Detox yourself: Why I worked something different (and you should too)
Here is my little modern work diary. I thought it might be interesting to share some of my thoughts and experiences in case you have similar plans. I had the opportunity to detox myself from my usual way of working and stayed for one month with The Happy Startup School in Brighton. This is my Au-Pair-Company-Experience.
Background: After a couple years working in different digital advertising agencies, I wanted to see something new. I needed to see something other than the next german agency office.
So I asked my new boss if I could spend a longer time working remotely. It beats me changing agencies like changing underwear.
And surprisingly he said:
YES! Sure — I was wondering why nobody has ever asked me before.
Carim Aadam (CEO, ZDF Digital)
A good friend of mine, Hendrik Sommerfeldt gave me some international contacts and I applied for a remote-work-exchange-internship-kinda-thing. I think neither I nor the company I applied to knew exactly what this was about.
Surprisingly Carlos Saba and Laurence McCahill from The Happy Startup School also said:
YES, it would be great to get you on board.
Carlos Saba (Co-Founder)
So I booked a little AirBnB room and left my hood on April the 10th and travelled very excited to Brighton. I never knew Brighton was this fucking beautiful.
Jackpot!
I also didn’t know that there are about 900 pubs in Brighton.
Double Jackpot!
I joined a couple of them ;) Don’t know why, but beer brings me to people …
The Happy Startup School is a school for entrepreneurs and people searching for a deeper purpose in their work life as well as their private life. Strapline: Where happiness meets entrepreneurship.
They teach students from all over the world: Define a life on your own terms and build your own version of success. They strongly believe:
The future belongs to companies & organisations with a sense of purpose. As well as a great idea you need to have a strong culture, engaged & happy employees and loyal customers.
The Happy Startup School’s happifesto
During my stay I worked on interesting projects like The Happy Startup Summercamp and Alpitude. Together with Fiona Duffy and Oliver Uwins we experimented and produced lots of assets. I worked to produce a whitepaper to share with the happy startups community about Instagram growth strategies. All pretty amazing and inspiring things. Lean thinking everywhere, always constructive and solution driven.
More Fucking Input …
I had the opportunity to visit different events, meetups and workshops. Brighton is full of them. The level is high. Inspiring! I met many interesting people ranging from a doorman, a dancing youtube star to business men. It’s good to be on the move, right?
I worked with a variety of tools e.g. Buffer, Zapier, Gumroad, Squarespace. I knew all these tools before, but i never worked with them. You might know the “I-have-too-many-open-tabs-and-things-to-read” feeling — here I had the time to do stuff for my own brain clean up.
And I’ve heard so many motivating and inspiring things …
Slow down — be a little bit more in flow — and you’ll get to where you need to go a lot quicker — it’s a complete myth that being busy gets you there quicker.
Jack Hubbard, Propellernet & Dream Valley Projects
Just Cruise … Don‘t take anything too seriously. we’ve only got a very small amount of time here so you might as well have fun — 100 %.
Jim Cregan, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee
Start before you’re ready and share your vision early. You’ll attract the people you need to make that dream come alive.
Ruth Anslow, hiSbe Supermarket
Win, Win
So as you see all in all it’s a pure win-win situation. The agency I work for in Germany, and for the au-pair happy startup school — everybody wins! The intensity and speed I solved my tasks outside our office increased. All things I learned impacted my own business as well. I always mapped them to my tasks “at home”. Improving my English, becoming more empathetic and furthering my contacts are other examples.
For the au-pair company the value comes from a different perspective and some expat expertise as well, there are always correlations in the media and technology businesses. And yes it might be that it won’t fit for other industries but we will see …
Lessons learned
1. Ask and there might be a yes
In case you are thinking of something similar. Stop thinking and start asking! Just ask your boss or superior. There is a chance. You know the platitude: “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”
2. Go, Go, Go … in fact just do it. Now!
Knowledge-sharing is a game changer! The fact I did it was a mind enriching experience. We should all give other entrepreneurs, creatives, technologists the opportunity to stay with us in our offices. Work for us, with us or for your own clients. Come and join us!
3. Be Thankful
One month is not enough. That’s for sure. The time went by so fast. It’s been much more than I ever expected! Thank you ZDF Digital for making that possible. Thank you very very much to you guys from The Happy Startup School. Thanks for letting me stay with you.
You taught me that there is a book for everything. You taught me to ask myself what’s stopping me from getting it done and to break it down in little tasks and the most important one — to put a meaning behind my doing.
See you in Mainz
Drop us a line if you also wanna feel the real Au-Pair-Company-Remote- Experience ☞ info@zdf-digital.com
Appendix
The Happy Startup School 😀
Crafted Crate 🍻
Glued 📵
Sworkit 💪🏻
Max St. John🕴
Collab&Play 👪
Unknown Epic 🐐
Lick 🍧
Weareecho 🌴
Christoph Köhler — I’m a German concept developer working for ZDF Digital. My concept approach is Social First. It’s not about the medium, it’s about the interaction!
