W tym odcinku rozmawiam z Matiasem Bonet, który prowadzi coliving space “bedndesk” na Majorce.

Porozmawiamy:

• o tym, co kierowało go do założenia tego miejsca,
• o charakterystyce coliving spaces,
• o typowych gościach bedndesk.

Matias podzielił się też informacjami o tym, jak Majorka zmieniła się na przestrzeni ostatnich lat.

Transkrypcja

W tym odcinku, wyjątkowo po angielsku, moim gościem będzie Matias Bonet, który prowadzi coliving space Bedndesk na Majorce.

00:11 Witaj Na Zdalniaku. Ja nazywam się Wojtek Zając, a to jest podcast o wykorzystaniu możliwości jakie daje nam praca zdalna, rozwijaniu swojej kariery oraz o mądrym podróżowaniu. Jeśli chcesz być niezależnym od tego, gdzie się obecnie znajdujesz, ta audycja jest właśnie dla Ciebie.

00:38 Jak zapewne większość z Was wie, jestem od kilku tygodni na Majorce i akurat tutaj miałem bardzo dużo szczęścia, bo udało mi się dość przypadkiem znaleźć coliving space prowadzony w naprawdę świetnym miejscu. Zaraz przy Palmie – największym mieście na Majorce. I kiedy tu przyjechałem, uderzyła mnie naprawdę świetna społeczność, która jest zbudowana wokół tego colivingu, coworku. Pierwsze co zobaczyłem, to ściana zdjęć poprzednich gości. Tak że już wiedziałem, że trafiłem bardzo dobrze i od razu pomyślałem, że warto byłoby porozmawiać z właścicielem i stwórcą tej przestrzeni – z Matiasem Bonet.

Z Matiasem porozmawiamy o tym, co skłoniło go do założenia tego coliving space, o tym kto najczęściej gości w jego progach i o specyfice mieszkania i prowadzenia biznesu na Majorce. Z góry przepraszam Was za trochę gorszą jakość audio niż zwykle – to dlatego, że to był mój pierwszy wywiad na żywo i organizowałem go trochę na szybko. Jeśli będziecie mieli jakieś problemy ze zrozumieniem, to już za dwa dni na stronie NaZdalniaku.pl będzie pełna transkrypcja po angielsku.

A teraz zapraszam!

02:04 Wojtek: Hi everyone. We are here with Matias Bonet, who runs a Bedndesk co-living space here in Mallorca. Hello!

Matias: Hi. How are you?

02:16 Wojtek: I’m excited to talk to Matias, because I’ve been staying at his co-living place for more than three weeks now and I loved it here. I met so many very interesting a people from all over the world and it’s fascinating to me how one can run a co-living space like this.

Matias, could you tell me, at the beginning, how did you start your career? And what led you to think about creating a co-living space?

Matias: So, I studied Computer Science at University, but I always liked interacting with people, not only computing and programing – I love it, but I like other stuff. I got the opportunity to work in a research center where they were studying the ocean and doing marine related research. I could merge my two passions: the ocean and computing. I’ve always been like this – trying to work in things that fulfill me, not only for money. Of course I… [laugh] You know, like something that makes me happy to go to work every day, and a workplace I can enjoy. Step-by-step I managed to work for The Australian Ocean Data Network. I was working and living in Australia for almost two years, gathering data from all over the places in Australia. So, I got tired of being so far away from Europe and…. I was living in Tasmania, which is even far away from Australia, so they offered me to keep the job remotely. That was something I didn’t expect. So, they offered me my first remote work. That was eleven years ago when it wasn’t that common. So I came back here, and I worked for one year – maybe, from here remotely. I remember, actually, I set only a six month deadline, because I didn’t expect it to be long term. And I never thought about working remotely. It was not an option for me or…. I don’t know, it was something that happened and… [laugh] I guess my lifestyle led me to it without me noticing. Then I thought, why should I work from Mallorca when I can work from anywhere? So that’s why I started traveling. I’ve always been a part-time nomad – I like to have a home base. So the longest I traveled for was seven months, but I always liked to come back. And all my family lives here, so I like to have both: not only freedom, but also a place where I can come back to. I have never been conventional… That’s when I thought about creating a place like Bedndesk… It’s not only for the people who come to stay, but it’s also a place for me to live and work from. I tried to work from home by myself, but I’m a social person, so I need to be with someone or… just to know that I’m working with people who understand what I’m doing. Now it’s more common, but before – you probably have had the same feeling – that you are just traveling, or are still on holiday… or you’ve been working from a hostel where everyone is partying and doing so much cool stuff around you, and you want to do all this cool stuff, but outside of business hours. So I was trying to create a place – for me to have other cool nomads around. They were from many different countries, and changing out every month. We have had guests of more than sixty-seven nationalities in the last five years.

