The New Nomad

Festive Road: Fun Is Not the Enemy of Work with Aurelie Krau | TNN45

February 28, 2022 Andrew Jernigan and Allen Koski Episode 45
The New Nomad
Festive Road: Fun Is Not the Enemy of Work with Aurelie Krau | TNN45
Show Notes Transcript

Freedom comes along with the phrase “Digital Nomad”. It is actually an understatement. Digital nomads are professionals who can work from anywhere - all they need is a decent Wi-Fi connection and a smartphone or laptop. They work in foreign countries, coffee shops, or shared spaces. And they have fun while working. Work does not hinder them to do fun things. They experience and get a taste of the local culture wherever they go. Aurelie Krau, a consultant at Festive Road and public speaker, can definitely attest to that.

In the absence of Andrew Jernigan, Allen Koski joined by Aurelie in educating and entertaining our audience in this episode of The New Nomad. Both digital nomads and extremely fond of traveling, they discussed how Covid-19 affected their travels and the challenges they have encountered. They talked about fitness and why technology is such a blessing for those who want to stay fit amidst the pandemic. The gold nuggets that peppered the show are truly amazing. So get your pen and paper ready to catch those nuggets of useful information. 

[6:37] Fun is not the enemy of work

[12:12] Moving companies to The Cloud

[16:10] Bringing technology and fitness together

[21:35] Zoom or in the room?

[23:30] Experiencing the local culture

[27:50] The freedom of traveling: the best perk of being a digital nomad


GUEST BIO:

Aurélie Krau is the go-to expert on all things Gen Z, Millennials, and business travel. She has a #DigitalNomad lifestyle and is a proud millennial with expertise in travel tech, “bleisure”, and the next generation of travelers.

Aurélie works at Festive Road as a consultant and public speaker and is known for driving change in the Business Travel eco-system. She comes full of energy and has a passion for success, whether she’s moderating the latest industry event, delivering a keynote on industry trends, or leading a hackathon to translate geek into English and vice versa.

Aurélie Krau Links:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aureliekrau
Website: festive-road.com
Blog: aureliekrau.com/blog


Follow Insured Nomads at:

Instagram: @insurednomads

www.insurednomads.com

Allen  

Welcome to The New Nomad podcast as we talk about the future of work, and we have a great guest today, Aurelie Krau, will be with us today she's in Dubai. We're going to talk about asynchronous work, boy. And by the way, how many times I had to plan to try to say that word correctly. We're going to talk about how people work fractionally. It's going to be a very interesting conversation and even more unique today, I will be here without my co host, Andrew Jernigan, who many of us in the remote work community can understand the issue of finding yourself in a place where the WiFi isn't working, one of the most disastrous outcomes anyone can have. So Aurelie will help me today as a co host and a guest. This is something a little bit different for us. I know, the world is her office, and my office. Unfortunately, Andrews office is not Wi Fi enabled, so it's less than typical, less than optimal. Aurelie, thank you for joining us today. Welcome from Dubai. You're somebody who's it's really interesting, when we've gotten to know you is, here's somebody who does Les Mills fitness, somebody who does festive road building events. And of course, through the pandemic, you've got a lot of things on your hands, talk a little bit about your background, and what got you to the remote worth work style that you're at today. And certainly this fractional type of existence that you lead. Welcome aboard.


Aurelie  

Thank you so much for having me, Allen. And thank you for the upgrade. By the way, I'm happy to be your co host for today. 


Allen  

Excellent. 


Aurelie  

Nice. I'll put it on my LinkedIn, you know that I just get a promotion. So well, where to start? I think you what you have just described about me is what I qualify, the typical syndrome of the slash generation. And we're known like us millennials to do you know, Thing A slash, Thing B slash, Thing C slash, Thing D. It's as if we have multiple concurrent careers in one single career. I am somebody who has always been driven by passion. I followed what I love. And I strongly believe i can only be good at something I really enjoy and genuinely care about. So in a few words, this is this is I would say my, my motto. And you, you will see this on my LinkedIn, my life motto is fun is not the enemy of work. Yes. And I really do believe this, even with my clients work, even if it's very serious work, I always find a way, you know, to make it engaging, to make it fun. 


