Episode 74
Follow The Host
Exploring the Future of Flexible Work
What if your traditional on-site job could offer as much flexibility as a remote job? What if you could strike a balance between work and life, without compromising your productivity? Work futurist, Domenico Pinto with his extensive knowledge and experiences, sheds light on the evolution of workspaces and the growing importance of flexibility in our future work lives.
He shares his journey, from starting a business in Germany to becoming a public speaker promoting his vision for a better future at work. Our conversation touches upon the concept of digital nomad villages, the benefits and challenges of a nomadic lifestyle, and the importance of community building. Domenico introduces us to the Great Shift, a collective aimed at changing workplace mindsets and modernizing how we approach work.
We also delve into the practical side of implementing Pinto's concepts in businesses designed to balance people, profits, planet, and purpose and how companies can use it to their advantage. Join us as we explore the possibilities of transforming our work lives.
Topics of Discussion
Domenico’s Resources
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom line Toarc United can help.
Like the show?? Please leave a Review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Apple Reviews
Spotify Reviews
Podchaser Reviews
Sponsored by: Toarc United & Citizen Remote
Episode 74
Follow The Host
Exploring the Future of Flexible Work
What if your traditional on-site job could offer as much flexibility as a remote job? What if you could strike a balance between work and life, without compromising your productivity? Work futurist, Domenico Pinto with his extensive knowledge and experiences, sheds light on the evolution of workspaces and the growing importance of flexibility in our future work lives.
He shares his journey, from starting a business in Germany to becoming a public speaker promoting his vision for a better future at work. Our conversation touches upon the concept of digital nomad villages, the benefits and challenges of a nomadic lifestyle, and the importance of community building. Domenico introduces us to the Great Shift, a collective aimed at changing workplace mindsets and modernizing how we approach work.
We also delve into the practical side of implementing Pinto's concepts in businesses designed to balance people, profits, planet, and purpose and how companies can use it to their advantage. Join us as we explore the possibilities of transforming our work lives.
Topics of Discussion
Domenico’s Resources
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom line Toarc United can help.
Like the show?? Please leave a Review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Apple Reviews
Spotify Reviews
Podchaser Reviews
Sponsored by: Toarc United & Citizen Remote
All right, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Thoughts of a Random Citizen, the Citizen Remote podcast. I am joined today by Dominico Pinto. Dominico is a work futurist, a professional event speaker, business consultant who has helped over 4,000 working professionals. The founder of the Great Shift, a company that assists C-suite executives and companies create high performance workplaces. And also the author of the Great Shift, a book about mindset, work-life balance and the future of the workforce. Dominico, welcome to the podcast man, thank you and thanks for having me. Yeah, dude, looking forward to this for some time. I think we started to try to schedule it over a year ago, I want to say, when we met at the Futures Remote conference, and I've been really looking forward to this and you've done a lot since then. I've done a lot since then, so it should be a pretty good conversation.
Speaker 2:I like what you said. We started talking about it in November last year, so it seems like ages ago.
Speaker 1:I mean, I know time flies, but it's been quite some time. So, dom, I typically like to start these by kind of jumping into a little bit about your past. But before that, what the hell is a work futurist?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really good question. One of my speaking engagements I got introduced as a work futurist and then suddenly it kind of stuck and then my staff loved it so we started using it more. Overall, if you look at a work futurist, what it would be is like any other futurist, just to focus purely on the work element of it. So anything in relation to how we're going to work in the future in terms of organization, in terms of how we organize people, how we organize the workforce, how we organize organizational structures, all on these aspects basically what I look on on a daily basis. So that's where it came into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I know people will think work futurist is just remote work. Is that kind of where you see that going, because you mentioned a lot more beyond just remote work, but is that kind of what that falls into the realm of?
Speaker 2:It doesn't. It doesn't. So remote work is definitely something which is growing, but it doesn't work for everyone. I'm basically more focused on the work in general as well. So remote work is we are fully remote as an example, I advocate for remote work, but more than remote or hybrid, the key word for me is flexibility, or the key words are flexibility and freedom. So what we really need is more of that, Because why people choose remote settings is because of the flexibility and the freedom.
Speaker 2:So in some areas it might be I want to travel more. I want to do that while I work and I want to take my work with me. In others areas it might be I just want to be more present in my parents' life, in my kids' life, in my social circles. I have specific needs. Maybe you have dogs and cats and other animals that you look after, so scheduling a normal schedule might make it a bit of a problem. So when we talk about the future of work, I like to look at all aspects, not just the work, but, of course, remote work. In the last couple of years has been growing. The movement of the genome has been growing, and it is something that I spend a lot of my time with.
