Mike Raven

It was a combination of things. Personally, I am furiously curious; anything that is new and out of the ordinary that I haven’t seen before intrigues me, especially because this social movement called ‘Remote Year’ contained some of the stuff I am passionate about; travelling, community, and professional development, it was hard to ignore. It’s very much aligned to my outlook on life. I was also lucky that my personal circumstances allowed me to do it because of where I was in my life. It did mean that I had to sell my house and a lot of my possessions, and I now have just about enough left to furnish a small studio apartment when I go home, wherever home is.
 

How did you find yourself a remote role?

Before joining Remote Year, I wasn’t working remotely and was very much 95% office based. I work at a creative agency and we previously had employees overseas with limited success, so that was a fear of mine but I knew we had to improve because of the way the landscape of business is changing, so I positioned my argument based on that.

What I am very fortunate enough to have is a partner and a boss who is a close friend and has a similar outlook on life and therefore the conversation was made a lot easier. I still remember the day I was walking through the small cobbled streets in the town in southern England where we were working one lunch time talking to him about it, and his first response was “this sounds fantastic” and “I am jealous, I want to do it too, so let’s find a way to make this happen.” I can imagine this is a dream first response for anyone having this kind of conversation.

Once I was confirmed to go, we went about upgrading technology and improving how we deal with remote meetings and communication, such as installing Slack into the agency. We even made a video of interviews with each member of staff about how they felt about me doing this, and we put it on the site to promote the initiative.
 

What was the response of your colleagues?

There was a mixed response from emotional reactions such as “we are really excited for you” as well as practical responses, and maybe a hint of envy in there too.

It has shifted as the months have progressed, from initially quite similar tasks as I was doing when in the office, to eventually realizing how I could leverage the power of the community I was around, with such a diverse group of talented individuals, for the benefit of my agency. After this, I became much more focused on partnerships. Then two-thirds into the program, I had an even bigger shift where my partner from the agency and I decided to start a new business together. In addition to this, I have been working on a few personal projects. As I am also a qualified naturopath, I have been doing a few consultations with Remotes and Staff alike, and am looking to develop my own health and wellbeing enterprise aimed at the remote community. I also set up and facilitated two Hackathons in Morroco (picture above) as well as in Bulgaria, with one more planned before we finish Remote Year. 

Tell me more about this business you have decided to start.

Having worked with startups and global brands alike, there has always been one commonality; a need and a thirst to innovate, and to explore new ways of doing things. I’ve experienced many “workshops” and I’m fascinated by acceleration programs, so we thought we would start our own.

Leaps™ are 1 to 7 day programs for any size business, who face a challenge, be it a project that needs to be fast tracked, perhaps needs a jump start, innovation is getting lost or hasn’t even started, or even their proposition is outdated or in need of major or minor tweaking. Our process is very different, action-packed, and has proven already with the likes of Reuters, the UN, and Vodafone to be a resounding success.

We just soft launched the business officially today! So if anyone would like any more info, or has any feedback, please reach out on Social Media or check out the website www.discoverleaps.com.
 

I love how you talk about leveraging the power of your community, but how did you do this in reality?

I really believe the opportunity to leverage your community is something that can’t be missed in this program. I was very fortunate to be able to form a group of 10+ people within Ikigai who supported me with a very fast paced project to be able to put some pitches together for some global brands, which was a phenomenal learning experience and very humbling.

Also things that pop up out of the blue, such as the 7 day startup experience which I participated in with a group of other remotes, really make this such a wholesome experience. Realising that there are always people with similar ambitions and similar ideas around you is such a refreshing feeling. So that time I was in El Salvador, camped out in a turtle sanctuary, trying to start my own business in 7 days was something I will never forget.  

I feel privileged to have worked with a number of people in remote year, across different programs, and I hope to continue doing so through the Citizen opportunities. The mindsets present in these sort of remote working communities, coupled with the talent and creativity, is something I am sure more and more organisations will be tapping into. I plan to be part of this global shift in resourcing and project-focussed innovation.