How to Get a Remote Job in a Post-Pandemic World With Origin Story Creator, Adam Smith | TNE081

For the 81st episode of The Nomadic Executive, I am joined by someone who has always flirted with the  idea of working remotely but never would’ve done it had the pandemic not happened. This week I am joined by Adam Smith, a senior product manager at PubMatic and the founder of Origin Story. Adam is among the thousands that got thrust into having to work from home when the pandemic started. After a year of working and traveling across the country,  Adam now says that remote work will soon become the standard working setup post-pandemic. 

In this episode, Adam talks about the difficulties of getting oneself out of the professional career bubble in New York where he was based for most of his career. He then shares with us the  dizzying blur of things that he went through on the early days of his remote work transition, and the different experiences he earned throughout the journey. Adam also talks about how Origin Story came to be and what he plans to do to further expand the movement. 

Timestamps

[15:25]Adam Smith’s hectic remote work transition

[21:19]The challenges of working remote and how to deal with them

[29:53]The contrast between an office and remote work set up

[35:39]Expect these two things happening in the future

[37:50]What is Origin Story about?

Adam's Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamanthonysmith/

Omar's (Host) Social Media:

Instagram - @nomadables

TikTok - @nomadables

Facebook Group - NOMADABLES - Accountability & Growth Community for Remote Workers- Perfect to meet fellow online entrepreneurs, remote workers, and digital nomads.

YouTube - Omar Mo

LinkedIn - Omar Mo Nomads Cast

Twitter - @nomadables

Pintrest - @nomadables

Clubhouse - @pods

WEBSITE: https://www.nomadables.com/

Transcript

Omar  

Today's episode has a guest that's a little different than who I usually interview. It's for those that would still like to travel and work remotely, but don't want to go down the entrepreneurship route. We're joined by Adam Smith, who's a senior product manager at PubMatic, a company that empowers independent app developers and publishers to maximize their digital advertising. 

Adam and I cover what it's like to work for a company while working and traveling remotely, and strategies on how to land a remote job amongst a host of other topics. Adam is leading The Origin Story Movement, which aims to represent the under-represented, including digital nomads like us, which is what this podcast is all about. Check out the show notes for the link to Origin Story. 

Remember, nomad fam, we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you. So please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you. 

My name’s Omar Mo and this is The Nomadic Executive.

Intro  

You're listening to The Nomadic Executive hosted by Omar from nomadables.com. Join Omar as he sits down and speaks with leading online entrepreneurs, remote workers and digital nomads about everything from business strategy to travel and lifestyle design. Together, we're here to help you achieve a life of happiness, health and freedom. And now here's your host, Omar Mo.

Omar  

All right, Adam Smith, welcome to The Nomadic Executive man, founder of Origin Story. I almost said project origin there. So excuse me, it’s Origin Story. A founder of Origin Story, a business basically, a movement, I would say almost that helps working professionals find freedom and flexibility in their life. 

And I think what you're doing is great, you reached out to me via LinkedIn. I'm super happy that you reached out, I always love projects like this, because they're moving the world towards remote work towards freedom towards flexibility towards doing things that make them happy. 

You have quite an interesting story. You work for a company that IPO just quite recently, a few months ago, I think about two three months ago now. Or no, it's been more like four or five months or something along those lines. And you kind of got forced into remote work, but yet found this form of freedom and flexibility along with your partner that just kind of really sucked you in, right? 

Adam Smith

Yes.

Omar

So today, I'm happy that you're a guest because a lot of my audience that's listening to this has aspiring ideas of wanting to do some sort of job that takes him around the world. And I want to show my audience that business isn't the only way, starting your own business or freelancing. There's also remote job opportunities that come across people's tables all the time. 

And I want to see, first of all, I want to go down your story of how you got into this in the first place, and then see what kind of value we can bring my audience in terms of finding remote work and stability while having a remote job, right? So why don't you give a small elevator pitch to my audience about yourself?

Adam Smith  

Absolutely. And thanks for having me, Omar. So I have spent the last at least 10 years within digital advertising. I'm originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and moved to New York in the midst of the Great Recession. And so, have spent the bulk of my career there in New York.

So as you said there when remote work came about during COVID. It was a big transition to make but also something that I thought about for a long time. I'd been following digital nomad blogs and things like that, and also traveling a lot in New York, you know, trying to find a way to make that work. 

And you know, I think especially with New York, sometimes it's hard to pull yourself out of that professional bubble, where there there is that truth about New York is that it's like this brazen, careerist city where, you know, you have a career track and it's determined, you know, and you're all about work. 

