Prequel: I am SwapYourShop’s first swapper!

Let’s be real, I needed to get away! I hadn’t left the city limits of New York City since November of 2009. Any New Yorker will tell you that this a problem. I’m not from the east coast. In fact, I’m from Kentucky so I say this with somewhat of an unbiased eye: us New Yorkers work hard, and play harder. Getting out of the city from time to time is a requirement for keeping up with the pace of the New York lifestyle 7 days a week.

A year ago my mind was set on going to the Caribbean. I’m a fan of music, especially live music, and the St. Lucia Jazz Festival hosted every May is suppose to be a one of a kind experience. By the time May came around, I completely failed to make plans. I needed a plan B.

Two years ago I had a great experience renting an apartment in Paris over New Years. The apartment was a very modern apartment in the center of the city, over a major holiday for only $50/night! I had found this apartment on Craigslist. More recently I learned of Home For Exchange and AirBnB, two websites that make swapping apartments and homes much more secure than Craigslist. The idea of swapping continued to be appealing to me because it’s an extremely affordable way to secure housing while, arguably, living much more comfortably than being in a hotel or hostel.

On Home For Exchange I connected with someone in Johannesberg, South Africa looking to come to NYC during the World Cup. She even offered to allow me to use her car for the duration of my stay in South Africa! I couldn’t convince any friends to go with me on such short notice so yet another opportunity to take a hiatus from New York slipped away. Around this time, my boss told me about SwapYourShop (SYS).

While the idea of exchanging living arrangements was not new to me, the idea of exchanging both living arrangements and office space was undoubtedly a new idea! This is exactly what SYS allows for. People continue to ask me to clarify this idea. No, you don’t work for a new company! You continue to work for your same company, but yet have the ability to work from the desk of the person who you are exchanging with if you so desire.

On SYS I immediately connected with many people. Being that the concept was so new, the individuals I first contacted were all very interested, yet unsure of how to proceed in arranging the swap. However, one person was persistent in keeping the communication going; Jose Luis of Valencia, Spain. We spoke for about a month via Skype and came to an agreement that we would swap. At the time, I was unaware that we were the first people to swap on SYS! Pretty cool. (For more details on how we arranged the swap, you can read our interview).

The journey has now begun and I am currently in Valencia, Spain! Over the course of the next few weeks I hope to address a few topics that future swappers might find useful:

1) Details of arranging the swap including negotiating with your company, telling your landlord and prepping your apartment.

2) Setting up your work environment so that you can effectively execute your work abroad. This includes being accessible by phone, internet access, work hours, and other logistics (I am still figuring this out).

3) Networking and building a base of contacts in a foreign city where you likely won’t know anyone.

If there are any other topics you would like to know about, please let me know! Also bear in mind, I am still learning a lot with 5 weeks to go.

Who am I?

By day I work as Digital Strategist for an interactive marketing agency called The JAR Group, helping clients grow their customer base and increase online revenues. By night, I maintain a rap music website called 100 Best Rap Songs. Between these two projects I also organize the Digital DUMBO community (DUMBO is a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is becoming known as New York’s Digital District). Over the past year and a half, Digital DUMBO has grown to be the 2nd largest digital technology and media community in New York City.

You can follow me on Twitter at @A2Z.