🎭 Unleashing remote creativity | Destination Brazil (Part 1) OoO

Hey – Welcome Back!

This week I’m in the land of capoeira, caipirinhas, Carnival and caffeine overload!

🌎 I’m in São Paulo, Brazil which has one of the largest remote work communities of any city, in North or South America.

With a city-wide population of 12.3 million people, it practically dwarfs other remote work hotspots like Atlanta, New York and Portland.

Brazil is fast emerging as a remote work leader, so we’ve split this episode in two to bring you all sides of the story.  

In Part 1 today, we meet a creative who embodies the true spirit of remote work.

Most of the people I’ve met on the road have had fulltime remote jobs, but he started on the other side of that with gig work.

It’s episode 32 and I’m heading to an urban art walk and coffee tasting with a Brazilian who has cracked the freelance code. I can’t wait to hear how he did it.

Let’s see what he has in store for me –

The Mega City: São Paulo, Brazil

From tiny El Salvador to massive São Paulo, this is the largest city in the Americas and the 4^th largest in the world. It’s staggering in comparison!

São Paulo means ‘Saint Paul’ named after the Jesuit missionaries that founded the city back in 1554. With religious roots and an economic history linked to coffee exports – the city has become a creative melting pot of cultures, art and innovation.

This is exactly the kind of place where remote work makes sense.

Like most big cities, the people that work in São Paulo have major traffic fatigue. Most people live outside the city, and commuting in takes an average of 4 hours a day.

Imagine spending months of your life every year in traffic! Word on the street is that it’s not uncommon to stay at work between 8am – 10pm on weekdays.

🤔 That’s horrendous work-life balance. Wait, that’s no work-life balance!

In a recent study, São Paulo was one of the cities with the highest untapped potential for remote work. It was also one of the happiest cities.

• Were Brazilians happy to work at the office?
• Was something keeping them from working remotely?

I was determined to find the answers to these mysterious questions!

Let’s meet the man who had some –

César Brasil: Freelancing his Way to Freedom

In a world full of freelance jokers, this remote hero stands out.

So, it made perfect sense to meet him at the heart of São Paulo’s enigmatic creative district, in a place called Batman’s Alley. 🦇

‘Beco do Batman’ is a stretch of road lined with high-walled residences – ideal for street art. In the 80’s an artist spray-painted Batman on the walls there, and ever since it’s been a meeting point for graffiti artists in search of a blank canvas.

And much like these storied walls, César had always worked with art.

He got his start as a graphic designer and convinced his employer to let him work from home editing videos.

Alas, only his home computer had the processing power for it. 😉

Adeus Office: A Creative Exit to Remote Entry

He knew back then at age 20 that office work was for the birds.

He’d arrive at 8am and could only leave at 7:48pm. That’s 12 hours at work.

He couldn’t do it forever. There were too many hours spent commuting, on trains, buses, and walking in the rain – only to arrive with wet socks and a burning desire to go back home.

When the internet is so slow it feels like a ticking clock, you have to find a better way.

And he did. César is now a successful voice actor. He’s been working remotely – fulltime – for over a decade. Wow! 🎉

César’s Best Things About Remote Work

The best thing for César is that he can live life the way he wants to live it.

⏰ Wake up any time he likes (people are not robots)

👫 Be home with his wife to take care of the house and cook

📋 The ability to handle whatever happens, when it happens

These benefits make César more creative because they allow him to be himself at all times. Important for a man who pretends to be other people for a living!

After walking and talking for some time, we left to get some of Brazil’s finest coffee. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d had 4 cups already.

I’d be fine, right? ☕☕☕☕

Coffee Lab: A Taste of Remote Freedom

If Brazil had a distinct smell, it would be freshly ground coffee beans.

It smacked us in the face as we made our way up stairs for the second part of the interview. I wanted to get to the real nitty-gritty of life as a gig freelancer.

César immediately ordered us cups off the coffee tasting menu. Cups! ☕

Sleep when you’re dead, I told myself. 😴⚰️

We got stuck into some real gems about his life as a freelancer.

📑 He has 5 ongoing contracts, some local, some international

💵 These contracts give him stability and a fixed income every month

🗺️ At the same time he has dozens of other clients from around the world

And the people who hire him could be anyone, from anywhere.

