Anaïs Comot is owner of HerCode Podcast and HerCommunity. In this episode, she tells her story about how she is originally from France and the corporate journey that led her to London where she is now a career strategist who helps women build a career they're truly happy with. Coming from a procurement and consultancy background, she has made multiple career transitions herself and experienced the struggles associated with a career that is not fulfilling, even impacting her own health and other aspects of her life. She has found connection with other expats who are living and/or working abroad and the unique set of challenges that comes with that. Ultimately, she is enjoying the freedom she can have to travel back home with the option to work from a traveling home office while visiting friends and family on occasion.

Anaïs has worked with 200+ professionals from various backgrounds and industries, generally meeting with her clients in 1-on-1 online coaching sessions, but she also offers group coaching and runs HerCommunity virtually as a free space that includes weekly resources available to anyone looking to make the most out of their careers. She strongly believes that life is too short to fill unfulfilled at work and actively supports her community through various channels, including the HerCode podcast in addition to HerCommunity.

Anaïs can be found in the following places:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaiscomot/

Website: https://www.hercode.co.uk/

Joe Gallant is from Kent, England, and he is the owner of Be Gallant where he designs websites and other content and helps create visual identities for small startup businesses and charities. His passion is helping people and organizations to find their voice online, through effective branding and quality content.

In this episode, Joe tells his experience of how he has worked for a variety of small companies and also churches and how his family recently made a move from a coastal location back to closer to home now that he has a wife and young daughter and dog and what it was like to build a home office that was more intentional this time around. Joe is officially leaving some of his former part-time and in-person work in order to dedicate his attention to his remote business at this time.

Joe recommends finding ways to make a workspace enjoyable to be in and personally finds that starting his day with prayer and meditation sets his day on the right path. Joe believes if someone can find what works for them in terms of a routine, they can discover more productive times of day but don’t sweat it if it doesn’t always go to plan.

You can find out more about Joe and his work at begallant.uk

Instagram: Jgchurchcomms 

Anna Burgess Yang is a former product manager turned freelance content marketer, journalist, and workflow consultant from Chicago. She is passionate about educating and equipping people to take control of their remote work lives and their careers. Anna has been working from home for 16 years now and currently works from home full-time, which for her is about 25 hours per week. She's worked in different settings in the past and appreciated the results oriented workflow and prioritizes working efficiently now to get a lot done in a short time rather than feeling a need to sit at her desk 40 hours a week. In the past, she was at one time the only remote employee, then she was with a company that transitioned to fully remote, and she's worked for a company with global remote employees. She's experienced different work flows and worked synchronously and asynchronously and even hired new remote employees. This all helped Anna build foundational knowledge about "what works and what doesn't work" for her.

In this episode, Anna tells a few stories including one about a cat who likes to get into the ceiling and another about how she first started working from home which involved quitting her job to take a new job, with her boss letting her work from home to keep her with the company. Awhile back, she wrote a LinkedIn post about remote work and her husband quitting his job when his employer ordered him back into the office, and he decided to get a different job instead, one that allowed him to continue to work remotely as they both like to be able to share in the kid-related stuff that comes up during the day. They've noticed some differences in expectations from remote employers with some being more flexible (small companies) and others requiring people to be on camera and in meetings all day. Anna now works for herself and prefers to embrace flexibility which allows her to maintain a good balance, even when she goes to pick up her children in the middle of the day or go grocery shopping on a Friday morning. She doesn't think about working early or late as an inconvenience, because she knows she is taking control over her own life.

In her work as a workflow consultant, Anna helps solopreneurs and small businesses automate workflow with tools like Zapier. She writes about working remotely in her Substack as well. Anna's goal is to educate others about remote work, the future of work, and how work can be better. She typically focuses on writing about fintech and product-led content. She's found many collaboration tools to make remote work easier now, including project management tools, video tools for asynchronous communication, etc, that didn't exist when she first started working from home.

You can find Anna in the following places:

Website: https://annabyang.com/

Twitter: https://annabyang.com/

Gumroad with free resources for solopreneurs: https://annabyang.gumroad.com/

Substack: https://annabyang.substack.com/

The Linkedin post that went viral (4 million views) and got picked up by LinkedIn's Talent Blog: Why Professionals Quit to Find Flexible Work:  https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-engagement/viral-post-highlights-why-professionals-quit-to-find-flexible-work

Marla Williams shares how her doctor told her she needed to slow down or her stress levels would destroy her health. She was running herself too thin with high pressure positions in a corporate setting, and she eventually stepped down in order to heal. In this episode, she shares some of the stress relieving techniques that have worked for her and others over the more recent years. Marla is now a life and business coach and a newly published author of the BEING Zone and its companion journal. Marla has transformed her own life and the lives of over 1200 clients utilizing The BEING Zone system which she has now documented in her book and supportive training program that you can access on her website. If you are ready to overcome stress and overwhelm, this will be a good place to start.

https://thebeingzone.com/

****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/21

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Joe Milne has taught over 70,000 Asian students as an online ESL teacher. He's from England but has been now living in Peru for 7 years. In addition to teaching, he focuses on content creation and teacher training. Joe enjoys video editing and uses his YouTube channel to share general and advanced ESL teaching tips as well as updates and tips related to one company he's been working with for the last 5 years. He'll do editing for others on occasion as well. 

Joe shares how he transitioned from working in a call center job in Lima to working from his apartment and some of the challenges he has with sourcing his tech equipment in a part of the world that has the Amazon Rainforest and Amazon River but not so much Amazon Prime. April has also been to Peru in the past, so they chat about some experiences traveling and dining in Peru. 

Joe and April talk about some of the ups and downs of teaching online during the pandemic. For anyone interested in using their English skills to teach ESL, Joe was invited to help create a training course for ESL teachers through the International Open Academy and feels that project went quite well and recommends it as a good starting point for people who are interested in teaching online. They also discuss how it's helpful to have more than one stream of income these days as there are seasonal changes in demand for ESL teachers as well as changing requirements for eligibility. 

Joe can be found on his YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/JoeMilneEnglish

Joe was one of the contributors for a course called Make Money Teaching English Online. 

https://www.offers.internationalopenacademy.com/itutorjoe/course/teaching-english-online

Joe does some video editing on the side. If interested, he can be reached by email: itutorjoe@gmail.com 

*****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/20

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

*****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/17

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Eric Twiggs comes on the show today to discuss productivity and accountability. He is a procrastination prevention partner whose mission is to build high performing entrepreneurs, authors, and career professionals, who are prepared for life’s unexpected curve balls. He shares about his journey from working in auto sales, how he enjoyed teaching and training in that setting, and how that eventually led him to him becoming a time management expert.

Eric is author of The Discipline of Now: 12 Practical Principles to Overcome Procrastination. He is also a founding partner and president of The What Now Movement as well as the host of a weekly inspirational podcast titled "The 30 Minute Hour." As a certified life and business coach, Eric has conducted over 28,000 coaching sessions, helping executive leaders and entrepreneurs who have moved from feeling frustrated, to finding fulfillment.

https://www.ericmtwiggs.com

https://www.facebook.com/Thedisciplineofnow/

https://twitter.com/Disciplineofnow

*****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/17

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Nicole Eichinger has been a registered dietitian for 12 years who has been meeting with and supporting her clients virtually for the past 6 years with nutrition counseling sessions as well as some online courses. She specializes in helping exhausted professionals feel like themselves again by using food as medicine. Nicole talks about how she manages her work-from-home life as well as her own anxiety and stress levels by making time for herself, prioritizing healthy sleep patterns, being aware of inflammation in her body, knowing her limits when it comes to balancing her family and business responsibilities, and using food as medicine in her own life. April and Nicole took some time to talk about how hiring a virtual assistant can be helpful with reducing the stress and workload of a small business owner but how there can be a transition period, with the idea of handing over some control a potential stress in itself. Nicole also talks about how she has embraced several social media platforms and has found recent success with Tik Tok. She also gives a lot of credit to her recent increase in traffic and referrals to using GoSite in the past few months. She has her own podcast called Nutrition's My Life Podcast where she talks about topics such as thyroid and digestive health.

You can learn more about Nicole and Nutrition's My Life in the following places:

Website: https://www.nutritionsmylife.com

Facebook page: Nutrition's My Life at www.facebook.com/nutritionsmylife 

Facebook group: Healthy Foods and Healing Habits www.facebook.com/groups/nutritionsmylife

Email: nicole.eichinger@nutritionsmylife.com

*****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/17

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Dan Wheeler is a professional services consultant in North Carolina, who has been in the IT industry for over 25 years but has focused on information security, specifically email security, for the last 6 years. He's been working from home for 2 years now after spending his entire career with an at-work desk job. He tells the story of how he ended up rather unexpectedly changing jobs after a casual conversation with someone, saying that Proofpoint, sounded like a great place to work. He obtained a remote work job with this email security company and appreciated how his company invested time into training him and adding slowly to his workload over the course of the year, something they do in an effort to help employees avoid burnout.

