Aaron Bolzle is the Executive Director of Tulsa remote, a unique talent recruitment initiative of the George Kaiser family foundation, which has seen nearly 20,000 applications from over 150 countries and all 50 states of the US, since its inception.
A Tulsa native, Aaron, attended Tulsa Public Schools and graduated with honors from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduation, Aaron worked in digital marketing and production for Universal Music Group in NYC, during one of the most transformative times in the digital music revolution. He then spent eight years in California working for Apple at iTunes, where he eventually became head of the global catalogue for the iTunes Movies Store.
Nearly 15 years after leaving his hometown, Aaron returned to Tulsa in 2017 with a desire to make a positive impact in the city he was born. A year after returning, he launched Tulsa Remote.
With this podcast, you will learn why is Tulsa great for remote workers; how the project makes sure people will love to live in Tulsa; is $10,000 the reason why people move to Tulsa; the results of the first years of the project; how small cities can attract high skilled remote workers.
Also, if you are asking yourself what are the results of this initiative, what have they learned, can others really replicate their model, this podcast is definitely for you. This is about the future of the cities, and how cities will start fighting to attract remote workers to repopulate and create local communities.
Show Notes:
01:30 – Welcome Aaron Bolzle
01:42 – Aaron talks about his work and his company
02:51 – Why is Tulsa a great place for remote workers?
05:48 – Tulsa was always this interesting, or was this part of the program to create the city more attractive?
07:43 – Actions taken in the last 3-5 years that made the city more interesting that helped to attract more people
09:20 – Impact of living in small cities
11:40 – What else, besides money, is the company offering to remote workers who are thinking to move to Tulsa?
14:04 – Is there any follow-up with people who moved to Tulsa to make sure they are being integrated? How have you operate in the 3-4 months after people moving to Tulsa?
17:45 – How did this idea start? About attracting remote workers to a city, and how was the initial process?
21:52 – What were the biggest challenges that the company faced during the first 3 months of implementation?
24:05 – How many people have the program helped to move to Tulsa so far?
26:41 – What changes have been seen in the city when the remote workers start to move there?
29:00 – How is the application process? And the selection?
30:57 – How long is the visit for the people that might move there? And how is the visit?
33:00 – Opinion about seeing more programs like this spread out in more cities/ countries?
34:54 – About the increases in the real state prices
37:08 – What are the governments not understanding to help the small cities grow by supporting the remote work movement?
40:20 – If the Portuguese government asked advice: what would be the first steps, for the first months?
45:30– If remote work is growing so fast in 2020, what is Aaron’s vision for 2030? Where will we be in terms of distribution of people or where will we be working from?
48:34 – Final message from Aaron
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