I've heard that said about New York versus, you know, say like the West Coast, for instance. And I think a lot of that is true, and at the same time, I think there's a lot of other people that have found freedom in remote work and that being available to them at this point and in a big way that it wasn't before the pandemic hit. 

Omar  

You said something interesting there. You said that you used to look up digital nomad blogs and things well before you started remote working, right? What kind of…. what's the word I'm looking for... drew you towards that? You know, what made you want to search that up in the first place? 

Did you have a deep seated love for travel? Was it something when you were younger that maybe you traveled quite a bit, and you always knew you wanted to travel what what drew you to it yet ended up in a corporate job in New York that wasn't remote at all prior to Coronavirus?

Adam Smith  

Yeah, I think that is a big truth there. And something I may not have even, you know, realized myself is, I had been trying to travel so much, you know, well, in my professional job, and I think that this relates back to Origin Story and you know, why I've undertaken that project as well is, I initially went to school on a low income Pell Grant. 

And so, you know, for those of you who may not know the story on that, it's essentially a government program, that gives you some money to go to college, right after high school. But as a conditional thing, you do have to go to college right after high school, you don't, you're not going to be able to take time off between high school and college or anything like that. 

So, you know, I, that's a blessing, and that I was able to do that. And, you know, I don't feel like there's as many people that actually get the opportunity to do that. So I'm very grateful for that. And at the same time, you know, while I was working my way through school and whatnot, you know, it was always this thing of working up money, and, you know, knowing that I had to support myself, first and foremost, and then, you know, also support my family in, you know, some of the financial things that they are going through. 

So, you know, there's, there's that link to it, and then, you know, coming into my career, I think it was this thing of, ‘Okay, I need to make a certain amount of money.’ And this also, you know, goes in line with the theme of financial independence to, to get to a point where I can actually, you know, travel a good amount, and there were things that I did, you know, earlier on in my career that, you know, I was able to wing it. 

I found a plane ticket to visit one of my roommates from college in Tokyo for like, $700 round trip. And that was a really nice find. So in my early 20s, I was able to travel to Tokyo to see him and spent about five days there. It was a whirlwind, you know, we saw like, 27 words of the city. So, you know, there's opportunities like that. 

And then at the same time, I think I was so concentrated on this number to hit of having enough money to be financially stable to have an apartment in New York, to be able to travel. And then I think that there's also a lot of FOMO, when you're in a big city like New York, or LA, where you have this fear of missing out. And, you know, there's, there's all of this kind of extravagant wealth around you at all times. 

And, you know, you look at that, and you might compare yourself to that. But I think that, you know, I've always wanted something simple with travel, and that, you know, you just go to a given destination, find whatever cheap food you can, you know, it's about the experience, first and foremost, and I think a stark reminder of that, more recently has been, you know, Anthony Bourdain’s birthday, that was the end of last month. And somebody put up a post about that and said, ‘Hey, you know, like, if there's any remedy for the things that you're going through.’ 

And I think that speaks to Anthony Bourdain's story as well, you know, you always reach out to friends and, you know, connect with, you know, that's what really drives life is having those experiences and meeting people. 

And I think traveling has, you know, allowed me to do that in so many ways and think of multiple examples, but one that's coming to me right now is in Guatemala.

Omar  

Really quick, I wanted to touch base on you talking about New York and LA here. 

Adam Smith

Absolutely. 

Omar

So the FOMO is 100% real. And I think it's something that people easily get caught up in, right? I mean, I live in Houston, or I have lived in Houston for a majority of my life. And it's one of those flashy cities, just like LA and New York, just not to that degree, right? LA and New York take it to another degree. 

But one thing I realized, I'd say probably when I was 18, 19, almost 10 years ago, is that the moment that you get out of that one specific place, none of that matters anymore, right?

You can take someone from New York who's doing everything lavish and living a life of luxury, and take that one person that.. throw them in the middle of Tokyo, Japan, they've got nothing, right?

Adam Smith

Right. 

Omar

So when I started realizing that and you realize that through travel, which you mentioned, there were you realize that you do travel that none of that FOMO is real, you know? 

And the moment that you actually get out and you're having these experiences one way or another with people in different countries doing different things that don't really give it about where you came from, or what you did back there. But everything changes, you know, when you go back home to New York after a trip like that, or even to Japan for example, right? And you go to a trip like that you realize like, you look around and all of it becomes I wouldn't say fake or anything, honestly, because I don't think, right? 

Adam Smith

Yeah.

Omar

Everyone's living their own life, I think it becomes more or less important, right? It becomes less flashy, it becomes transparent. And so I was, I was really able to relate to that when you said that. It... I remember just growing up in this FOMO culture back in Houston.