In this episode, April and Dan talk about how some entrepreneurs and small business owners might not be aware of some of the security risks that email can pose. On the contrary, employees of larger corporations might have more protections in place, including having attachments scanned for viruses or campaigns and trainings around the topic of email security such as phishing awareness. Dan breaks down several different measures that peope who work from home can put into practice to keep their computer, their data, and their company more safe to avoid becoming an entry point for a data breach. These include things such as hardwiring as often as possible, keeping work and personal tasks separate, not opening personal emails on a work computer, and using strong passwords as well as multi-factor authentication, etc. 

Check out Dan's blog Email Security Guy at https://emailsecurityguy.tumblr.com/

You can also find Dan here:

Email: dan@teamushd.org 

Twitter: @geekydanw

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Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/16

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Rachelle Deem is an automation and integration specialist from Australia who specializes in helping female entrepreneurs put some of the more mundane or manual tasks of their day-to-day work on autopilot in order to free up more time to scale their business. She's very well versed in many of the course creation all-in-one portals as she helps clients as they transfer from one to another and integrate different pieces together. In this episode, Rachelle shares how she was able to very gradually switch over from her desk job of 25 years to working from home as a virtual assistant on her own schedule after she had her sixth child. She's moved her home office around to different parts of her house and has also moved into more of a consulting role as she is building a team to help as she scales her own business. She divides her week into two parts, three days where she's working in her business, like an employee, and two days where she's focusing on her own self care as well as working on more of the big picture aspects of her business as the CEO. 

April and Rachelle met in a networking portion of an online conference, and April met with Rachelle virtually a few weeks later for a "tech breakthrough session" where they were able to talk about which products and services April was interested in working with after deliberating over the choices for several months. They settled on using a lesser known site called Simplero for hosting her website and some of the other projects, courses, and membership options for Yes, I Work From Home that are coming soon. The conversation focuses a lot on some different ways female entrepreneurs and small business owners in general can work to avoid getting to the point of overwhelm through things like automating scheduling and some email responders and such by freeing up more time for other tasks or time for self care or family.

Rachelle Deem: https://www.rachelledeem.com/

You can check out her free resources such as the Ultimate Automation Tools Guide here:

https://www.rachelledeem.com/resources

If anyone would like to check out Simplero, the site that both Rachelle and April use, here's April's referral code: https://smpl.ro/al/OKVv9v_e/19136

*****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/15

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website

Dylan Ogline has been self-employed as an entrepreneur for the greater part of his life, since he was 14 years old, selling cell phones at a profit and creating websites instead of finishing high school. In this interview, he tells the story of how he went from sitting on a plastic bucket in a basement to having a 7-figure digital agency. Dylan shares how he accomplished this by focusing on just one thing at a time; and, now, as an educator, he loves helping teach others how to find their one thing to focus on so they can start and build their own digital agency that will allow them to have more freedom, purpose, and meaning.

Dylan shares the ups and downs of the first ten years of his journey as an entrepreneur and about how he has moved back and forth between Florida and Pennsylvania a couple times. He talks about how his plan to travel the US by RV ended abruptly and why he transitioned to his current location. It ends up that he has been able to manage a virtual team seamlessly through some of these transitions. 

Contact Dylan: dylanogline.com

Dylan's business: OglineDigital.com

Herman Miller Aeron Chair (renewed) https://amzn.to/3qH0Sej

****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/14

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Jonas Altman describes himself as a workologist, someone who studies work in order to help people do their best work. In this interview, April and Jonas talk about "Zoom fatigue" and how listening and having a conversation without always being on video helps the mind to concentrate in a different way. They also talk about how leaders of organizations that allow employees to work from home can help their workforce avoid burnout by creating a culture of trust and autonomy, especially as more people transition to remote work options, allowing people more choice about where and when they work. 

Jonas is currently in Vancouver, and he is the founder of an award-winning design practice, Social Fabric. Jonas left his job in the music industry to work from home, and he has embraced the work-from-anywhere lifestyle and wrote a large portion of his book in a local coffee shop. The book is called Shapers: Reinvent the Way You Work and Change the Future. Over the course of his work-from-home experience, he's created fashion brands, ran a digital agency, launched London's first lifestyle and technology incubator, and now advises on culture change to some of the world’s boldest organisations. He helps create learning experiences that transform people so they can elevate how they organise, collaborate, and innovate. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and loves surfing in his spare time. 

Jonas can be found at: https://www.jonasaltman.com/

Social Fabric: https://socialfabric.com/

How to do nothing - Jenny Odell https://amzn.to/3gqIeCS

His new book is called Shapers: Reinvent the Way You Work and Change the Future, and this can be found at: https://amzn.to/3gzh90n 

****

Can't watch the video right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/13

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Trevor Newberry is the owner and operator of Newberry Consulting and the co-founder of AppThink. With both companies, Trevor's goal is to help first-time and non-technical founders save time and money building their software products by teaching and applying product management best practices. He likes talking with clients about how to build a software product when you've never done it before and you don't know how to code. 

In fact, he spends a lot of his time working with first-time or non-technical founders. In this episode, Trevor shares how, even though he's creating digital products, he plans his week by putting his most important goals on paper and why he chooses this over a digital planner. His wife also works from home and uses a lot of ergonomic products, since she's of a shorter stature; however, Trevor talks about how his desk set up is more about having access to good quality stationery and pens as well as some software that helps him organize and manage his work. 

*****

To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/12

*****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Christine Reed is an author and freelancer who has traveled extensively around the states in three different vans as part of the vanlife movement, and she's looking forward to partnering soon with a company that builds out vans for people who intend to travel and live in them as opposed to RVs or other styles of tiny homes. She loves the rugged outdoors and long-distance backpacking and wrote her first book, a memoir titled Alone in Wonderland. In her book and in talks at events such as TinyFest, REI and other outdoorsy supply stores, Christine shares her personal journey from sedentary office worker/retail worker to a lifestyle of freedom and adventure. Christine likes to inspire people to see something bigger for themselves but is also quick to share about her own struggles with loneliness at times on the road or trail and how she's come to find ways of embracing some of that discomfort and connecting with her own self as well as with others.

In this episode, Christine talks about what it's been like to be a self-published author on tour during a global pandemic and how that's affected the timeline of her book tour while also running a freelance business as a writer and social media manager. She does work from her home base in the Denver and sometimes Phoenix area, sometimes a few weeks or a month at a time. When she went from hiking extensively on the Appalachian and Wonderland Trail to staying somewhere different nearly every night while on tour, it was socially and physically exhausting for her as someone who tends toward the introverted side. She's learned to balance the amount of time she travels with the amount of time she can spend outdoors and working and resting. Her days are often spent at libraries and coffee shops for wifi, and she generally has signal and access to wifi as she generally stays close to metropolitan areas when she's working. Christine loves the freedom that her vanlife lifestyle has allowed, but she recommends that people who are considering it for the first time go ahead and rent a van first to see if it's something that they really want to invest in, most people know within the first 6 months if it's sustainable for them.

Some of the tools and tips that Christine recommends for working remotely, and specifically while on the road to some extent, include keeping a structured calendar to avoid work creeping into free time and scheduling Zoom sessions with work-from-home and other vanlife friends for accountability and socialization. Her book was really a sort of a catalyst for her to get where she is now. It was the first move into a more alternative lifestyle, and she wouldn't be working remotely without it; but the book, at the same time, also helps give her the freedom to keep hiking every year. She intends to write her second book soon, so stay tuned!

Christine can be found in the following places:

Instagram or Tiktok: @ruggedoutdoorswoman

e-mail: ruggedoutdoorswoman@gmail.com

website: https://www.aloneinwonderland.com/

Jen Huish is a NC Certified Public Accountant working for a company in California from her home office in Arizona. Jen is also mother to two amazing children, ages six and nine, which makes work-life balance a very high priority for her! Jen and April got to know each other in person through a string of birthday parties and parking lot encounters through their local school and discuss in this episode about how their friendship was accelerated as they discovered they both were juggling their work-from-home demands with their family life. She reveals how the remote-school journey of her kids has impacted her ability to focus and how that situation has evolved over the past six months of the pandemic. 

Jen has many years’ experience working in corporate accounting and indirect taxes, as well as individual income tax planning and preparation. She has worked for her current employer for over a decade and was asked to work from home in 2017. She does travel to the home office about six times a year, for one or two nights at a time, to manage the quarterly closing process and her four direct reports. Jen discusses her multipurpose office space and shares some of the tips and tricks that she found have helped her to focus on work as well as her kids as she's made the transition from the office building to working from home.

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To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/11

You can subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or anywhere else you find your podcasts. 

