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Digital Nomad Stories
Digital Nomad Stories
Boosting Productivity and Living Authentically: A Conversation with Focusmate's Founder Taylor
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Meet Taylor, the founder of Focusmate, who turned his lifelong struggle with procrastination into an innovative platform that's revolutionizing how we work.
Taylor also shares his transformative journey towards a fulfilling lifestyle. We talk about redefining the concept of a workday, and aligning life with your desires. Taylor takes us through his life in Mexico City, striking a balance between work, passion, and health.
Connect with Taylor:
- focusmate.com
- On LinkedIn
- @taylorejacobson on instagram
Connect with Anne:
- Leave a review or voice message at digitalnomadstories.co
- On instagram @annes_nomadstory
- Learn more about my business: The Podcast Babes
Interview With Taylor, Founder of FocusMate
Speaker 1Hey Nomads , welcome to Digital Nomad Stories , the podcast . My name is Anne Claessen and , together with my co-host , kendra Hasse , we interview digital nomads . Why ? Because we want to share stories of how they did it . We talk about remote work , online business , location and dependency , freelancing , travel and , of course , the digital nomad lifestyle . Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes ? Visit digitalnomadsstoriesco . Alright , let's go into today's episode . Hey , hey , nomads , welcome to a new episode of Digital Nomad Stories . Today , I'm here with Taylor , the founder of FocusMate . He knows a lot about remote work , about productivity , getting shit done , which are my words , by the way .
Speaker 1And I'm really excited to have him on the show today to talk more about remote work , but especially productive remote work , and getting some tips about that , because I mean I just need them , you know . So you got to listen in . So , taylor , welcome to this episode .
Speaker 2Thank you so much for having me . Great to be here .
Speaker 1Yeah , so can you tell us a little bit more about what FocusMate is and what you do ?
Speaker 2Sure yeah so let's start with what FocusMate is . Focusmate is this . Well , let's say , it's this crazy fantasy that I had for many years when I was a horrible procrastinator that I was kind of too ashamed to tell anybody . And then one day during my years working as a coach , executive coach , etc . I had a client who was really struggling with procrastination . He had an investor presentation coming up and was really starting to freak out and his vulnerability , his situation kind of activated me to pitch this idea to him . That was really my fantasy , and what I proposed to him was let's get on a video call and let's keep each other company while we get our work done . And so we did that .
Speaker 2We this was Skype at the time and the first minute of the conversation we both shared what we were going to do . Obviously , he was working on his investor presentation and I was working on a blog post and I am a champion procrastinator when it comes to writing a blog post and we both wrote down also . We wrote down what we were going to do and then we just started working . You know , we both had the video window open on the side of the screen and we worked for a couple hours together like that and we checked in periodically to just see how we were progressing .
Speaker 2But it was just fucking crazy , I mean , for two lifelong procrastinators to just have this sudden experience of like whoa , that was so easy and so focused and it was really . I mean I'm like having tears in my eyes actually just remembering that feeling , but like to just feel how easy it was to just like get something done . And those words they almost sound trite , you know , to just talk about getting something . It doesn't actually sound as meaningful as it is , but it really is like .
Speaker 2I'm kind of like tangenting here and waxing a little philosophical , but you know , for me it's like the difference between just feeling like my life is wasting away , which is really heavy , and feeling excited and looking forward to the future , and having , you know , having a greater sense of possibility for oneself , for myself .
Speaker 2So we did that first experience . And long story short , focusmate is a platform to find a buddy , to find a part , a co-working partner , to set up a video call where you keep each other company while you get work done , and it can either be 25 , 50 or 75 minutes . You can tell us some of your preferences over who you want to work with . You can also save your favorite partner . So it's easy to work with your favorite partners . But it's really that simple it's . You know , in the snap of a finger you can log on , book a session and , you know , be getting down to work in a couple minutes from now with somebody from somewhere else in the world , and it's just a stupendously impactful way to shift your state and , you know , get into gear and something that's important to you .
Speaker 2When you say what do I do , can you tell me what you mean by that question ? I do a lot of things , you know .
