Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work20XX Ep47 - Work 20XX with Jeff Frick

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right
so then I will count us down
and we will go
in three,two, one.
Hey welcome back everybody.
Jeff Frick here, coming to youfrom Austin, Texas.
Not in the home studio today.
Work 20XX is on the road.
We're excitedto come down here
and visit
with our friendsat Running Remote
because as we learned from Darren Murph a long time ago.
All remote companiesdo things

(00:20):
that all companies should be good at.
So whether you'reall remote,
hybrid, distributedor whatever
this is, all aregreat lessons
that you canput into play
and improve your communications, efficiency, etc.
and we're excitedto have our next guest.
He's Justin Harlan, the Managing Director
of Tulsa Remote
Justin, greatto see you.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Thank you, and thanks for
[Jeff] for hosting last night.[Justin] Oh Sure
Nice little opening cocktail reception.

(00:43):
Yeah, it was a good time.
So I have to admit,I was a little confused.
I saw the flags
I wasn't super familiar with Tulsa Remote.
And I'm like,I think we're in Austin
and there’s signs all over the place here for Tulsa
and it's not like a coolname at a local company.
It's actuallyTulsa, Oklahoma.
So for peoplewho aren't familiar,
give them a little 101 onwhat is Tulsa Remote all about?
Sure, well, we started a program back in 2019,

(01:05):
really in an effortto diversify our labor
labor workforce inTulsa, Oklahoma.
An industry or a city
that is often reliant on oil and gas as an industry.
And really we're looking forknowledge workers
to come to the city and you know
help us justbe ready for the future.
And so we extended an offer which was
really uniqueat the time,
which was$10,000 cash.
What yeardid you start it?

(01:25):
2019.
Okay.
$10,000 cash for
you to come and do your remote job
in Tulsa for a year.
And we just were reallyplacing a bet
that if we couldget people to the city,
they would fall in love withthe city and stick around.
And certainly had no ideahow big it would get
or how fastit would get this big.
But started out small
with about 70 people that came in 2019

(01:48):
and we you know, have a lot of
community integrationstrategies
that help people get pluggedinto the community.
And then obviouslythe pandemic happened
and we just grew like crazy.
We just, celebrated our3,500-th member
that's moved to the city.
And there's a ton of gain
both economicallyand for the community
that has comefrom the program, so.

(02:08):
So looking back to 2019,
if you started it, somebodywas thinking about it
a little bit earlier than that.
Why?
Where did it even come from?
Because, you know, clearlyonce Covid hit
it was a different,different game.
But 2019, 2018
it wasn't obvious that
that remote workas kind of a category
was super specialor going to explode.
Really primarilyfor knowledge workers.

(02:28):
At the time that it was justa good percentage of folks
that were actuallyworking remotely
that wereknowledge workers
Right.That's great.
So Covidhits and time passes
and suddenly there'slike all these
countries actuallythat are having
kind of remote work visas
that are making it easy for people
to go work in Portugalor wherever.
All these places are.
I, you know,there's not as much talk
or maybe I haven't beenpaying attention

(02:49):
in terms of youdon't have to go overseas,
you can do that.
And there's a really uniqueopportunity here in Tulsa.
How are you gettingyour message out?
Where are some ofthese people coming from?
How are they hearing aboutthe program?
Yeah, well there area number of
programs like this in the States now.
There's actuallyabout 70
that have replicatedwhat we've done.
You can actually go toMakeMyMove.com
and it's a companythat has really leaned into

(03:10):
the idea thatyou know
tech talent especially doesn'tonly belong on the coasts
and that you can really find
a higher quality of lifein the heartland
and still even in that
get better at what you're doing at work
and more productive because
you're more satisfied as a human being, so
So, there are a number of programs
that have kind of replicated
what we've done,even stateside.

(03:30):
How did you even think
that this was going to happen?
Oh, yeah. Well
Just because they were out there?
Or did you do some surveyor you just knew that
that this isthis has got to grow?
Yeah, well, I mean, to me
it's really abelief in Tulsa.
Yeah. That there's not
there's not a lot of folksthat are, you know
aware of what's happening in Tulsa.
And so especially if wecould reach the folks that are
maybe paying twice as muchfor a smaller apartment

(03:52):
that are living in L.A. orNew York or Austin
and show them what thequality of life looks like
and also
invite them to be part of a community
in a job that is often very isolated
as a remote worker
we really believe thatthat would speak to people
that not only are you going to have a
a lower cost of living,
but that that's goingto open up
a higher quality of lifewhich just makes you, you know

(04:12):
a better and more completehuman being as a whole.
And in Tulsa, we often seethat there’s people who
get more time back andthey also get more money.
And when I
When you nurturethat environment
and really providethat opportunity for people,
then they are ableto do things
that they may not be ableto do in other cities.
Right.
Like open businesses,
get involved in boards,contribute to the community.
And we really see thatcoming to life

(04:33):
in awesome ways with Tulsa Remote
Right. That's cool.
So you said there'san application process.
There's money that changes hands.
So, what's kind ofthe application process?
What are youwhat are you looking for?
Is it a a big gate?
Is it limited slots?
Is thereanything specific
that that you preferor don't prefer?
What's kind of the application process?
We try to make itreally easy on people.
The application should takeyou about 15 minutes.