Wojtek: Wow.

Matias: Yes. They were from places that I could not even imagine, like Nepal or… pretty much from everywhere. You get all of this feedback. I also wanted to create this place for people who come to visit Mallorca, to show them the island and how I see it. And also to give back to people I met while traveling, that I feel I was lucky to meet, and who showed me around their countries. So I wanted to create a place where I could invite them, show them the island, share tea with them, and… to interact with them. You know…

06:30 Wojtek: This is awesome. And how long ago did you start?

Matias: That was five years ago. It was quite quick. I had a two-month trip to San Francisco, for working in a project. [laugh] It was like a “workation”. [laugh] I saw all of these flats there, that were… start-up bases, kind of like a Airbnb apartments, but with people who wanted to work there. I didn’t work in one of them, but it’s kind of how my idea popped up. I thought, why don’t I create a place where I can bring people together to work together – not on the same thing, but… to learn from each other? And that was five years ago.

Wojtek: Ok. Five years. You said, almost seventy nationalities – that’s amazing.

Matias: Yeah

07:22 Wojtek: So, how would you describe the typical person who comes to Bedndesk?

Matias: It has changed over time. I remember in the beginning, it was more fully nomad or a lot of… basically curious people. [laugh] People searching for new experiences or something different. People who already travel a lot and want a place to work or to call home, but not something that attaches you… Then over time, I’ve been getting more and more people who want to try it before they go on a long trip – like people from Europe or from companies. Mallorca has such a good flight connection, so it is easy to come here for like a month. Now, because of the pandemic, everyone is trying to work remotely and from home, but even before the pandemic, people were trying to show their bosses that they can work remotely. So it started with a lot of freelancers or the early adapters – people who already traveled a lot, but were moving back to working more like generic…, or “normal” people.

08:35 Wojtek: I was surprised to see that it looks like quite a few people come to live in co-living spaces for longer periods of time. I was expecting maybe two, three weeks maximum, but we have some people who have been here for a few months. Right?

Matias: Yeah…, it’s also something that has changed. I mean, I try to get a minimum of a month… Everyone has traveling periods [laugh] and… for me, you need at least a month to get to know the place, not only the co-living space, but also the area. To stay just for one week, you don’t have time to enjoy the place. So I always encourage travelers to stay for longer periods and during low seasons. The price also goes quite down when you stay longer. But it’s more for getting to know people. Like you’ve been here for three weeks, so it’s still quite… early. If you stay here for week, there is no point of it. You won’t make good connections. And that’s what I want – for you, and also for me, because I’m part of the [laugh] scene of the co-living. I want everyone to develop a connection with… each other.

Wojtek: That’s awesome. We can see a lot of….

Matias: Wall of fame. [laugh]

Wojtek: Yeah, a wall of fame.

Matias: [laugh] It was funny that you mentioned you met some…

Wojtek: Yes.

Matias: Like a nomad people.

10:04 Wojtek: Yeah, I did recognize a few faces… I think the entire environment, the entire trend, is growing and more and more people do that. However, I think we’re still at a very early phase of the entire trend, so… I’m really hopeful that it’s going to continue growing, for sure. And talking to those people who have been here already, would you say they are most of them work in the IT field?

Matias: I mean, in the digital environment, that’s for sure. But not only in IT… I remember at the beginning they were all programmers, but most of the time now it’s more digital marketing or translation work. I don’t know, there are so many creative people, with creative jobs that they do remotely. Like teachers, and language teachers… There are many new things that you don’t expect. People are quite inventive in the way they live and work.

11:16 Wojtek: Amazing. That’s great… I know that you actually are from Mallorca, right?

Matias: Yeah.

Wojtek: Did the entire island change to over time? A lot?

