The Rise in the Interest for Remote Jobs with Jeffrey Mrizek 1/2

Hello everyone, welcome to this episode of Conscious Design. I'm your host, Ian Peterman, and author of the book Conscious Design. And with me today, I have Dr. Jeffrey Merzik, CEO of Global Urban Nomads. They're focused on education in transformational leadership, intercultural competence, social and social entrepreneurship. And they, they are addressing that with quite a few things, but a lot of it has to do with education and access and figuring out how do we get to where we actually want to be in a, in the right way. So welcome to, welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks. And I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today and to kind of share with you the mission of Global Urban Nomads and to really invigorate people to kind of dream about careers and opportunities, invoke their leadership and their vision, impact sustainability goals, especially those defined by the UN, and also how they might use social entrepreneurship to create a lifestyle and how they might acquire those skills to have the kind of financial independence and self-sufficiency that comes from those types of learning journeys.

Yeah, so this is a big— this is a really big topic, right? Education and the pathway. And even in my generation, we've seen, you know, the college degree just doesn't cut it anymore in a lot of cases. And we were just talking about, you know, big corporations are looking at college graduates and going, we still have to train you now. We're still— we're not We're not— a degree does not mean you're really workforce ready like it used to, or maybe it never did, but now we're pointing it out. So with that, there's— I think there's kind of 2 areas that I'd like to break this up into. First is people that are wanting to not necessarily go entrepreneurial. They don't necessarily want to start their own business, but they are wanting to make an impact. We were talking about sustainability, Being able to be a digital nomad, that's a thing now. And a real thing, you know, you could work for corporate and do that and it's okay. So let's talk about that. And how are you guys working on making that something that, you know, you can actually figure out how to get the right skills to actually do a job you want to and make a difference? Absolutely.

Yeah, I'm looking at, you know, we all know that we just went through the last 2 years where we had a significant amount of change due to the global pandemic. And really, Global Urban Nomads was kind of birthed out of that as we came together to discuss what is going on in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous time. What we noticed is that many people were negatively impacted by the pandemic in terms of their workforce and whether they, they did or did not have jobs and whether they fell out of jobs because of those impacts. And right now we've heard trends that probably some of the workforce gains that we had over the last 2 years in terms of people being employed and in school headed towards skills readiness, we've lost 10 years in the last 2 years of our progress. We're seeing enrollments drop up to 25%. That's 1 in 4 students not showing up to school. and the community colleges. We're also seeing a mismatch. There's been a long conversation going on between what we call the skills gap, where when we work with our industry partners, we're finding that students aren't quite readied with the skills that are in demand. And there's a lot of upskilling and training that our partners in the industry are still doing to develop that. And so Global Urban Nomads kind of birthed out the opportunity to develop mindsets around transformational leadership, really entrepreneurial mindsets, which are really about critical thinking and problem solving and dealing with complexity. But with the heart of that is really focused on, you know, sustainability and specifically around aligning efforts to the UN Sustainability Goals, which are very clearly articulated. There are 17 goals that have been put out for a few years now with lots of resources and a lot of ways that organizations can align their sustainability efforts to their mission and vision. So those are some of the things that we're seeing as trends. Even recently, there's reports about the unemployment rate being only at 3.6%, and that while that might sound like, hey, we, we aren't so bad off, it sounds good, what it's not capturing is the fact that we have many displaced workers. And those displaced workers, kind of defined as anyone over 20 years of age who have lost their jobs or been displaced, and of course COVID-19 and the global pandemic was a major accelerant of that displacement. And so we've been calling it the Great Reset, the Great Resignation. There's been a lot of names for the phenomenon. And so this is coming on the heels of what we used to call the Great Tsunami. So we have a lot of retirements that were happening prior as there was generational changes in the workforce, and now we have a lot of displacement. And so we're really trying to understand how do we reinvigorate individuals to continue their lifelong learning, and how do they acquire the skills And create their own personal learning journey to the types of emergent careers that really didn't exist 5 years ago. And many that are still emerging in the next 3 to 5 years that we haven't even thought of yet that are coming.