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Jermane Cheatem is a financial entrepreneur who is living a minimalistic lifestyle and using the freedom he's created for himself to travel the world while working from anywhere. He typically reserves AirBnB places with his partner for one month at a time and is currently stationed in Malaysia when his one-week stop there turned into over 6 months once the pandemic of 2020 changed their travel plans. Jermane shares about how he's been able to negotiate some high-end places to stay with AirBnB by using the filters and planning the travel one region at a time. He talks about how he helps small businesses in the medical sector connect with banks when they need loans for things such as medical equipment. Jermane is intentional about when and how he works as he values freedom and flexibility. He and his partner are currently offering a course where they share some of the business strategies he has employed over the years. 

You can reach out to Jermane by checking out his site at www.creatorslearn.com

Jermane recommended a book that inspired him, The One Thing, by Gary Keller of Keller Williams

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To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/10

You can subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or anywhere else you find your podcasts. 

*****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

April Malone interviews Adam Webber, who is the founder and developer of a podcast app called CallCast. Adam is currently working from home since March of 2020 and has been working with a team to develop phone app. Most recently, they developed an app that could be used by on-the-go podcasters who want to record themselves or even conduct interviews and do light editing all on the phone. In order to test out his own app, he challenged himself to test it to the limits by recording and publishing a new interview with a new person every single day for a year. He's chosen to ask people to record stories about their fears and the things they've learned about themselves as they've faced or challenged those fears. Adam had interviewed April on his podcast (episode 296) and returned the favor by coming onto this show to discuss some of his own fears and the adjustment from working in a shared working space where he could easily collaborate and brainstorm with like-minded people to working from his home office. He talks about letting go of some of his own perfectionism and sharing his product after many months and the process of slowing down and embracing a new hobby after pushing himself so hard to get this app launched.

To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/9

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You can subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Brenden Kumarasamy is the founder of MasterTalk, a YouTube channel he started to help the world master the art of public speaking and communication. Brenden works a day job in addition to his coaching business, all from his basement office. He coaches purpose driven entrepreneurs and executives on how to master their message and share their ideas with the world. Brenden has more recently been able to switch to professional recording and editing and has been batch recording some of his videos in a suit shop. In this interview, we talk about how he went from hating public speaking to embracing case competitions to guest speaking for Toastmasters and making a business as a speech coach. He talks about how he feels that everyone has a message worth sharing that could change the life of at least one person and why communication is such a central aspect of our lives and relationships.

KNOW MORE ABOUT BRENDEN:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MasterTalks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masteryourtalk/

To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/8

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You can subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

April Malone, the host of Yes, I Work From Home, does a solo episode this week and shares portions of her own story about working from home for 12 years through 5 moves while going from a single woman to a mother of three. She talks about how bad weather played a role in her getting her first work-from-home job and how she kept that same job through several big moves. April talks about some of the different ways she's set up her offices in her various homes, including some of the things that worked and didn't work as well. When the department she worked for decided to downsize, she reveals how a random side-gig became a full-time job for over 2 years during a time of transition.

To view the full transcript or the video version of this episode, please visit the episode page at: http://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/7

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You can subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, or anywhere else you find your podcasts.

*****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Ken Shute is a semi-retired hobby entrepreneur who is currently based on the big island in Hawaii. He has been part of the balloon entertainment industry for 15 years; but, now that he has moved his business from California to Hawaii, he exclusively focuses on designing, sewing, and customizing specialty gear used by balloon artists around the world. In this interview, we talk about how the Covid-19 pandemic has “grounded” many of his entertainer colleagues which has, in turn, affected the demand for Ken’s products. During his busy times prior to the shutdown, Ken was often in his spare-bedroom workshop, putting 60 to 80 hours a week into creating and shipping his balloon aprons, bags, and other gear. However, he’s had a lot more down time recently and has changed his focus toward raising chickens and adding even more tropical plants to his one-acre Hawaiian farm in paradise. 

In the past, Ken worked on some large scale and high-profile projects at places such as Universal Studios Hollywood and was able to connect with some big names in the balloon world over the years. We talk about how a lot of those in the “business of fun” are generally good at collaborating and are currently engaging in more virtual balloon jams in order to continue to practice their skills and discuss business strategies. During the pandemic, many are temporarily switching gears from parties and festivals to work-from-home alternatives such as lawn decor and deliveries or focusing more on developing and learning new designs in order to retain their skills during this slow season. Ken has been invited to speak with entertainers at conventions, and he currently runs a Facebook group specifically for those in the balloon industry who are working on their business and marketing strategies.

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Can't listen right now? Check out the full transcript on our podcast website at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/6

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

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Ken Shute of Air Born Creations, can be found in the following ways:

SuperK@AirBornCreations.com

https://www.airborncreations.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AirBornCreations

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Angela Norlien is a full-time medical transcriptionist/healthcare documentation specialist and mother of six who works from home on the night shift for a medical clinic. April and Angela actually worked together on the overnight and weekend shifts and became close friends, virtually, even before they met each other in person. They talk about ditching the commute, what it was like working with infants, clocking in as hourly employees, and staying awake on long overnight shifts. Angela shares about how she got into medical transcription and what it's like to work in an shrinking field as the methods for producing a medical record have changed over time.

Angela also talks about how she decided to work from home and how it's made it possible to raise their children with little to no outside childcare over the last 14 years, given that she and her husband have chosen to work opposite shifts. They live with their family near the Minnesota/Wisconsin border in Southeastern Minnesota and are involved in their community with their schools, Girl Scouts, and plenty of outdoor activities. 

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Can't listen right now? Check out the full transcript or video as well as Angela's additional home office recommendations on our podcast website at: https:/www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/5

Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you!

*****

If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Matthew Stublefield is the head of education and a lead product manager at Adaptavist, the largest Atlassian services provider worldwide. He's looking forward to the birth of his second child and paternity leave later this fall and talks about this as well as the unlimited leave policy and what that looks like for him and his employees. Adaptavist is primarily a remote-work company based out of the UK, though they do have offices in several US cities, including Springfield, Missouri, where Matthew lives. His work requires some travel, and he goes to the local office on occasion to meet with colleagues; however, he has been primarily working from his home office for the past six years. He talks about how he left his previous job, where he was often putting in 60 to 80 hours a week; and he also shares how he negotiated a 40-hour workweek at his new job, even as a busy consultant. Matthew reveals some of his secrets as to how he has maintained this schedule as he's worked his way into new positions with more and more responsibility in a growing company.

Please check out Matthew's complete list of home office recommendations, full transcript, and video on our podcast website at: www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/4

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You can find Matthew on LinkedIn at: linkedin.com/in/mstublefield/

Adaptavist homepage: https://www.adaptavist.com

Things Matthew and his teams work on:

www.adaptavist.com/products/atlassian-apps/learn-for-jira

docs.adaptavist.com/

library.adaptavist.com/

www.adaptavist.com/solutions/atlassian-consulting/atlassian-training

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Some items Matthew uses and recommends are following, however, a more comprehensive list can be found at: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/4

Rowing machine: www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/model-d

Chair--Matthew says: "Holy moly, they're expensive now! I got mine for $1000 and felt like I overpaid, but I do sit in it for sometimes 12 hours a day, often 6-8, and have had it now for 6 years." www.steelcase.com/products/office-chairs/leap/

Desk--"Strong recommendation for longevity, stability, etc": www.btod.com/btod-vertdesk.php

Current Keyboard: mechanicalkeyboards.com

Coffee: happymugcoffee.com

Matthew also added: "Something we didn't talk about, but I only have 1 monitor (I have a laptop tray on the second arm with the laptop closed most of the time). For me, a single monitor helps me focus on what I'm working on and helps me single-task. But I know my tech writers like having two monitors so they can compare multiple documents, so everyone's different on this."

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If you'd like to be a guest on the...

Amber Van Hale is in her 10th year of teaching high school English for a virtual public charter school in Wisconsin, and she had 5 years experience teaching in brick and mortar schools prior to moving online. In our interview, we talk about how she communicates with her students and coworkers, some of the ways her school has managed to allow the students to connect with each other online and in person over time, and some of the logistical challenges that come with teaching virtually. We cover what her school provides and what she's had to purchase for herself, and she tells us about how she originally set up her work equipment in order to teach from a spare bedroom and some of the improvements she's made to her desk setup over the years. Amber also shares about how she lives with two feline roommates and the effort she makes to get out and form some in-person connections in her small-town community.

Amber loves libraries, books, and all things to do with reading and mentioned that she uses some Usborne Books and More books with her struggling readers; because she creates her own curriculum. They have some interesting nonfiction books that work well with her students, you can find them here*: www.ambersliteracycorner.com/

Please check out Amber's home office recommendations, the episode show notes, full transcript, and video on our podcast website at: www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/3

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website www.yesiworkfromhome.com/

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help us or our guests earn a small commission on qualifying purchases without changing the price for you. Thank you for supporting our businesses in this way.

Nicole Epplin is a pharmacist living on an acreage with her family in the lovely hills of Southern Illinois. In the past, she was able to work 2-days a week from home with just her phone's hotspot; but now that she is working full-time from home, along with everyone else, not to mention competing for bandwidth with her three children, she's had to find new solutions to make working from home sustainable. In our interview, we talk about what it's like to work in a rural area with spotty internet, balancing work, family, and mental health when it comes to cleaning house and childcare, and how they've transitioned from one pandemic school option during the spring to their new options in fall 2020.