Aurelie  

And you've mentioned that so now, let's see, let's see, we are 2021. It's my seventh year as a remote worker slash digital nomad. But before that I had more of a corporate life, I would say I started in travel for a very simple reason. I was passionate about travel. I loved foreign languages, and I love technology. And I decided to combine everything. And to start a career in travel technology. I was very curious to you know, find out the plumb that all the everything that the pipes and the everything the primary behind the website, when you book something online, when you when you go on an app. And I started for about four to five years. And I'm very grateful for that experience for the web for what I've learned. But and there is a but, back then, it was in France. So I also think to be to be fair, and with all due respect, France has some sort still have a cultural blocker when it comes to remote work, when it comes to letting people you know, like work from wherever they feel most productive. Sure. It's not there yet compared to what I see in different countries. And I started to feel it. I wanted to travel for work, because I thought that travel was a perk for me and it was an opportunity to see the world. I always wanted to combine both and back then when I say back then it was 2014-2015 it was there, digital nomad is not new, but we didn't necessarily have a word you know you name it's really. And even though digital nomad doesn't sound quite completely right, I think we need to come up with something better than that, just that just that word because the the connotation I mean it means so much more. You know, it's really remotes. I know when John Lee that we know that we that we have a common we have him as a friend, he also calls this remote work abroad from abroad, for example, which could also work.


Aurelie  

And, you know, I wasn't 100% happy in my corporate life because I'm somebody, like I said, I, I thrive when I have the freedom to do what I love, when I have like, the opportunity to learn when I'm in discovery mode when I'm challenged. And then not somebody who can do the same job for three to four years or five years. Yeah. And I started a blog back then who it was, I was a student back then it was 2010-2011. It was in French. And it was about how technology was about to revolutionize the travel industry. And one thing led to another, the community came, I started to have my first gigs as a speaker as a consultant. And this is how everything began. I met Paul Salestone, who's now the managing partner along with currents track and it's festive road. And they were just launching and they said, Look, I believe we have a model that's made for you because we created Festive Road, to give back flexibility and options to people. You work from wherever you want. We don't have any office, you pick up the clients work that you want, that you love. Because, you know, my motto is fun is not the enemy of work. Caroline's motto is do what you love, love what you do. So this combines it like you know, it was a fireworks. Yeah. And this is how I started my journey. And we specialize in business travel. We are about 20 now, each of us has a different skill sets. My line of business was innovation, marketing, and events. So obviously, I had my best life pre COVID Yes, I traveled through three, four times per month in Europe, I always, always, always extended my trips to enjoy the destination. And what I could do every winter, I'm somebody, I'm following the sun. I hate the winter. So every winter since five years, I was away for two or three months, somewhere hot, somewhere warm. Asia, South Africa, Central and South America, Central America. And I could just, you know, to your point about async work. Yeah, see, I found a workaround to get it right, I say async.


Allen  

That is a lot easier.


Aurelie  

And I could just work remotely during for the two three months. And it wasn't it wasn't a problem. Awesome. And this is how I started to advocate for that lifestyle. You know, try to make people aware, especially working in travel. We empower people, we we it's business travel, but still a lot of people are like me, they welcome the opportunity to travel for work to see the world. So why couldn't you create more opportunities, better opportunities, let let your people work from abroad for longer periods. And this is how Yes, my digital nomad journey started.


Allen  

Well, it's also interesting now you see people who even travel on leisure travel, but they bring their computer with them. So there's really a hard luck, it's not a hard line anymore between business travel and leisure travel. Because you know, the people that listen to this podcast live that location independent lifestyle, they go on these amazing trips, yet they'll still do some work on the side. And it was interesting when you're talking about Festive Road, you know, and you're doing events and things. So you're this great thing going before COVID. Why don't you share how you've kind of changed a bit, you know, since COVID, because that the setup events, obviously, there's events that you need to do, you know, to the internet now, or there's events that we have to do distance. I mean, how do they change there to?