 But the moment that I got out of Houston and actually started, like, I remember my first trip was in Nicaragua. And when I came back four months later, it's just, I don't really feel like doing any of this Houston stuff, you know? 

Let me go to some more places and meet some more people and see what I can get out of that. So I can really relate to that. But do go back to your example that you were just about to mention.

Adam Smith  

Absolutely. And that's actually a very good segue there. So yes, when you are abroad, absolutely. All that goes away. And I think especially when, you know, you're doing what they might call, like sustainable tourism, and you're staying with the local people, and you're not in some flashy hotel in Cancun, and one of those experiences that came to mind was going to Guatemala. 

And we took this day trip from Antigua, Guatemala, and we went out to a lake that was out in  mind country, and the name might come to me in a little bit. But at the edge of that lake, I mean, it's this massive volcanic lake, and there's just these Miss covered clouds all around, it's absolutely gorgeous. 

And how most people are getting around in Guatemala is by these retired school buses from the US. They're called chicken buses. And they'll park a whole bunch of them at different places, and little towns and cities. And that's, you know, basically, they're public transportation for people that don't have cars and things like that. And they'll paint them all flashy colors, and, you know, even name them. 

And then there's all these, these, these two guys on top that will take care of everybody's baggage, as it's kind of like rumbling along these mountain roads. So did not take one of those to get to Lake Atitlan. There's the name. 

And, you know, we had our modern, you know, shuttle/van prep transportation and everything like that. And that that, in itself speaks to what you're saying there, you know, in the first world versus, you know, the rest of the world thing. And then we went across the lake in a boat to this Mayan village. 

And, you know, here, there's all the local people around there, and, you know, my tour guide to was my end. And, you know, we got to know each other pretty good throughout the day, because I speak a little bit of Spanish as well. 

And so just getting to know all of that, and, you know, even getting taught how to weave and you know, how they go about making chocolate in the village. And, you know, like, how they prep food, and you know, how they do different things around the village is very humbling. 

And it puts you in this place where you're like, ‘Okay, I am maybe like, I might not consider my lifestyle to be lavish, as you know, lower middle upper class and American, what have you. But I'm living so, you know, in a totally different life than so many people around the world and sharing that experience.’ I think it is the biggest thing that you can take from it.

Omar  

That's good. It sounds like a very unique experience. I think when you talk about the third world versus the first world, I mean, it's a completely different environment, right? They're different people, different languages, different everything, like they don't... do not care what's happening in America at a granular level. 

I think even when you leave the city, and go to another city in the States, it's a different story, right? So I'm from Houston, and I go up to, for example, I was in California, in San Diego just a week ago. And I go to San Diego. It's a different environment, different people. They don't care what I was doing in Houston, unless we're all sitting down and talking, you know?

Adam Smith

Right.

Omar

Like, it's, I could be, I could have a five star pent suite condo in the middle of Houston downtown and no one's gonna give it right. And we'd be like things like how important it is to be more focused on realism versus focusing on minimalism and experiences and becoming a better person inward. Whatever that means for you, a better person rather than focusing on the external environments and things that you can't really control and don't last long and are very temporary anyways in the first place, right? 

So... when that -  and speaking of temporary here, when you had - when Coronavirus came around and you've been working with this company for how long, then? 

Adam Smith

Three years.

Omar

Three years already at that point, when Coronavirus came around, I mean, everything changed right? That FOMO that was there whatever was happening in New York, all of a sudden New York went in standstill. That let me not have all the places in the entire US New York was that one place that we heard that kept getting hit really hard. Right? Walk me through what happened, I guess that first month when you were in New York?

Adam Smith  

Absolutely. So I think it was a pretty pivotal time for me as it was for many people. And you know, my story is my own. And at that time, and and this is just immediately preceding the actual events of COVID and whatnot, when I can remember, you know, nobody was wearing face masks, and the guidance from the CDC was to just wear gloves, and use a lot of hand sanitizer, those days are gone. 

And, you know, I remember I'd taken a trip up to San Francisco on business, like, maybe not a month before the lockdown artists went in. And then I had also had to fly home to take care of my dad who had basically had a spill down the stairs at his house. And you know, he'd been in a car accident about 10 years prior. And we didn't really know if, you know, that was what caused it. So there's a lot to look at there. 

But you know, immediately after getting back from this business trip, I had to fly back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I'm from, and, you know, seeing my family and, you know, go see him in the hospital. Luckily, he got out within about 14 days. But at the same time, you know, there was... there's that aspect of being back home, which I think, you know, puts your mind in a different state for everybody as well at home just has this resonance with you, in an internal level. 

And then, you know, basically taking care of my dad for a couple weeks, you know, as he recovered from that, just to make sure that, you know, he didn't take any spills, or, you know, that he was there completely Cognizant we and, you know, mentally there. 