Right. Well, and there's a— we talked a little about, you know, displaced workforce is usually, you know, could be that you scaled out, you don't have the skills anymore. But there are, there are these opportunities, you know, digital nomad, however you want to call it, right? remote worker, like those are potential positions and a lot of companies are really pro it, but you still have to have the skillset to get the job. It's still, there's still that skill gap. And are you guys seeing a big, like this is on the, you know, becoming an employee side, is that pushing a shift? It feels like every recession, every downturn in some kind, it always spurns new new entrepreneurs, more startups happen. I know there was a boom in 2021, I think it was. So are you seeing that that is a direction? Is that kind of like people are, well, this is all I can do. I can go, I can go work for myself as the solution to it. Is that, is that trending from what you guys are seeing from an educational standpoint too?

Yeah, I think it's both. And I think many people are finding opportunities to enter the market, very low cost to enter into a virtual business model, e-commerce, these types of things people can use social media platforms to create value exchanges. So there's some interesting ways that people can start businesses from their home using a computer and some Wi-Fi connection to really sustainable business. Some of the other trends that we're seeing is that some of those more standard industries are crossing over and they're creating like new economies and you're kind of referencing what we call the remote economy. The remote economy is where the digital skilled individuals who are either entrepreneurs or maybe they're intrapreneurs, people who work for organizations, like Salesforce or larger global corporations where they have digital skill sets and they are working remotely. Often we think about remote work as just kind of broadcasting from my, you know, my home and checking in that way because we were all kind of under lockdown during that. But there has been an emergence of, you know, work and travel. And I actually did a sabbatical last September through January. I was participating with the organization called Remote Year. And they focus on supporting the digital nomad by providing them logistics and support and travel experiences. So I was able to travel for 4 months to 4 countries in Latin America and work remotely the whole time. They were able to provide logistics of housing. They made sure that I always had Wi-Fi and access to coworking spaces. And then of course, they provide some enrichment opportunities around cultural experiences, going to really key points of interest and just having interesting experiences and creating community. And so the way Remote Year is doing is they're taking a lot of these diverse digital nomads and creating a community out of them. And it's really a distributed network of individuals who have the ability and skill sets to work in the remote economy. And so this is becoming an emergent space where, you know, 10 years ago, you know, this was not really something that was possible, having people travel the world and work remotely in this way.

Yeah.

But it's really now quite commonplace. And The question is, is, well, if that's a lifestyle I want to be able to travel and work and travel and learn, how do I get there?

Right.

And so we start to ask questions about re-engaging into the workforce and they call it the Great Reset. And I think that's a good one for the— then I think people are rethinking their values.

Yeah.

Maybe we were working 80, 90 hours a week, burnout, tired in that job. And, you know, just really rethinking what our priorities are and where we are in our balance wheel in terms of what we prioritize in our life and family and health. And, um, Sustainability had become a really key important conversation, as well as the discussion around diversity, equity, inclusion in the workforce and how we create accessible workforce that is sustainable. And that, you know, isn't just specifically profit-driven, but that really looks at what we call the triple bottom line, which is people, profits, and planet— or people, planet, profits should be the third thing. So, right, that's kind of the basis, I think, of some of the major maybe even cultural or social changes that we're seeing in the workforce. So I think people are asking questions like, who am I? And what do I really want to do? And, and then how do I get there? You know, and so those are some of those reflections that I think people are really concentrating. I don't think people want to necessarily be displaced from work. They do need to be able to provide for their families. But I think people are shifting in their values and their priorities. And we have a really dynamic workforce. In fact, you know, millennials have taken a large portion of the workforce as we see the boomers retiring. But we're also now seeing Zillennials enter, and they're a very unique portion of the workforce as well, right? If you look at them, they're, they're social media natives, and they really have a different way of connecting.

They're the first.

They're the first. Yeah.

Yeah.

The grand experiment. Yeah, it's a great experiment. So life and work is changing, life and work is merging. So where do we go and how, how is this transitioning is a really interesting question for folks who work in workforce and economic development these days.