Aurelie  

Well, I'll be brutally honest with you, Allen, I took a big hit with COVID like many of us, of course. And we talked about that offline. It's quite funny because while I was advocating for that lifestyle, it's like I was so happy to see that people get to start to experience this. While my wings got sort of cut, whilst for a lot of people they could finally spread their own wings. So I was in that weird space like the feeling like my feeling like so happy about the conversations that were going on in the industry companies, organizations making announcements, every week there was another announcement. Yes, we're flexibility, we're letting our employees working, you know, choosing get to choose, you can work remotely, forever now if you want. So I was a little bit in a weird space. And this is actually what got me to Dubai. I pivoted. So, you know, and bless them. My clients, their core activity has been has been hit a lot as well. So obviously, it's totally understandable that, you know, when it comes to organizing events, or projects related to innovation or big marketing campaigns, what it's not the priority when you have a crisis to deal with, right? So I have to pivot so we've pivoted, a small portion of my business pivoted online. 


Aurelie  

And, you know, I like to say one thing, talking about remote work. What we have been experiencing the past 18 months doesn't really do justice to what remote work actually is, what remote or what work from anywhere is. Because we got stuck between four walls. Yeah, there was no opportunity to just experience things, go out there, vary your workspace for the day. You know, go meet people in a co workspace. Just go on social media, digital nomad groups, try to meet like-minded people, go to a cafe go go grab those vibes, you know, this was not here. Yeah. So sometimes when that and I understand he, the change was brutal for a lot of organizations that were not ready for remote work, because, you know, they're even the IT infrastructure. Nothing was in the cloud. So there was one thing I love that I cannot remember who said that, so I cannot quote, but it's not from me. So just to do justice to whoever said it. There was a very famous meme that we saw on social it said, where should we move our company? And the answer to the cloud? Yeah. And this is one that I love. Because it's so true. And Dubai was a very unexpected, and we'll get there at the end of the podcast, because my country is Colombia. I absolutely love Colombia. And this was my plan. I wanted to spend more time there. And then COVID hits and one of my friends told me that if they're not met in a conference told me Look, Dubai is open. There are flights from Paris to Dubai. Please book a flight. We just moved with my wife. We moved in a new apartment, we have a spare room. Just spend two weeks with us, take a breath and you'll feel better. You'll figure things out. Yeah, I did it. I arrived. I was happy. I knew I knew Dubai already. Four days after I arrived, our president in France announced the second law exam. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So I decided to extend and then I extended and extended and extended. And this is where my fitness instructor hat like came in.


Aurelie  

I have always love love, love exercise. It's essential for my mental health, even when I travel and we'll get there in the minutes. Yeah. And I'm a Les Mills like free free, I love it. I love the courses and I have experienced a programme here that did not exist in France. It's immersive fitness. So it's cycling. Imagine you're in a studio all lights off. You have a giant screen like cinema scale stranger, you're riding through like virtually created worlds. I'm a geek, you know, so obviously I loved it. I loved it. I was very engaged. And couple of instructors told me Look, why don't you become an instructor? And it was like no. And this is how I started to realize that Dubai might have a lot of opportunities for me. Yeah, yeah, I stayed and I saw different faces of Dubai that I had no idea existed, the free zone they have created. So now you don't need to be a local you don't need to have a local owning 51% of your business anymore. I have a business in Dubai. I even get a discount because I'm a woman. They have incubators in the city they are looking for like that there is massive investment in tech. It's a brilliant area for people who are looking for you know, like a developing patterns or any any test test markets because it's a very, very digital first markets. You don't pay cash here. Every single thing that they pay. I even do even my watch. Yeah, yeah. And you know, I was like, hey, that there might be something for me here.