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly , tell me all the things that you do , but more like what is , what is a typical day or week for you ?
Speaker 2Well , I live in Mexico City , which I love . I've been here for about a year and I do most of my like work , work , good job , work in the morning , although I also eat breakfast outside almost every day . There's a park near my house , so , yeah , getting outside early is important to me .
Speaker 2But , yeah , I'm usually doing calls and co-working , which for me is , like you know , using Focus Made is how I get my work . Like you know , individual focus work done Between like 8 and 12 , sometimes a little bit later and I go to the rock climbing gym a lot . That's currently like my most excited passion and there's a lot of cool stuff going on here in Mexico City . And then I have I have kind of like a not really a side hustle , but kind of a next , next chapter , that I'm starting to nurture the vision and kind of speak it into reality , and I don't have a lot of bandwidth for it right now . But my next thing will be around really teaching people about authenticity , which I think is just teaching people how to do more of what they want moment to moment .
Speaker 2Yeah , and you know , I guess the last puzzle piece of my life right now I've really focused on my health . I've had a lot of like chronic illness and PTSD and a variety of things , and so that's been a whole other journey and learned a lot there , grown a lot there as well . Yeah , you know , part of why I don't work a ton of hours is Because I don't want to , and part of it is , you know , putting a focus on my body and my health as well .
Speaker 1Yeah , interesting . So two things were really interesting to me about what you said that I just wanted to like highlight and ask more about . First of all , I totally agree with you that getting the stuff done that has been on your to-do list , you know , like this task that just is on your to-do list and it always goes to tomorrow , like at the end of the day you just always like I'll do that tomorrow and that just happens for weeks . I'm sure I'm not the only one . It takes up so much energy to not do the thing , like even if it's something that is literally 10 minutes to get done , but just that energy of , okay , moving it to the next day and you still have to think about it , it's still like kind of in the back of your mind .
Speaker 1And I absolutely agree that having the tools to just get this stuff done , that you need to get done , and being productive and just you know getting it done and moving on . So for you that's like getting stuff done in half a day of work and then moving on to what's important to you , which is , for you , working on your health . I think that just makes so much sense and so cool that you took this step to actually create focus made that we can all use that now , that tool that worked so well for you .
Transitioning to a More Fulfilling Lifestyle
Speaker 1So that's one thing , and then what I want to definitely learn more about is also how did you end up in Mexico City ? Like , how did you end up there ? Because just before we hit record , you told me that you also no matter around a little bit , but that it was against your will . So I definitely want to hear that story .
Speaker 2Yeah , just doubling down on what you said , I noticed one of the things that happened for me as I spent more time as a procrastinator , spent more time like not following through on things I wanted , is I found that I actually started to like water down my ambitions and even kind of how I related to myself , like almost changing my personality to pretend to be somebody else so that I wouldn't be as disappointed that I wasn't doing the things that you know somewhere I really knew I wanted to and could do . So , yeah , like you said , it takes a lot of a lot of energy and for me it's really a stressful experience , so it's like a state of chronic fear and stress to not be following through on things .
Speaker 2So , yeah , I just want a huge plus one on that and that it can be really euphoric you know , to just crush the stuff that matters to you and bring back that sense of possibility and or even introduce a new one of like things you never really thought were available to us that suddenly are because we're productive .
Speaker 2And you know you said that I I'm gonna nitpick . You said that I , you know I I get my work done in a half day so that I can do the things that I want later in the day . And yes , we do in . Certainly in the United States and in a lot of places we have a notion of like what's a full work day . But it's been a journey for me , but I've really kind of deconditioned that for myself and I've really shifted my context from you know what is a work day , which is just a construct , it's just a concept , to what do I want ?
Speaker 2And to me , that's the only question that matters . And and actually I do also want to do my work . I'm really excited about what I'm building , you know , and it's like this is how much energy I want to put into this , and this is how much energy I want to put into this and this , and so , yeah , that's . It's a relatively recent thing for me . Over the last few years , you know , as a younger person , I I really kind of moralized the amount of work I was doing . You know , like if I wasn't putting in a good eight hour work day , there's I was , I was bad . Yeah , it's taken a lot of .
