Taking Lessons from the Greats

We welcomed Will Scott to Ashore this week.

Will is a Sales Manager at Ultimate AI, a flexible working champion, and one of the top LinkedIn Voices to follow on personal branding and the future of work.

If you like the sound of Will’s trip, he visited The Atelier in Hay-on-Wye. Check out more about the property here.

What’s your story?

I lead a sales team at Ultimate AI - that’s my 9-5.

We’re growing really quickly, in a really interesting space.

Outside that, I coach salespeople - it’s been my career for the past 15 years, and really believe in giving back to the sales community. I also advise people who have questions around flexible working: both individuals stepping into their first remote role, and also people who are looking for a bit more flexibility too. It’s a big passion of mine.

Why did you choose to get away and get some work done with Ashore?

I primarily work from home and I have two kids; it can be quite noisy and hectic. I do have a shared office to do collaborative work with other team members at Ultimate AI, but I end up trying to get some quiet time to focus at coffee shops quite frequently.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of just booking a space to work on things I’ve been putting off. But the problem was, I’ve always struggled to find places that have great connectivity, and a great workspace. I’ve invested a lot in creating a productive space for myself at home, and you don’t want to sacrifice that when you travel.

For me having a good workspace is really important - it’s a comfortable chair, a second monitor, things that are standard at an office but aren’t as easy to find when you are travelling. 

It showed yesterday when I arrived at my Ashore location - I could simply plug in my laptop and go, rather than worrying about where the wifi password was or if the lighting was good enough for a call.

My train was late and I was able to get on a call 3 minutes after walking in the door, which was such a different experience to when I’ve tried to use other short-term rental platforms.

Once I had discovered the Ashore concept, I then had to pick a location. I grew up in the countryside, on the borders of Wales, so this location in Hay really appealed to me. You get that small village feel, and the property itself is also so unique. I find that my creativity is so much higher in a new environment, rather than at home.

Wandering around the castle in Hay-on-Wye

What was your gameplan for your visit?

I remember reading that David Ogilvy never wrote an ad in an office; his ideas always came to him on walks or in the shower.

So on the first morning, I went on a nice long walk with a notepad and a pen, and I got a load of ideas down on paper before I started the day properly.

I then hopped on calls with customers as part of my day job, and had this great space to talk to people from.

Will's super clean Ashore set-up for customer calls

In the afternoon I was working on my newsletter and planning out content for the next few editions, as well as relaunching my coaching programme and working on some ideas for that.

We’ve had a few great quarters at Ultimate AI, and it’s coming up to the last quarter and the end of our year, so it was a great moment for me to step away and do some planning and reflection too.

Did anything unexpected happen to you?

It’s maybe not totally unexpected - but it was noticeable how beautiful and unique the property was, which felt really different to other short-term rentals I’ve booked via other platforms before. The host had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into designing the experience.

Also, the speed at which I was able to get online and get to work was really impressive. It’s always something you’re slightly wary of when you are planning a trip like this - but I would honestly recommend this setup to anyone wanting to work away somewhere new.

And everyone in the village is so friendly! You sometimes go to a remote village and you feel like the outsider, but everyone in Hay has been extremely chatty. I’ve really felt at home.

The Wye in Hay-on-Wye