So I think that was a piece of it, as well. And in the meantime, you know, we got the emails coming out saying, Okay, well, we are shutting down the office, everybody's going to be working remotely. And I remember a manager at that time saying, this is probably going to be bigger than we think. And if you're over there in Wisconsin, you might want to stay there doesn't look like we're going back anytime soon. And so I think that's when it hit this reality of, ‘Hey, you know, this, this is going to go on for a while’. 

And at the same time, there was all these murmurings of like flight ban orders and domestic flights. So I said, Well, you know, as much as I don't want to, I better fly back to New York, to you know, just be back in the area, you know, be in my apartment, be able to take care of things there. So went back to New York, and immediately the night that the lockdown orders went in. 

I've been talking about this with my partner for a while, said, hey, let's just undertake this dream of remote work that we've been having, see where it goes, we don't even know how long this is going to last. So we booked tickets out to Palm Springs in California. And we got a rental vehicle there, went up to Lake Arrowhead in California. And from there, we were able to, you know, continue that trip for about three months. 

We visited Arizona, New Mexico and then eventually Colorado, you know, two states out of those, I haven't been here before. And then when we finally got to Colorado, we were up in the mountains, you know, gorgeous little cabin up there. 

And we realized, hey, all of our stuff is still back in New York, it doesn't look like this thing is ending anytime soon. You know, three months have passed by. So we're like, we need to go back. It probably isn't safe to fly right now. And it took us a while to make that realization. And we didn't want to, we said hey, let's drive across the entire country to get back to New York just to be safe. And that ended up being an adventure in itself. So, you know, basically, she got to see a bunch of Middle America that she never seen before. 

And, you know, I got to visit home one more time going back through Milwaukee, we stayed and, you know, some spots in Nebraska. On the way back, Pennsylvania. And I think it was, you know, regulatory for her to to see, you know, the way that middle America is, you know, culturally and you know, her growing up in Seattle, like not seeing some of that stuff, and then me experiencing a lot of the West Coast. 

So I think that has a big narrative to it. as well. And then we finally got to New York basically took care of our leases, everything like that, and shoved all of our stuff in a storage locker. And we got a  pretty cheap one, thank God. And then we made our way all the way back across the country in our trusty Ford Ranger pickup, which I should say has awesome off roading capabilities. And we use those a lot. And continue our journey from there. 

And you know, just to round things out here, went up through to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, we hit Glacier National Park. We circled back around Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula. And then we made our way back down the California coast. And so we've also been able to see things like Yosemite, Death Valley. We are at Death Valley in February, all the spots in southern Utah. So we've seen a lot it's been, it's been quite an adventure.

Omar  

How is that transition for work? I mean, you're working a job in a corporate office on your computer before and then from there, all of a sudden, you're on the road a lot. So I would imagine you have to get an Airbnb and have Wi Fi along the way. 

And how is it? How does it work environment itself? How was that transition to? Absolutely. And the beginning, tell me walk me through from the beginning of adjusting to where you finally felt like it was a lot more normal.

Adam Smith  

Sure. So I think when we initially took off, we had to time things in a way that we could be present during working hours and, you know, keep our respective companies happy and whatnot. And I think that was easy at first. And you know, I got a little bit of taste of it being back home when remote work started. 

And then at the same time, you know, when we got to Mountain Time to the West Coast, working on East Coast hours became a little bit of a struggle. And, you know, as many companies have, during the start of the pandemic, mine had basically declared, you know, a stand up meeting at 9am, East Coast time, three days a week. And that's 6am when you're on pacific time. So it's basically getting up at 6am, three days a week. And, you know, I think there was a little bit of struggle with that. 

And then also, I think, as part of that, when you're working collaboratively, you know, some workplaces out there are better set up for remote work than others. Some industries are better set up for remote work than others, you know, I happen to work in advertising technology, and that, you know, really lends itself to that. So we had Slack and project management systems and stuff like that. 

But there was also this lack of being able to go and like tap somebody on the shoulder at their desk, or, you know, say doing whiteboarding sessions, I see the whiteboard behind me there, Omar. And, you know, I think there's that that comes into things as well, then also, with managing projects and things like that, I think oftentimes, managers might feel like they're blindsided to what's going on with their team. So they might want more meetings than usual. And I think that's gotten a little bit better since the pandemic started. 

You know, I can refine this a little bit later. But I think that it's been a big awakening for both companies and employees as to, you know, what can be done remotely. And that's, that's a big revolution in itself. And then, you know, just in terms of cohabiting, and when you're living with another person, I think that, you know, you have to be very cognizant that you might be living with a family, you know, I don't know what your respective deal is, listeners on the podcast here. 