(04:54):
You do that online.
We then go throughan interview process
if you get to that stage
and then if you do get in,
we pay for you to come and visit.
So up to $500in reimbursement.
We do a couple days worth of
programingevery month
where you can come and see the city
kind of test drive it before you decide
whether you wantto move.
And then from the day you get in
you have a yearto move to Tulsa.

(05:15):
[Jeff] Okay.
We look for people
that are going to contributeto the economy.
So we really
look for folksthat are going
to bring a good salary with them.
Our averagesalary is about $100,000,
but our floor isis much lower than that.
We also look for very specific types of jobs, so
those that are not justgoing to duplicate
what we already have in Tulsa
but be additive to the economy.

(05:36):
And then welook for folks
that are going to contributeto the community.
So, you know,you have a track record
of plugging into the community you’re coming from
you've thought about Tulsa
and how you're goingto get involved.
And ultimately, we're really looking for people
that are going to, you know,
be open to the idea ofsticking around for a little while.
Right.
So do you have X numberof seats per year
something like that
that you've just gotmoney for or no?
We don't, no.
We’re privately funded

(05:56):
and really excited about,
you know, whoever takes usup on this offer.
And if we can findthe right folks
that are meeting all those qualifications
we’re you know, excited to help you come.
That's cool.
Talk a little bit about the founding
you knowthe funding
I think its private individualor foundation behind it.
Who or what organizationis behind it
and why did they decideto take this step?
Yeah, it's the George KaiserFamily Foundation and

(06:18):
and they really startedtheir efforts
as a foundation in early childhood education
with the idea that no matterwhere you're born in Tulsa
you should havethe same opportunity.
And I think what they learned through
starting in educationis that there's
a lot more factorsthat go into
somebody's life outcomesoutside of just education.
Right.
How is the family lifeat home?

(06:40):
Criminal justice,food security.
And so they've slowlystarted kind of building
building blocksaround that core function
of early childhoodeducation.
And one of the things
they've reallyinvested in over
the last ten yearsis placemaking
making Tulsa a place thatpeople want to be
and want to come and visitand want to live
and then building up some economic development programs
around the place that people want to be now.

(07:02):
And I thinkit's really,
you know, almost kind of serendipitous
because I believe
when I moved to Tulsa20 years ago
it was a completelydifferent city.
I don't think Tulsa Remote
would have worked20 years ago
because it just wasn't thesame city that it is today.
And so it kind of takesall of those pieces
working in tandem to make it an attractive place
that people wouldeven come
if you're paying themto move there.
So it's really an amazing,you know,

(07:22):
conglomerationof a lot of efforts
over the lastcouple of decades.
So what's happened with
the peoplethat have done it?
Both some of the earlier people
and some of the later people, how many are stayed?
Do they stayand stay in their job?
Do they stayand swap jobs?
Do they create new things?
What's, how's the communitykind of developed?
3,500 people
That’s a lot of people.
Sure.
So we know that anyonethat's moved there
So we know that anyonethat's moved there
since 2019,about 75% of them

(07:45):
are still aroundTulsa today.
[Jeff] 75%?[Justin] 75%.
A couple of economic statsthat are awesome.
For every two peoplethat we pay to move
there's an additional person that comes.
So in a city like Tulsathat's about 400,000 people.
We know thatwe're responsible
for about 5,000 peoplemoving to the city.
So that obviously helps a ton
with net migrationand just
growing the city as a whole.
Increasing tax dollars

(08:06):
last calendar year alone
we contributed over $600 million to the economy.
And we know that for every
dollar that we're spending on the incentive,
there's about a $13 return
on that investmentto the community.
on that investmentto the community.
And then we do know that our folks
bring an entrepreneurial spirit
about 1 in 5 people is
has eitherstarted a business
or a nonprofitor sat on a board
and is just contributingin meaningful ways there.
Well Justin, that is agreat success story

(08:28):
that sounds like it's working out
even better than maybeyou anticipated it.
For sure.
I mean, obviously we didn't predict the pandemic, so
but we have latched on to that and really
provide it, you know, usethat as an opportunity
to help the city growin meaningful ways.
And it, it's beenan awesome success story
that I'm luckyto be a part of.
That's great.
Well, thanks for,for taking a few minutes.
I guess I'll have to get out in Tulsaand visit you one of these days
Yeah, we'd love for you to come.
And if folks want tocheck us out

(08:48):
it’s TulsaRemote.comhttps://www.tulsaremote.com/ and there's certainly
and there's certainlyhttps://www.tulsaremote.com/
a lot more information therethat you can learn.
Great. And again, thanks for sponsoring Running Remote.
[Jeff] It's a really important show.[Justin] Of course
Thank you.
All right.
He's JustinI’m Jeff
You're watchingWork 20XX on the road
from Austin, Texasat Running Remote.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for listeningon the podcast.
Catch you next time.
Take care. Bye bye.

(09:10):
Hey, Jeff Frick Here
big shout out to the podcast audience.
Thanks for listening in.
You can get show notes and transcripts at Work20XX.com
And that also has links to the videos as well.
Appreciate you listeningin on the podcast
Do reach out
say hello, like subscribeand smash that notification bell.
Thanks for listening.Take care. Bye bye.

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Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work20XX Ep47

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work20XX Ep47