Right. Well, and that's a— you mentioned the traveling, like travel and corporate work. That's amazing. Like, I feel like that's a huge step. in helping people not be so isolated from really cool areas. Like you were able to travel Latin America, that's— and work, right? Like that's something that definitely my dad would never have been able to do in any point in his career during— and that's just now, just now something. So that's very, very unique and is— one of the benefits, right, is people can go do things, they can have those experiences. And that— I feel like the Great Reset is a great term for it. A Great Recession and a great, great, you know, retirement, it just— it wasn't just that, right? And so with these, with these different things, or having those new ways of working, or even coming out of this, is that Does this feel like that's a reaction for companies going, oh, everybody's quitting, everybody's, everybody's rethinking the terrible job we had them in, um, maybe what can we do to keep it? Or is— does it feel more driven by people who are just already a digital nomad and like, hey, actually we could do this, like we can— why don't I just go travel because I can? Like, is there— does it feel like one is or the other, or is it really just a combo? of both. And, and somehow this pandemic and, you know, us having, having diversity brought to the forefront is just not being a thing right now. It needs to be. And then, and now we're just like, okay, well, let's— it's a perfect storm basically to come up with it.

Yeah, I definitely think the pandemic was an accelerator to social changes, and we are more globally connected now more than ever with the internet. Doesn't mean that everybody has access. Lots of folks do not have Wi-Fi access, especially in rural areas, even in the US, as well as some of our global partners may not just have the infrastructure necessary. So there is some thinking about how do we make this more inclusive and accessible. I think the pressures really came from the fact that people started to realize that they could do this type of travel and work. And really, some of the more progressive technology firms realized this and they started changing their HR policies even to allow for like unlimited leave and really loosening up the expectations of that traditional 8 to 5. That was really an Industrial Revolution concept.

That's a factory worker. Yeah, that's the factory timeline.

Yeah, now we're more like project-based. You know, we would look really more on our digital skills. And I think businesses are seeing the value of, hey, can you deliver more than like how many hours do we want to pay you for? Because there is some loss of value in that social contract. Because, you know, you might be getting charged for hours where you're not productive. And so there's, you know, also things like social loafing and things like that. So really being able to focus and pivot towards skills readiness, right? I know we've had a long conversation going on about the value of education and whether your traditional bachelor's degree really is a way of sustainable, you know, creating a living wage or not in industry. And so it depends. What we're finding, and many people don't know, is the secret gems of career technical education, in which you might get an 18-month boot camp where you learn how to code or use a language or you learn a digital skill. And you might make, you know, cybersecurity, for instance, you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant because there's so much demand for that skill set. And it does not require a bachelor's degree. And so really helping individuals say, okay, I want to work in this remote environment. What are the skills that I can exchange? And how do I kind of free myself up to work and kind of set my own independent schedule based on the exchange of those skills in the marketplace? And so one thing that we are kind of offering and seeing emerging is this independent study program that's been developed. It's really a self-study online course called Career Choices and Changes. And it's really marketed to adult learners because many people are not 18 going into college. college, transferring that traditional path. Some people may have already had 3 or 4 careers and they're trying to reinvent themselves. And so, like, as you're talking about in your podcast, Conscious Design, people are consciously designing their futures, right? And what they want and how they want to work in this emergent world. And so, there's a lot of automation that's going on, smart cities technologies. There's huge vectors that are Really pushing towards sustainability goals, improving climate, improving water access. Diversity, equity, inclusion is a huge conversation about how do we create an equitable and accessible and inclusive workplace. And so doing some of these self-studies, what it does is it really teaches some decision-making skills. It doesn't say, what college am I going to? What degree do I need?

Right.