But you know, that multiplies things too. So I think when you're booking Airbnb, you want to be very cognizant of, you know, how much space is in them. So, you know, isn't what bedroom is a two bedroom, and you have to have your filters well set up when you're booking them, you know? Does it have a washer and dryer, you're probably going to need that? Does it have a dishwasher, you're probably gonna want that. But maybe then there's other amenities.

Omar  

Something even as simple as having a desk sometimes it's important. I realize whenever you're traveling remotely like that one of the most important factors now that I look for in an Airbnb is how strong is the Wi Fi? Where is the router located in the house? Is it central? Can I work from anywhere in any room? 

And then finally, where is the desk and how far away is that from the router, and if it's in my room, even better, because if I'm cohabiting with some other people, even if it's just friends, I'd rather work in my room than walk in the living room where I can get some privacy and be on my own computer and have my setup here, you know? 

So I think little things like that, that people don't even pay attention to really make or break your entire work environment when you're an Airbnb. Did you ever work out of your car though?

Adam Smith  

I did not. And that's an interesting topic to touch on. I'd love to hear some of your stories about that as well. And you know what your experiences have been in different places you've stayed while traveling.

Omar  

Well interestingly enough, I never actually worked out on my car either. We had a camper van, and the camper van itself never had any sort of portable Wi Fi or anything. So I would always have to find a cafe. 

You know, of course, when I was in the camper van, it was in New Zealand and cafe culture there is massive. So there was cafes everywhere, you know, but in America, per se, it's cafe culture is fairly new. In fact, in 2017, 2018, it didn't even exist. Really the cafes that you see today with flat whites and americanos and all that. Not nearly as much in Texas, I mean, where I'm from. 

But in New York, I'm sure they existed. But when I came back, it was so massive, right. So like the, they're starting to get a lot bigger too. But in New Zealand is really easy just to find a cafe driving around. And even though we lived in a camper van, we'd stay in spots for like, two, three months at a time sometimes. So never that much difficulty in finding a spot. 

But of course, I've always preferred an Airbnb myself, simply because of the privacy, not that much noise, concentration, able to get worked on and away from distractions. I think that's the most important thing. 

Adam Smith 

Absolutely.

Omar

How have you, like, I mean, right now, where did you say you are again?

Adam Smith  

I'm currently up in the North Cascades. So we're near Mount Baker, and up in the POW rainforest here.

Omar  

So where you are currently, and you're in an airbnb, obviously, from what I can tell, but you traveled around quite a bit, I mean, you hit a lot of different states, did you stay in an Airbnb every night? And, or would you travel and drive during the nighttime or and only drive on the weekends? Or what's the story? What's the setup there?

Adam Smith  

Yeah, that's, that's actually a very interesting question. So basically, we've had to pace things out. And one, one trick for the listeners here is if you go on Airbnb, or vrbo, or something like that, you'll get a discount when you book monthly, and it'll be something substantial, like 15-20%. 

So when we can be like to book those longer stays, but then you know, if we're traveling to a new place, you know, we have to factor in our working time and try not to take too many days off, you know, you want to want to keep your boss happy. And you know, sometimes it's over a holiday weekend. 

So, for instance, we're blocking out right now where we might be in the end of September. And we're like, okay, there's indigenous peoples day in October, we want to do some traveling down the coast that weekend. And to get that in, you know, you have to pace it in Google Maps has helped a lot with that you set your different destinations, play around

And also, I mean, my our standard has maybe been, don't drive more than say, like, five, six hours a day, it might not seem like a lot when you look at it, but then you'd have to factor in, you know, you're going to be stopping for food, you might have some rebel bathroom breaks on the sides of the road, things like that. 

And all those things come in, when you're traveling from place to place, and also booked three months ahead of time with Airbnb or vrbo. As a standard practice, you know, especially if you're booking monthly, you might get one person that books on a weekend. And they could basically take out the entire month for that place.

Omar  

It's interesting you say that listening to you talk about this, because I come from the flip side of the business world, where we have a lot more flexibility in what we do, right. So if I wanted to, I could, I don't really have set times to work where I would imagine with your remote job, they probably want you to clock in and clock out certain times and also have meetings and whatever else or I'm sure your salary base, but even if it's not clocking out, they want you to work specific hours. 

Whereas, like, if I decided to drive tomorrow, I could drive for 12 hours straight and then catch up on some stuff on Wednesday, right? So it's interesting, the dynamic there is quite different to do, what would you say are some of the biggest limitations of working a remote job while traveling. 