Speaker 1:What do you think for those who don't have or maybe are even shy away from shifting to remote work? How does that flexibility play out in that type of organization? Because I know one thing that is really cool for remote work is if you don't work really well at 8am to 12pm or something in the morning there, but you work better in the afternoon or even at night, remote work creates that flexibility. So I'm just curious, though what is the future of work in an organization that still wants you to come into the office?
Speaker 2:So when we look at traditional on-site workers what I call them is what you refer to, maybe as people that go into the office every day or most days. In the office they are around 80-90% of the time and they spend it from one location, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be in the office from 9 until 6. Even five years ago, when I was working in Australia and we started working with some contacts working in manufacturing settings and they implemented flexible working hours and that gave some of the flexibility to be able to come in the office late or into the workshop late, and others the opportunities to come in early. So the result was I remember this beautiful story where one manager got up a bit later and the daughter was like that and you're still here? And he was like, yeah, I'm still here, I'm going to work later today. And six year old daughter turns around and goes like does that mean that we can have breakfast together today, like on the weekends? And that was one of those aha moments where the penny dropped he could now have breakfast. That was what it meant for the child.
Speaker 2:So, as a business result, however, the workshop was now open for 12 hours a day because suddenly, when we had the conversation, we were a lot of people that were really happy to come in later, and we were a lot of people that were really happy to come in even earlier than before.
Speaker 2:So, from a work perspective, that covered that aspect. So what it really means is to rethink how we do work and what's needed to be done on site and what's not needed to be done on site. Even with one of my peers from university he works in the medical field and then they looked at it and realized that only 20% of the tasks need to be done on site perspective. Right, wow. So that means that even if you want to be 20% of the time in a five day week, you're looking at one day a week that you need it. The task needs you to be in the office. You may choose to do that more often, but either way, there's a lot more flexibility and freedom that is given to people. That is there. We haven't really capitalized on it yet.
Speaker 1:Well, amazing, and we're going to dive into a bit more of the details there. But I kind of want to take it back and dive into who you are. I always like to see how people have found the path that they're on today. We've been knowing you and had conversations and hung out with you. I know that obviously you have Italian parents. You're born and raised in Germany. You spent what 10 years or so in Australia. You're now living in Madeira. You're pretty global. I know you were just talking to me. You were actually supposed to be in the Middle East for this conversation, although you had to postpone that. What has got you into the mindset of moving so frequently, and how has that kind of led you to where you're at today?
Speaker 2:I always say I was born in Germany, but for me Germany was never the place. And when I was old enough, I started traveling and the first place I went to was England and at the time my English was a catastrophe and it really got me hooked in terms of like, wow, this is pretty different than in Germany or Italy, but what else is there? So I went and lived in Dubai. I went and lived in Australia and Australia. I thought this is it, I'm going to stay here. And then later on I realized, okay, maybe not. And spent nine years in Australia. And then I came back to Europe and the thought was like one location, a multiple location. I was traveling with my partner at the time and we sat on avoiding COVID and just starting to travel around places that give us more flexibility, and from there, somehow I realized that I wanted to see more before I settled down.
Speaker 2:I am a slow nomad. I have a base. So I have a base in Madeira where I spend most of my time, but I do roam around and my goal is to discover new places every year. This year I've done four countries so far and I really enjoy it, but also enjoy taking my time. So I'm not a person that needs to travel all the time, but I travel quite frequently and I take breaks in the middle, and having this place in Madeira is idyllic. It's nature-driven, it's a bit more relaxed. It's a good balance to go and do a lot of speaking engagements.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't ever ask you to speak ill of the country you're born and raised, but you seem pretty certain and I've asked you quite a few different times why was the quick decision for you to be like I don't want to stay in Germany?
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong about Germany, it's just it's not a match and I had my phase where I didn't like Germany and now I like Germany. I just know it's not for me. So I have my siblings there, I'm very happy there, I've got my parents still there, I've got friends and family, basically. But for me, first of all, there's a big thing, which is the climate. I'm not one for cold weather, so it really gets to me and really changes my mood, and that already is a big one right there. The other part is I enjoy more of the Mediterranean, of the South European lifestyle, and it's also missing and I really like to be near the sea. So that would only lead to a lot of North Germany, which is very cold man, so that doesn't work for me. In terms of entrepreneurship and mindset it's also more aligned to other countries. But I always get this misconfusion that it's not anything negative about Germany. It's just I don't feel myself there as much as I do in other places.
