I'm writing you from a coffee shop in one of Bogotá's bougiest neighborhoods, El Nogal.
I used to hate this.
WHERE you work says a lot about you. It says a lot about how you work and what you value. At least for those of us who have some choice in that.
The reason I used to hate working at coffee shops dates back to my time in LA.
LA coffee shops are hostile to coworking, both because the coffee shops don't like it, and also because everyone and their cousin is there pretending to have jobs. So, I always preferred to work at coworking spaces.
When I got my first remote job in 2018, I immediately signed up for WeWork.
I really loved WeWork and desperately wanted to be a member back then so I hauled my entire setup to downtown LA because I liked that location the best—40 minutes from my house on the train. Then, I would wake up at 6am to get on said train just to commit to the bit and show up there even though no one gave a shit where I worked and I absolutely could have worked from home where I lived alone and also had a desk and "free" food.
Why did I do all that? Because I thought being out in the world might do something for me. It's hard to imagine anything new happening at home. I bought in to the promise of the WeWork network (and coworking as a networking thing in general) and I also just liked not having to be at my house in the valley all the time.
The tech industry once had me convinced that I needed a giant second monitor, an external mic and a high quality camera to be productive and seem professional. Eventually, it just became easier to set that all up at home.
Here's my desk at home in Atlanta with all the gear. It looked really nice in photos (important to me for fronting how cool I am on the internet) but wasn't actually that pleasant in real life because it turns out many factory loft conversions are pretty hazardous to your health. I'm also not sure I care about "desk aesthetic" as much as everyone else seems to.
Also, I learned that I still hate working from home.
For several months, I worked in my parent's basement. That's when I was working on resetting the business and launching my Growthtrackers membership. You cannot beat free, comfortable office space, and even though I was living and working in the same place, not paying rent did wonders for my creative brain space. I don't think I would have been able to launch Growthtrackers without this era.
But all good things have to come to an end, so once the business was doing better, I moved into an actual office building.
I downsized my living situation to afford this, but separating home and work with a short commute is the best case scenario for me. This spot was a 15 minute drive or a one hour walk from where I lived and it was in a great part of Atlanta known as downtown Decatur.
So, what does YOUR working location say about YOU?
If you work from home: You have kids or pets or you just like not having to go anywhere and not having to wear real pants. You're always wondering if you should buy MORE GEAR for your home office, but deep down, you know you already have all the gear you need. Maybe it's time for a plant.
If you work from a coworking spot: You were the coworker who was always stopping by everyone's desks to see what's going on. You're sensitive to the aesthetic that surrounds you and you like working with a view. You still have printed business cards even though you stopped giving them out a long time ago.
If you work from an office outside your house: You need complete silence to get things done. You have strong work/life balance and such good boundaries that you've been thinking about making one of those look-how-damn-disciplined-I-am morning routine videos. You probably even bike to work because why not get an extra work out in while also being climate conscious?
If you work from coffee shops: You're afraid of commitment and you get bored being in the same place all the time. You feel budget smart for saving the money over the coworking spot or office but you spend nearly the same amount on lavender oat milk lattes and parking. You travel around the world like me or you think about doing so all the time. You definitely have a podcast or a YouTube channel.
If you work from your parent's basement: You've found the perfect lifehack while you're in-between whatever whatever. You either don't care what people think about where you work and what you're doing OR maybe you're very self-conscious about it and you rearrange your video background every couple days without ever being satisfied at how it looks. This is the first time in your life you have a savings account though and your guilty pleasure is watching those videos where people talk about how small their expensive New York City apartment is.
Are any of these you? Cuz all of them are me.
I was sad to give up my Decatur office, because I really did feel the most sane there. And I didn't think I could go back to being a coffee shop, coworking space or work from home person. This was my biggest worry when I was thinking about traveling full time.
Where would I work? How good would my lighting be on Zoom calls? Would I have reliable wifi? Is it safe to carry my computer around? What gear should I bring?
But it's all turned out totally fine. Guess I'm more flexible than I thought.
I've let go of the expectation that I need a super fancy background and mic set up. If people can see and hear me, that's good enough. No one cares that much.
I sold my big desktop computer and bought a better laptop along with this Logitech pop up desk, which puts the computer at the right height for Zoom calls and gives me an external keyboard and mouse.
I miss my office but I love traveling more. And I'm able to be productive enough on the road which for me, says a lot about where I am in my life, how my work projects are going and what my priorities are now.
I have enough gear. There's plenty of spaces to work. When the work is interesting, the space matters less.
Where do you work and what do you think it says about you?