Now of course, I disclaimer to this. anyone listening to this right now, a remote job is a million million times better than working in the office. But of course, it's like any less I'll, there's a lot more discipline, first of all, to be able to do something like this. But also number two, there are some limitations. 

So I know there’s always a part of my audience that tuned in to maybe one or two episodes and just realize maybe they were curious and isn't for them. So what are those kind of small limitations that you see working in a remote job?

Adam Smith  

Yeah, I think and are we putting this in contrast to say like working for yourself on the road?

Omar  

Not even that. Working a job in the office, in contrast to..

Adam Smith  

Okay. Absolutely. Yeah, I think there's some huge contrast there. So I think there's been a lot of narrative recently about whether people can effectively work remotely. And there's a bit of a fallacy about that being that people have worked from their dining room table for 18 months to keep respective companies afloat. 

Now, remote work is a perk or an add on, I'd say no remote work is now the standard. And going back to the office is now an adjustment. So I think there's things that come into that as well, that have to be taken into account. So, you know, of those things, there's, there's a whole bevy of less benefits for remote work. 

And I think that some of the headlines we've been seeing on LinkedIn, and, you know, within the news, there's those that might be going for a pro office standpoint, you know, might have a hard time finding different benefits for that. And so I think one of those has been, are you going to have FOMO, if you don't go back to the office, I think that, you know, some of that's natural, you're kind of watching coworkers, you know, on a screen all the time, and they're hanging out together, you know, going to parties and whatnot. 

But I think that a lot of companies now, have you accepted this kind of hybrid model where, you know, if they're doing trivia night or something like that, you know, sure, maybe some people will be there in person hanging out whatnot, but they'll have everybody on zoom cameras, you know, and maybe the person running, it'll be on a laptop up wherever they're at, so that you can kind of feel like you're there. 

So I think that's bridged the gap with that a little bit. So that seems to be one major boon that's been promoted for in office work. But for office work, I think that there's there's a whole bevy of things there. So I think, number one, is, you're going to have more privacy, that, you know, you might have more time to work during that. 

And more recently, I wrote an article called, ‘Do You Really Miss Your Commute?’ and that seemed to really resonate with a lot of people professionally, in that they remember what their commute was, like in New York, or via car, you know, around the country, you know, and I just kind of replayed the whole thing for them, like, ‘Hey, you know, you throw together breakfast, you know, maybe you just grab a granola bar and a nice coffee and run out the door. If you're late, then, you know, for a New York commute, you're getting on a subway train, you know, for me, it was to Midtown.’ 

And, you know, there's this parts of that, that are not pretty, you're, you're sweaty, you know, if you're running late for the train, or it's in New York summer, there's all kinds of characters that might be there, you know, as you're on your way to work, you know, all kinds of stuff going on the train bands, you know, singers, all kinds of stuff like that, and then you finally get into work, you know, and you're this kind of sweaty mess, and you get into the office, and maybe you're five or 10 minutes late for your first meeting. So you already feel rushed. 

You know, that's the way that worst case scenario, subway commute might go in Manhattan. And then for the rest of the people, if you're stuck in traffic, you know, that's also a good one or two hours of your life each day that you're spending there, you might have a more tranquil commute to work. But I think for people that live in big cities, like Houston, for example, has a lot of traffic, you might be stuck in that, finally getting into the office. And you know, it's just a lot of work just to get to a desk and work on a computer. So, you know, that's my take on commutes. 

And then also, I think what comes into it is it's highlighted a lot of inequities in the workplace. And I like to say that it's kind of ripped a hole in the matrix that way, when it comes to, you know, realizations by both companies and staff about, you know, what they really want, and what's also financially good for them. 

So, I think one of those things is that if you already might feel left out when you're on group calls in the workplace or something like that, you know, there there, there now is no, say loudest person in the room. You know, I think, you know, pop culture movies, like office space or something like that those type of characters are depicted, you know, and there's, there's no water cooler talk. There's no, you know, most popular, funniest person in the office, you know, something like that, you know, there's just less... Yeah, exactly. 

There's less emphasis on appearance, you know, when you're working remotely. So I think that's a big positive as well. You kind of show up as you are, you wear what you want. You take care of the things that you need to take care of during the day, you work on your own hours. 

And then the other thing, you know, bringing it to a 180 there for companies there's if they downsize their office space, that's a huge cost savings and overhead for them that they could use to grow the company to, you know, increase salaries or do things like that. And I think a lot of companies are finally realizing that that there, there's a, there's a big incentive there to downsize office space, I think there's a lot of maybe real estate companies and big cities that don't like hearing that. 

But you know, sometimes big changes happen during a crisis. And, you know, there's a big opportunity there to help everybody be more productive, to work more efficiently. And also to have big amounts of cost savings on your balance sheet.