We also talk about maintaining connection with colleagues as Nicole's team has transitioned from working at least half if not the majority of their hours in a shared office space to everyone now working from home, how her team has managed to maintain some of their relationships, and how she and her friends and family have been able to remain connected as they're working from home and staying socially distanced.

Please check out Nicole's home office recommendations, additional show notes, the full transcript, and video on our podcast website at: www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/2

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Jillian Yetter is a former high school English Teacher turned Audiobook Narrator who is based out of Delaware with her family. She loved working in the classroom but was strongly encouraged by a doctor to find a different profession so she could focus on her health; and, after a short stint baking macarons for parties, she discovered she could make a career out of reading books as a voice actor/narrator. Jillian dug in and started recording and engineering around 30 of her own books before hiring an editor to help more with the postproduction side and has been a narrator now for 4 years with about 80 titles in that time. She has a warm, bright voice with a youthful tone perfect for narrating young adult and new adult titles, and she uses a pseudonym if publishing anything over a PG13 rating.

In this episode, Jillian explains that audiobook narrating takes quite a number of hours of work, researching, and editing for each hour of published audio. She been able to balance working while her kids are at school or sleeping. For those who are considering audiobook narration, she recommends doing the research as there is more to it than most realize at first. However, it is an industry that offers more flexibility than many others which has worked very well for her and her family. She typically schedules out her books with a turnaround date about three months in the future, and this gives her enough time to meet her deadlines even when she becomes sick or has a health complication, and she can accept jobs and record on her own schedule while still caring for her kids before and after school and in the summertime.

Jillian has moved from recording in a closet to her very own in-home recording studio built by her husband, and she's upgraded her equipment a few times over the last couple of years as well (currently recording with a Neumann TLM 102 microphone). In order to give herself accountability while working on her own schedule, Jillian uses Focusmate or sometimes records live on TikTok, and she has joined groups for those in the audiobook industry and works with a mentor and coach for business growth. She is a member of the APA (Audio Publishers Association) and PANA (Professional Audiobook Narrators Association) and has worked with publishers such as Tantor, Brilliance, The Audio Flow, and Bloomsbury Publishing.

If you'd like to reach out to Jillian, you can find her on the contact form of her website or on Tiktok.

TikTok @jillianyetternarrator

https://www.facebook.com/JYetter.Narrations/

https://www.jillianyetternarrator.com/ 

Our first guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast is Ryan Langr, from Austin, Minnesota. Ryan's held a few various positions over the years but has transitioned more recently from being a stay-at-home to a work-from-home dad in the past 2.5 years. Ryan had been blogging for about 15 years, but two years ago, he managed to take his writing skills and combine them with a creative hobby which turned into a work-from-home endeavor. He started his own table top game design publishing company that has grown to the point where he is now managing a team of about 15 freelancers and independent contractors. He is also starting online schooling with his 5-year-old daughter this year and is simultaneously looking forward to even more chances to grow his business and his skills.

In our interview, we talk about balancing deadlines with time flexibility, working while also managing household and parental duties, etc. We talk about where he's decided to set up his home office and why, equipment, tech tools, ergonomics, and time management/combating procrastination, and how they handle the division of household responsibilities in a family with two working parents.

Please check out Ryan's home office recommendations, additional show notes, the full transcript, and video on our podcast website at: www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/1

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Ryan Langr can be reached at:

realmwarpmedia@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/ryan.langr

twitter.com/RealmWarpM

realmwarpmedia.carrd.co/

Ryan sells his Dungeons and Dragons PDFs at DMS Guild* here.

He also sells his work at Drive Thru RPG*--make sure to find Cities of Myth (5e): Fallen Camelot here.

Ryan mentions some blogging he'd been doing on his own, but he also spent a year doing ghostwriting projects on Upwork. He shared this link to one of his own projects:

https://hubpages.com/@rdlang05

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhome

*Some of the above links are affiliate links and help us or our guests earn a small commission on qualifying purchases without changing the...

What might a Dungeons and Dragons writer, a pharmacist, and a high school English teacher all have in common? I interviewed three people in these positions, and they all work from home. Listen to this trailer to hear excerpts from our first three episodes!

Hello, my name is April Malone, and, Yes, I Work From Home. In this podcast, I speak with people in all sorts of different walks of life who work from their office in a spare bedroom, at the kitchen table, or maybe even from an RV. We will hear why and how they work from home and what tips and tricks they've learned along the way.  

Please check out all of our episodes, show notes, full transcripts, and videos on our podcast website at: www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/

Our podcast is live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating and review. Thank you!

******

If you'd like to be a guest on this podcast, we are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation." Please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life.

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website: https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as a remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Karen Cole lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is an experienced attorney who works from a home office. After law school, Karen clerked for a state Supreme Court justice, and then for a U.S. district court judge. These judicial clerkships provided a solid foundation for a career in civil litigation. After her clerkships, Karen practiced law, first as an associate and then a partner at a large law firm, and then as an associate and a partner for a medium-sized firm. Now Karen has her own firm, Premium Legal Writing. She works with other lawyers on their cases, thinking through strategies, doing legal research and drafting motion documents and appellate court briefs.

More and more lawyers are finding that they don’t need to work in law firms with brick and mortar offices. Karen says that most of the resources she needs for her practice are available via the internet. When she was in law school, students and lawyers used hard cover books to do legal research. Online legal research services are now readily available. Karen subscribes to a legal research service that she says is top notch. Zoom and other virtual services make meetings with other lawyers and clients easy. The pandemic led many more lawyers to work from home offices or in virtual offices. During the pandemic, bar associations started to make meetings and continuing education classes available electronically. Depositions in preparation for a trial that used to be held in an office are now handled electronically. And many court proceedings now take place via Zoom or a service like that. The shift to electronic meetings and court hearings that was necessitated by the pandemic will continue into the future. Electronic resources make connecting with people much more cost-effective than brick and mortar alternatives. That helps those working in the legal system generally, but particularly those who work from home offices. Karen discusses these and other issues in this podcast.

For more about Karen or to reach her, go to her website: www.premiumlegalwriting.com

Marshall O'Leary is known as Mister Marshall in his city of Richmond, Virginia, where he was a traveling music teacher for many years. However, in the last three years, once he switched to online lessons for pandemic purposes, he decided to teach online only. Marshall has retained some of his original local students who have made the switch but is now expanding to accept students from other regions who, for whatever reason, also prefer online lessons. Teaching remotely has not only saved time and gas money, but he's appreciated some other nuances as well, such as not being limited to working with students who are within driving distance only, the ease of arranging make-up lessons when someone has a conflict, as well as having his own piano in his studio so he can play along with his students.

In this lesson, Marshall shares some tips for online music students. In the first few online music lessons, he and his students (sometimes with the help of parents) work to establish preferred camera angles and get familiar with the technology. It eventually becomes second nature in future lessons once everyone knows how to get the camera set up correctly so both teacher and student can hear each other properly. Marshall has learned it's completely worth taking the extra time to get these set up so that it's easy to see and hear at least 90% of what's happening in the lesson. This cuts down on having to repeat himself or the student missing a concept because they couldn't see or hear well or vice versa. Another tip for online teachers is to make sure that your marketing is such that the clients/students know that you only teach remotely to find clients who are looking for the same thing to avoid a mismatch, as it's so much better to teach to someone who expects and wants lessons online than someone who is settling for online when they really want in-person lessons.

Marshall O'Leary has been teaching for 17 years and playing music for 39 years. He plays and teaches the guitar, piano, and saxophone and also performs with his band, Glass Twin (they make music similar to what might happen if Pink Floyd met Radiohead). Currently, he is teaching out of his home, which is also a home recording studio called Rabid Ears Recording, run by his friend. Marshall can currently be found in most places under Mister Marshall Music but will soon be adjusting more of his branding to his name, Marshall O'Leary.

If you'd like to reach out to Marshall, you can find him in the following places:

Email:  marshall@mistermarshallmusic.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mistermarshallmusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshalloleary/

Rabid Ears Recording: https://www.facebook.com/rabidearsrecording/

Renee Seevers has lived in a tiny home for several years and is now in a “shorty” school bus. Renee is the CEO, a.k.a. crazy event organizer of TinyFest. This event helps give people exposure to more options for their life, a gathering for people who live in or want to consider living in tiny homes on wheels or on land. In this episode, Renee talks about how her lifestyle with a tiny house on wheels gives her a chance to explore all over west of the Mississippi without ever really needing to pack. She loves how she can drive to work at a coffee shop and pop back into her house to make lunch. She’s become an expert in adjusting and adapting to each situation, including the neverending changes in technology and ways to connect to the internet for work. She sometimes stays in one location for six weeks to six months to get to know the area and meet some people or prepare for her next event. Now that she’s recently married, she’s sharing the living space, but her husband works primarily outside and doesn’t need desk space. Currently, she and her husband have a home base in Oregon on 160 acres of land where the short 5-window bus is their home. 

