🌎 The New Career Deal: How Remote Workers Are Making More While Working Less

Hello there 😎 

Every Tuesday, I close my laptop at 4:15 PM. No Slack. No emails. No checking LinkedIn.

I pick up kids from aftercare, and the three of us are off to the BJJ gym, where I help coach the kid’s class.

Last year, you'd never catch me doing this. (Or if I did, I felt super guilty about it for days.)

🤔 So what changed?

Here's what you'll learn today:

• How to make more money while working fewer hours (without sacrificing your career growth)

• A simple framework to design your ideal remote work lifestyle around what matters most

• Real examples of people who've built successful careers on their own terms

…and more!

But first, let’s look at some open roles I’m excited about.

💎 10+ High-Impact Remote Roles

• Customer Success Manager – FinTech at Altery → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager, Spain, Remote at Fundraise Up → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager at Stripe → Apply here

• Senior Product Marketing Manager, AI & Platform at ServiceNow → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Storylane → Apply here

• Remote Customer Success Manager at RemodelBoom → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at HireBoost → Apply here

• Sr. Product Manager, Upstream Marketing at Johnson & Johnson → Apply here

• Affiliate Marketing Product Manager, Shopping (Remote-Eligible) at Capital One → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Recharge → Apply here

• Enterprise Customer Success Manager at Fullpath → Apply here

• Strategic Customer Success Manager - Europe at Smartcat → Apply here

🤫 The Hidden Cost of the Traditional Career Path

For the last 15 years, I was caught in the same trap as millions of others: chasing the endless grind, bigger promotions, and eventually, someday…

• When my bank account finally hit that magical seven-figure mark...

• Or I finally landed that VP title at a unicorn startup...

• Or my LinkedIn profile crossed 1,000,000 followers…

Then I'd have the freedom to slow down.

But someday never comes.

Last week I was talking to my friend, Scott.

Scott has this annoying habit of dropping lots of knowledge (stop showing off, you know?) but this one stuck with me in particular:

Remember the old playbook? Grinding away in an office, proving your worth through late nights and endless meetings.

I call this The Old Career Deal:

1. First job

2. Get good

3. Keep saying “yes”

4. Attend every meeting

5. Work late nights & weekends

6. Slowly climb the career ladder

7. Someday you’re an executive with “freedom”

This is still a blueprint for success. It can work—if you’re okay with sacrificing decades of your life to get there.

But I didn't want to wake up one day realizing I traded my best years—the years my kids needed me most—for another promotion.

Now, there's a different way to think about ambition.

🚀 The New Career Deal

I call it The New Career Deal. Here's how the New Career Deal prioritizes both growth and presence:

• First job

• Get good

• Go remote & reclaim your time

• Use that time to upskill and gain leverage

• Consult on the side & build a portfolio career

• Set boundaries to focus & increase your leverage

• Achieve freedom now—not decades later

Cool. But what does this look like in practice?

Here's an example:

And in my opinion, Elena Verna is a perfect example of what's possible when you do this right:

This is what the New Career Deal looks like in practice. It’s about redefining ambition, not rejecting it.

The answer is two powerful levers that are available to almost everyone: remote work and strategic upskilling.

🛠 Make the switch to remote work

Going remote isn’t just about skipping a commute or working in sweatpants. It’s about taking back control of your time—and using it intentionally.

Without a forced 9-to-5 schedule dictating every hour, you suddenly have options:

• No more pointless meetings. You decide what’s worth your time.

• More flexibility. Pick up your kids from school, hit the gym in the afternoon, take a mid-day break—without guilt.

• Less busy work. No more sitting at your desk just to “look productive.” Your output matters more than your hours.

Here’s the key: going remote doesn’t automatically mean freedom.

If you don’t take control, you’ll just recreate the same office burnout—except, you know, from home.

I’ve seen people go remote and still work 60+ hours a week, still stuck in back-to-back Zoom calls, still grinding with no real change in their lifestyle.

Remote work isn’t the end goal. It’s a lever to create the career and life you actually want.

The difference comes in what you do with the time you get back.

⚖️ Use that time to upskill and gain leverage

Most people go remote and then keep doing the exact same job, just from home: same responsibilities, same paycheck, same career trajectory.

Here's what they're missing: Remote work frees up 10-15 hours every week. But without intentionally reinvesting that time, you're not gaining any leverage.

What's leverage? It's having control over the four W's of your career:

• Where you work

• What you work on

• Who you work with

• When you work

The key to gaining this leverage? Invest in skills that make you valuable. Here's how:

🎯 Deepen your expertise. If you’re a generalist, specialize. If you’re a specialist, become the go-to expert.

🔗 Build a portfolio career. Start consulting, freelancing, or launching your own projects.

🛠 Learn high-leverage skills. Some skills have outsized returns—copywriting, sales, negotiation, automation. Mastering these makes you indispensable.

🚀 Network strategically. The best opportunities don’t come from job boards; they come from people. Use your extra time to connect with industry leaders, join online communities, and position yourself for better roles. (Here’s everything I know about networking.)

💫 The Bottom Line

This comment on Reddit stopped me in my tracks:

The modern world will always try to steal your time—filling your calendar, pulling you into more meetings, convincing you that hashtag “grindset” is the only way forward.

But when you step back and ask, What am I actually working toward?—the answer changes everything.

Career growth doesn't have to come at the cost of presence. You can have both. Here's how:

• Remote work and portfolio careers are tools to design a career that prioritizes what matters

• The best investment? Setting up a career now that gives you the freedom to be there for your family later

You don't need permission to prioritize what matters. And you don't need to apologize for choosing a path that gives you both freedom and fulfillment.

In a world that glorifies burnout, choosing to be present might be the most ambitious thing you can do.

I love meeting new people. Say hi on LinkedIn 👋

🤝 When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you with remote work:

🚪 Looking for a remote job?

🏢 Product Roles

• Sr. Product Manager, Upstream Marketing at Johnson & Johnson → Apply here

• Affiliate Marketing Product Manager, Shopping (Remote-Eligible) at Capital One → Apply here

🪝 Marketing Roles

• Product Marketing Manager, Go-To-Market at Square → Apply here

• Sr. Product Marketing Line Manager (Cloud Platform) at Wind River → Apply here

• Principal Product Marketing Manager - REMOTE, SaaS, IaaS at CyberCoders → Apply here

• Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Acorns → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager (Remote within the US) at Jacobs → Apply here

• Sr. Product Marketing Manager - Mortgage 1661 at MeridianLink → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager, Spain, Remote at Fundraise Up → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager at Stripe → Apply here

• Senior Product Marketing Manager, AI & Platform at ServiceNow → Apply here

• Senior Product Marketing Manager at Pie Insurance → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager at ada → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager at Swooped → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager at Curveball → Apply here

• Product Marketing Manager, Developer Experience at Temporal Technologies → Apply here

🤗 Customer Success Roles

• Customer Success Manager (AMER) at ApprovalMax → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at AssemblyAI → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Maker → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at VisitIQ → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Multiverse → Apply here

• Enterprise Customer Success Manager at Multiverse → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager – FinTech at Altery → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Recharge → Apply here

• Enterprise Customer Success Manager at Fullpath → Apply here

• Strategic Customer Success Manager - Europe at Smartcat → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at Storylane → Apply here

• Remote Customer Success Manager at RemodelBoom → Apply here

• Customer Success Manager at HireBoost → Apply here

That’s a wrap. See you next week 👋