Speaker 1:You just brought up the mindset of entrepreneurship outside of Germany. Can you speak a little on how entrepreneurship operates and kind of that Mediterranean, if you will mindset, because there really is a different pace, which you know. Something is that you preach and are very focused on. You said when you were younger that you did that grind and it just exhausted you and now you're like I take my work life pretty seriously, the balance that is. So yeah, could you speak a little bit on that, the entrepreneur mindset in those kind of Mediterranean countries?
Speaker 2:What I noticed is that you cannot generalize about all material countries, but there is one and element of more Making it work, and all countries have different problems. So when I was in Germany, for example, starting a company is seen as something like really difficult and almost really bad and it's gonna be so complex. Rather go and work with the government. When you look at it from a perspective of South Europe, it's more connected to achieving something, creating something and creating freedom for yourself. So those perspectives are really very different.
Speaker 2:In South European context you see more of let's just try this and do this right, and you see less of that in countries like Germany, where you are more used to Having this big proof of concept and also sometimes I felt like it took a longer time in a German context to be taken serious and, rather than in other parts of the world where people will support you differently More at ease at giving your shot and recommending you for that one in the German context like, okay, let's wait for six months first and go from there. I say that with obviously the biggest caveat being I haven't lived in Germany for a long time, even though I started the business seven years ago and did it for a few years in Germany and that might be very specific to the area I'm in. I know, for example, you go to areas like Berlin, a very different, much more entrepreneurial and much more tech focus. So it depends on the spots you're in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and do you envision yourself staying in Medea for the foreseeable future? Are you wanting to?
Speaker 2:What I learned from life is that never say never right. So this is the irony. I left Dubai. At the time my partner wasn't in love with it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't like some of the social commercial elements. But one of the biggest things that there was no pathway to citizenship. And when I left it and eventually moved to Germany, first within Australia, and Australia was the country of immigrants, right. So I spent nine years there, spending quite a few time and resources on becoming a citizen, becoming a permanent residence, and never happened. And by the time I left, dubai was offering a pathway to citizenship. So I thought Australia was gonna be my last move and it didn't happen. And then now I'm much more relaxed. So I do really enjoy here at the network of a beautiful nomad community, curated nomad community. I have my local connections, many friends. I have everything I desire from that perspective here, but also know that things can change pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:I'm still so jealous of anyone who has a European passport, because the mobility you guys have from country to country is Well, it's vast, obviously. But the cultural differences that you guys can get and just go pick up and learn another language like, and have that legal process already ironed out is so luxurious for you guys. Without you know, you guys are probably used to it by now. But you know, in the US you can move, you know just as far, if not farther than you can you know within Europe, but it's the same, same language, same culture, same.
Speaker 2:it's a bit different here and there but it's quite nice absolutely agree with you, where Only a few things that I think I'm lucky. People keep saying are you lucky that you can have this last time, everything like that, and I see like, yeah, some, some way I really worked out on creating it. So I don't know if that's like definitely grateful for it, but for my European passport that's an absolute lack, absolutely nothing to do with it and I'm very lucky to have it. So it makes things a lot easier, not only in Europe but in general.
Speaker 1:Yes, it gives you a little mobility so I know that you obviously do a lot of speaking engagements as well, you know, to help promote what you do. What got you in this speaking? Is that something you were always doing? Believe it or not.
Speaker 2:I used to be a catastrophe. That's public speaking. I don't think I've seen anyone worse than me. I was in university and all these ways to get me through speaking and presentations and a lot of help for a lot of people. But eventually I realized that I needed to get good at it and I really worked quite hard on it. And it started when I was in Australia, when I started doing a lot of facilitation and what I realized is that in order to shift people's mindsets and In order to shift companies, culture and how people operate, I had to talk to them right, and if you have to talk to them, you want to make the biggest impact you can and you don't want to leave anything to chance. So that was kind of like where it all started and then from there it was a lot of work going into it.
Speaker 2:Why later became such a big thing? It's more connected to my personal. Why so my personal? Why is creating better tomorrow, and I'm just one person and with public speaking you can reach more people and with that you can reach it for free as well. When you do things like a podcast is accessible to a lot of people, so I always like the component that I obviously have to make a living, even if I try to make my rates as accessible as possible to everyone and I do a lot of volunteering and and then the work for social enterprise and have that, that focus. But regardless of that, speaking at the conference on a podcast and panels and online, it reaches just a lot more people than I could otherwise.