It really talks about, hey, I want to be able to travel maybe 3 or 4 months a year in Latin America. As long as I'm not taking a place-bound type of labor-based or time-based work experience, I might be able to do that. And so now, okay, well, what are those career pathways that— and what are those skill sets that I can acquire? And so you go through this process where you identify the kind of lifestyle that you want, you actually set some processes where you learn the budget, like how much would it cost to live like this? And what were the And ironically, there's quite a bit of advantage to traveling because if you travel in second and third world countries, if you're a US-based citizen, you probably have some economic advantages there in the exchange rate, but also your activity is economic growth and development in the host country. And so some of the work that I'm doing in partnership— so Global Urban Nomads is partnering with Remote Year Off, they call their global education pillar. We're really thinking through like, hey, we're traveling as US citizens through various countries, let's say Colombia, and maybe that host city or country might need some support. And all these folks have digital skills, right? And so they can do positive impact through volunteering and mentoring and kind of showing folks, hey, these are the skills I acquired, this is how I did it. And then you're really lifting up the rest of the world to have really access to that. opportunity to either work in a digital skill-based career or establish their own social entrepreneurship or entrepreneurship ventures based on sharing those knowledges. So it's really a huge learning economy where individuals are cutting their own path like yourself. You know, you're setting up this podcast, you're bringing guests together, and you're really sharing best practices and knowledge that exists in this information technology Even this environment right now, it's not new. Many of our organizations have been doing this for a long time. Maybe government's a little slower, but a lot of our tech companies have been doing it for a long time. And so there's questions like the metaverse is this emergent thing, right? And so what—

Oh man, that's a rabbit hole. Yeah.

How do you get skilled for that? What careers, like you don't go to, you know, community college and say, I need a metaverse degree, right? There's no such thing. So these are really pioneering spaces, creative spaces, innovative spaces, and that's where Global Urban Nomads comes in. We try to create mindsets around transformational leadership. How do we really exchange interculturally? There's different values, expectations of time, expectations of roles, and how do you mediate as we're more global? And then, you know, of course, you know, the entrepreneurship mindset, which is really something around critical thinking and problem solving. Again, these aren't like terminal degrees, they don't end, you know, terminal has kind of a mixed message there, like anything terminal is kind of dead, right?

Right.

And so we have to be alive and having a lifelong learning journey. So that's really what we hope to inspire in others and in the longer run be able to do international exchange with learners that actually work on projects that directly impact UN sustainability, whether they're short-term projects or we're instigating launches of social entrepreneurship.

Hey, it's Ian here. So glad you're enjoying this episode of Conscious Design. If you want the full scoop on Conscious Design, what it is, how we do it, how you can do it, then check out our book. We wrote it so creative entrepreneurs like you can code social and environmental responsibility right into your brand's DNA. You can download the first chapter for free. Link is in the description. Enjoy the rest of the episode. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Right. Well, I love, I love the idea of what you brought up. If you're going to be a digital nomad, if you're going to go somewhere, make sure that, you know, as, as you go, especially if you're from the US or another country where, you know, relatively we're, we're pretty well off going, when you go there, make sure that you're creating a positive impact. Maybe you're, you know, help the economy there, help sustainability there, help maybe help their infrastructure a bit. Things like that where it becomes, yeah, you're getting the benefit, right? You're gonna, you're gonna visit a beautiful place, learn a new culture, get an experience that has been hard to achieve for most people for a long time. And then also make it better for the people who actually live there, which is— I feel like that's, that's a great thing. And you mentioned too, like accessibility, right? We talk about, you know, diversity inclusion and all great. We're like, oh yeah, we're all in the US and let's do it all on the internet. And we're all going to talk about it on the internet. But even, you said here, there's rural areas that don't have internet there. You know, 4G doesn't even get there. Like, that's, that's a real thing in case people think we have full coverage. not real. So, and that's, that's the US, right? We're considered a first world country, but we don't even have 100% internet access to every person who wants it, right? There's, there's some, you know, there's, there's some pockets that don't want it, but that's, that's a choice. The other people is not. They just don't, they just don't have it.

Absolutely.

And that's even more when you talk about other countries, right? You have I'm sure Latin America doesn't have great Wi-Fi as much as, as much as the US. There's definitely pockets where they have the infrastructure in areas, but not everywhere. Are you seeing— what are you guys seeing being done to help address that level of quality to help make sure? Because, you know, you can be a digital remote worker, but only if you have internet, right? There is a pretty large caveat there. If you don't have that, We can't— we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing right now. We wouldn't be able to be on a call if one of us was out of internet.

