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Justin Harlan: Hello, this is Justin Harlan, Managing Director for Tulsa Remote, and we are here with another edition of Remote With. This time, we have the opportunity of having one of our expert editions with Darcy Mayfield. Darcy joins us with vast experience, both as a digital nomad herself, thinking about hospitality for cities, and where digital nomads fit into this Tulsa work that we're doing. So Darcy, I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for joining us.

Darcy Mayfield: Thank you so much, Justin. It's great to see you.

Justin Harlan: I am really excited to dig in, especially around our work lately that has centered around digital nomads. I want to, of course, lay the foundation of who you are and why you started in this work with us. Talk a little bit about your story of discovering Tulsa over the last couple of years. And then, of course, dig into what we've built together as it relates to creating an inclusive and welcoming place for digital nomads here in Tulsa and the things we've tried. We'd love for you to tell the people what's in store for the year ahead as well. Why don't we just start by you sharing a little bit about who you are and give yourself a little bit of notoriety. Feel free to brag on yourself in this lform

ittle segment here. Who is Darcy? Tell the people.

Darcy Mayfield: Oh, man, I've lived a lot of different lives. But really, I would say the core of who I am is just hospitality. I have always been in love with hospitality. I started working in hospitality when I was 16. And then that really led me to working and traveling all around the world before nomadism. This was before we really had laptops. I was paying a night hostel cost to basically get internet to email my parents. So travel the world, we could only really afford to travel. I was working in bars and restaurants, but it really opened my eyes to all the different cultures around the world and how I really wanted to figure out how I can do this forever. And how can I have the lifestyle of this freedom lifestyle? And again, digital nomadism just wasn't a thing back then. So I ended up, after a long stint of travels, moving back to the States, and I started working at Airbnb. So I was doing hospitality, innovation, all different things at Airbnb, white glove hospitality, and really understanding how you design experiences. How do you coach people on how to be a concierge as a host? How to accept people who are coming from all different parts of the world, from all different languages? And, you know, I actually left Airbnb in 2017 because remote work wasn't a thing there. The pandemic hadn't hit and that's totally okay. And I myself just needed a little headspace. So I moved away to a really small town in the middle of the mountains. And I realized what I missed was solving hard problems with smart people. So I ended up becoming the head of culture and innovation at a fully remote tech company. I was there for about four years. We grew from 25 to 300 and sold to Stripe, actually. And so then I was head of culture at Stripe. And then I realized I didn't really want to work in companies anymore. I wanted to work with destinations. And so that sort of was this full swing of wait a second, remote work plus hospitality equals a win-win for all of these remote workers including myself who I've seen. I've seen my life shift so much in where I've moved, how I've aligned with my values, how I've changed, and that's really where I am now.

Justin Harlan: That's amazing. And I know that we're going to dig into a lot of what makes Tulsa an amazing place for all of that. But I'd love to go back to, I guess, your initial passion for this type of work. What do you think is at the heart of your desire to have that autonomy, whether it is in the workplace or the freedom that comes with remote work, or even just, I know that you're really a free spirit as it relates to also working a lot of places and moving around. And right now you're recording this podcast from Portugal, which is kind of a home for I don't know how long. But what is it, I guess, at your core that makes this type of lifestyle match up with who you are?

Darcy Mayfield: I mean, I would say there are two words, magic and belonging. And I think when you experience... I love just experiencing different cultures and seeing how people are welcomed, how different traditions, especially when it comes to food, understanding how people connect. And so at my core, I am a people person. I just love connecting with different people, learning about different stories. I think it's opened my eyes into what's possible. It's given me permission to live the life that I've grown into and continue to grow into and continue to learn about myself. And so I think it's really just at my core, the openness and just the wanting to learn and just get to know people at their core.

Justin Harlan: That's awesome. And it's something that you certainly live out in your day-to-day as well that I see firsthand. So let's talk a bit about how you found Tulsa. When did you first learn about Tulsa Remote as this kind of experiment of attracting remote workers to a city to help contribute to the economy and community?