Speaker 1:So do you find that there is still, you know, during the speaking engagements and stuff, if there's still a big knowledge gap between you know, the execs that you work with at your company, the great shift and the speaking engagements? Do you find that there's still a really big you know knowledge gap on the future of work and how these, these processes and these improvements can be made?
Speaker 2:I would say yes, and allow me to elaborate why I say yes.
Speaker 2:The gap is not necessarily in the information, but how the information is translated into action of data for the business.
Speaker 2:So if we say people prefer to work remote, that's one thing, but if you present the data, that basically Anyone who's a performer has a choice will pick remote work, even though we might be spending 80% of the time From one destination, from one location. But it basically means is that if we are focused on offering the job only on site, we just filled it out 80% of the applicants, and what it also means is that we retain in the 20% that are probably not the best targets, right, and the best applicants. So my work, in some ways, is also to translate this information. And if you're fine as a business and I can't this is so important to me, what everyone is here five days a week that I'm prepared to have only the worst applicants at the twenty percent Applicants, and I'm trying my luck and I'm sure I can develop when now, this is what you can do with it, right, it's fine, but it's always like we become really bad at translating that I need that information into data that you can use for your business, for yourself.
Speaker 1:So I think that's where the biggest gap still is Do you get like a specific pushback when trying to communicate this data.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say pushback is just we never have those conversations, really have those conversations on a pure data driven approach. So I give an example I've chosen for remote work myself. I prefer being in the office with people. But I don't want to go back to what I had before, where five days a week I was in someone's office and I was working there Because I didn't know that I didn't give me anything on my private life and my relationship stuff.
Speaker 2:So I remember my last gig in austria just before covid, when I was constantly in the road and I spent something like twenty out of twenty twenty two days Out of my home and in a bmbs in hotels. Yeah, it was great from a work perspective but from a personal perspective that's not there. And if I look at it, it's not a Coincidence for me that if you look at consultants, coaches, business coaches very often have lonely lives and divorce and broken relationships and compromise relationships, because just this that's part of it. So more than pushback, I think Is very few to present the facts and have the conversation in a human way where you can really understand the other side and connect with it and have it and communicate in a proper way.
Speaker 1:Do you find it easier to monitor, like project based remote work? Is you work in a full remote company? I work in a full remote company. It's pretty easy to see, in my opinion, who's turning in work every day and then you know. On flip side of that, when you haven't, you know office. Do you feel that there is a bit more difficulties in Determining somebody's output just because you see him every day? Like if I see someone every day, I'm gonna think I'm coming in there doing their work. They're showing up on time, they're putting in the extra hours, but maybe they're not even performing as much as somebody else you don't see as often. Like do you see that there is some benefit in that regard?
Speaker 2:or I don't know. For me, this is Is one of those common questions and debates and I'm not always even clear if I if I got it, because when I look back I can look back at my experience. I used to work in an office setting up to seven, eight years ago. I even when I started I work from a co-working space now. Even there we used to be a lot of people that I would see you on a daily basis and I knew very little about when I read it back to now, where I've been operating in the remote setting for many years now and for the remote setting last three years. When I look at that, some of the team members and collaborators that I've been working with the last five years, I know them pretty well and I've never met them first and that's partly because of the logistical part of it and call it met most of my Collaborate with some of them. I still escape that because of covid and pregnancies and all of the other things, but I know I'm really well and I know when they're working and they know when they're working almost more than when I was in an office setting, because when you are in office setting you can be tempted to think that someone is working because you see them on the computer, you see them doing things, you see them physically at the desk, but that actually has nothing to do with with output. Is just someone physically being there. When you're in a remote setting because you don't see them working, it almost makes it easier to assess whether they are working or not, right?
Speaker 2:But here's the other element of it, and this is where some of that gap comes in the knowledge gap we're talking about. Before. Most of the leaders, organizations and managers have never been trained into how to lead remote teams. They've almost been expected to get up to speed and have been expected to do so and then to learn how to do that. So very often we just don't have the most easiest Knowledge of that and therefore missing the mark on that. So it's not even a fault, we're just expecting that. I had to turn around the lives, especially if you look at middle managers, who are some of the busiest people. Organizations now, on top of their 12 hour days, also have to learn how to work remotely and it's like how are you gonna?
Speaker 1:do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think biggest things for me and like being able to manage a team remotely, as you said, it's so easy to determine are they giving me the work that I signed in like, are they turning in projects?