Yeah, well, there's— there are some interesting solutions that we've seen, like partners in Indonesia, they'll use offline tools like a computer that basically is not internet connected, but the work gets done kind of in an offline environment. And then when they bring those units back to the internet-connected network, then that work can be uploaded and integrated. That's sometimes also done with our justice-involved populations where they may not have access to internet, but they might still be learning skills. Probably one of the most interesting digital skills acquisition models that I saw was something called The Last Mile. It was actually in San Quentin, which is one of the prisons here in California, and they were actually teaching you know, folks that had life terms how to code. And as part of their parole process, they actually learned how to design dashboards. And some of them actually found themselves to be able to be paroled. And when they walked out, they were able to get jobs that paid, you know, $80,000, $100,000 because they had marketable skills. So you start talking about the transformational effect of that. If you could amplify that, that's really, really significant. So we can really think more creatively around the limits and—

Yeah. Yeah.

Creating more inclusively. So I think that's true. I think perhaps I would say maybe the 22nd century is really about what we would call a talent economy in which we exchange our talents from all over the world because as we become more globally connected and we can share, I think the phenomenon of TikTok was really, really phenomenal. I remember when it was first emerging, I felt like I had a window into parts of the world that I've never seen and you were seeing people just kind of interacting and making videos about their day-to-day life. And, you know, kind of opens up our understanding of really the global nature and some of the mismatches that happen in economic distribution.

Right.

And so how do we, you know, be more intentional about, you know, caring for our neighbor in a sense, not just our next-door neighbor. And, you know, they talk about think global, act local, but now we can actually act virtual. And so how does that change the paradigm, right, in terms of making global impacts. I think it comes down to something, and this is where diversity, equity, inclusion is important. It's empathy, right?

Yeah.

I think one of the greatest skills that we need to develop, whether we're entrepreneurial or we work as a digital native or nomad, is really understanding that our perceptions and experience of the world, we do have certain biases, both conscious and unconscious biases. We don't really always understand the lived experiences Just a little anecdote, you know, we were talking about some partners in Africa who do entrepreneurship training in a couple of the countries. So in Somalia, there's a partner who runs the Samad iLab, and they put about 300 to 400 entrepreneurs out. And we were using Clubhouse, which is kind of a new social media platform where you use your voice, right? So it's a little easier on broadband, and you can still interact and have conversations.

Yeah.

And we were having conversations around African entrepreneurship, and it was ironic because we were talking about Wi-Fi and 5G integrations, and one of the questions that came back from that panel was, you know, how do I get more chickens onto my truck that I take to market? And it's a totally different problem set because they do not have refrigeration. The infrastructure is completely different. And so the way to be more profitable is to figure out methods of getting literally more live chickens because they don't have technology like refrigeration. And that was a real awakening and aha moment, you know, as we talk about entrepreneurship, some of the problem sets that we do in high-tech comp— in high-tech economies or countries are not necessarily the same types of solution sets that might work in other settings. But I do think there's great value in exchanging those mindsets and those problem sets and creating novel and creative new, new solutions that benefit. So I think that's definitely something that is going to be a trend in the ensuing century, really about just cross-teaching each other. All of us have talents, we're all born with unique gifts, skills, and abilities, different abilities, diverse abilities. We all come from different walks. And many of us may just feel displaced, and we don't know how we plug in, or we don't know what the path is, or maybe we don't have any clear models of that. And so trying to help individuals think about value exchange, and talking about, you know, what are your gifts? What are your skills? What are your talents? And then how do you develop those talents over time from, you know, being able to be someone who might have one talent to someone who might have, say, 10 talents, and just really being focused on what do I do best? What do I do well? What's my unique contribution? And how do I, how do I bring that forward in my career? And less about what college did I go to, what degree did I take, and really thinking about, you know, contribution in economy, in community. We like to say that we're creative, caring, compassionate leaders. And that's a kind of a heart set, you know, and a mindset around service and serving others and being really a good global citizen, right?

Right.