Darcy Mayfield: When I was working at TaxJar, so I was there for about four years. That was the fully remote company that I mentioned before. I actually had two colleagues that did Tulsa Remote. We were fully remote pre-pandemic. Remote was in our DNA, so it wasn't weird for an employee to kind of tout this from the rooftops. And so I started to get really curious about it, and I would hear their stories, and it just sounded like a really cool program. So that's where it first kind of came on my radar. And then I was in Ireland actually speaking at a remote work conference, and there was a previous employee from Tulsa Remote who was there that I got to sit down with, kind of learn how Tulsa Remote started, started seeing the actual economic, I think it was the first economic impact report that had come out. And I was just mind blown. I was like, I have to get to this place. This is a place that is welcoming remote workers, welcoming nomads, welcoming people and really embracing this moment. And I wasn't seeing other places doing that.

Justin Harlan: That's awesome. And then I guess it was two Octobers ago we brought you in to Tulsa. One of the things we consistently hear from our remote workers is kind of this desire to learn more about how to be strong remote workers. And so in partnership with Allie Green, who had written a book called Remote Works, we brought in a number of experts and had some learning opportunities for our remote workers, as well as Tulsans as a whole, which was kind of our first real attempt at pulling in the entire community, knowing that remote work was such a, almost like something that many of us were thrown into without real baseline understanding of how to do it well or what tools could support us in that. And so you landed in Tulsa and you got to experience it for the first time. Maybe tell folks what was that first experience like for you? And what were you surprised about? Maybe what pushed against some of your stereotypes? And yeah, we can kind of go from there.

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, absolutely. So hearing all these amazing things about Tulsa, I still had the stereotypes. I still had a stereotype of, okay, is it really going to be that cool? I see these videos. I've heard these amazing stories. I don't know, but I'm going to go and I'm excited to learn. And I just remember, I have a couple stories to tell if that's okay. So I remember being at the Gathering Place and we went on a trolley tour. So we really got to see kind of get the lay of the land, hear a lot of the history of Tulsa. Obviously there's a lot of history in Tulsa, a lot that I didn't know about. And we went to the Gathering Place and I was actually standing by a milkweed bush and it was just swarmed by monarch butterflies and I just had this moment and I started to look around and we had a great guide on the tour and I started learning, okay wait, this park which was named last year, I think, the best park in America. It is free for everybody. The programming is free. There's free yoga. There's free kids activities. There's free kayaking. And then I started to realize, okay, wait, in Tulsa, just in general, there's all of these opportunities for people that don't cost anything. And I felt like there was just a lot of equitable opportunity for people in Tulsa. And I was also meeting people who were just so hospitable. And I know I've heard of Southern hospitality, but I sort of came away saying, I don't think there's anything like Heartland hospitality.

Justin Harlan: You're tapping on a couple of things that are so beautiful to hear, because, of course, all of our work is situated under the George Kaiser Family Foundation. And at the core of that foundation even being established is this reality that so much of your life opportunity is dictated by where you're born. And of course, that's true across our country, but we certainly see it here in Tulsa, too. And so the foundation was created in an effort to kind of make that reality change. And how do we ensure that no matter where somebody is born in Tulsa, you have the same chance to succeed. And of course that foundation started with some of the big systems within our city. So education was really kind of the first. And as we've gotten into more of the place-making lifestyle investments, the biggest one being the Gathering Place. In fact, I believe the Gathering Place was the biggest gift in our country's history to a city. It's so cool to hear you say that you see that also playing out even in the shape of a park, where you see access and opportunity for everybody because there literally is no barrier to entry outside of, of course, getting there, which is a barrier in itself. But if you can get there, it's yours and you can sit right on a slide next to somebody who's from a completely different area of town. And it's just a beautiful thing that I love watching every time I'm there is just the diversity of people at the park from in Tulsa and outside of it. And then to also hear the hospitality piece, I mean, so much of what people are blown away by in Tulsa specifically is just how kind people are. And I think for a long time, we as Tulsans have been in our own way where, you know, people from Texas, like people from Texas are so proud of being from Texas. If you meet somebody from Texas, if they're not wearing something that says Texas on it, they're going to tell you that they're from Texas. And I think we're starting to see that same type of pride associated with Tulsa, where there's so much energy around this place and some of the momentum that we have that we're not only excited to tell people like you about it, but it's also like, let me go show you the magic of this place. And I think it really is something that has been increased over the last 10 or so years as some of these bright spots have really popped up. So it's awesome to see people like you who have had such lived experience across the world come and say, yes, this is a special place. You're not crazy. You do need to tell people about this, which is awesome. So what do you, I want to talk about the digital nomad kind of boom as well. But when you were here in Tulsa, why did you think that this was a place that digital nomads would even want to come when we're competing with places like Portugal or Mexico City or wherever else across the world, what made you think that Tulsa could pop out in the midst of all of that quote-unquote competition?