Allen  

Well, it's an amazing place. And by the way, for somebody who loves the sun, there's no shortage of Sun either through things, and I circle back a little bit on the, the exercise. So during the COVID period, so many of our remote worker, you know, location independent, independent people went to places like Mexico and Costa Rica and whatever, so they could serve it, and walk. And I love what you talked about, like having to, you know, do the bike ride, but you're doing it inside, but so many people are physical fitness is such an important part. And, but they lost a lot of the aspects of group exercise where you're all together. Because I know people like to go to fitness centres, because there's an energy there, even if you're not talking to other people, there's an energy there. How did you guys get around? That? Was it because of the you know, when you're biking in that virtual world, it's just really cool. Are there other people with you? Because I noticed a lot of people were able to tie the technology together that we're while we're alone. We're actually with a group online. So we're together in a way too. And I think that's helps.


Aurelie  

It makes you accountable. First of all, you're fueled by the energy around you, because you see the other ones trying hard. Yeah. So you're like, hey, you know what, this, this inspires me. And, you know, our first mission, as Les Mills instructors is to get people to fall in love with fitness. And we're here to you work hard without even realizing how hard you're working, because you have the screen effects. Yeah, mountains, yes, it's digital, digital environments, but you really get hooked. And again, Dubai was an amazing place for that, because then there are still restrictions that are more strict here than currently in Europe. And I assume this is also why things have been have stayed open for longer. Sure, the FBI only had a three week lockdown. That's it. And then they then they opened slowly, slowly, slowly, when things went a little bad, more restrictions, and they they eased, but they were always a little bit more mindful and more cautious. So gyms opened. And you know, one interesting facts, I was talking to the Les Mills office here in the Middle East, they were telling me that the digital, like everything related to digital fitness, because they have an app as well. I'm bringing this up everywhere where I travel, you don't need equipment for some fun some workouts. So it's perfect. Wherever you are in the world, you bring your app with you, you have amazing classes. In the Middle East the like people want to go to the gym, then I would say the adoption of the online few online fitness is a little bit slower than in other markets in the Northeast. So it's been quite interesting.


Allen  

Well, I think I think there's a big difference in you touched upon it also that the millennial generation that's really used to online environments, digital versus me more of the baby boomer side of things. It's a couple things. First off, I think the millennial generation is a lot more used to fractional jobs, doing multiple jobs that once. Wehre in my generation that I've tend to be in is got we worked for one company, we came into the office, etc. And what I think is really interesting is right now for the first time, all the generations who have to work remotely are coming together. Because we all have to be doing zoom calls, team calls. It's you know, if you if you don't get with the technology, you're going to be left behind. And I think it's so funny with physical fitness. I mean, I have down in my basement a rower where I can hit a button and it can give me different hills. But you know, it's the first generation where you actually don't see anything interesting. You just see that you're going to go I see and what I think is great is it sounds like the next step was actually makes it really interesting if you're like biking through a beautiful mountain pass. You don't think about that hill the same way. Then when I'm just looking at a screen and all I see is is like just higher you make it fun, right?


Aurelie  

music that's the great part with cycling specifically because the music keeps you in the workout because you're riding to the beach. Yes. So the music gives you the intensity and gives you like the feeling the muscle at the same time. Yeah, yeah if you want to experience it, there's the trip classes on their Les Mills on demand as well the lessons plus up you just think it's if you have a bike on your TV, so you kind of have a larger screen. And there you go. You can you can try it out. 


Allen  

It no it's amazing. The some of the things like I during the pandemic when we couldn't go anywhere here we did yoga with Adrienne, who's a free yoga programme and and I was amazed how much progress you can make, you know, with the online, although as you know, we're all excited about getting out. And, and this is what's actually interesting about you also with people starting to maybe start to travel to meetings and programmes as a matter of fact, next week, I'm doing like going to my first in person conference in New York, are you starting to see more people starting to say, I think we got a pent up demand here, we can't wait for 2022 or people can all get together and see each other again, what's your feeling on that?


