Would you like work from a tropical island, trading on your skills and doing the job you love? You’re not alone – only some people are doing it. Meet Diana, Frank and Daniel and welcome to their world – the new world of work…
John: I am sitting in Ubud, Bali, and I am here with Frank Warwick, Diana Phillips, and Daniel Vaughan. We are going to talk today about the idea of distributed workforces. In this day and age, you can really live and work anywhere in the world, but Bali—and Ubud in particular—is a place where many people flock to live and work remotely. Recently, Bali even hosted the Running Remote Conference. Welcome to Customers Matter. I might start with you, Diana. Tell me a little bit about your background and how you came to be living and working remotely from Bali.
Diana: Thank you, John. I am pleased to be here. My background is as a graphic designer and art director, and I eventually grew into a creative director role. Most of my experience is in the States, working with multinationals there as well as in Europe, and now here from Ubud. We have done everything from hang tags for Adidas to global launches for Mazda, and everything in between. It has been really interesting to see how the industry has evolved over the last few years to enable this kind of work. For the last project I did for Mazda, I had a team of CGI artists in Stuttgart who were also working on Game of Thrones. They were creating backgrounds for the new Mazda launch using Maya wireframes. We would have a conference call with them, work in Los Angeles, and then at the end of the day, we would conference with our client in Japan.
John: Amazing.
Diana: Truly.
John: And Daniel, you are also in the creative industry?
Daniel: I am a digital artist. I started in the print industry working on Chromacom systems. As the Macintosh platform developed and became more powerful, everyone switched over to that. Basically, I am a retoucher and have worked on accounts for various ad agencies, mostly car accounts.
John: Frank, you do work with Komosion. One of the things people contemplate as they imagine working remotely is connectivity. What amazes me while wandering around Bali is that there does not seem to be any lack of internet.
Frank: No, the internet here is great. The average place has a minimum of a 10MB connection, and you can get a 100MB connection if you want. It is much cheaper and very reliable.
John: What was your pathway to setting up in Bali? We worked together probably almost a decade ago when you were living on the Central Coast in New South Wales. How did you come to be here?
Frank: I was just looking for a different life. I was getting a little burnt out and wanted a change. I had come to Bali many times, and moving here seemed like a natural progression for my wife and me to see what became of it.
John: Diana, in your case, you are working a bit in California but spending a lot of time here now. Is that the plan? Can you see the future of work being done this way?
Diana: I certainly hope so. I think it is terribly exciting. It is not only about being able to work remotely, but also the benefit of being able to apply an understanding of a different culture. The world is becoming smaller and smaller through connectivity and the global presence of brands. To be able to offer our clients a slightly different perspective is hugely valuable, as it allows you to structure a universal language for international brands.
John: How does that cultural difference inform the way you create?
Diana: It is really interesting. When I worked in Europe, a lot of the brands I worked on were under the Unilever umbrella. Throughout Europe, languages are obviously very different, so our storytelling focused on the human experience, and then the tagline would be crafted for a particular audience. In Southeast Asia, there is a difference between Eastern and Western cultures; it is a wonderful opportunity to understand the differences and the similarities.
John: One thing that strikes me, having spent a week here, is the real mindfulness and the health and wellbeing culture that seems to lure many Western expatriates.
Diana: Certainly, there is that. Also, what has struck me repeatedly is the connection to family here. That permeates every aspect of society, whether it is Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist. That is a powerful message when you are building a brand and trying to build loyalty and an emotional connection. I love that.
John: Do you find Ubud itself particularly unique? How would you describe the environment of this part of Bali?
Diana: It is a wonderful crossroads because you have the history of Ubud. The name is an evolution of an old Kawi word, ubat, which means medicine. There has been a healing psychology here for a long time, which has transmuted into wellness, health, yoga, and similar interests. But it is also supplemented by this incredible artistic community. If you go down any artery leading to Ubud, you will find a community that makes gold or silver jewelry, wood carvings, blown glass, or textiles. It is a society that is very rich in craftsmanship.
John: Daniel and Frank, the cost of living is quite forgiving compared to major Western cities. Can you live here affordably?
Daniel: Absolutely. I just returned from Los Angeles where I had sticker shock, so it is nice to be back. It is also great that we can pretty much roll out of bed, log in, and start working. We are fifteen hours ahead of Los Angeles, so at the end of their day, my colleagues can give me what they haven’t finished, and when they wake up in the morning, the completed work is waiting for them.
Frank: Yet, when working with Sydney, they are two hours ahead, so an 8:00 AM meeting is very hard.
Daniel: So you have to work faster, Frank.
John: In terms of physical connection to Asia, do you find that living here you travel often, or are you in a cocoon where you do not need to be anywhere else?
Daniel: You can travel, and it is a good springboard to the rest of Asia. It is not far to India, Thailand, or Singapore. It is easy, fast, and inexpensive. But there are also so many places on this island and the islands all around us to explore.
John: Diana, I was interested in your mention of curating a service. From what I have seen, people are curating local skilled talent, but often across Asia as well.
Diana: That is something we are really interested in because there is so much talent here. In the past, many of our clients outsourced to places like the Philippines, but the problem was receiving work that was not up to a certain level. Part of what we intend to do is curate the work so we act as the quality control. If work comes to us, we do not pass it along until it is perfect. We really believe in that service.
John: In my experience seeking to outsource to Vietnam, India, and Ukraine, the big challenge is getting problem-solving rather than just “made to order” work. You want people who solve problems, not just people going through the motions.
Diana: Or creating another problem.
John: Precisely.
Diana: Right.
John: So that still seems to be one of the challenges. It sounds like you are seeing an opportunity to help meet that challenge.
Diana: Absolutely. Because of my background in creating a consistent language for international brands, it is hugely important that the tone of voice is consistent and that everything making a brand unique is impeccably executed every time.
John: What about the diversity of skills? What is the spread of expertise you can connect with from Ubud, within Indonesia, and the region more generally?
Diana: As an art director with a creative background, I am completely impressed with the level of typography and graphic arts here. There is also an international community in Ubud because of its draw. While some of it is transitory, there is a constant influx of programmers, copywriters, and designers.
Daniel: There is a lot of creativity.
Diana: They are international, not just from Southeast Asia. But Southeast Asia itself is a rich culture of creativity.
John: It is interesting that despite Australia’s proximity to Asia, many people—especially in places further away like California—do not understand the scale of the population here or how youthful it is. Indonesia itself has over 200 million people.
Frank: It is 285 million.
John: 285 million.
Frank: Yes, and 70% of the population is under 40.
John: That is amazing.
Frank: It is one of only three countries in the world like this. In the next ten years, this switched-on population is going to be running the country. In the West, the majority of people—the baby boomers and the next generation—are retiring. here, the largest segment of the population is in their thirties, and they are the ones who will be leading the country in the future.
John: Daniel, how do you see the landscape unfolding over the next decade? Frank sees the youth coming through, which will be huge.
Daniel: I think Frank is right. The population is changing rapidly. They are all getting educated and they all have computers. As you said earlier, they have computers in their cell phones now. Technology is going to reshape the map. Geography does not matter so much anymore.
Frank: You see many laborers working for minimum wage in Indonesia, and they all have smartphones and are chatting with their families. Everybody does it.
Diana: If I could interject, I also see an opportunity for women, particularly in Indonesia. They have more opportunities for education and are looking for roles that might be less traditional—not necessarily giving up their traditional roles, but expanding the role of a woman in the household. I find that really exciting.
John: Diana, you also spoke earlier about affordability and the cost of doing business. I presume that is a competitive advantage. What kind of differential can be delivered by sourcing your team from a place like Ubud?
Diana: We have found that we are able to source by project because of the amount of talent here, which has a huge impact. Also, because the cost of living here is so much lower, I can find someone as talented as anyone in Los Angeles. Because of the lower cost of living and the opportunity I am presenting, the work is invaluable to a person in Bali, whereas in Los Angeles, it might be just another job. That factors into enthusiasm, education, loyalty, and the ability to give back to the culture we are part of.
John: If we flip that around, it has profound implications for workforces in places like Los Angeles or Sydney as well.
Diana: Indeed.
John: What do you think the implications are for people in those marketplaces?
Diana: We will have to wait and see. I hope people wake up and understand that the world is becoming smaller and that you can never take anything for granted. There is a talent pool here that is as diverse and rich as what I find in the US or Europe.
John: Diana, you and Daniel have also set up a small business here. Can you tell me about that start-up and what you are learning through the process?
Diana: It was a total random thing. When we moved here, we had no intention of doing what we are doing now. But as we came to know Ubud, we found gelato shops everywhere. We kept thinking there should be a healthier alternative for the yoga community and the vegans here. We were redoing our house in California before we moved, and it was incredibly hot in August.
Daniel: It was 110-degree Paso Robles weather.
Diana: About three o’clock every afternoon, we would stop and have a popsicle to cool down. When we arrived here right before the rainy season, it was hot and humid again. We asked, “Where is a popsicle? We need a popsicle!” That is how we came up with Balipop. The idea was to take all this beautiful natural fruit and create an alternative to gelato. We worked on recipes and reached the point where it became a viable idea. But we also realized it wasn’t enough to just make a healthy product. Because of the pollution problem in Bali, plastic is everywhere.
Daniel: It is everywhere in the world! I am a scuba diver and I haven’t gone on a dive anywhere without seeing a big chunk of plastic floating by. Even at the outer islands in the middle of nowhere, there goes the plastic.
Diana: Right. So, part of our social responsibility to the island and its people—since we are guests here—was to find a solution that limits the amount of plastic we put back into the world. We actually package our pops with a banana leaf. If someone drops it on the street, it is biodegradable. That is very limiting to our expansion because banana leaves are not the most durable substance on earth, so we are constantly looking for alternatives for compostable packaging. That is part of our mission.
John: Fantastic. Thank you.
Diana: Thank you very much.
Daniel: Thank you.