Speaker 1:It's so easy In, I think almost that coming in and showing up on you know it does you don't have as much camaraderie, and so I think there's, you know, probably a new wave and maybe technology that can help remote teams connect a bit more, because I think that that's one thing that remote work does lack Is the ability to kind of become more attached to the company that you're working for. When you show up every day, you see your, you know what, eventually become your friends. You have a bit more of an attachment to the company and I think that that does Need some fine tuning in remote work. But in terms of not being distracted by the fact that you see that person every day and really just see the work that they do every day, it like flips it and it makes it so much easier to determine is this person really worth what we're paying them. But it does, I guess, take out that that personal element, which can be quite important in the business setting.
Speaker 2:But you can still still find ways around that. So most of the companies I work with, most of the entrepreneurs I work with you, or treats for the staff, internal retreats I need regularly. I do the same terms of me regularly with some of my team members, so you can create it that way. But in saying that, I know some remote teams that I work with. They are more connected than most organizations that I work with in the face to face. That, where you are more connected, and then they this is one of the big misconceptions that remote means we never gonna meet, and that couldn't be further from the truth. That might be a possibility that some people never meet, but it's not a default setting. So I have this company that I've done some coaching before it's in. It's one of those great examples I don't only meet regularly in teams and as a whole company and all that people will literally get together and travel together as a team. So like, hey, we have the retreats in, let's say, croatia as an example, not to make it any comparison.
Speaker 2:But is anyone interested to also, before or after, see anything around that is Montenegro, is almenia, is italy, is Slovenia? He agreed things about it. Is anyone keen to work and travel together, and that happens with people just doing it by, by their own doing. The company doesn't have to facilitate that. If you look at it, it's almost like you go back 20 years and when you work to the even 10 years you want. In companies where you have a great culture and great environment, people would meet after work, right? It's same concept. People are, we are people and we're driven to be, to connect with people and remember one of their earliest examples of a great culture and a great customer sensitivity was apples, and one of the metrics on hiring people was would you go out with that person for beer? Now I have no doubt that this apples was a completely remote company at the time. The results would be very similar, right. So people that are serious about creating company culture it's not restricted on office yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And funny that you say that because one of the things that I evaluate when hiring somebody is like what I enjoy going on vacation with them, because that's essentially what's gonna happen at some point in the future Is we're gonna have a retreat, we're gonna get together and hopefully all enjoy spending actual time with them, because you know actually have to spend time with them. You just message back and forth. But funny that you say that I think the questions and which hiring slightly tweaked. And I know you mentioned getting retreat together and one thing I actually didn't bring up at the beginning about what you do is you're quite involved with Albania and I believe you even works pretty closely with kind of an organization and I wouldn't call it a retreat. But can you kind of speak a little bit on what you're doing in the work you're involved with down there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been become a fan of a big. When I was invited to the municipality of Tirana organized a conference festival last year I was the first digital nomad festival. I know very little about it. Some of my connections that suggest to be a speaker and that I'm going there and I really liked it. I really loved it. And then I've been going back and forth since. I've had various meetings with people at federal or state level Is it a little as well? And we've been somehow involved into advising and consulting on the visa, giving some feedback on different parts of the government agencies that we're putting together the visas for digital nomads and a lot of those suggestions also implemented, which is great to see.
Speaker 2:What I really like about the environment there is very open and behalf this drive to be the best. So I remember when I met the minister for entrepreneurship I was asking me like, okay, what's the best digital nomad visa out there? And I think it might be this and this. And I got, okay, how do you beat them? It wasn't like I can't match them, it's like how do we do one better than that? And that's part of what I've been doing there. I do a lot of volunteering, so I've been doing and doing quite a bit of volunteering as well. I'm talking about that. We're now collaborating with some courses spaces. We started gonna start and do some workshops there as well, and I was involved into the creating the first digital nomad village in blora last year. We had a run over the winter season as well pop up and it really gave us a bit of an understanding of where where I mean yes and what is needed to make it successful destinations on the sustainable and long term way.
Speaker 1:And for those who might not know what is a digital nomad village and did you know what village is basically?
Speaker 2:in the easiest way I can put, it is a center for no much to come and go, connect and I have a sense of belonging, have a community, have a point to go to. I like to think of it, you know, when you see the old movies with the nomads of the cowboys traveling and we get to the village and the bar right, the one of the central place where everything happens and you can get figure out everything that needs to happen from there. I like to figure out that way that villages, is that equivalent?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny. I was on a call with somebody the other day and they were like what do you do when you're relocating the place and go either find something equivalent to what you're describing as a village or some you know hustle, whatever. You network with people for a week or two or three and then you figure out everything else because, like, you have to go in, you have to figure out where is what you know, what resources do you need, and everything can get the land, and then you can venture out from there which is why I think traveling for less than two months in one destination can be very tough, and because you know you need to three weeks just selling and when you leave a month later you just got into the best parts of it and now you're leaving.