Speaker 2It's taken me really like working myself into health crises and and being unhappy , really unhappy , to let go of some of that conditioning and really just commit to living according to this one precept , which is just what do I want , what feels true for me , what feels right . So I think that's a great point , that you made that what .
Speaker 1what is a work day for you ? A work day is working between eight and 12 . So how is that just the kind of routine that you have , that you work between those hours , or do you have a set to do list for the day and then , when it's done , it's done and you log off early ?
Speaker 2It's mostly a routine , as opposed to about the things . I really try to eliminate any urgency in my life . I just I'm not an emergency room doctor and I don't want to . I don't want to have things in my life that are urgent and sometimes they happen , sometimes emergencies do happen and then , yeah , it's like you respond but fuck American work culture . Anyways , we really like , use and abuse urgency as a concept to make ourselves and other people do things , and so this is a round about way of saying no , there's never like I have to do this , this and this . It's really .
Speaker 2This is what my body is saying yes to , and I really I really try to listen to my body and some days , and actually my one of my colleagues that I have I have a call with every Tuesday she was on vacation . This week it's Thursday for context of the listeners , so we didn't have that call and that was 10 am and I just went for a bike ride and listen to an audiobook . You know , because that was my body was just like oh , we don't have a call , like what do we want ? You know , let's go outside . So , yeah , you know it's it really comes from . These are the hours that it feels good to be having calls to be , you know , sitting on my computer a little bit cranking , getting stuff done , and then I can sort of be like great , you did it . D like you can go to the gym , you can do whatever , take a nap . So to me that's just kind of the rhythm , the rhythm it feels good .
Speaker 1So I'm also wondering then , just like circling back to my other question , I had too many questions , I'm sorry , sorry about that . I'm also really wondering , like , how did you end up here in Mexico City living the lifestyle that you have now ? Because you said a few times that it used to be very different for you . So can you walk us a little bit through where you were a few years ago and then how you got to where you are now ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm just laughing , kind of looking back at some
Healing and Finding the Right Environment
Speaker 2moments I saw . A few years ago I was , you know , quintessential startup founder living in New York City . I was living in East Harlem and , yeah , like every minute of my life was packed and I knew it . I knew it didn't work for me , but I really just did not know how to change . And then pandemic hit . I had a few , let's say , traumatic situations happen all at the same time and , yeah , my body just went into shock . I was having panic attacks every day , major , major symptoms . I mean I could not do my job , I could not even go grocery shopping . And so , yeah , that's , needless to say , that was a forced change .
Speaker 2And , you know , as New York and the pandemic started to shift , I really needed to get out of New York . I had a lot of PTSD triggers related to New York City and way too loud for somebody with PTSD , with just lots of sounds constantly triggering my nervous system . And yet I had . I didn't know where to go and I was super under resource . I mean , I was in this major state of crisis . So , yeah , I packed up .
Speaker 2I spent a few months at my mom's place , which is in Massachusetts , but that just very clearly wasn't the place for me to heal and get better . And so I just kind of started moving around and I went to Portugal for three months and Portugal was still really locked down and it was . You know , I was still really messed up and it wasn't a good , it just didn't help me . I sort of had this fantasy of , like you know , my city by the ocean , beautiful European city adventure , and it was not that at all , it was horrible . I spent a month with a friend in Boston , a friend in Maryland . I spent three months at an Oshram in Northern California really interesting experience and all the while just nothing was really helping , you know .
Speaker 2And at the time I was in a men's group and we had a retreat in Mexico . So I flew down to Mexico , to Puerto Vallarta , and being together in person with these guys in this really intimate , supportive environment , I mean it was the best I had felt in over a year , maybe a year and a half , two years , and I didn't have anywhere else to go . So the retreat ended and I stayed in this little beach town and I didn't love it , didn't hate it , but started to hear things about Mexico City . It was not at all on my radar . Mexico was not on my radar , but at some point , you know , I heard a few things . And then there's just this moment where I was like huh , that's what I'm looking for . So I moved here last July and I love it yeah .
