We find out some of the lessons learnt from Robert Kropp, a coworking space expert who has worked remotely from flexible working spaces all around the world.
After growing up in South Carolina, Robert ended up in Tampa, Florida in 2013 and worked there for a few years. Although his professional skills (development, programming, marketing, sales) have remained the same, his choice of lifestyle, or rather workstyle, dramatically changed after a defining two-month period in his early adult life.
An early marriage and subsequent divorce led him to question what he wanted from his career and what success really looked like. He embarked on a journey with only the items he needed, in his small car, and travelled 1,000 miles in two days. Since then, he’s spent the last three years touring more than 100 coworking spaces across the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, France, Norway and Japan.
He considers himself a highly creative person who wants to do a lot of things – currently owning three businesses – and is by every definition, a digital nomad. He’s recently spent a couple of months in the Accelerate Places workspace in Manchester. He spoke to Prolific North about the nature of remote working, and how he’s made it work for him.
“Initially I wanted to just expand what and who I knew by working remotely. It definitely was started as a journey of self-discovery,” he tells me. “I don’t think working remotely in terms of being a digital nomad is sustainable forever without some semblance of a base location with friends or family.”