Speaker 1:so exactly 100%. I mean I'm definitely a slow mad to. You know. I think when you say like a digital nomad, I mean you're just vacationing really quickly at all those places and it's it is difficult, you know. I mean it's great, but I was just doing that through Scandinavia this summer and I was freaking exhausted man. Like I got home probably two and a half weeks ago. I have not left my apartment. I've been ordering from like the food delivery app and like groceries and stuff to. I haven't left my apartment because I've been just mentally drained and then like to take that. You know, it's one thing when you're vacationing consistently because that's fun, but when you have to wake up in work and then you don't have like an office that you know where to go to see, you're having to find a new cafe or a new, a new workspace to where you can get on meetings. It's exhausting. Yes, it is literally exhausting.
Speaker 2:And it's one of those things. So you have fully remote workers if you have digital nomad and you have this new category on top and it would call digital nomad tourists People that are doing it just to vacation between the corporate jobs. But for me it's very exhausting. I don't think you can be having a digital nomad lifestyle for A long time on a sustainable way moving and moving, and moving. You might be able to do that if you can. Kudos. For me, it's too exhausting when I have my my regular lifestyle to look after my health and well being. Interest gets too stressful and also have a responsibility towards my clients and coaching them and coaching remotely. Always think like it's my job to make sure that I am at the best of my performance level, because that's basically the performance part of my world. That's a I need to look after myself and looking after the space I work in it's also an element. So it for me is very, very important to find stability in the coaching environment I have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I always like, after I did, you know, my trip through Scandinavia and working and traveling I said the only way I'll ever do this again If I have somebody who just follows me around and takes care of everything, like plans where I'm eating, plans where I'm working, sets up my space, brings my stuff there, like if I can just like walk and enjoy and don't have to deal with all of the logistics of things, then I can do it. But that's pretty pricey. So but speaking on what you do, which is the founder of the great shift, can you elaborate for a bit, if we haven't really dove into it specifically, what all the great shift is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the idea of the great ship was started as a collective, as a community, and I founded it to be able to channel and to create more frameworks that we give back. And then the main focus and shifting, shifting mindset, shifting workplaces to more contemporary places, find better ways of working. That was the whole concept about it. In a nutshell, the aim is always to work people and putting people first and putting them in a position to be high performance. Employees Collaborate as a founder, so doesn't really matter how you define people, but it's that people equation that we look into and work with. Who?
Speaker 1:would be utilizing your services.
Speaker 2:It's a variety of things. Like overtime, we've shifted towards smaller and smaller media business startups. In the past also work very large organizations. I'm done workshops for companies like forty thousand employees and we run internal programs and then very large programs organizations are up to two thousand people. What I find is that a lot of aspirational leaders are changing the way we work and they are usually More in the early stages of the business or are established more than me. Business want to take two different level and wanna Find that human part of it. At the moment I am working for remote and I'm working with clients for remote.
Speaker 2:So we've got Companies that are in the tech space, company and banking and financial services sector. We got companies that are in the retreat sector mindfulness meditation providers and cut breakfast work companies. We got universities, got municipalities that we work with, course in governments, marketing agencies you name it. Manufacturing companies that work under what are your towers, for example, in Australia. So it's very, very it's in that perspective, any make sense?
Speaker 2:We have specific coaches in the team that are very focused on one sector of the other and then there's a lot of work to do, just agnostic from an industry. So when you look at how to treat people in the best possible way. 80% of that goes across any industry and, of course, if you're working in mining, I have a specific which is the way we work. If you're working in the tech space and other specifics and let me get to those areas we have more specific coaches that are focused on one area only. For example, I've got Can't in Australia, which is one of the collaborators and she's super advanced. Anything not for profits, anything public sector. So if it's a specific work there, it's almost like a no brainer right that this work for her. But equally, we've got coaches that are on the customer service and tech startup space.
Speaker 1:That's a different industry and kind of speaking on treating people right, your book, the great shift, you speak on this great shift framework. So maybe you can kind of elaborate how that ties into treating people right and what that framework really entails.
