Remote-First Podcast

As our Season 2 last episode, we sat down with creatives Sam McNeill and MiG Ayesa from SongDivision.

Sam and MIG are two talented masters of ceremonies, musicians, producers and they bring teams and people together through very curated events. They use more unconventional methods to engage with audiences and also with the power of music they bring people together to connect at deeper levels. Facilitating how to engage better with remote teams and still have truly immersive experiences where teams connect at a personal level. Their goal is to enrich the culture of organizations with a very unique approach. Learn more about tactics on how to make your virtual meetings more powerful and connected, through hosting and facilitation methods that you can apply in any remote meeting.

Sam McNeill

Voted as a Top Five Speaker in Spice Magazine’s Hot 100, Sam McNeill - SongDivision GM for UK & Europe - is one of the most in-demand Corporate MC’s & Facilitators. Sam has hosted over 400 interactive live and online experiences including musical team building workshops, gala awards events and product launches on five continents.

Sam’s accolades include winning ‘Future Leader’ awards for both Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) and the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). In 2017, Sam was included in Connect Corporate’s esteemed list of ’40 under 40’ industry professionals.

MiG Ayesa 

MiG started his career in Australia in BUDDY. He was then chosen to join the London cast including a ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. MiG’s other West End credits include WE WILL ROCK YOU, RENT, THRILLER LIVE and SEASONS OF LARSON. His Broadway credits include BURN THE FLOOR and ROCK OF AGES, which he also joined on the 1st US National Tour and in the Philippines. Back in Australia, his credits include GREASE, CINDERELLA, ALADDIN, WEST SIDE STORY, RENT, FAME, THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, and a UK and Australian Tour of THE MUSIC OF QUEEN: ROCK AND SYMPHONIC SPECTACULAR. And many more hits under his resume that he incorporates into his new role at SongDivision as North Eastern Client Executive. 

Jason Allan discovered the need to find global workspaces where anyone can focus and do production, work, shoot videos, record a podcast and more. During the Covid pandemic he realized of the importance of this space for any remote worker to travel around the world and have a professional setup where people can still be productive. So this is how the idea of Kopus was born in October 2020.

As he explains, "Remote work is inclusive and allows anyone to work on anything, the democratization of work". Jason Allan has been a fan of productivity and he believes that anyone should be able to afford a workspace and not only a few that can access it because of their financial situation.

Jason Allan Scott is an award-winning Entrepreneur, Event Pro, Podcaster, and Bestselling Author. Various media and social media platforms including Amazon have called me a top influencer on the web, Double Dutch said I am one of the most influential Event Professionals in the world as did Eventbrite. Scott was recognized as a top 100 small business owner by American Express in 2016 and invited to Number 10 Downing Street.

Scott has spoken at over 210 conferences, events, and companies around the world. From speaking at Google, Oxford, and Coutts to major growth marketing conferences, he now focuses on helping people with affordable workspaces withwww.kopus.com  

Bill Mott is an event technologist expert that started his own company right before the Covid pandemic hit the US. He shares with us the challenges with talent shortage in the event and technology industry and how the market is hot for remote-first workers now. "Distance yourself from negative thoughts. Trust is the key" is as he explains working with a remote workforce will succeed.

No more 5-year planning and instead is turning into a 90-day planning with all the external factors impacting new businesses. A really candid conversation on how to start a business and how to take care of culture with the workforce, including investing on new interesting benefits for the employees.

Bill Mott has worked in the event streaming and production industry for 15 years. He led the streaming departments for both Freeman and PSAV, producing virtual and hybrid events for thousands of organizations and Fortune 500 companies.

In 2019, Bill founded Falcon Events, an event streaming solutions company. Bill and his team provide end-to-end solutions for producing successful online events that generate ROI – including digital production, platform management, and creative services.

Bill resides in Dallas with his wife and 2 children; he holds a master’s degree in RTVF from the University of North Texas and a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from Texas Tech University.

Do you know what a slow-mad is? I didn't either, and when I sat down with Jesse Chambers not only I learned this term but other insights on what the future of Remote Work is. Jesse travels around the country in an Airstream with his wife, while he runs his brand Wrkfrce remotely from anywhere.

An entrepreneur in the digital media space, Jesse Chambers is an accomplished executive with leadership experience at successful startups, as well as some of the largest, most well respected global media brands. In early 2019, he left the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and dog and, working full-time from a 27-foot Airstream trailer, founded wrkfrce.

Rooted in the belief that when we design our careers around our lives—and not vice versa—we are more productive and more fulfilled, wrkfrce is a digital media company that gives remote workers and the businesses that employ them information, tools, and inspiration.