Omar  

I can imagine, like the world's going so there's two perspectives that I've heard about this right? Number one, people are going to start living more in the outskirts of cities, which means real estate or on the outskirts of cities is going to skyrocket simply because they don't have to go to the middle of the city to go to their office. 

And another thing that comes to mind is that the people that actually build the offices in the first place, whatever in the construction industry in that sector is going to suffer a little bit for sure. But a lot, what they're going to pivot towards is more homes being built, right. So what's going to happen is more homes are going to be built less office spaces are going to be built, which also helps the ever growing population that's growing currently at a really incredibly fast rate. Find more living places, right? 

So which means more Airbnb, which I expect Airbnb to boom in the next few years. One hundred percent. Massive investor there, by the way. But other than that, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see the dynamic that was forced upon the world because of a virus, and how much everything's changed. 

And no matter how much people try to resist it, like, for example, Apple, right now, just came up with a new headline, probably you probably seen it on LinkedIn saying, ‘Oh, Apple refuses to fully go remote and as a presenter against that, because they're gonna keep their employees in the office at least three days a week, and I'm like, you can't stop it, it's going to happen. 

You know, it's just like Bitcoin happened. Just like, all these things are just like VR is going to happen, this is going to happen, and the more people realize it, but just because humans are inherently selfish, they're going to realize it's much better to do remote work or a remote job, you know? 

So I'm really, really curious to see the way the world goes, I think the early adopters, like your projects, for example, Origin Story, I think it's still way early on, at least in the grand scheme of things over the next three to five years, I think, are they going to be the ones that win? You know, so this is a good segue to talk about Origin Story. So tell my audience about how that idea started and what it's all about?

Adam Smith  

Absolutely. So I think I touched on this a little bit earlier, in that I went to school on a low income Pell Grant. And I don't think I realized how special that was at the time. And there's a lot of things to navigate as you're going through school, you know, you I think that, you know, it's a lot of financial responsibility to take on when you're, say, 18 years old. And, you know, if you don't have parents that are there to, you know, really help be there and guide you through that process. It can be pretty difficult. 

And, you know, I was lucky enough that even though my parents were low income, that, you know, my mother was there, for instance, to help, you know, walk through some of that process, and have those conversations with me, you know, I got accepted to schools, that would basically be hard to win. 

And although I got scholarships and whatnot, you know, it would land of me with a ton of student debt to begin with. And, you know, so I ended up going to a state school and the conditionally with Pell Grant, you basically have to go to school to go to college, I should say, right after high school. 

So, you know, I know that there's a lot of people out there that might take gap years or, you know, take time off after they graduate high school. I think oftentimes, that's not a reality for a lot of people out there as they're going through college. So, you know, there's, there's that piece of things. 

And I think a lot of the focus there is, when you're financially disadvantaged, you know, whatever, race, religion, creed, whatnot, you might be from, you know, it's an extra hurdle to get over I think, as a young person, as you're coming through things. And, you know, I've had some conversations with my personal mentee as well, on Origin Story about this is there's opportunities that needed to be extended to, you know, different groups within the workplace. And, you know, there's, there's, there's, I think, a lot of consensus now happening, that there are inequities there, you know, for people of color, for women, for LGBTQ people. 

And then, you know, in addition to that, you know, I think that's kind of bringing things out of the woodwork: military, veterans, finance. disadvantage people, age 40 plus people that are out there, I think ageism is finally starting to be talked about in the workplace. But you know, we still have things like 40, under 40 clubs. 

And I think it was just like Forbes or somebody like that finally made like a 50, under 50 club or something like that. So I think there's those type of things that need to be addressed. 

And I think the goal, in a large way is to provide resources for people that might feel disadvantaged in the workplace, to create freedom for them, you know, and that has some themes around financial empowerment and financial independence, and then also to achieve what they want in life. And you know, and that might be traveling might be, you know, success in their career, or it might be, you know, achieving financial independence. 

And I think that's been another topic for, you know, especially people of our generation, where, you know, we've seen things like the Great Recession take place, and then been hit with COVID, you know, less than 10 years later, you know, that coming into things that makes you think a lot about work revolution going on as a result of COVID. You know, I say full speed ahead. Like there's, there's so many ways we can go with this.

Omar  

You've told me the goal with Origin Story, how are you going to execute it? How are you going to empower people to actually go about and do this?

Adam Smith  

Sure. So right now, it's been through building a narrative around the different things that, you know, might be happening in workplace, I think the biggest dominant one right now has been remote work. 

And, you know, basically, how to maybe push back on that if you're working for a company right now that wants you to go back to the office? Or maybe you have an approach that conversation with them, you know, how do you approach that conversation? 