Aurelie  

Every single day, I hear that I myself traveling as well, for the first time in two years, to Miami this time. And so it let's see how it's going. How is it going to feel? A lot of people are craving in person, obviously. But they also think, you know, coming from a business travel backgrounds, I think the rationale now to decide to travel the ROI of a trip. The sustainability aspects. Yes. duty of care aspects. Yeah, there's a lot to consider now, before making that decision to travel. So and this is why this is what travel managers right now, and corporate buyers are up to, you know, like, what's the, what's the reason for Trello? What's the purpose of my trip? Is it worth it? Can it be done on Zoom? So we we actually have an exercise that Festival that we encourage them to, to do when while they are thinking this strategy through it's like, it's called Zoom versus in the room. If you think about we have like, 20 ish, different type of, you know, reasons for travel. And the idea is to get to get to the to the thinking, what's the added value if you do this in person, or can be done through zoom. So I think me, what I start to hear a lot though, is the internal meetings, getting teams bring teams back together for starts to like, you know, get the company culture alive, maintain that social bonds within your team. And I think this is going to explode in a more dispersed workforce. It's inevitable. So travel might look a bit different one, nobody has a crystal ball, but to your point about the border, and the like them business, travel, leisure, travel, personal life, professional life, everything's blurred now, yeah. It's already been blurred three pandemic, but more than ever now. So, you know, taking into consideration sustainability that, as I have just mentioned, maybe you won't go on a long haul flight three or four times a year, maybe it's going to be one. And maybe you're going to combine different trips that you used to do and maybe you're going to travel for longer periods. And then you're going to experience your destination, you're going to go on a remote work trip, typically. And maybe it's also sustainable at large because you make you also make a better impact locally, communities you know, that you visit and not just only go to to a hotel that does create job, but I'm also trying to be way more mindful when I travel to go to local businesses. If I go for a hike or whatever, I try to hire a local guide. Yes, I you know, I always try to support local businesses as well and locals.


Allen  

I love that as an effect on an earlier podcast talked about that I would let my hair grow out and I would get a haircut at countries that I was traveling to. So I've had hair cuts in Kosovo and Ukraine and JWoww and all over the place. The only problem is, is the hair isn't quite growing as quick as it used to as it gets more, a little less on top. But you and I also talked earlier about we both love to go to different coffee shops, and and have a cup of coffee. But we enjoy I'd love you to share your story about how you your name we both have names that get misspelt ha and mispronounced


Aurelie  

story of my life. So I have named problems people get so confused because my name is sounds so French. So nobody really can figure out how to pronounce it. And you know, I take no offence, I actually find it fun, and I made it a game. So now every time I visit a foreign country, I go to a Starbucks. And you know because the fun part is even though you spell your name and you try you you really try to make their job easy, they don't necessarily pay attention. So I have like dozens of versions of my Starbucks name and I post them on a regular basis on Instagram so to so everybody everybody's always laughing and the best they had though was so you know in Paris we have two airports right this Charles de Gaul and there's Orly Airport Like, O-R-L-Y this was the best I had.


Allen  

The airport. Yeah, I as an Allen tend to get Ellen a lot. So Okay. Well, you know and if the spelling's are so you and I had a lot to share that the good news about that is that we take it with a grain of salt and it's a lot of fun and I love it. So you've traveled about this is the time of the podcast, we ask our guests to name maybe an overlooked person, place or experience they would love our audience to think about in this new world. I'd love to get your thoughts on that.


Aurelie  

Well, I revealed the secret couple of minutes ago by mentioning Colombia. Colombia was my my crush. Yeah, that there's, there's something absolutely special going on in that country. Because of all of its history. Yeah, they have a pretty heavy background. And one city in particular is Medellín. It's fascinating. You know, like, the city has been undergoing a massive transformation. So you you have on the one hand, the traditional like salsa music, the vibes, the people are just so welcoming, absolutely wonderful. And then the modern aspect, like it's nicknamed the Silicon Valley of South America. There's a lot going on. So obviously, I'm a tech geek. So I keep a close eye on what's going on there. But really, that country really made yeah, made me feel special because of its people.


Allen  

I love it. Well, you know, it's funny, you mentioned that I've been to Bogota and Cartagena, just before the pandemic, the food is marvellous, following great biking cities, I really enjoyed biking Bogota, some great hikes, I didn't get to meet Medellín, Cartagena was a real treasure. I be honest with you, you've picked a wonderful spot there. And the people are just marvellous, aren't they?