Matias: Yeah, It changed a lot. It got busier at one time, but now [laugh] of course, this year is a bit special. But is changing, and becoming more of a place for living, long term. It’s a really cool place to live. It’s touristic also, but then off-season, people start to realize how cool it is to live on the island. And I think it is going to move towards the co-living industry. Also, there are good flight connections. The airport is one of the most connected in Europe, so in two hours, or three hours, you can fly to many other places.

12:13 Wojtek: Yes, it’s very interesting. I know you mentioned that there have been a few couples that formed here. So, I wonder how many people will be convinced that Mallorca is such a great place and will consider actually moving here for longer term. I, for one, really like it lot and will totally consider it. I met some people here who initially came to stay just for a bit, but then started looking into renting apartments long term. That actually says a lot about this place, so I think we can both highly recommended visiting Mallorca.

How do you think the trend of co-living is evolving? Do you think it has a chance to attract people from even more diverse backgrounds? Where do you think it will go in the coming years?

Matias: I think the trend is growing. I remember the beginning, five years ago, we more-or-less all knew each other. I remember being in one of Eight Best Co-living Places article, probably because there were only eight, [laugh] that they knew of. [laugh] Now, you can see more aggregating and it’s starting to be more generic, you know? There are more co-living options, and the terms are becoming cooler as people are adding more of their own ideas and approaches to co-living. There are more shared apartments. But as I said, in the beginning everyone knew each other, and I could check on other co-living places to see how many people were moving from one place to another, but now I’m starting to lose track of how many people have stayed here. It’s growing a lot, and I think this pandemic has inspired more and more people to try to work from home. As for myself, I don’t consider myself of full-time nomad, and I don’t want to be a full-time nomad, because I want to have a house and stuff, but I think part-time nomading, or two-month vacations will be the new trend or a new concept of traveling. I think that’s where this is going in the future.

Wojtek: Yeah, I think this is amazing. I’m super excited that more people will be able to work remotely. I’m especially thanks to more and more companies letting people do that. So, I think we’re living in a very exciting time, just to see this entire shift towards working remotely. So…, I think that it’s great that we started quite early, and I think this is also going to be great for places that weren’t getting many tourists in the first place… This could help those places develop quicker just because more people will be going there. So I think it’s going to make…

Matias: Like an impact.

Wojtek: Exactly. They can impact more places, and can make different areas of given countries more even, in a way.

Matias: Yeah. I’m also moving towards different locations… For me, I like to live close to the sea, but I also like to live in the mountains, or time-to-time in a town in island. Here in Spain there are many new opportunities because so many people have had to learn to work remotely by force. I always say it’s not for everyone, but now many people have tried it and tested it. Also, maybe a lot of companies have realized that it is easier to have remote employees, and not to have people in the office all the time. They are doing all of these new things by force, but I think this will last for a long time. So, you will see a lot of trends going up on remote working.

16:28 Wojtek: This is awesome. Mathias do you have anything to add? Maybe any tips?

Matias: No, I mean for me, some tips for general life or traveling are: check where you go, stay longer than you should – don’t go to fast. I guess it changes with age. [laugh] When you grow, you start staying longer in places because you realize one week in one place is not enough, and you need a lot of time for traveling… And don’t forget to get holidays! [laugh] That’s my other tip. You are traveling all the time, but for part of it you should be on holiday. Don’t become a remote workaholic. I saw a lot of people like this. [laugh] Be in the office for eight hours, but don’t forget why you’re there – you are traveling to explore the place. Those would be my two tips: don’t forget there are holidays and stay longer than you should. [laugh]

17:25 Wojtek: Ok. Awesome. Thank you Matias, and again I’ll kindly encourage everyone to visit Bedndesk in Mallorca. Thank you.

Matias: Yeah. Thank you.

17:36 Mam nadzieję, że wynieśliście coś ciekawego z rozmowy z Matiasem. Już niedługo, na kanale Youtube Na Zdalniaku znajdzie się odcinek vloga, gdzie pokazuję pełny tour całego colivingu, więc będziecie mogli zobaczyć jak to wygląda w rzeczywistości. Zapraszam już teraz!

A tym czasem my spotykamy się już za tydzień. Do usłyszenia Na Zdalniaku!