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, I mean, I think there are a multitude of reasons why I thought and felt that. I think as a digital nomad myself, coming into a place where you immediately feel welcomed is really rare. Having sort of a built-in community already of people who are already working remotely, it is not unfamiliar. The cost of living there, so being able to stay in an Airbnb or stay somewhere else, like comparatively to New York or L.A., and I'm just talking about the states here, it's fairly inexpensive. There are also 18 million digital nomads in the United States alone. A lot of those nomads may not consider themselves, they may not clamp themselves under the title of digital nomad, but they have location independence. They don't want to be out of the United States. Maybe they can't be out of the United States because of their job. There are lots and lots of companies that do not allow employees to work outside of the United States. So that was another huge reason. But I think really the biggest one was seeing the dominant culture, this dominant culture really start to grow of these remote workers where it just was, it's normal to be a remote worker in Tulsa. And you're just sort of in, you're in a, it feels like you're in a cohort of other remote workers and that in and of itself is just, it's so comforting. You feel like you belong and being a nomad, a lot of times you don't belong.

Justin Harlan: Right. Yeah. Or even I know there's plenty of cases, too, where there's been cities who have invited nomads to come in, maybe given some perks or incentives. And then without that kind of wraparound service or helping them figure out their niche or where they do belong, then it kind of starts to feel like you're an outsider or a cultural tourist. And, you know, obviously that doesn't lead to long-term retention for the individual, but it also doesn't necessarily lead to the community that's inviting them in actually fully understanding who they are and what their purpose is and the value that that could add to the community. So I think that in a lot of ways, Tulsa has a leg up because in what we've done at Tulsa Remote, it's almost copying and pasting some of the successes that we've had on the community side before a different niche group that truly helps them to kind of understand what the city has to offer.

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, absolutely.

Justin Harlan: So we're kind of getting ahead of ourselves because I'm so excited to talk about Tulsa Bound. So you came and visited. So you taught, you know, you're a digital nomad yourself. You came and saw Tulsa. So you obviously then had a ton of energy just about what this could be and what it could look like. And through a number of conversations and brainstorming sessions, you were passionate about let's try something, let's do something for nomads here in Tulsa. And then we launched what is called Tulsa Bound. And we just kind of wrapped up a couple months ago with our first cohort. So tell us what inspired the creation of Tulsa Bound for you. And what problem do you think that was really solving for digital nomads?

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, I'll start with a problem that I think it's really solving. Being a nomad and deciding the next destination you want to go to is kind of like having a second job. You got to figure out where to stay. You got to figure out where other nomads might be. Where are you going to co-work? How much is it going to cost? You got to feed yourself. You got to like... Transportation, there's all of these things that are kind of like another job. It is exhausting. And that was really one of the main problem-solving but also the inspiration for Tulsa Bound. The infrastructure is there, I would say in Tulsa, and it's only growing. And so I think when we started Tulsa Bound, we're even seeing the co-working space that we had our folks in Tulsa Bound go to is now what, 10 times the size and a new space. The infrastructure, it just felt like Tulsa was this place where nomads who were looking for maybe nomads also who wanted to settle down a little bit. And I put myself in that camp. Like there comes a point in a nomad's life, and you can ask really anybody who's traveled a lot, where you want a home. You want a home base. You want a doctor. You want a mailbox. You want a bank. Like there's just things that for our nervous system, we need to feel grounded. And I met a lot of people in Tulsa who were like that, who used Tulsa as a landing pad, who bought a house in Tulsa, who travel often and then come back. And it just seemed like there were a lot of people like me. And I think that while I was really enticed by Tulsa Remote, like $10,000 is amazing.

Darcy Mayfield: And I commit myself to a year seemed like too much. I figured there are probably a lot of other people out there like me because I know a lot of nomads. What if we could create a package where somebody could come test drive the city? Like you test drive a car before you buy it. I'm stealing that line actually from a Tulsa Remote who promoted Tulsa Bound for us last year. But that's really the impetus of the idea behind Tulsa Bound.

Justin Harlan: Yeah. And through Tulsa Remote, if you're listening for the first time, we offer $10,000 for remote workers to move to Tulsa. And if you do get into the program, we do pay you to come and visit as well. That's kind of been our version thus far of test driving. We know that you can only learn so much about a city in a couple of days. We do our best to showcase a very real depiction of what the city has to offer and showcase that to our finalists.

Justin Harlan: But the premise of extending that test drive a bit was super intriguing to me because, perhaps you're going to pull people in that may not be open to that full year commitment. But they do have the flexibility and freedom to move around for a month. And if you can give them somewhere to settle in for a month, I think we have always been confident that if people give Tulsa a chance, they're going to be surprised and they're going to love it. Most people are going to choose to make this their new home. We see that when people come to visit through Tulsa Remote, even though it is only 48 hours or 72 hours, the majority of those folks end up saying, "This is where I want to move." So it was interesting from even just a business model perspective on the Tulsa Remote side to say, all right, what if we do cast a wider net here and lower the barrier of entry and say, in exchange for you picking up the month cost of lodging, you should come and see what Tulsa has to offer. We were confident that would go well for the people that did choose to take that risk. And how did it go? You're hearing my confidence knowing the results, but tell us a little bit about how it went. What did people experience when they were here? What kind of results did we see near the end of the program? Are you satisfied or were you surprised by anything? Just tell people how it went in general.

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, I mean, I think I personally went through a range of emotions throughout the year. Are we going to fill this thing up? Oh, my gosh, we've got no submissions of interest yet. But then we started to really realize who this person was and really realized it was this person with this adventurous spirit, purpose-driven. They may have even applied to Tulsa Remote, but decided they didn't want to move to Tulsa yet because they wanted to pay a month to give it a longer chance. We had a few people like that. And then we had people that were just kind of sick of living where they were living. They were ready for a change. And that's really something I've seen. I do want to say this at the two-year mark of people working remotely, they start to realize that maybe they could live somewhere else. The results were incredible. We had eight out of 12 - we had 12 total participants in our cohort - we had eight actually decide to make the move to Tulsa. So those eight are either there or in their process of moving to Tulsa. It was amazing, and it was just so cool to walk alongside these individuals. People were from ages 25 to 55, they were all living in one hotel house where everybody had their own flat apartment. It was beautiful, so it was sort of like Real World in a sense.

Darcy Mayfield: I had this feeling of maybe we should do themes. Maybe these people should share, you know, have sort of shared interests. And when we got into it, I started asking the participants, they're like, "No, we love being with people we wouldn't normally be with." And it was such a diverse group of people. We had one person who had grown up actually outside of Tulsa who had sworn to never come back. He had become a fairly successful musician, actually.

Darcy Mayfield: And he came back to see if he could fall back in love with the city. He never left after Tulsa Bound. He literally just stayed. And it was just so beautiful. And we had also individuals who were kind of really on the fence about coming. Like, is this real? You know, $2,500 is a lot of money to spend for a lot of people for a month, especially if they can't rent their place out or whatever situation they might be in. And it was just so cool to see people really feel the value. There were certain moments that I experienced, you know, we had dinner in a Tulsan's home and two Tulsans opened up their home. They made paella in their house. And I think it was like the fourth day we were all there. And I sort of just watched everybody drop in and drop into themselves, drop into the hospitality that everybody was giving them. And it was just really amazing to see people not only connect with each other, but sort of by the after the first week, find their people in Tulsa because of how we - and I'm going to steal Professor Raj Chaudhry's word here - how we engineered serendipity for them.

Justin Harlan: Yeah. And what were, I guess, some of the ways in which you learned something from this first iteration of Tulsa Bound that made you think, you know what, we're on to something and we're going to make a couple tweaks. What are some of the ways you're improving this, I guess, for the next iteration?

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah. So I think just learning even more about the individuals up front and exactly who they want to meet, who they want, who they're wanting to become in their life allows us to curate each one of these experiences and these experiences throughout the Tulsa Bound program even more. I would say, as we said, it was an experiment this last time. We tried a lot of different things. Some events worked, some didn't. And I think there was a nature that we saw come through. People really found their groove after about the first week. And so I think changing anything from having pre-ticketed events that didn't work super well. We want people to be able to find their flow, be able to show up if they want. If they don't want to, be able to cancel if they want. And so that was something I think that we'll really double down on is just really increasing that autonomy, but also making sure that people have the options and that sense of belonging.

Justin Harlan: That's great. I want to give you a chance to kind of plug the next iteration of Tulsa Bound and tell people where they could learn more. But I also know you're really passionate about just cities, thinking about what we've learned and applying this to themselves. So perhaps there's somebody listening to this that, you know, has more of a citywide view, no interest in coming to Tulsa, that poor soul. But you know that, but they are interested in how does Tulsa Bound impact my city? And what can I learn from this experiment, as you said, and apply it to what I'm thinking about, you know, to increase my own city's economic development or belonging? And I'm just curious, if you have a listener that's tuning in with that type of listening ear, what would you tell them? Because it's obviously much deeper than just welcoming people or inviting people in. But it also as you think about scale, how do you think about that hospitality in a way that doesn't require handholding?

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah. I mean, I would say number one thing is understand the DNA of your city. Understand the DNA of the dominant culture. Understand kind of what is your city's brand, who thrives there, who is somebody that is really going to love being in your city because your city or your location or your rural village, whatever it might be, might not be for everybody. And that is really important to know and be okay with. And so I think that's just like number one, thinking about this at scale, know who you're marketing to. And then I would say, really learn, really start to create the foundations of almost a cultural concierge. Learn what people are coming for. Are they eventually going to want to buy a house? So do you have a list of realtors that you could get them in touch with? Are they really into the foodie scene? Do you have maybe experiences where they could meet with a local chef? Start to think about the deep connections. Who is in your city? Who are the people who make your city your city and make them ambassadors for these people coming in and make those engineer those connections early and often. And it will take off so much quicker than somebody just coming for a visit and going to a restaurant or trying to buy a house on their own. And it's just that extra touch that just returns ten-fold, both for the individual that's coming for the nomad and for the city.

Justin Harlan: Yeah, and it also taps into your city strengths, both in terms of brand or how they're known the things that are there, but also the people. I mean, I love that you're saying that to just in terms of how do you tap into the people that are there to really help shape initiatives that you might want to invest in, because it's not been something that's received as an initiative that's being done to them as you know, a Tulsan or whatever city you're thinking about. But it's kind of bringing people alongside you in that journey to build out what could be really special. I love that. Thank you. So tell people if they are interested in learning more about Tulsa Bound, where could they go and what might they, you know, I know there's some upcoming dates around application for this next cohort. Just tell folks what's on the horizon for Tulsa Bound in 2025.

Darcy Mayfield: Yeah, absolutely. So we'll be doing two cohorts in 2025. Our first cohort is May 30th through June 24th. So just upcoming in a few months, there's some amazing stuff going on in Tulsa in June. There's an incredible Juneteenth festival.

Darcy Mayfield: There's Big Ride. There's Tulsa Tough. So anybody who knows about cycling, there's a huge, amazing cycling event happening that month. But even outside of those events, we learned so much from this last experience. And even our individuals from the last cohort are even influencing how different one will run. You know, we really listen to them and we're building this program and this programming around, again, those deep connections. So if you're looking for a change, you're looking to just be in community with other remote workers for a month and you want to experience something different. You're thinking about a big move and you don't really know where to go. And you think that Tulsa sounds interesting. If you like kind of underground music and food, and you're an entrepreneur and you want to come to Tulsa and build, if it's not there, you can build it. And I hear that from everybody. And everybody I talk to says it's a sandbox. So if you like to play, come to Tulsa. So Tulsa Bound is your opportunity to come experience that without having to think about your housing.

Darcy Mayfield: Without having to think about your coworking, without having to think about finding friends. We do it all for you. So go to Tulsa-bound.com. We have our Submit Your Interest form on there. We have all of the information into what we'll be getting into. We have our facts on there. You can email us on there as well, but definitely submit an interest form and we will get back to you very soon. And we are just so stoked for this next cohort.

Justin Harlan: Love it. Love it. And if you're listening to this, maybe that deadline has already passed. I think that we're at this point planning to do another iteration of this in the fall as well. All right. So as we close, Darcy, I'd love for you just to think about those folks that may be considering Tulsa, but perhaps are on the fence. What piece of advice would you give to somebody who is considering Tulsa, knowing that even just a couple of years ago, you hadn't been to the city yourself? What advice would you give to those people?

Darcy Mayfield: What do you have to lose? I would say if you have an adventurous spirit, and that is required - you are not going to have fun if you don't have an adventurous spirit and you aren't open to it - I'm sorry you're not and we're very clear with everybody in our calls for the last cohort and so this is not going to be a fit but you have an adventurous spirit and you're looking to find a place to belong where you genuinely feel like people care about you and that you're supported in every way, give it a try. Just give it a try. It's one month. You should try it. If you're on the fence, don't take my word for it. Head to our website and hear from our past participants. We've got reviews on there, firsthand testimonials, and see how it really transformed people's lives, and then make your decision.

Justin Harlan: That's great advice. I appreciate you in so many ways, both for having that adventurous spirit that you just described and using the energy behind it. In this place for being bold and brave enough to say, you know what, I think this actually might work in a little bit of a different fashion. And then the impact that that has had, not only on our programming and the work that we're doing, but also just on the city of Tulsa and most importantly, the people. I mean, just to think about the impact that you've had on 12 people who saw a new place, experienced new things, met new people, and that that really is planting a seed that others are going to carry forward for years to come. I mean, I hope that you feel great pride and joy knowing that you've kind of started this snowball and that it's going to keep going and ultimately turn into a massive boulder, which feels relevant because it just snowed in Tulsa this week. But in all seriousness, we appreciate you and all that you have done with us and for the city of Tulsa and look forward to seeing how the relationship continues to grow. So I really appreciate you joining us today.

Darcy Mayfield: Thank you so much. And thank you for obviously the opportunity, you know, the last few years. And it's just an honor to be here and to be working with you, Justin, and the whole team that just, I feel like, is moving forward as something bigger than ourselves. So it's really, really cool to be a part of.

Justin Harlan: That's awesome. Well, this has been another episode of Remote With, an expert edition with Darcy Mayfield. And we hope you continue to listen. And we have many more to come in the future. So I appreciate you tuning in and we'll see you next time.