Speaker 1Awesome , do you think ? I mean , you mentioned a few times that specific locations didn't really help for healing . Do you feel like a location is important for that ? And Kay , talk a little bit about what you were looking for specifically so that you could heal in Mexico City or in the location where you ended up eventually ?
Speaker 2Absolutely , I mean , yeah , number one . Environment is tremendously impactful on us , and so knowing what suits us is for me has been really , really important .
Speaker 2And you know , for example , I really like big cities but I'm also really really sensitive , and at that time , you know , I was 100 times more sensitive . So you know , just to paint a personal picture , I tried to live in this beach town in Mexico which you know , very beautiful , very quiet , easy to get healthy food , affordable , whatever . But it just felt too provincial for me , it felt too isolating . And so for me , mexico City it's this mega city with everything that huge international cities have , and it's also very green and it's relatively quiet compared to other big cities that I've lived in . And so for me that's , you know . And then it has all of the healthcare and kind of well-being resources of a major international city . You know , for me , earning in US dollars , it's relatively affordable to get the kind . You know I get acupuncture in my house twice a week . That's fucking crazy . So that's not maybe per se like about the city I live in , but it kind of is right , like it couldn't do if I chose to live somewhere in the US . I just couldn't do that .
Speaker 2The way I think of environment is it's like there's only so much we can do with discipline and positive self-talk and sort of the inner game which is profoundly important , obviously . But I'm a big believer in like outsource every damn thing that we can , because , like , why use that discipline and willpower if we don't have to ? You know , to me that's it's like focus made . It's like , well , I could try and get myself to focus or I could just use this thing . That makes it really really easy . So , yeah , you know , holistically , that's how I look at choosing the right environment for us . It's like if you want to get to A to B and there's a river that goes from A to B , like grab an inner tube and you can just float down the river . That could be a lot easier and more enjoyable than , like you know , trying to trying to walk or whatever .
Speaker 1So , yeah , yeah , that makes a lot of sense . I think also what you said , that you went to Portugal and that you , that you had this image of what life would be there and that it just wasn't it . That's so relatable , like I had that in actually several locations where I thought , okay , this is going to be amazing for I don't know all these different reasons that I got there . I was like , hmm , it doesn't seem to be really working for me . You know , like it was just very different .
Speaker 1And the thing is with traveling and relocating , you always bring yourself and all the shit that's going on in the inside . You bring that to that new location . And I think when I started no manning , I definitely kind of well , didn't know or forgot about that , because you know , I think deep down I didn't know , but it's easy to forget . Like you , you do bring all the stuff that's going on here when you go to the next location , you bring all that . So I think it definitely makes sense to think about , okay , what do I need and what do I want from this next location ? How can I make life easier for myself ? How can I go to a place where I don't know ? Like people can come to my house to give me the services that I need or want , like when I , when I lived on Bali , I had private boxing lessons .
Speaker 1Well , here in Germany that's a little bit more difficult . It's well one , not as common and two , it's like 10 times as expensive Picking locations for what you want out of it . It's , I think , very interesting . I've had different people on the podcast over the past months mention that , so I think that's really interesting . Do you think you'll stay in Mexico City quote unquote forever ? Do you think it's more like that you have a phase in Mexico City and then maybe , when you start working on your new project or I don't know , another time in your life that you would move to a different location again ?
Speaker 2I've gotten to a point where I can really appreciate that having a plan doesn't help me , and usually it hurts me , and that's to me . It's different than having a vision . For me , a vision is something that exists right now . I'm just feeling it . I can see it . It feels true and authentic for me in this moment , but it doesn't mean I'm beholden to anything . I actually just put in an offer on an apartment here , so I guess that feels good to me . If this feels like home , I don't know what's gonna come , but I try to just be as open as possible to whatever is feeling resonant at the moment .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's also a little bit why I say quote unquote forever , because you know who knows , who knows what , what happens in years from now . I think , saying that you will live somewhere forever , it's just weird to be .