Renee hasn’t always lived in a tiny house. After living and maintaining a 3300 square foot, five bedroom, four bathroom house – Renee decided in 2015 to sell it all after her youngest daughter was heading to college. She bought her first tiny home on wheels – an 87 sqft home nicknamed “Big R” she towed with her truck and took to a few festivals in 2016. She kept thinking, “We need to have more of these festivals because it gives people a great way to experience tiny living, ask questions, and see things in person.” Renee has met a lot of entrepreneurs and remote work folks through TinyFest and is part of the tiny living community herself. She recommends that everyone “enjoy the quest for balance and the quest to understand what that balance is for you and at which point along the work/life scale you are most happiest now. It will likely change later, so be ready to go with the flow!”

For Renee, the idea of “Going Tiny” is more than just buying and moving into a moveable home. It’s about fun, sustainability, autonomy, flexibility, and freedom--financial freedom, freedom of mobility, freedom from stuff and stress. At the TinyFest events, they have two stages with people teaching about the tiny living lifestyle; because she feels that, more important than simply buying or building a tiny house, Renee wants to help others understand they can create a life that serves them well - including topics of housing, travel & entrepreneurship. TinyFest started in the midwest, in Des Moines, Iowa, and has branched out to TinyFest California, TinyFest Northwest, TinyFest Texas & TinyFest Southwest. TinyFest is a great place to explore alternative living options for work-from-home people. There are two upcoming events on December 3 & 4 in Phoenix, Arizona, at WestWorld (Scottsdale). The next one will be on March 11 & 12 in San Diego, California, at Del Mar Fairgrounds.

If you’d like to learn more about Renee, TinyFest, or see who is going to be at her next event, you can find her in the following places:

Website: http://tinyfest.events

Email: info@tinyfest.events

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TinyFestEvents 

For the last few years, Jason Dion was running his cybersecurity training business, Dion Training, from his guest room in his home in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. However, his remote-first company recently acquired office space near Orlando, Florida, where he and his family are now located. Although he does appreciate moving his office and recording equipment from his house to a shared location, he continues to work with his employees and contractors in six countries using primarily remote-work strategies. Some of these strategies include asynchronous communication using Slack and offering flexible work hours for everyone, except for their once-weekly meeting. Jason makes his own hours and still works from home on occasion; so, he feels like he has tremendous flexibility, even as the lead instructor and founder of a growing business.

In this episode, Jason shares how he transitioned from a naval officer to a college professor. He has worked as a network engineer, director of network operations and security center, and as an information systems officer for large organizations around the globe. He eventually needed more flexibility with his schedule, which led to him teaching cybersecurity courses on Udemy. Between the basic Udemy courses and the more robust courses on his website, his training program has grown to 1 million students. Dion Training now prepares students for IT, project management, and cybersecurity certificates. Many people who go through this training program will end up in remote-work positions, as IT work lends itself well to working from a home office.

Jason explains that there are dozens of roles within the cybersecurity realm, with something for nearly every personality type. Of note, most entry-level cybersecurity positions do not require a college degree, so he encourages high schoolers and recent high school graduates to seek experience in an IT help desk situation while earning certificates so they can enter a career position making $70-200k within a couple of years. Job seekers need to obtain specific certificates for different fields, and sometimes a combination of more than one is required. Jason personally holds multiple information technology professional certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Network Defense Architect (CNDA), Digital Forensic Examiner (DFE), Digital Media Collector (DMC), CySA+, Security+, Network+, A+, PRINCE2 Practitioner, and ITIL, among others. He also holds a master of science degree in information technology, specializing in information assurance, but he reminds the listeners that the bachelor’s and master’s level degrees are usually only needed for management and higher positions. Dion Training does offer a track that includes career counseling which is especially useful for those who are pivoting their careers.

 Anyone who would like to hear more about how to get into cybersecurity can find Jason and the podcast Your Cyber Path and can also contact him through his website with the same name.

Jason’s podcast and contact info can all be found on his website: https://www.yourcyberpath.com/

Some products that he and his team use and recommend include Descript and Restream. 

Descript website: https://www.descript.com/ 

Restream website: https://restream.io/ 

Erin Tennant of Columbus, Ohio, is the owner of Grow Well Coaching. She is a mindset and weight loss coach for wellness who meets remotely with her network of local clients and those from other regions. She built her coaching business after losing 130 pounds to share how she's transformed her mindset from reactive, ready to sit on the couch eating, to an intentional mindset that doesn't automatically think about food, even when she goes through the kitchen. 

In this episode, Erin shares how she has built a routine for herself where she practices time blocking for her morning and afternoon work schedule and then takes a two-hour lunch each day to get out of the house and hit the gym. Time blocking prevents her from getting distracted with household tasks. She recognizes that she performs best when she keeps conversational work, such as interviews, to the earlier morning hours. She then reserves her afternoons for focused and active listening when meeting with clients. Erin and her husband work out of the same office space in their basement, which works well for them since they rarely have overlapping meetings.

Erin views her brain and body as tools and likes to remind her brain of why she loves working from home. Many of her clients work from home for various reasons, some temporarily and others permanently. She talked about some challenges she and her clients face regarding motivation, scheduling, and transitioning to and from the home-office setting. Erin describes herself as someone who specializes in helping people live a better quality of life, based on improving their wellness through their relationship with food, their bodies, and themselves. Whether they're "looking to lose weight, create healthy habits/behavior changes, improve their perspective, attitudes, emotional management, time management, decision making, or problem-solving skill, through the lens of wellness," she is ready to help. Erin has personally invested in personal coaching for her own life and has found it helps her manage her mindset and emotions to improve her own work-from-home experience, as it can be isolating.

If you'd like to learn more about Erin, you can find her in the following places:

Website: www.thegrowwellcoach.com

IG/FB @growwellcoaching

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-tennant-b77626245/

Sarah Duran is a freelance project manager based out of Denver, Colorado. She's the founder/CEO of Fruition Initiatives, where she works with clients she's acquired through referrals, generally comprised of research teams at universities as she has a background in curriculum design. On top of that, Sarah also runs her own podcast, The Freelance Revolution Podcast, and coaches freelancers, consultants, and solopreneurs on business strategy, time management, goal setting, and confidence.

In this episode, Sarah talks about the paradox of working from home which is a topic she's addressed in a blog article with the same title awhile back. She's noticed that freelancers and remote workers often either hyper focus on their work without taking care of their own needs or, on the contrary, find themselves getting distracted by household responsibilities and other demands on their attention. She's adjusted her own work day, including when and where she works, especially now that she has a 4-year-old daughter and can't just work from bed all morning like she could before kids. She's also gotten creative with how she divides childcare between preschool and some local family members, and it certainly helps that she comes from a family of self-starters, with her parents and sister also working for themselves with some degree of flexibility to spend time with her kid when she has client calls.

Sarah recently published her book, Instant Freelancer: How to Start a Business of One; and she is also opening registration for her Solopreneur Collaborative Mastermind now through November 11. She's taking the methods and strategies she's taught to her one-on-one clients into a group setting to help even more people and organizations turn their ideas into action and bring their goals to fruition. She’s an operational expert and has been a project strategist for over a decade, designing and leading projects for a variety of organizations, helping businesses refine systems and processes, and providing support to researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

You can find Sarah, her blog, her podcast, and her upcoming mastermind in the following places:

Website: https://www.fruitioninitiatives.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fruitioninitiatives

IG: https://www.instagram.com/hustlers_manifesto/

Substack: https://hustlermanifesto.substack.com/

Referenced blog post: https://www.fruitioninitiatives.com/blog/the-paradox-of-working-from-home

Sarah recommends:

Instant Freelancer: How to Start a Business of One (Freelance for Freedom) by Sarah Duran: https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Freelancer-Business-Freelance-Freedom/dp/B09YQF2PDZ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1666316275&sr=1-1

Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes: https://www.amazon.com/Happier-Hour-Distraction-Expand-Matters/dp/1982148802

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: 

Molly Rose Speed of Destin, Florida, loves to help people take skills they already possess to start a virtual assistant business. Molly is an expert in creating time freedom for clients and is the founder of Virtual Assistant Management which provides virtual assistant training as well as solutions and flawless tech execution for busy entrepreneurs.

In this episode, Molly Rose talks about how and why she created her company to help provide stable work for military spouses and others who needed to move often. She shared what skill set and personality traits are typically a good fit with this line of work and some of the variety of clients the VAs partner with. There is a demand for virtual help, with tasks that range from social media marketing to administrative assistant work and more, and VAs are a valuable resource for any entrepreneur or company needing more support. Molly Rose is the go-to professional for some of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders in the financial and personal development industries.

Molly’s own work has opened up flexibility and freedom for solo travel, and she’s expanded her offerings from supporting her own clients to preparing to launch new offerings. She’s been a remote work business owner since 2013 and has a lot to share as it relates to balance, time freedom, traveling while working remote, and training others to create work-remove careers with my Virtual Assistant Academy and is in the process of launching a program, The Online Business Accelerator, a one-stop shop program to put new authors, coaches, and speakers on Kajabi.

Molly shares how she recently hired a health and nutrition coach at the beginning of 2021 which has been a game changer for her overall health and physical strength as well as helped her posture and eliminated pain from working at a desk. To compartmentalize her different hats, she often changes areas of the house to work in or goes to a coffee shop when she switches from one project to the next. She also swears by her priority 5 notepads, which outline the top 5 things she has to prioritize each day which she feels have been a game changer.

You can find Molly Rose and her information at the following places:

Links:

Virtual Assistant Academy: http://www.virtualassistantacademy.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mollyrosespeed

Instagram: @mollyrosespeed

E-mail: hi @ virtualassistantacademy.com

Kelly McGinley, from Mechanicsburg, PA, is the principal consultant and owner of her company Function & Flow where she serves as a productivity specialist who loves to explore different tools and tactics for time and task management. She comes from a background of working in a remote job where she was working long hours and felt overloaded and working all the time and has transitioned to her new role where she has much more autonomy over how and when she works which has shifted her balance so that it feels so much closer to the perfect fit. In this episode, Kelly discusses how she organizes her work day and how she has had to combat letting her work bleed into the rest of her life life, especially when she didn't plan her downtime. She has put defaults in place so she can do a better job of enjoying life outside of work as well. She and her spouse have both been working from home, and she tells the story about how she's accidentally trapped her husband on one end of the house while conducting meetings in a shared space.

Kelly offers productivity coaching for people and project managers and has actually just published her book Start With Better Meetings, a tool for managers of any kind of team, but especially practical for those leading remote and hybrid teams with an aim to help foster more effective meetings and ultimately restore about 2-3 hours of usable time to a given work week while still making steady progress toward goals and deliverables. She often meets with small teams remotely to work on meeting management and also offers group and individual sessions on calendar and time management help as well as assistance with task prioritization and teaches reflection. Her Procrastination to Action Package focuses primarily on identifying "procrastination preference," roadblocks, distractions, key goals, and a path to consistently make progress toward those goals. She comes with a rich history of working with nonprofits and other organizations including connecting classrooms to communities, designing productivity strategies for corporations and non-profits, and turning a maximum-security cell block into an award-winning, tail-wagging incubator for compassionate change at the HOPE Dogs Program. Kelly has spent the last 25 years designing and building programs, partnerships, and place-based projects and is a professional member of the National Association of Productivity and Organization Professionals (NAPO) where she serves on the Education Advisory Committee.

Ever on the hunt for the best remote-work tools, Kelly has decided that ClickUp is her favorite app for managing multi-stage projects and loves how she can map a project any way she likes and then have reminders automatically integrate with her Google calendar.

Kelly can be found on her website: https://www.findfunctionandflow.com

Instagram: @findfunctionandflow

Chris and Jordan Fischer of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, are the creators of WALK-i-TASK, a treadmill workspace that can be added to most treadmills. While working from home, they designed and developed a height-adjustable desk that attaches to the arms of a treadmill in order to help people do things that they would ordinarily do while seated, working, watching something, etc. They are motivated to add more movement into their own day and help others who work from home to find ways to keep moving while working from home. Chris talked about how, before he began using a treadmill desk, he began experiencing the many negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle including weight gain, fatigue and negative mental health. While they were talking today, Jordan was downstairs and using the treadmill desk, as they shared how they alternate who is using it throughout the day, depending on what tasks they’re working on.

In this episode, Chris and Jordan open up about their experiences working from home as a couple, how their dynamics affect their business and situation when working, and how they value wellness in accordance with their ideal living situation as remote workers. They also discussed some of the positive productivity effects as well as the negative wellness impact of working from home. The Fischers co-founded WALK-i-TASK while working other jobs but were eventually able to make it their sole focus, and they are continuing to update their desk so that it includes more options and can fit even more treadmills. Their goal is to help others that work from home get rid of that sedentary lifestyle by sitting less and moving more by incorporating a treadmill desk as a health and fitness tool.

If you are in the US, you can order their treadmill desks and get a $50 discount if you use WFH50.

WALK-i-TASK: https://www.walkitask.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkitask

E-mail: chris @ walkitask.com

Instagram: @walkitask 

Discount code: WFH50

Ashley Connell of Austin, Texas, is the CEO of Prowess Project which supports caregivers and those who took an extended parental leave who have previous work experience, skills, and education. Prowess Project can help those who are in need of upskilling as well as those who are ready to return to the work force but in a flexible capacity. Prowess Project matches applicants with corporate partners who are ready and willing to work with job seekers looking for part-time and full-time work.

In this episode, Ashley describes how and why she became an advocate for those wanting to return to the workforce, especially women who have taken time away from work to raise their children, as she was anticipating starting her own family. She had spent 15 years in a busy career as an award-winning tech marketer in both Austin and London. Now she’s committed to changing the lives of overloaded employers, women seeking rewarding work, and doing all she can to close the gender gap. Ashley has worked from home for awhile, but now she has experienced taking a maternity leave of her own and returning to work and how that has impacted her schedule and lifestyle. She's now commuting again, in order to bring her daughter to childcare.

Links:

Join Her Masterclass: https://www.prowesstalent.io/going-from -home-to-hired

Prowess Project: https://prowessproject.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prowessproject

Rachna Mathur of Arizona works in STEM education and educational research, currently working on a doctorate in education. She's the founder of Stemology and has worked with students K-6 in coding, Lego Robotics, and combining STEM topics with literature, teaming up with an elementary teacher for a summer camp called Books and Bots. In the past, Rachna was a software engineer/architect for 10+ years where she spent some time working from home during one of her pregnancies, but she pivoted into education by starting her own company in 2019 with clients like Khan Academy and Arizona State University (ASU). The majority of her work, as well as schooling happen online, with the exception of some monthly meetings and some speaking engagements.

In this episode, Rachna talks about her and her husband have reframed their working hours and cut out some extra activities to rebalance and manage their "home operations" as a unit. As a family with two parents, they've done their best to be intentional as they're trying to figure things out with work, school, activities, personal time, health, etc. They treat their jobs and everything they do as needing to be in sync (taking on more or fewer projects based on each other's schedules), with Rachna dropping off the kids in the morning and starting her workday a little later and her husband working an earlier schedule so he can be done in time to pick up the kids from school. They have some time in the evenings together, but then she blocks time for studying after their kids are in bed. The way they've set up their home is also intentional and conducive for play and learning with a play structure in the living room and lots of tech supplies on hand for their curious kindergartener who likes to take apart old electronic devices.

Rachna and her husband are continuing to work out their home office spaces with some trial and error. Still, Rachna swears by having a larger monitor which has been tremendously helpful in her educational research and writing, something her husband was able to donate from his own setup as he doesn't require more than one screen. In the end, Rachna says that sometimes it had nothing to do with tech, equipment, or any apps, but just getting out of her home space and working in a coffee shop or a quiet library is helpful for change, especially with noisy kids when they are home early or she needs to focus.

If you'd like to reach out to Rachna to discuss teaching artificial intelligence (AI) topics or STEM and Stories, such as how to incorporate STEM learning into literature studies in an elementary classroom, you can find Rachna in the following places:

Email: rachna @ stemology.club

Website: www.rachnamathur.com

Twitter: @STEMologyClub

Linda Brandt of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a self-declared "practical renegade community builder." By day, Linda promotes healthy workplaces at Hennepin County Public Health, including Hennepin County Health@Work which provides low and no cost employee health promotion to human resources professionals. The health department she works at in Minnesota was looking for ways to improve rush hour congestion around the area, and having more employees work from home was a solution to that problem, so she's happy to skip the bus ride and packing lunches part of her trip to the office every day. She's embracing the work-from-home lifestyle and invests in equipment that helps her stay comfortable while working such as LifeSpan treadmill desk, stability mat for when standing, and a shoulder strap for posture.

In this episode, Linda talks about how being a community builder comes naturally for her and what that looks like as somone who works from home yet still has a drive to get together with people. Linda works from home, as does her partner; but they have different personalities and lines of work but do still try to get an occasional walk in when possible. She also uses a peer accountability website called Focusmate with over 7000 sessions and has other people she talks with on the phone while taking walks. Linda's currently planning on a Treadmill Desk Race coming up on August 19th with Justin Higgins (see episode 39 on the Yes, I Work From Home podcast).

Linda is also deeply involved in a growing network of Lean In circles inspired by Sheryl Sandberg's book, "Lean In." The Lean In Together MSP Network has grown from 12 people nine years ago to over 7,000 across six continents, and Linda helped grow this locally and globally through a LinkedIn group of 6,300 members. This positive community building experience motivated her to build and manage Health@Work’s LinkedIn group and five subgroups on the virtual coworking platform Focusmate. 