🎨 He has a video editing and graphic design client from Brazil

💙 He is a huge hit among big Ukraine clients (no idea why)

César is one of the few top-rated freelancers from Brazil on the extremely picky marketplaces that he works on. It takes a lot to get and then keep top-rated status.

You basically have to be batman.

🥴 It might have been the coffee, but I was SO EXCITED to hear how he did it.

César’s Top Tips for Becoming Top Rated

Everyone wants to be top-rated. It gives you the credibility you need on competitive marketplaces to win over the kind of clients you want.

It’s a declaration of success – bigger bait that attracts bigger fish. 🐳

🙋‍♂️ César’s Top Tip: Communicate with Your Clients

Something small like communication is actually a big thing.

Remote work still feels new to some people. More traditionally minded folk still think you’re slacking off. It carries that stigma.

⚡ So, ask questions quickly, set expectations and be present. You have to figure out how to give the client what they want.

Don’t make assumptions!

I asked him if he’s constantly pitching for new business, which is common for freelancers vying for open projects. He said…barely!

⚡ It was tough getting started but easier and easier with every new client

These days, César almost never pitches for new work. His talent and top-rated status has secured him a regular stream of new business.

That’s an incredible position to be in. How did he get there?

🌐 A self-proclaimed workaholic, he loves his work

❤️ He pursues projects that he wants to do (like working with cartoons)

🐋 The internet gives him a far bigger net to catch much bigger fish

He keeps the fires of creativity lit by constantly challenging himself.

🐰 He’s involved in 3 cartoon projects in Portuguese and English

😱 He recently completed an audiobook where he voiced all 79 characters!

😅 He believes in pushing boundaries, learning fast, & not being too self-critical

“I learned that if the client likes it, I’ve done something right.”

Dollars and Sense: Working Less to Earn More

César earns dollars, which has helped him move away from his childhood home – something not many people can afford to do these days.

The dollar is so much more valuable than the Brazilian real. Remote work gives him access to clients from anywhere in the world, and dollars are the global currency.

“The whole world can hire me.”

It was at this moment, he switched my cappuccino for the espresso. ☕ (No wonder Brazilians think the world is in a constant state of Samba.)

Advice for Remote Creatives in Brazil

We were reaching the end of an energetic afternoon. Before we finished up, I asked César what advice he’d give to other Brazilians who wanted to work for international remote companies.

And this was his final tip.

💡 Practice Discipline 💡

Creatives can struggle with discipline but it’s essential!

You may not wake up at the same time every day or have regular routines, but when it comes to work you have to deliver.

According to César, Brazilians are creative, hardworking, and ready to get the job done. If they’re anything like he was, I’d say world-class is an understatement.

We said our goodbyes at Coffee Lab, and parted ways.

I’m still jittering from the coffee I drank that day.

Creating the Home (and Career) You Deserve

💥I had a blast hanging out with César.💥

But I couldn’t stop thinking about how remote success had helped him fly the coop. For many years, he lived at home with his mom.

That’s increasingly common these days - for a laundry list of reasons.

Eventually, he left his childhood home to build one of his own in his mid-thirties. That may never have happened without the freedoms he secured through his career as a successful remote creative.

🤔 It made me pause to consider how different cultural norms, like the age that people move out of home, impacts a remote work environment.

For a deeply social – and often underpaid – workforce like the one in Brazil, building a remote career comes with a host of challenges.

But if remote creatives like César have found a way to succeed, others can too.

📢 Out of Office: Call for Remote Work Stories!

Are you our next remote work hero? Whether you’re Batman or Wonderwoman, I’m looking for the next set of talented remote workers with stories to share.

⚡Be my next interviewee!⚡

If you have an amazing remote work story to tell, and something unique for us to do together in your country, apply! I’ll reach out to everyone who does, and will choose the stories our community will value the most.

🛎️ Next week - In Part 2 of Destination Brazil, I meet with two experts who solved the WFH problem in different ways. One by providing a haven for remote workers who still live with their parents, and another who pays people boatloads of cash so that they can afford their own haven at home.

That’s all we’ve got time for this week, tune in next Thursday to hear from our experts!

And remember – the future of work is Out of Office.

Andrew