Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work 20XX Ep47

Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work 20XX with Jeff Frick Ep47 from Running Remote
English Transcript
© Copyright 2025 Menlo Creek Media, LLC, All Rights Reserved

Cold Open:
All right
So then I will
count us down
and we will go
in three, two, one.

Jeff Frick:
Hey welcome  back everybody. Jeff Frick here, coming to you from Austin, Texas. Not in the  home studio today. Work 20XX is  on the road. We're excited to come down here and visit with our friends at Running Remote  because as we learned from  Darren Murph a long time ago. All remote companies do things that all companies  should be good at. So whether you're all remote, hybrid, distributed or whatever this is, all are great lessons that you can put into play and improve your  communications, efficiency, etc. and we're excited to have our next guest. He's Justin Harlan,  the Managing Director of Tulsa Remote Justin, great to see you.

Justin Harlan:
Yeah, thanks  for having me.

Jeff Frick:
Thank you,  and thanks for hosting last night. Nice little opening  cocktail reception.

Justin Harlan:
Oh Sure. Yeah, it was a good time.

Jeff Frick:
So I have to admit, I was a little confused. I saw the flags I wasn't super familiar  with Tulsa Remote. And I'm like, I think we're in Austin and there’s signs all over  the place here for Tulsa and it's not like a cool name at a local company. It's actually Tulsa, Oklahoma. So for people who aren't familiar, give them a little 101 on what is Tulsa Remote all about?

Justin Harlan:
Sure, well, we started a  program back in 2019, really in an effort to diversify our labor labor workforce in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An industry  or a city that is often reliant on  oil and gas as an industry. And really we're looking for knowledge workers to come to the city  and you know help us just be ready for the future. And so we extended  an offer which was really unique at the time, which was $10,000 cash.

Jeff Frick:
What year did you start it?

Justin Harlan:
2019.

Jeff Frick:
Okay.

Justin Harlan:
$10,000 cash for you to come and do your remote job in Tulsa  for a year. And we just were really placing a bet that if we could get people to the city, they would fall in love with the city and stick around. And certainly had no idea how big it would get or how fast it would get this big. But started  out small  with about 70 people  that came in 2019 and we you know,  have a lot of community integration strategies that help people get plugged into the community. And then obviously the pandemic happened and we just  grew like crazy. We just, celebrated our 3,500-th member that's moved  to the city. And there's  a ton of gain both economically and for the community that has come from the program, so.

Jeff Frick:
So looking  back to 2019, if you started it, somebody was thinking about it a little bit earlier than that. Why? Where did it even come from? Because, you know, clearly once Covid hit it was a different, different game. But 2019, 2018 it wasn't  obvious that that remote work as kind of a category  was super special or going to explode.

Justin Harlan:
Really primarily for knowledge workers. At the time that it was just a good percentage of folks that were actually working remotely that were knowledge workers

Jeff Frick:
Right. That's great. So Covid hits and time passes and suddenly there's like all these countries actually that are having kind of  remote work visas that are making it  easy for people to go work in Portugal or wherever. All these places are. I, you know, there's not as much talk or maybe I haven't been paying attention in terms of you don't have to go overseas, you can do that. And there's a really unique opportunity here in Tulsa. How are you getting your message out? Where are some of these people coming from? How are they hearing about the program?

Justin Harlan:
Yeah, well there are a number of programs like this  in the States now. There's actually about 70 that have replicated what we've done. You can actually go to MakeMyMove.com and it's a company that has really leaned into the idea that you know  tech talent especially doesn't only belong on the coasts and that you  can really find a higher quality of life in the heartland and still even  in that get better at what  you're doing at work and more  productive because you're more satisfied  as a human being, so So, there are a  number of programs that have kind of  replicated what we've done, even stateside.

Jeff Frick:
How did you  even think that this was  going to happen? Just because they were out there? Or did you do some survey or you just knew that that this is this has got to grow?

Justin Harlan:
Yeah, well,  I mean, to me it's really a belief in Tulsa. Yeah. That  there's not  there's not a lot of folks that are, you know aware of what's  happening in Tulsa. And so especially if we could reach the folks that are maybe paying twice as much for a smaller apartment that are living in L.A. or New York or Austin and show them what the quality of life looks like and also invite them to be  part of a community in a job that is often  very isolated as a remote  worker we really believe that that would speak to people that not only are you  going to have a  a lower cost  of living, but that that's going to open up a higher quality of life which just makes you, you know a better and more complete human being as a whole. And in Tulsa, we often see that there’s people who get more time back and they also get more money. And when I When you nurture that environment and really provide that opportunity for people, then they are able to do things that they may not be able to do in other cities. Like open businesses, get involved in boards, contribute to the community. And we really see that coming to life in awesome ways  with Tulsa Remote Right.  

Jeff Frick
That's cool. So you said there's an application process. There's money that changes hands. So, what's kind of the application process? What are you what are you looking for? Is it a  a big gate? Is it  limited slots? Is there anything specific that that you prefer or don't prefer? What's kind of  the application process?