If you'd like to connect with Linda, you can find her on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/390021064439745

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindabrandtmph/|

More info about the lean-in community:

Website: https://leanin.org/together

Kris is the founder of Reminiscence by Kris LeDonne. She is a New Jersey-based legacy maker who focuses on memory preservation by assisting her clients in finding lost and current memories from videos and pictures and organizing and protecting printed and digital memories. She believes in preserving, managing, and enjoying photos on a new level. A former educator, Kris was working with photo albums on the side and has over 18 years of experience in memory preservation and still enjoys designing elegant albums and photo decor such as gallery walls. She understands the technology frustrations and organization hurdles that people face and approaches her work with compassion and discretion and enjoys educating adults in this way as well, outside of the classroom. Her services also help small businesses who need to organize videos and images of their work for marketing, and she offers a full-service option for people or businesses who need hands-on help but is also willing to teach her clients how to organize and manage their own print and digital memories.

In this episode, Kris talks about how she found her passion in providing people happiness through photos and videos, and how she continued to grow as a work-from-home business, transforming captured memories from chaos to simple digital systems. Originally, Kris was primarily working with physical photos for the people in her region, driving around and picking up and dropping off photos and working with them in her home office area. She sometimes works side-by-side with her clients but was able to continue working with a lot of no-contact porch pickup options during the height of the pandemic. Now, she's able to help more people remotely as more and more people are shifting their photo and video storage to the cloud. For those who have piles of paper photos or don't have all their digital photos off of old devices and organized into one place, Kris is offering a course called Digital Peace for those who could use the extra support in getting it all under control so that the photos can be enjoyed and preserved and passed down.

You can find Kris, her course, and her website below:

Grab Kris's freebie here: https://mailchi.mp/krisledonne/tidyup 

Digital Peace Course page is: krisledonne.com/learn

Blog:  https://krisledonne.com/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrisReminisce

FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/368987655268991

CRM link: www.lessannoyingcrm.com/invite/5E958

Creative Memories (if you were curious) https://www.creativememories.com/cm/kris 

Sabrina St. Peter of Chicago is the owner of SmartSpark Business Solutions which provides bookkeeping services for service-based small businesses, especially those in the marketing industries like content creators, public relations, marketing, advertising, using a digital product to help people track their income and expenses throughout the year. Currently, Sabrina sets up her main workspace so that it all tucks into her hall closet and uses Focusmate for virtual coworking accountability. She generally splits her time between working on her booking business and leading her team and also does the books for several clients as well.

In this episode, Sabrina shares how she has a side business where she often dog sits for several of her neighbors and people in her area and has been preparing to embark on a digital nomad lifestyle by housesitting and/or dog sitting while traveling abroad and stateside as well in order to cover her lodging. She has invested in a portable second monitor that attaches magnetically to her laptop and is able to travel with her home office setup with just a carry-on and personal bag. She has been looking into the option of long-term renting her condo out while she's out as well. Since she doesn't have her own animals, she has the freedom to travel freely and also stay locally with some friends and family and in the homes of clients who need pet sitting when she's in the area. She's also planning on staying in co-living spaces designed for digital nomads.

If you'd like to reach out to Sabrina to learn more about her bookkeeping business, you can find her in the following places:

Website: www.yoursmartspark.com/yesiwfh

E-mail: hello @ yoursmartspark.com

Debbie Page, of Harrisville, New Hampshire, has worn several hats during 18 years of her work-from-home journey, starting as an RN and eventually also as a lactation consultant who met with clients in her front office. She started to work part time with her now late husband with the business he owned, downsizing a warehouse as they embraced drop-shipping and brought the offices home. Debbie eventually took over the Louis E. Page fencing supplies business after he passed away and is still doing that alongside of some of her other projects. 

In this episode, Debbie shares some of the ways that she and her husband were able to work separately in different parts of the house but still got together every hour for some dancing to make sure they kept on moving and drank enough water. She and her husband would spend some time every morning discussing their plans and goals for the day. Now that she is living alone, her routines have changed; and Debbie has turned to more journaling and routines to keep herself motivated and find her own rhythm. She now is able to work from more than one place in her house and breaks up her day with several exercise routines as well as several minutes of cold water in the shower (and is considering taking it to the next level with ice in the bathtub as part of her healthy lifestyle). She finds that writing things down before she starts working really helps her focus on her own work and then also uses Calendly for appointment scheduling. 

Debbie is now the founder and owner of Woman Emerged as teaching and coaching are her passions, and she is always excited by people who live to learn. She's also finishing up her new book: Woman Emerged: Create the Life You Desire, By Becoming the Woman You Love which should be available this fall. She continues to support moms through the Inspired Mom Summit which is coming up again this September 29-October 2. She is passionate about working from home and wants to empower others to pursue the opportunities. 

Inspired Mom Summit: inspiredmomsummit.com

Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.page

Website: debbiehpage.com

If you'd like to contact Debbie, reach out to her assistant to get connected: Jenn @ debrapage.com

Jubee Vilceus is a co-founder of Yellow Tail Tech, an EdTech company based out of Silver Spring, Maryland. His wife, Paloma, is his co-founder; and they started a training company for people with no technical background who are looking for a career change, teaching them either Linux operating system or AWS cloud computing. They work with their team to set up their students for success, including help preparing for interviews, so they can land jobs and make a great income out of the gate as they break into the IT industry after just 9 months or so of preparation. Originally, Yellow Tail Tech had a relatively large in-person training facility with their student base made up of people who lived within driving distance in their local area near Washington DC; but when everyone ended up going remote in 2020 and they changed their classes to a flipped classroom model, they made the decision to expand for any US-based student to attend virtually. This change allowed them to grow quickly but still downsize to a smaller office for their headquarters as all learning is now happening remotely.

In this episode, Jubee talks about his daily routine of starting his work day with a couple of hours working from home. He then transitions to his office space after lunch most days of the week, using a docking station and laptop to transition from dual monitors at both of his desks. He and his wife have their home offices set up in different parts of their house and have a very short commute to and from their other office just a few minutes away, often coming and going at different times in order to take turns when it comes time for school drop off and pick up. He has embraced some of the flexibility of being able to work remotely when it suits him for things such as getting back from the gym and checking messages and planning his day. Still, he also appreciates the reset that happens with the change of pace once he heads to the office after lunch for his deep-focused work as well as collaborating with his team a few days a week. However, all the students he works with are remote now and often land work-from-home jobs. Jubee is responsible for enrollment as well as employment outcomes and has found that using online classes helps the students make the transition to the real-world tech environment since most tech companies out there are pivoting to having a remote environment.

You can learn more about Jubee and Yellow Tail Tech in the following places:

Website: https://yellowtail.tech/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yellowtailgo

Email: hello @ yellowtail.tech

Michelle Fernandez of Miami, Florida, runs a boutique marketing agency where she and her team of remote contractors work with Facebook and Instagram ads and funnels. Michelle came to the entrepreneurial side after working a long time in the mortgage industry and speaks about how she has handled the switch and which routines from that time she's retained and how she's traded the extremely long hours for more flexibility and freedom. 

In this episode, Michelle discusses creating boundaries at home while working as she works to balance a relatively flexible lifestyle while maintaining structure during the workday. She also talks about knowing oneself and how personality plays into whether someone might want or need to work from another location at times to keep things fresh as her daughter does or to be around people, like her husband prefers. Michelle has learned that she can build her time off around her clients' promotional schedules and is to the point now in her business that she doesn't have to work from the road when she goes to visit her adult twins, even though she could. She views working from home as a discipline where she needs to have the discipline to get up and work as well as the discipline to set boundaries and expectations with clients and herself to remember to stop working. Michelle recommends Clickup software as it has been crucial for her as she is managing the team routines, projects, workflows and tracking deadlines. With her office in another room of the house as well as other family members living in the same household, she has learned to set limits on what she will and won't do during her regular work day. 

 If you'd like to learn more about Michelle, check out her podcast: The Traffic & Conversions Show with Michelle Fernandez.

Links:

Website: http://themichellefernandez.com/

Instagram: instagram.com/themichellefernandez

Caroline Wood is an introvert who supports other introverts to build successful businesses. She does this through helping introverts design business models and services that work with their introversion. She offers a service called the thoughtful business pause where she helps people take a step back from their current business and look at how it is and isn't servicing them. Most of her clients are people who work from home, often solopreneurs, many who are transitioning out of an office environment and working on growing their own small businesses and would prefer to find more innovative techniques than cold calls.

In this episode, Caroline talks about how she wants to see introverts succeed in working for themselves and managing to be productive and happy working from home without falling into the habit of never leaving the house. Caroline loves to spend time alone but recognizes the importance of remaining a part of society and says that walking her dogs and getting to the coffee shop help her maintain not just a routine but also enough interaction with others to stay healthy. To start and end her work day, Caroline has also put in a place a few routines that have helped her such as using flexible time blocking to get work done in a way that works for how she's feeling on a particular day, and her end-of-day routine with a warm shower helps her switch off mentally from work so she doesn't keep going all night.