Speaker 2What I've learned is sometimes we have to let ourselves be surprised by what we want and the way this came up for me . I was on a call with a couple guys we're just kind of a mutual support conversation and somebody teed up the question of like hey , what do you see for yourself in four years ? And at that point I was living , I still , I'm still here in a month-to-month like furnished Airbnb rental , you know . And to my surprise I was like whoa , I see myself in Mexico in four years and I see my , you know , I see this and this and this and this , and so it's kind of just like letting that vision just come in and and just accepting it and just feeling like , oh cool , like all right , yeah , I'm down to to buy a property , you know .
Speaker 1Yeah , interesting , cool . And how did you manage to start a new company , focusmate , and build that up from ? You know , there was nothing , and now there's FocusMate , with I don't know hundreds or thousands of users I have no idea , but , like people all day long are working on FocusMate . How did that happen while you were also focusing on your health and healing and moving to Mexico , like you did all these things while also starting a company which I have a lot of respect for ? So how , how did you manage to do that in also a balanced way ? Because I have not been able to do that in a balanced way . I started my company and went all in for years , which I do not recommend .
Speaker 2Well , yeah , you know . To your implied question yeah , today , focusmate . We have users in every country in the world . We've hosted over five million sessions on FocusMate . Like you said , you can go on there's always people working on FocusMate , so pretty cool .
Transitioning, Delegating, and Authenticity in Work
Speaker 2So , to be clear , I started FocusMate well before my health crises and the pandemic and all that and I definitely went all in myself . I started in 2016 , you know , before remote work was a thing , you know there's a few digital madding was a thing , but very different world and I , yeah , I certainly went all in and , you know , not to beat a dead horse , but actually for me , let's say , I had really struggled to follow through on important things for the first 10 years of my career and when I had the idea for FocusMate , I you know it clicked for me that I wanted to go all in . This was gonna be a bigger endeavor than I had ever taken on before .
Speaker 2But you know , I just felt like , yeah , this is it , like I need to do this . And what helped me was , literally , we created a Facebook group . We didn't have an application at the time . We created a Facebook group and you could go and you could schedule a session with somebody using the like community interface in a Facebook group , and so there was probably 15 people in those early days that we would just manually book appointments with each other and it was kind of a pain in the butt , but that was the support structure that actually helped me build the first version of the application and just kind of stick with it when I was on my own till my co-founder joined .
Speaker 2And but there's another , I think , really important part of your question is like , how did I manage during the times that I really was in crisis because I had to stop functioning the way I was ? I was no longer like I'm gonna just carry these heavy rocks up this hill , you know , by myself . It wasn't that mode anymore . It was really like , no , I need to put everything down and just sit here under a tree and kind of try to survive . And yeah , it was a transition to .
Speaker 2It was a very terrifying transition to basically asking my team to do everything , and it really it challenged my . It challenged me to ask for , for , often , things that I felt guilty about . Like you know , you should be able to do this yourself , taylor , but I just couldn't , and so it was either like kill myself trying to do things that just my body just couldn't do , or ask for help , and so , yeah , I was really going through a portal of like nails on the chalkboard , making requests over and over and over . That really felt kind of humiliating to me until I got comfortable with it and it actually really helped the company because it really became less dependent on me and I figured out what are the forms of contribution that really really mattered to the team . That also really felt good to me and energizing to me , even when I was in this really broken down state .
Speaker 2And what a cool learning for me . I mean more than anything that has taught me about authenticity , because to me that's kind of become the definition of authenticity . It's like doing things that give us energy and not doing things that drain us . And having you know , having your battery down at 1% , that'll teach you to pay attention to what gives you energy or what drains energy , and so I definitely have a lot more energy than I did . I'm , you know , I'm still still on my path , but I've really held on to that and tried to be as strict as I can with myself about , you know , if I don't need to do this and if it's not kind of my highest contribution to the team , to the company , then and I should probably try to give it away .
Speaker 1I really thought that you did something else before all of this happened and then you started focus made after . But I am even more impressed to hear that you started focus made before that even , and you just made this whole transition while still being the founder of this company , you know , and just completely changing the way you work within the same company . I honestly think that's even more impressive and I think it's also interesting that what you said .