Justin Harlan:
We try to make it really easy on people. The application should take you about 15 minutes. You do that online. We then go through an interview process if you get to  that stage and then if you  do get in, we pay for you  to come and visit. So up to $500 in reimbursement. We do a couple  days worth of programing every month where you can come  and see the city  kind of test drive it  before you decide whether you want to move. And then from  the day you get in you have a year to move to Tulsa. We look for people that are going to contribute to the economy. So we really look for folks that are going to bring a good  salary with them. Our average salary is about $100,000, but our floor is is much lower than that. We also look for very  specific types of jobs, so those that are not just going to duplicate  what we already  have in Tulsa but be additive to the economy. And then we look for folks that are going to contribute to the community. So, you know, you have a track record of plugging into the community  you’re coming from you've thought  about Tulsa and how you're going to get involved. And ultimately, we're really  looking for people  that are going to,  you know,  be open to the idea of sticking around for a little while.

Jeff Frick:
Right. So do you have X number of seats per year something like that that you've just got money for or no?

Justin Harlan:
We don't, no. We’re privately  funded and really  excited about, you know, whoever takes us up on this offer. And if we can find the right folks  that are meeting all  those qualifications we’re you know, excited  to help you come.

Jeff Frick:
That's cool. Talk a little bit  about the founding you know the funding I think its private individual or foundation behind it. Who or what organization is behind it and why did they decide to take this step?

Justin Harlan:
Yeah, it's the George Kaiser Family Foundation and they really started their efforts as a foundation in  early childhood education with the idea that no matter where you're born in Tulsa you should have the same opportunity. And I think what  they learned through starting in education is that there's a lot more factors that go into  somebody's life outcomes outside of just education. How is the family life at home? Criminal justice, food security. And so they've slowly started kind of building building blocks around that core function of early childhood education. And one of the things they've really invested in over the last ten years is placemaking making Tulsa a place that people want to be and want to come and visit and want to live and then building up some  economic development programs around the place that  people want to be now. programs around the place that people want to be now. And I think it's really, you know, almost  kind of serendipitous because I believe when I moved to Tulsa 20 years ago it was a completely different city. I don't think  Tulsa Remote would have worked 20 years ago because it just wasn't the same city that it is today. And so it kind of takes all of those pieces working in tandem to make  it an attractive place that people would even come if you're paying them to move there. So it's really an amazing, you know, conglomeration of a lot of efforts over the last couple of decades.

Jeff Frick:
So what's happened with the people that have done it? Both some of  the earlier people and some of the later people,  how many are stayed? Do they stay and stay in their job? Do they stay and swap jobs? Do they  create new things? What's, how's the community kind of developed? 3,500 people That’s a lot  of people.

Justin Harlan:
Sure. So we know that anyone that's moved there since 2019, about 75% of them are still around Tulsa today.

Jeff Frick:
75%?

Justin Harlan:
75%. A couple of economic stats that are awesome. For every two people that we pay to move there's an additional  person that comes. So in a city like Tulsa that's about 400,000 people. We know that we're responsible for about 5,000 people moving to the city. So that obviously helps a ton with net migration and just  growing the city  as a whole. Increasing  tax dollars last calendar  year alone we contributed over  $600 million to the economy. And we know  that for every dollar that we're spending  on the incentive, there's about  a $13 return on that investment to the community. on that investment to the community. And then we do know  that our folks bring an  entrepreneurial spirit about 1 in 5  people is has either started a business or a nonprofit or sat on a board and is just contributing in meaningful ways there.

Jeff Frick:
Well Justin, that is a great success story that sounds like  it's working out even better than maybe you anticipated it.

Justin Harlan:
For sure. I mean, obviously we didn't  predict the pandemic, so but we have latched  on to that and really  provide it, you know, use that as an opportunity to help the city grow in meaningful ways. And it, it's been an awesome success story that I'm lucky to be a part of.

Jeff Frick:
That's great. Well, thanks for, for taking a few minutes. I guess I'll have to get out in Tulsa and visit you one of these days

Justin Harlan:
Yeah, we'd love  for you to come. And if folks want to check us out it’s TulsaRemote.com and there's certainly and there's certainly a lot more information there that you can learn. https://www.tulsaremote.com/

Jeff Frick:
Great. And again, thanks for  sponsoring Running Remote.  It's a really important show.

Justin Harlan:
Of course Thank you.

Jeff Frick:
All right. He's Justin I’m Jeff
You're watching Work 20XX on the road from Austin, Texas at Running Remote.
Thanks for  watching. Thanks for listening on the podcast. Catch you  next time. Take care.  Bye bye.

Justin Harlan: Move for $10K, Stay for Community | Work 20XX with Jeff Frick Ep47 from Running Remote
English Transcript
© Copyright 2025 Menlo Creek Media, LLC, All Rights Reserved