Caroline is an Australian who is currently settled in with her dogs and close to family near Canberra, the capital of Australia; but she has also lived in several different countries including the UK, Namibia, and Laos. She describes herself as a corporate escapee having spent 20 years working as a chartered accountant working for large businesses and not for profits, as well as being a supply officer in the Air Force. Now she gets to work from the comfort of her own home, making the introvert in her very happy.

Caroline can be reached in the following places:

Website: https://quietlyextraordinary.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuietlyCaroline/

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Our podcast is now live on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, and anywhere else you prefer to listen to your podcasts. We appreciate any of our listeners who listen, download, subscribe, or leave a positive rating or review. Thank you! You can check out all about this episode on:

https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/92

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If you'd like to be a guest on the Yes, I Work From Home Podcast, please go to https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/guest and click on the first big green "guest interview" button to let us know more about you and your work-from-home life. We are on the lookout for people with interesting stories about how they're making their WFH life work, whether you're working for yourself or someone else. You can also recommend someone else who you think would be a great fit for this podcast using the second green button "guest recommendation."

Find out more about our host, April Malone, and Yes, I Work From Home at our website https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com

If you work from home as an remote work/teleworking employee, freelancer, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, please join our work-from-home community on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesiworkfromhomecommunity

Steve Mellor is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA and he is owner and executive coach of Career Competitor LLC for 2 Years. His "first & final 30" advice is his key to every day where, in order to maximize productivity and mental health, he focuses on how he uses the first and final 30 minutes of his day in order to make the most of his time. In this episode, Steve shares how he feels that having commitments that intentionally pull you away from your desk throughout the week are vital for social reasons and to provide some variety for certain tasks.

As an executive coach, Steves's motto is "pursue your optimal self," and he likes to bring everything back to clients who work from home to the importance of serving the optimal self. He works with clients currently on ensuring they are focused on their optimal selves so they can build a workday and lifestyle that embodies their growth of it. To this end, Steve wrote a book called "SHOCK THE WORLD! A Competitor's Guide to Realizing Your Potential" which could certainly be a powerful resource to anyone looking to better lead their work-from-home lifestyle. 

Steve actually has almost 2 decades of experience working with elite performers within high-performance environments as an olympic swim coach, and he talks about how Covid-19 helped push him into coaching for business execs and more. Whether in his role as an executive coach, culture consultant, speaker, or author, Steve’s work targets bringing the best out of individuals, while ensuring teams and organizations are optimized through the process. This native of England, former top-50 world-ranked swimmer, husband, father, and lifelong competitor is driven to pursue his optimal self by working with those that are eager to do the same.

Email: Steve@careercompetitor.com 

Website: Careercompetitor.com

Instagram: @Coach_Steve_M

Sara Hudson is back for a follow-up interview after a job change where she’s now working on the benefits operations team at Google. She's still based out of her same home office just outside of Houston, Texas, but she made a leap and said goodbye to the company she had been at for 15 years. In the past couple of years, Sara has also gone from being relatively new to LinkedIn to seeing the power it has for job seekers and recruiters to find each other and attributes the connections she made through Linkedin to her ability to find a relatively lateral position that doubles her previous salary.

In this episode, Sara tells her story about how she went from applying at smaller companies to interviewing for a position at Google and how it felt for her as someone who works in HR to go through the interviewing and hiring process. She is now onboarding with a company where she will help make sure that the benefits materials are clear and easy to navigate for new hires. Please also see Sara’s original interview from Episode 46: Working From Home Through the HR Lens

https://www.yesiworkfromhome.com/podcast/episodes/46

You can find Sara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hudson-texas/

Liam Martin is a Canadian remote-first expert who cofounded Time Doctor, a time and productivity tracking tool, as well as Staff.com, an outsourcing company. Liam is also a co-organizer of Running Remote, a conference for those who are building/scaling remote teams. Liam is passionate about using transparency in time management in companies from the top-down, building trust, and empowering teams to work whenever and wherever they want. He has worked remotely for about 20 years at this point and loves to research and discuss the evolution and future of remote teams. He recently co-authored a book, Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World's Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers about remote work methodology such as asynchronous management.

In this episode, Liam introduces us briefly to his family. He also shares a bit about his personal routine and home office. When asked about what he did with all of his clothes in his closet when he decided to work from that space, he shared that he built some of his routines around saving his decision-making capacity for larger-scale projects, so he has invested in multiple copies of the same outfit and keeps it at various locations around the world that he likes to frequent. He is currently prioritizing speaking on podcasts in anticipation of the upcoming conference and book release, so investing less time in decisions about things like what he'll eat for breakfast opens up more time for these other priorities. He speaks about how innovation in the remote working industry will change the way we work and argues that 20% of someone's workday is doing work, and the other 60% is doing things around work. Liam and his team use Time Doctor to share with one another how they're spending their time and making the most of their time at work, freeing up more time for the things that are important to them outside of work.

You can find Liam and his suggestions in the podcast on the following links:

Running Remote: https://runningremote.com/

TimeDoctor: https://www.timedoctor.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/runningremote

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liammcivormartin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/liamremote

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liamremote/

Mark Williams is a controls engineer at Egan Company who is living in South Saint Paul, Minnesota with his family. He is working in a flex/hybrid role where he can work nearly all of the time from his home with the option to use a drop-in desk as needed on a location about 45 minutes away. Like many others, he and his coworkers at his previous job unexpectedly started working from home when the pandemic hit; however, his role was more hands-on there as he had to do measurements in person at times, and his team eventually went back onsite. Mark feels that his experience in field service helped prepare him for working remotely. He was often out and about at various job sites in his prior role and needed to communicate from a variety of locations, including when he was traveling out of state or internationally for days or a week or more at a time. Working from factory floors, hotel rooms, planes, helped him feel more comfortable with the nomad side of remote work, with the downside of being away from his wife and kids.

Now that Mark has a new degree, he is working in his preferred role at a different company where roughly 95% of his work can be done from home. His employer also allows him to have a fair amount of flexibility in his schedule, and he has tried a few different schedules in the past, including waking up at 4:30 am to get to work onsite by 5:30 am so he can get home before dark which was especially important for him when he was working in factories during the daylight hours. Currently, now that he doesn't have to commute, he gets a bit more sleep if the kids don't wake him up; however, he also gets a lot more family time and can help run errands or pick up the kids from school midday and sometimes works something more like a split shift and wraps up in the evening hours once they're home from school or in bed. Mark and his wife just moved into a larger home, and he sometimes has to change location within his house to catch a quiet spot to take a call, but he is generally able to work from his kitchen and living room where they have a nice morning and afternoon light which is important to him. In the evenings, once their four kids are in bed, Mark and his wife both head down to their large basement room where she works on writing novels, and he works on a board game or two he's been developing. They're excited about their three-season porch and backyard with plenty of room for a large deck and are talking about putting a desk out there as well once the weather warms up a bit come springtime.

Mark can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwilliamsfst/

Mark Degallier, owner and web developer at Little Light Media, appreciates the benefits and challenges of working from home. Being empty nesters and working from home, Mark and his wife, Elisabeth, moved from Wisconsin to sunny Arizona in 2018, specifically to Oro Valley, of the greater Tucson area, after researching the best place for them to settle down. Before entrepreneurship and working from home was "cool", they tried it when they were first married and having their first child back in 1990. After several false starts and many years of struggle, the benefits have paid off and they are now at the place they imagined all those years ago. 

In this episode, Mark talks about how he remembers thinking about what he wanted to be when he grew up, and that was to be a "dad". He also wanted a big house, fancy cars, a plane, etc. As he started adult life, his top priority of being a father who was present for his family rose to the top, and he felt self-employment would help him achieve his goals. He tried several times to start businesses and work from home, but the sales weren't happening and they didn't always have the financial margin to sustain the start-ups. After working for several small companies that demanded many hours, mediocre pay, no benefits and long commutes ... he started freelancing. After a few years, Mark was making as much freelancing as he was in his day job for only a fraction of the hours. He and his wife decided to go for it again since it was not sustainable to continue working two jobs, one had to go. Since, his employer already didn't offer great pay or benefits, he started the current business of 15 years!

Mark has decided there is more to life than big houses and private planes on a private lake. He decided if he wanted to be his idea of the ideal dad, there would be a cost, and for his family it meant sometimes not having the full benefits package of a traditional job. It has been said, "If you want something of value, there will be a cost.” Mark found that one of the biggest headaches (literally) has been healthcare, especially as he and his wife have had some medical issues. However, working from home and as his own boss has also made it easier to make medical appointments and take the time to manage their conditions. Mark mentions that the cost of healthcare for self-employed people is ridiculous, so he was happy to take on a few additional classes, teaching at a local college from where they lived on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border that eventually provided benefits has eased that pain this year.

Mark can be contacted through the contact form on his website: https://littlelightmedia.com

Covid project: https://litebook.app