Speaker 2:We have a couple of frameworks that we work with. The principal framework is the before P, which is the business for people, profits, planet and purpose and where the idea concept is to find balance between them. In a very old concept, whenever you wouldn't have all four of them ticked off, very rarely you would have seen a company which is like hundred years old news to do this, but maybe I'm wrong, so I'll say really. But I give an example. Mining can be good for people because it creates jobs in remote areas. It can be bad for the planet because you know mining resources and potentially uploading the environment. You can look at other sectors you can look at not for profits as an example. They can be amazing for my purpose perspective, but even those ones could be bad for people because people in charities are almost more likely to get into burnout and when the corporate world, where everyone is trying to do the best in helping as much as possible. So the way we saw it is to find balance between them. Or give you one more example you can have a great profits my Over, utilizing your people and getting the maximum of them. So you have this balance right in our concept.
Speaker 2:Is that the new way of understanding business, where those four p's are working in, in use and basically why you make profit. You also help in the world and you keep the planet a better place and people at the center as well. So finding a different way of operating this model in a way that those four things are mine and then next to it we have two more frameworks that are very used to use the lot. One is our work life tree and one is our change will. So the change will really talks about how to facilitate change in organizations. It's a simple tool that we can use to assess where you are and when. The work life tree is a bit more inspirational. Talks about how organizations built on the people.
Speaker 1:So we look at going from the roots to the fruits and what needs to be in place and how it works and so maybe you can elaborate a bit on, like how you would approach solving A company that isn't hitting this for p's and kind of what that looks like and steps that you might need to take, or just an example.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely like. One of the areas could be that you don't have a purpose, so let's work on that from first. Okay, or it's there but it's not been elaborated, it's not been actually integrated in all aspects, so it depends. Usually companies don't struggle on all four of them at the same time, but there's always one area that is more more risk, right or more In danger or challenge, and two and eighty percent of the time that's the people side of it. So people usually are overworked on the page and engaged, burned out when I put in the place to be, to be a player so good, performing well. So we would usually work there and two, nine out ten times.
Speaker 2:We start with leadership. I usually spread across everywhere. I've really seen really advanced leadership and lack of the other elements. So usually we start there. We start training people, individuals, organizations, and from there it triggers down into creating better teams and environments. Never experience people and one status fixed. Usually you're ready to take care of profits and when we want to take it and make it even better, when look at the impact on the planet, we want to look at how those profits are used. I want to look at how we're into the purpose, into it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, obviously this is such a the new wave of kind of how business is orienting itself, even within larger corporations, you know, protecting the planet and stuff, like I mean, do you see this just kind of being, even when you're starting the company, essential to make sure you're hitting all these, or is it something that, when it comes to like the planet, for example, like what priority would you put organizing these and then just letting the rest fall in place?
Speaker 2:This is where the lack of knowledge we talked about the very beginning comes into play. So what do we know? We know that companies that are more defined on their purpose Attract stuff easier and attract the right kind of stuff that is aligned to their business purpose. You know that these employees are usually higher performers and when other employees right, so they're ready, you have your. Your first answer yeah, the only you can get this clarified and define, the better. What else do we know? We know that those companies are also more profitable. Another's more focused, the chief, their targets quicker and easier to sell and they have a higher customer retention and higher customer loyalty. And again, we also attracted the customers that are more aligned with the vision and, as a result of that, also more less likely to drop out. So if you look at purely from a talent perspective, yes. Now what else we know? We also know that it's a lot more difficult today than in the past to hide.
Speaker 2:So almost any company I work with I've worked with almost any company I know that I have, I've seen has a purpose statement. Now I can be in a room with ten people that I can ask him what is your purpose as a business and I will get usually a different answers. So I know right now already that the purpose is there on the brochure, on a piece of paper, but it's not really left. Now if I'm an applicant, I can do the same thing. I can ask you specific questions about it and if the question I answer, the answer I get this different.
Speaker 2:When I'm stated there, I know, okay, this is probably full of crap. So it's a lot more difficult from that perspective to gain access to the right talent. Or even if you do, it will end up costing you more and be less effective, because if your recruiter has to work twice as hard to find the right people for business, that's also cost. And if, instead of finding three hundred people that are happy to apply for your job, you only find ten Usually means that you have to be much more competitive with those ten people just kind of remind me of something else in your book that you speak on, which is kind of geo arbitrage.
Speaker 1:you talk about the talent and being able to that be the main focus and so when you're talking about geo arbitrage If I'm not saying correctly, correct me if I'm wrong can you highlight how talent is used in geo arbitrage?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's the next element of it. So when you look at geo arbitrage, suddenly it was this great example during cold. It was a manufacturing company doing furniture in remote Germany somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and one of those founders had this revelation that most of the jobs that we have here we don't need people to be here all the time. And he switched his add-on just as a trial to full, remote and these are positions like marketing and admin and HR Sales aid. Most of the sales didn't happen in the showroom, happen remotely anyway, so remote sales. Suddenly he was overwhelmed with applications.