Speaker 1I'm learning that in my own company that sometimes it's honestly really good to take a step back as the founder , at least for me . I think sometimes I can be a little bit too invested emotionally in the company and I honestly think that outsourcing some of the things and also some of the like slightly higher level things . So I'll just give an example I hired a project manager a few months ago for the first time and it has changed my business for the better . Like , I'm a good project manager myself , but I think I was just too close to everything . So just having someone else handle this part of the business , it's just , it's insane how much energy I have for other things that are actually more important for the business and I think it's yeah , it's interesting .
Speaker 2So happy for you , so happy for you and resonate with that so much . Yeah , you know , I think we kind of delude ourselves . What is really controlling fear based behavior ? We can call that emotional investment and I was a million percent the same same as you , but really it's just . You know , there's just a new skill set that has to be learned . That's like being discerning about when to delegate and trust people and how to , how to hand things off and how to discern . You know who's the right person to do something instead of you , and you know . And then also , when it's not , you know when it's not working for somebody else to be taking care of something , just acknowledging it , like saying what you need , letting people go if it's not a great fit . Yeah , that all requires a form of vulnerability of like oh my God , I don't have my hands on the wheel right now .
Speaker 2But you know , it can be pretty nice to let somebody else drive .
Speaker 1Yeah , times 100 percent , absolutely . So you have a company to get things done , but you also have a really clear vision of doing what you want , and that authenticity is so important . So I think that's really interesting . From just talking to you , you know it's what it's . Not one way or the other . I think it can be both . I think that's what your story shows us Like you can go and focus made and get the things done that you need to get done , but also make sure you do what you want to do . That's what I'm hearing you say 100 percent .
Speaker 2And you know we live in a time when certainly there's a lot of people that do not have that luxury and they need to work a certain amount in order to survive . But there's also a lot of people that do have that luxury . And you know , there's just a lot of kind of social narrative around how things are supposed to be and I think it's kind of silly that . I think it's silly and wasteful to have that luxury , to have that opportunity and to not be kind of pushing the envelope of what work is and I don't think we're the only company that that's doing that . Now , that's sort of just trying to create work norms , work cultures that really just work for us .
Speaker 2You know , like what do companies even exist for ? Certainly , our products and services exist to serve people . But you know , even before that , like why do companies exist ? It's to serve humanity , right ? It's a structure for nourishing the employees and the customers of that business . So it's not to make money . Companies do not exist to make profit , and that's maybe a byproduct of them existing to serve us . But the way that they serve us , that's really up to us . So I think it's a good moment in time for us to be really reinventing . You know why does a company exist and how can we create a culture in a way that actually encourages us to live our lives the way we want to .
Speaker 1I think that's a great point , because I'm sure many people see it this way , that it sometimes feels like we're here to serve the companies . But that's not the way it's supposed to be , honestly , and why companies exist , like you said , it's to serve us , to make life better and easier , and exactly what you said like serve us as humanity . I think that's also a great way to end this interview today , but before I let you go , I also want to know where can people find you and also where can people find FocusMate ?
Speaker 2Yes , so number one , anyone out there listening or watching would love to have you join the FocusMate community and give it a shot . Our website's focusmatecom . It's free to join . We have a free plan that is free forever . And , yeah , where can you find me ? The two best places would be LinkedIn and Instagram . Linkedin is more of work-related content and Instagram is more of my authenticity-related content and , yeah , would love to connect with any of you and either of both places .
Speaker 1Awesome . Also , make sure to add all the links to show notes so when you're listening you can just go to the show notes , click the links there , join FocusMate , follow Taylor and be back next week for the next episode . Thank you for being here today , taylor .
Speaker 2Thanks so much for having me .
Speaker 1And that's it for today . Thank you so much for listening . I appreciate it very , very much . I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts for me . That way , more people can find this podcast , more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing , and the more people we can impact for the better . So , thank you so much if you are going to leave a review . I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode .