Hello, hello! My name is April Malone;
and I'm with Yes, I Work From Home, and this
is our podcast. Today, we have 
Ryan Langr with us; and we go way back,
don't we Ryan? --Yeah, about 30 years.
--Yeah. I remember the
day that your parents got married. 
And I think your birthday is
only two days after mine. 
So, just to get it out of the way,
Ryan and I actually share a grandma. 
Our fathers were brothers;
so, we are first cousins, and he is
very gracious. It's kind of cool, because
we haven't always been in touch 
all these years. We've lived out of state
from each other; and I think, now that we 
are both working from home,
we've had a lot more reason to talk 
and connect more recently. And, so,
he was willing to go with me on this 
podcast first. It worked out really
well for me, because we tried to go live today;
and it was a total train wreck. 
The program that I was trying to use
didn't work with my computer, and 
we were trying to go live at the same time while
troubleshooting and just deleted everything.
So, what I want to say about that, though, 
is that it was really, really good for me in
retrospect, to experience that frustration; because it
just gives me a little empathy again 
for all the people who are
currently being thrust into all this new
technology, working from home unexpectedly, these teachers who are
doing online teaching. 
So, I don't know. I think we kind of
gradually got accustomed to working 
from home, and these people are just like--boom!
--and I had those feelings today. 
This is just all new, and it didn't work.
Yeah. 
So, thank you for coming today, Ryan.
My pleasure. I'm excited to talk about
working from home.
So, let's just go way back to the
beginning and talk a little bit about 
what happened before you started working
from home and how you came 
to that point; and then we'll kind
of delve into a little bit of what 
it was like for you to make that transition.
Yeah, so, I worked in ministry for about eight years
after college. 
It's what I went to college for,
and I was working in a ministry job. 
About five years ago,
right after my daughter was being born
--or right after she was born,
was just kind of going through the motions,
 you know, bringing in the paycheck.
My wife had just started 
a direct sales company; and she said,
"You know, you don't like your job. Why don't we have you stay home, you can
take care of the kid and kind of keep 
the house clean so that
I can focus on my direct sales business?
So, I kind of jumped at that. For a while,
I was just a stay-at-home dad, for about two years,
and focused on that. 
I did a little writing in my spare time;
and I've been blogging for about 15 years. 
I started that in in college.
So, that kind of laid the groundwork 
for me to eventually, about two years ago,
go into freelance writing and editing. 
I started with
that, just kind of bringing in some extra
income, take some of the pressure off my wife,
because I wasn't working. 
Then, eventually, I decided to just
make an actual business out of it. So, now
I'm focusing on the entertainment industry,
primarily writing for Dungeons and Dragons,
but publishing my own books and PDFs,
managing a team, editing, marketing, 
project management, all that stuff.
So, really, if I looked back four years ago,
I never would have thought I would have been here.
But the process was gradual, 
and I've learned a lot and grown a lot, and
will be growing a lot more this coming
few months, especially as school starts up and everything.
So, yeah, I'm just--I'm excited to talk 
about what I've learned and
hear about April's experiences as well.
--Yeah, so I totally forgot to read the bio
that we had prepared, but 
I think you're covered most of the stuff
already, right? --Yeah, I think so.
--Let's see. So, it says "Two years ago, he started
his own tabletop game design publishing company and has
thrived working from home." 
So, your daughter is five, and
what grade is she going into?
She'll be starting kindergarten here.
Right. We also have a five year old just starting kindergarten now. I think
we're about a month ahead of you as far as schools in Arizona.
We started the end of July. --Yeah, yeah. 
--So, Ryan actually lives in my home
state of Minnesota, 
and you've been there, except for maybe a
little hiatus into Wisconsin, most of the time, right?
I've been in Minnesota since fifth grade, 
so basically my whole life.
Right. And it's very different. 
And even the school dates
start a little later. So, you guys have 
had a little bit more time to get ready
for this change. Which school option have
you decided to go with? 
I'm assuming you've been given some choices?
Yeah, so we actually... The state is doing
distance option and hybrid option. We just opted to go with
all online, mostly just for the sake of 
consistency; because we don't know how
long schools will be in person.
Our daughter thrives on consistency; 
so, we just said,
we're gonna do, K-12, which, 
in Minnesota is IQ Academy.
So, yep. Waiting for all those school 
supplies to be shipped in and
starting to get on a schedule--
the summer break slog. And,
yeah, it'll be fun.
Yes, yes. And we're doing the same thing. 
We also have opted
to just go ahead and stay online. 
John and I both work from home, and we
were here. And, honestly, it's easier. 
Well, it's not, it's challenging
every different direction you go. But not
having to leave the house every morning and drive to school
and then come home and then go pick them up, it just makes less breaks in the day.
And we like our kids, so--not that people that send theirs don't, I mean,
we were very happy to send them to school.
--Yeah --And we were really hoping that
that would be the case; 
but, at this point, where we live, we've
just decided to go with this for 
consistency. And our school is going to let
us make a change. They'll let us change
our mind every quarter; they'll let us opt for
a different choice if we want to.
--That's nice. Yeah.
There's a lot to talk about with that, but
I think we've got other things to get 
into right now. So, let's go back to
the beginning again. 
So, your wife was
working with the direct sales, 
but I know that she also
has a full time job. --Yeah. 
--How long has she been doing that? Because,
I know she's working a lot of hours.
--Yeah, so back when I started working
from home, she was working 
for a college, our alma mater, actually,
St Mary's University; and, now, 
she's working for
Austin Public Schools, Austin, Minnesota, 
not Austin, Texas.
So she's works in tech, for the 
public schools, so
troubleshooting all the tech issues that are going on right now.
And she also works about 30 hours a week for
doing direct sales, and she's a director for that.
Yes, so she puts in long weeks, long weeks.
--Yes. Yes, she does.
So, at some point we need to talk a 
little bit about, like, division of labor in the
household. Do most of the household responsibilities--
Do most of the household
responsibilities fall on you at that
point then?
Yeah, so, I have done most of the
housework, the simple stuff, 
you know, dishes, laundry, all that.
She kind of still takes care of the more
rearranging the furniture and stuff like that,
And, then, I used to do all the cooking; but we switched to vegan, and that is
definitely not my strong suit; 
so, she does the cooking now, or we just
order out, and cave.
We've actually recently hired someone to come in and help us clean every
two weeks which has been a huge blessing, 
especially as my business keeps getting
busier. And, as we go back to school, there's just--
you know, something's gotta give. So, we decided to invest in our mental health
and get someone else to help.
--That was our
goal for this year as well, and we're taking
we're taking a pause on that 
idea at this point, but yeah,
that's a goal, here. 
--Yeah.
So, Realmwarp Media.
--Yes. 
--Let's go there for a
minute, and then I want to go 
back and talk a little bit about
just how working from home 
is working for you.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um, what do you want to know?
Just tell us a little bit of like how you got started
and that transition.
--Yeah, so,
it's kind of actually kind of just like falling into a dream, almost.
I was introduced to this game 
Dungeons and Dragons which I had never played
before, but my buddy said 
"Hey, let's just get together, and you can try
it out and play it," and I loved it. 
It was a great time. And then
I found out that I could like--
it was a creative
endeavor, and I'm a 
fundamentally creative person.
So, I started doing some writing 
for that in my free time; and then I
found out I could make money doing it. 
I was like, okay, that sounds like a
great business opportunity; and I 
just decided I was going to go for it.
And, two years later, 
I'm managing a team of
about 15 people. 
--So, this was just all recently,
in the last few years, right?
--Yeah about--I think I technically
founded the company in November 
of 2017 and didn't really get
on my feet until March of 2018; 
so, it's been just barely
over two years.
--After only having been playing
the game for one or two years?
--About a year, yeah. 
--Wow. My brothers are really
big into it--they get into the costumes and the
figurines and all the things. 
--Yeah.
--Have you always been playing online,
or do you do in person?
--Well, I used to play in person. Lately,
everything is online. 
Yeah, I kind of prefer playing in person;
but playing online is better for my
business, so...
--Oh, yeah. So, are you writing?
Writing storylines?
--Yeah, so I write storylines. I write like
different rules that you can 
insert into the game that are
different from what the core game offers.
I write like different settings, 
different worlds to play in.
So, I recently, basically converted 
the myth of Camelot,
which is one of the most famous myths; 
and I say "This is how you can play
D&D Camelot." And I had a 
successful Kickstarter for that, and that
was a learning experience, for sure. 
So, yeah, it's a little bit of everything.
It's creative, it's technical, kind of fills both
both sides of my brain.
--What are people paying you to do?
Sometimes I will contract my 
services out for like editing or writing.
I prefer if I'm getting paid to do the 
editing, just because it's a little
less--it's a little more technical. It doesn't
tax my other work. But, mostly I'm paying myself by
creating ideas, hiring people to execute the ideas,
and then people buy the products; and that's
really how I get paid. I get paid a percentage of royalties,
anywhere between 5% and 65% royalties.
--Wow, and these
products, where are they located?
Yeah. So, most of them are PDFs. 
They are located on two different
websites that kind of specialize in Dungeons and Dragons,
DMs Guild and DriveThruRPG. 
And I have a few print-on-demand
options; so, if you'd like a 
fancy hardcover, you can
buy one and print one off. 
But, for now, those are the two
places that they're available. 
I'm looking into
doing some web design 
and opening my own storefront,
maybe getting some stuff in like brick and mortar
stores as well; but it's a learning process,
making this up as I go.
--So, we talked a couple of years ago; and I know you were
doing some freelance writing. Was that also all D&D, or was it other
stuff too?
--Yeah, so I did Upwork for
for a while which is kind of like a talent scout
for basically any skill; but I did mostly 
writing, a little bit of editing
there, and I actually
was employed with one client there 
for about a year. I did
a relationship advice blog, actually. 
I reviewed dating websites;
and I basically said, you know, 
these are dating tips for divorced dads,
or dating tips for single dads or 
widows or, you know, stuff like that. So,
I did an article a week of that 
for about a year, which--
I didn't know this. 
Yeah, it was a wild ride.
I know I told you about Upwork, 
but I only did like two jobs; and you, like,
took it and ran with it. 
--Yeah, yeah. And
I just finished that in about January. 
I decided to focus more on my
business. But, I still love taking freelance jobs,
mixing them up a little bit; and, yeah, 
I've done everything from
like helping people write letters of recommendation to
helping them edit their thesis papers. 
So, I love the variety that I can find.
Let's talk a little bit about your 
transition to working from home. So you
had been working in the ministry, 
and I know you had moved
a couple of times. 
So, is it when you came back to your
current city in Austin that you decided to be the stay-at-home dad/freelancer?
Yeah, so we were in Winona
still at that time, where 
my wife was working at our
alma mater, that's a hard word to say, 
and I think I was at home there for
about a year, basically 
doing--I technically
started my business there. 
We moved back to Austin in 2018.
In May of 2018, and that's 
where I really started to
dedicate myself to making this a business, not just like a side gig.
Right. 
--Yeah. 
So, at this point, do you
feel like you would label yourself as a stay-at-home dad or a working dad or kind of like a
stay-at-home working dad?
--Yeah, I kind of feel like I have three
jobs, like I am a 
small business entrepreneur.
I'm a stay-at-home dad; and I'm, 
to some extent, a housekeeper and teacher
as well. 
--Right.
--A bit of everything. Yeah.
So, I'd say I'm all three of those things.
--I feel it, because I think like when I
would drop my kids off at school, 
I would be in the parking lot, and I was
able to volunteer, and 
kind of do all the same things as my
stay-at-home friends, 
my stay-at-home mom friends were doing;
but I was waking up at 
2:15 in the morning to be able to work
full time and like working 20 hours on the weekend. And, so
It's almost like you're living a double life sometimes.
Yeah. And especially, like, liking my job.
It started off as recreation for me.
I have to be very deliberate about putting it away. Sometimes I'll
work on the weekend; 
but I try to be very deliberate
about being present, when I could
easily work 60 hours a week and enjoy it,
you know, setting those boundaries is difficult.
--So, you're one of those people
who--it was like your hobby; and, then, you started getting paid for it,
and it's not like you want to just 
put your work away at the end of the day,
it's also your fun. 
--Yeah, so I mean I'll be
like, I need to be productive today, there's
things I need to do; but if I'm bored, 
and I don't know what to do, like,
I'll naturally gravitate towards doing some
work which is like a blessing and a curse at
the same time.
Yeah, not everyone can say that.
Not everyone feels that way about their job.
--I'm very lucky, and
I am intentional about that because 
of the way I felt about my jobs in the
past. I won't do anything that I am not in love with.
