that sounds amazing. But it’s not all good and everything is perfect. There’s definitely a lot of drawbacks. I would say that the first thing you have to do is really have a kind of an introspection. If remote work is really good for you. If it’s something you really want because I know some people, they just don’t want to be alone all the time or for example, to say, yeah, but I can go to a co-working and then they see the prices of working. They’re like, okay, maybe I’ll just stay home because I can’t afford to go to work and my company doesn’t want to pay for it. really think it true before going. That’s the main part because it is not for everyone, but if you do it. if you

Alexandre Helsen: Remotely in a good way. It’s really fun. But you have to know yourself. First this is one and then the two others that I have had myself. and I see a lot of people I talk to, they have it as well as loneliness, you can pretty quickly get lonely. So the first thing you have to do is make sure that you have a good social life. They have a hobby, something that at least a few times per week, you’ll just go outside and do something.

Alexandre Helsen: Boundaries also, very difficult because we say, there’s a lot of numbers on the other average American wins about one hour a day on commuting. But then in the end over 50% of remote workers that are actually spending that time working more because they just can’t set boundaries and they can’t just close their computer at the end of the day and they’re always connected. So this is also something that you really shouldn’t be aware of and

Alexandre Helsen: I didn’t do it at all in the beginning and If you don’t do it from the beginning, it’s really hard to change with. If you start doing it right from the beginning, it’s way easier to maintain on the long term and to get this healthy life will work life balance, working really separate boats. So those are two of the main things. There’s a lot of other stuff, but these are the things you should know to have some self-discipline to take up a hobby, go to it. People have social interactions, meet new people, and reach out to people. It can be online as well but just don’t isolate completely and set some clear boundaries. And there’s a lot of tips, which my remote and the people I’m interviewing, I ask every week for trees. So I share three tips every week: Three tips to avoid feeling lonely. And to be a better or more productive, remote worker, and

Alexandre Helsen: You see that most of the people, they really have the same issues and they give tips for these two or three elements that I just mentioned. So, So, this is the three main points I would say. For sure.

Matt Vance: With some very purposeful social interactions. That’s critical. I know for myself. I try to have lunch every so often with friends and coworkers and peers. I guess not necessarily coworkers but other people that I know for my net Birkin and also setting those boundaries is key.

Matt Vance: I was reading your newsletter yesterday and I saw the three tips you shared from Pedro in Mexico. He said You want to stick to a routine and I have some consistency there. You want to take regular breaks, get up and move. So you’re not just two stationary sitting at your desk or…

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Alexandre Helsen: Mm-hmm

Matt Vance: wherever you’re working and then I really like that. He mentioned practicing self-care and taking that time to prioritize some exercise, and make sure you’re getting good sleep, and healthy nutrition.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah.

Matt Vance: All those things are good in general. I actually ran college in track and our coaches would ask us about our eating, and sleeping and those types of things because with running, it’s a very calculated sport, unlike football or basketball or soccer, where you can’t predict how it plays gonna go, you can predict, which direction you’re going to run.

Alexandre Helsen: Mm-hmm

Matt Vance: and how much power and energy you have based on your inputs of sleep, and energy and exercise and I think remote work can be pretty predictable in that same way where you’re going to work. Hopefully you’ve got a set up that’s consistent for what type of work you do? You should know what type of people you work for. If you’re freelancing if you’re an employee, who you work with and so there’s a lot of predictability that if you take some time to be intentional, you can really win at remote work.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah, that’s 100% true and I think it’s something. That most people are not aware of until it happens, but yet you said it very much it’s not only remote work. It’s really something very important in life, in general.

Alexandre Helsen: Because there’s also a lot of unhappy people that are working in offices or just in their job. No matter if it’s remote or not and working on your self-care and taking into account, listening to your body and your mind, listening and no, before something bad happens, like a burnout or back pain, because you’re sitting too much, you’re not exercising. You just need to really listen to your body before it’s too late and that’s really nice. And that’s one that most And remote workers. I chat with it, just like it comes up over and over again. A lot of people mention it and a lot of people say I underestimated this in the beginning but now I make it kind of a priority because otherwise I just feel my energy and my motivation slowing down and plunging. So

Matt Vance: That makes a lot of sense.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah.

Matt Vance: Yeah and I think those tips you mentioned and that Matt mentioned stick to routine take regular breaks practice self-care, I think. That can also include people who are at the office all day. I think sometimes just when you’re out of the office.

Alexandre Helsen: Yeah.

Matt Vance: Those kinds of things are almost forced upon you because you have to be in your desk at a certain time so that routine aspect kind of happens naturally and maybe the office has certain things in their culture that kind of get you up and out of your chair, here and there or you have to go to the bathroom and it’s further away than in your house or something, but I think those tips are just as important for those who are working in person and I just wanted to add as so. I am a mom of four and

Matt Vance: I was able to work at the university near our home for quite a long time, and it was remote work that even made working for them accessible and possible. For me. I did actually go to the office for a long time before covid, but there was some so hybrid work there and

Matt Vance: They were so nice to let me bring my kids to work. So that,…

Alexandre Helsen: No.

Matt Vance: yeah, that made it possible for me to get out with my kids, which has Mom was a super positive thing but outside got more children. And I got to number four. That was like, I had number three, right before Covid, and the number four after covid. so, it was totally remote by the time that I quit my job, and I was just so grateful to my employer and I really worked hard for them, because I was so grateful that they gave me that flexibility.

Alexandre Helsen: That’s exactly what I mean. It’s always a given, it always goes both ways and If it doesn’t go both ways, I mean, then probably you are very bad at choosing your company or you’re very bad at recruiting the right people. But if,…

Matt Vance: Yeah.

Alexandre Helsen: If you give to people and they don’t give back, there’s something wrong. and so, that’s really true. you said, If I did this or not, it wouldn’t matter if it was specially for you or it was their culture. But the fact that they did this gives you more motivation to do well for them because you know that you’re lucky to be there and you want to show your gratitude by showing that you put in the work And that’s…

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Matt Vance: Exactly.

Alexandre Helsen: There was something that I wanted to add with the profitability whole concept for companies. I think the most important asset of a company is humans. You have it for sure and the culture profits. and the way you run and the way the company goes in the future of the company, over the long term. and you don’t have to convince me anymore,…

Matt Vance: Yeah, I know I’m preaching to the query there…

Alexandre Helsen: I’m already convinced about it.

Matt Vance: But that’s the perfect note to end on. Thanks so much, Alex for tuning and thanks, all to all our listeners for tuning into the culture. Profit podcast. And we are just so excited about it. We’re trying to implement these tips into our own life. We’ve had a lot of adjustments with being remote working together too but thank you for all the tips that you shared today and also to companies to provide that flexible culture for their employees. Thanks everyone for listening in. Thanks Alex.

Alexandre Helsen: Thank you guys and hope to speak very soon.