Heather Willems is a business strategy consultant, graphic facilitator and bestselling co-author of Draw Your Big Idea. Combining her love of fine art and business strategy, she helps top executives operate more efficiently through creativity. She guides the world’s most influential companies to visualizes their biggest ideas. The results, a long-lasting transparent action plan that engages in a memorable way.

After 15 years of witnessing breakthroughs with clients, she wants to help more people achieve their goals. As Co-founder of ImageThink, she visualized big ideas for thought leaders and companies including Disney, AOL, FedEx, Google, Lego, and NASA . Her work has been featured on The Today Show, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc., Forbes, Mashable and the Wall Street Journal.

Whether she’s leading one-on-one executive training or speaking about visual thinking, she has a passion for making connections. She’s spoken at and collaborated with The Atlantic, SXSW, New York Times Small Business Summit, Columbia University, Texas Conference for Women, Comic-con, PTTOW! and many more.

Siôn spent 10 years creating high profile sporting experiences for brands including Adidas, Nike, Nissan and Lucozade Sport, including Football World Cups and Champions League Finals. 

As well as being a qualified fitness instructor, cycling and skiing instructor, Siôn competes at an elite level in Triathlon. Siôn recently competed in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October 2019 and has many other sporting accolades to his name.

As co-founder of POINT3 Wellbeing, Siôn hosts regular talks and workshops on wellbeing, mindset and how to optimise performance – both in and out of work – to businesses including HSBC, Deloitte, Google and Northern Trust. 

Siôn also delivers science-based movement + mindfulness experiences in the workplace to support wider corporate wellness programmes.

As our Building Healthy Habits course starts later this month, listen into our podcast with Sion Stansfiled and the way that POINT3 Wellbeing developed this course to help leaders and managers to perfect better habits for them and their teams. In one word, BUILD, the program is a 5-step process where attendees identify the habits that they need to work on providing them with specific tangible tools on how to achieve them.  

Listen to more from Sion's personal experience giving this course and make sure to enroll to learn more on how this will support your mental health and wellbeing. PLUS you get a FREE annual membership to our Remote-First community. Win-win! 

Course starts 26 of August! 

See you there! 

Sondre started being a remote worker back in 2013 and since then he has founded two startups with the concept of Remote-First work as an intrinsic foundation to the companies. As Digital Nomad he realized of the importance to have Health Care Insurance while working abroad and that's how the idea of SafetyWing started. Now with 50+ employees Sondre shares his insights on providing health insurance to individuals and employees and important tips on how to stay engaged and connected to your workforce as a leader.

Sondre Rasch is a co-founder and CEO of SafetyWing - building a global social safety net. SafetyWing’s mission is to remove the role of geographical borders as a barrier to equal opportunities and freedom for everyone with a global home country on the internet.
Born in Bergen, Norway, he studied economics and computer science, before starting work as a policy advisor for the government of Norway advising on social policies. After getting frustrated with the slow pace of government change, Sondre first founded SuperSide (YC W16), a platform for freelance designers. It was here he discovered the lack of a safety net for online remote workers. Then SafetyWing was born in 2018 after the YC W18, raising 8+mil and serving 60k+ happy clients as today and growing.

Demetrius Wren is a filmmaker and creative director that started his independent company a few years back and has been a remote worker since then. Working remotely around the United States and working with very creative brands. Listen to his advice on how to work with remote teams, not only in the US but internationally, and how he finds talent all over the globe. He was a pioneer in remote work and the pandemic offered opportunities to grow his business model even more remote than he did before, so creative talent doesn't need to live in New York or Los Angeles anymore.

Demetrius Wren is a screenwriter and director in the US. He also owns the boutique production company "Two Kids with a Camera" with his wife, Christina Wren. Demetrius has written several plays (2007 finalist for the Juilliard Playwrights Fellowship), feature films (Winner for best feature at Jacksonville Film Festival), director of children's television (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) and commercial client work for brands including Google, Apartment Therapy, Discovery Channel, Visa, Microsoft, and Twitch. 

Demetrius Wren is a filmmaker and creative director that started his independent company a few years back and has been a remote worker since then. Working remotely around the United States and working with very creative brands. Listen to his advice on how to work with remote teams, not only in the US but internationally, and how he finds talent all over the globe. He was a pioneer in remote work and the pandemic offered opportunities to grow his business model even more remote than he did before, so creative talent doesn't need to live in New York or Los Angeles anymore.

Demetrius Wren is a screenwriter and director in the US. He also owns the boutique production company "Two Kids with a Camera" with his wife, Christina Wren. Demetrius has written several plays (2007 finalist for the Juilliard Playwrights Fellowship), feature films (Winner for best feature at Jacksonville Film Festival), director of children's television (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) and commercial client work for brands including Google, Apartment Therapy, Discovery Channel, Visa, Microsoft, and Twitch.