Aurelie  

They are it's marvellous. And well, since you're in that continent, a second one I would highly recommend is Guatemala. It's absolutely fantastic. So the best spots is, is by so either Antigua, which is absolutely fantastic. Or all the little villages around the lake. Because it's the true Mayan culture that you experience there. So it's not folklore. It's actually true Mayan culture. And there's, you know, to two experiences I will always remember, and this is the beauty of being able to work remotely and adjust your timeline, work in async mode, you know, just you know, because if you do not need to sit on a on a zoom call, necessarily all the time, if you have the right tools. If you have the right organization, if you have the right method, method of communication with your clients with your colleagues, there is no blocker. And I could do that. So I went to a hike. It was called the El Volcano de Fuego. It's absolutely fantastic. It was tough. It was a two day two day hike. And volcano explodes four times per hour. And you can actually see the ashes and when it's nighttime, you can see the fire. It's I will remember that all of my life. And the second experience is a little bit up north, it's Tocal. It's wonderful. So if you get a chance, go there for sunrise, you're going to hike for an entire hour in the jungle in the dark. And you go up on a pyramid and you sit down in silence and you're just witnessing nature waking up. So you hear the howler monkeys, you can start to hear the birds, you see the sun rising and just the the shape of the pyramids, you know, that's tied to that start to rise. It's it's one I have goosebumps just just you know, telling you about that. Sorry. But see, that's to our mission to the why we're here. I believe life is too short and you need to experience those things. You know, every employer, try to empower your people. Because when when they feel happy, when you give them the chance to work from wherever they want, they feel productive, they feel happy. There's only good that's gonna come out of this.


Allen  

Totally agree and you about great thing about sharing stories like this is your conversation about that sunrise reminded me when I was in Siem Reap and we're sitting there, you know, and you watch the sunrise in Cambodia and you're there and you're just like, wow, this is you can't replicate this. So fantastic conversation today. How can people stay in touch with you? How can they follow you, etc? Could you share with our audience?


Aurelie  

Oh, absolutely. LinkedIn for more professional related things, you can, you can find me on Instagram. So you're gonna see the crazy cycling stuff as well on Instagram that I that I share a lot. I'm on Twitter, I have a website, you can also see my vlogs. I started to share videos it's called hashtag mission nomad. So actually share my experience working while traveling. I show the behind the scenes and what I've what I've just explained about the sunrise and, and the hike. It's in one of the vlogs. So just to tease a little bit.


Allen  

Gotta love it. So, as we wind down, you know, what, what did I learn today? I mean, first off, I really love the idea that people couldn't do more than one thing that interests them, they're passionate about that they love. And we could see that that's an area that is extremely important to this, this generation. And frankly, I think more and more people begin to think I'd rather do a lot of interesting things. Then one thing that I'm not so interested in, right?


Aurelie  

it's the gig economy, you know, at its best and, and also having multiple streams of revenues. I had many chats with friends that said, you know, what, COVID made me realize this. It's it's a bit sometimes unstable. Because if you're just have one sector, and if if something happens, yeah, then a lot collapses. And this is also what I realized, myself.


Allen  

No, I'm totally with you. And that's a great thing. And also with, you know, the the time shifting of work. I've had people say, it's a beautiful day today. I can do this on a rainy day. So today's the day I'm going to go surfing and tomorrow's the day work.


Aurelie  

This is how I took my PADI certification in Thailand. I was I was diving in the morning and then two or 3pm local time you open up your laptop because it's 9am in France. Perfect.


Allen  

That's perfect. So those of us out there listening to The New Nomad: this is why you travel. And we'd like to thank you all for listening to The New Nomad podcast today. As you know, it helps others in our community if you suggest that they find our podcast, we really want you to keep sharing your ventures staying well. So thanks again to our guests and we'd love to hear from you down the road. Everybody, please travel well. And once again, thanks again for joining The New Nomad podcast where we support the location independent lifestyle. Cheers.