Speaker 2:So when you look at talent, we don't even know what time is out there, what's wide, and geobitrix fixes that. The other part of element when also be that you're more likely to retain high value staff members by offering the opportunity to work from a different location at times. So I give an example at a fantastic time in Australia. But for me, australia at the moment is a little bit out of question because it's so far away and I love to allow the fact that I'm not so close to my family. So it's great weather, great people, the salaries are very high, competitive, great jobs out there. But I wouldn't consider it if I have to be there full time.
Speaker 2:This is just one example which is personal to me, but there's so many more that are applicable to it. I've been blessed to spend some time in Portugal, spend some time on Albania is so much talent in these two countries alone. They are very accessible at normal rates for the rest of the European Union, and how they are ready to rock and super dedicated to jobs. But no one is no one. There is no one. There is still a big opportunity there to capitalise and talent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you know, in terms of like US salaries I mean, the whole world is your oyster and being able to find most likely just as talented, if not more, employees for I wouldn't say a fraction, but in a lot of cases a fraction of what you're actually paying in the US.
Speaker 2:And that's both ways what. You can look at it as a potential savings for your business, but you can also look at it as an opportunity to get even better time than before, because if you're paying Top dollar salaries, you know I mean the rest of the world, so you know that access to the best of the best worldwide, not only in your country, yeah, not only a mediocre employee in the US.
Speaker 1:well done, this has been amazing. The insight has been just wonderful, so I appreciate you walking us through everything that you do and all your experiences. I always wrap up, though, with two questions, in the first of which is if you could give one piece of advice and take all your life experiences, turn around and give one piece of advice on it, what would that advice be?
Speaker 2:Oh, I wish you could have had time to prepare for this one. Everything else I was fine. It's like one advice. What advice would be to really find a way to combine passion and work. I don't mind working and I don't mind working my whole life, so I don't want to retire. For example, what I can only do that if I find something that I enjoy doing every day. So finding that optimum medium is a good challenge.
Speaker 1:So it's funny that you say that I'm so bad at like posting on LinkedIn or anything, which is the only social media have, but I wrote up post the other day, didn't post in it, but I took, you know, a good 30 minutes to an hour riding it, and it was literally about finding, like having passion for your work, because otherwise, well, in the realm of entrepreneurship, because otherwise, though, it's just so difficult to like, why would you do something that you're not passionate about? So, yeah, love that. And then, lastly, the question I always wrap up with is where can people find you if they want to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the most active social media platform for me is LinkedIn. I do have an account on Instagram as well, but I'm usually more active on LinkedIn. I share posts there regularly. I've been less active the last couple of weeks, but there's a reason for that, which you might find out soon. Cool, and then I do have a personal website and there's a company website. So the personal website is dominicopintocom and the company website is greatshift greatminusshiftcom, and you can get to me through both of these anyway.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and as always, we'll throw that in the show and it's Dom. Thank you so much for your time and it was a pleasure having you on man.
Speaker 2:Likewise Thank you for your time and for having me Cheers.
Speaker 1:And that wraps up another episode of Thoughts for Random Citizen. Thank you everyone. So much for tuning back in. For those who are new listeners, welcome and I appreciate you joining. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and our guests today.
Speaker 1:If you are new and you're doing anything remote, be sure to check out Citizen Remote. It is fantastic. If you're already traveling the world, it's a great app to join a very quickly growing community. It's a great tool for those who are just about to begin traveling and figure out how to navigate that, especially if you work remotely. It's a fantastic platform and we continue to build more and more tools for you guys, weekend and week out. Otherwise, if you're an entrepreneur and you're looking for tools or assistance with the next steps of what you need to do with your startup, or if you're looking for software development network connections, reach out to us at Torque United. Otherwise, if you're just tuning in for the conversations, thank you. That's why I love doing what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Keep tuning in and actually keep a look out for the not-for-profit that we're about to open up. You know its main focus is going to be on international collaboration and helping build a borderless world, because it's something that I'm very passionate about. That's why I'm not only doing Torque United but Citizen Remote as well. Really exciting stuff on that horizon. Please keep up to date with all of that stuff the not-for-profit and entrepreneurial side of things at Torque United. But again, if you're traveling the world, check out Citizen Remote. If you're wanting to travel the world, if you're a remote worker, check out Citizen Remote. Check out the app we've built for you guys. Check out the platform we've built. It's only growing every single week, so hopefully you guys will take part in that with us. Otherwise, I will speak with everyone in a fortnight. Until then, cheers.