And, you know, how can you state it in a way that, you know, you might, so the benefits for the company that you're working for, as well, in doing that you might have higher productivity, you might be available at hours, you wouldn't be if you're commuting? You know, what does that look like for you?

Omar  

The narrative around it, what's being done here? Are you guys starting and reading articles? Like what's going on there? In physical terms of execution? 

Adam Smith  

Sure, yeah. So it's been a mix of articles more recently, you know, and we can share those if you have show notes, and you know, on topics like that on topics, like, you know, traveling on the road, while you're working professionally, things like that, and then also have a streaming series for Origin Story, basically, a video chat right now, where I will talk with people from different groups that I named earlier, and will kind of run over their life story, and, you know, the challenges that they've encountered, you know, going through what they're doing now. 

And, you know, I mentioned that chat with my mentee, Jesse, who is now in an MBA program down in UCLA, and just where he's coming from, you know, growing up, actually in Texas, so that's relevant to this as well, and how he kind of came from, you know, maybe a similar background of income, but also, you know, a single mother to get where he's at. 

And then also with my friend, Lori Cheek, who has undergone some challenges with entrepreneurship, you know, she was on Shark Tank, and basically made a dating app called Cheek’d. That is, you know, a kind of precursor to Tinder, but it's now more of a kind of a networking app. And she's kind of running with that now, as well. 

And, you know, basically being on ABC Shark Tank, and, you know, dealing with, you know, the ups and downs on that. And you know, what that meant for her business afterwards, and also what it was like for her to kind of leave a professional career and pursue that. And then also chat with a military veterans, friends of mine, Don and Niles, that work in the same industry as me, but you know, are kind of in a unique position being that there's not as many veterans working in that field right now. 

And I do want to shout out that Niles has one called the Frontline that he's doing with his company under IPG and they are doing some stuff more recently. 

Omar  

What is it exactly? It's a podcast?

Adam Smith  

It's essentially an advocacy organization for veterans professionally, within the media agencies. And so they've been, you know, putting together a panel about that they posted some other ones. But yeah, within that session, you can go back, you know, within the Origin Story series and check that one out. There's two parts to it. 

The first one we talked about, you know, their experiences of getting into the military, of the Marines and the army, respect Have Li. 

And then also, you know, after that and, you know, keep in mind, they're in the same unit serving, they talk about some of the lessons that they've been able to apply professionally, within the workplace. And you know, what that's meant for them. Interesting.

Omar  

What direction do you want to take Origin Story? Like, what's your vision for it? Where would you like it?

Adam Smith  

Yeah, that's a great question too. So I think as it stands, right now, I want to build out more resources for people that are out there right now that, you know, might be even struggling professionally to find their way. So you know, there's, there's maybe a younger professional audience that's going to look at stuff like that. I put together a guide for new graduates that are coming into their field a little bit earlier in May. And I can include a link to that as well. 

And, you know, I've also put together jobs groups that aim to help out some people that, you know, might be looking for work in their field, you know, with different things like resume writing tips, you know, how to navigate the workplace and some unconventional ways addressing the remote work stuff that we talked about before there. 

And then, you know, from there, I'm hoping to, you know, hold some broader discussions, you know, and workshops between that audience where we can talk through some, you know, really deep topics professionally, that maybe don't get addressed as much. And I think a big thing about that is unconventional career advice. 

I think that, you know, there's all the usual suspects, publications that we'll talk about, you know, how to interview and things like that. But I think that there's a lot of ways to look at that. And, you know, oftentimes, there's a lot that just doesn't get discussed that you really need in your career. And you might learn that from mentors or mentees. But, you know, there's, there's things that really need to be talked about that are...

Omar  

Right, I agree. For sure. I think it's a really good project, I think it's going in a great direction. And let me know if I can contribute in any way. 

But any project that has to do with remote work, or remote businesses, or anything that involves travel, I'm always game for that. 

Other than that, thank you so much for coming on today. Adam, it was a pleasure having you on where can people find you before I let you go?

Adam Smith  

Sure. So Origin Story is at and I should really spell this out. Origin hyphen Story dot com. And if you do check that out, be sure to sign up for the mailing list. And we're including professional tips within that that I discussed earlier. 

We're also on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I can include handles for that. And if you want to find me on LinkedIn to connect directly, feel free to reach out. I be under Adam Smith, and it'll probably show up under PubMatic. If you search for that. I know there's a lot of Adam Smith's in the world. You know, I can't say I'm an economist, but you know, you'll find me on there.

Omar  

Great. Thanks again, Adam. Remember nomad fam, we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you. So please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you.

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