So, there you go. So, let's talk a little bit
about when you started working from home.
I guess--what were some of the challenges that you remember
from when you first started working from home, 
I know you had kind of a gradual
transition, but can you just talk 
about some of those challenges?
Yeah, I think, the biggest challenge was not
swinging too far to be just like, 
"Oh, I'm at home, I can relax all
the time." Like, I think when Mena was first born,
I played a lot of video games with her 
like right next to me in the bouncer.
It was really hard to get into
the mentality of "this is a 
place where I can get work done."
You know, there's days
there's days when I can choose to sleep in,
and then there's days when I need to get up early. I think
I think not relishing in that freedom, 
not abusing that freedom, was my biggest
challenge. Because I've always kind of, early in
my life, I always kind of tended towards procrastination
and being a little slothful.
--Preach.
--Yeah, it probably runs in the family.
So, it was setting that
routine and those schedules and 
finding ways to motivate myself to work, even if
I loved my job. You know, 
once it becomes your job, even
though you like it, like "Oh, I should be procrastinating from
my job, because that's just what people do."
So that has taken four years
and is still in process. And, every time 
my life changes, I have
to readjust. So, just setting those
routines and schedules has been probably the greatest challenge.
Who determines your production schedule? Is it something that
you just kind of do as you think of it? 
Or do you
have any time demands or deadlines?
--Yeah, so when I take
jobs from clients, they'll typically 
have deadlines; but I
can choose not to take jobs from clients. 
I just end up
getting paid less which is, you know, 
I'm free to do. But other
than that, like when I'm making my own material,
I set the deadlines; and I try to be aware of my team's mental health and the
fact that life has to come first and,
you know, trying to kind of be the boss 
I wish I always had.
Yeah, so, for the most part, 
I'm in control of my schedule.
You know, within reason; 
because we have to eat and pay rent.
Let's talk about your team for a minute. 
You just mentioned a team.
Now, how do you divide the labor, 
who's in charge? How does that work?
Yeah, so I basically act as the project manager and creative director
which usually leaves me doing all the things like budgeting
and HR and marketing. I pretty much just take on all those, and
then I seek out other freelancers and other
contractors; but I kind of work with the same ones a lot, as well as
kind of bringing in newbies every once in a while to kind of
train them into the industry. 
But I typically find people to do the
stuff that I don't like doing. So, you know,
I like writing, I can write; but I prefer to like just do the more visionary and
creative work; so I find writers. I find people to do like the layout, the
putting all the words on the page and stuff; 
because I definitely cannot do
that. And I find artists, because I
cannot draw. People won't 
buy stuff with stick
figures. So, yeah, I look for things to fill
the holes of stuff that I don't like to do, because
it's worth paying people for that.
--So, I've heard people say that you should
delegate the things that you are bad at 
and you hate and then you delegate the
things that you are good at but you don't like.
So, do feel like you're to that point, at this point?
Yeah, I'd say that's that's a good summary of where I'm at.
--And then the next step
I think is to delegate the things that you're good at
and you enjoy, but they're low value tasks.
Yeah, that's a good way to put that. 
--That's probably where I'm headed.
Good. So, let's talk about right now some challenges--
not challenges--do you have any current frustrations or things?
I know that you're in a transition right now with
your daughter's school. What are some frustrations that you deal with
now, compared to when you started?
--Well, managing people, I didn't have
to do that when I started; 
because I was doing everything myself.
So, I am learning. I don't have a degree or training in project management.
I'm learning it all as I go, and I have to deal with
people's, you know, having to take time off for
this crazy world that we live in; and I need to take time off for that, too.
And, just, I'm at the point now where I'm working
too much. So, part of the challenge is knowing when
to walk away and just spend time 
with my daughter, spend time
with my wife, and then just 
running a business in a
time when people are strapped for money is also a little difficult but,
yeah, we'll make it through.
--Absolutely. What about--
let's talk about your office space; and
how do you manage, like, ergonomics 
and just, you know, having a child in the
home while you're working? 
Can you talk about that for a little bit?
Yeah, so I don't have my own office space.
That privilege belongs to my wife. She has occupied the third bedroom
upstairs which she can close off.
We made little signs,
different colors. So, red means 
"Go see Daddy, because 
Mommy can't be disturbed."
And that is the sign mostly on her door.
So, my wife has that space. 
I have, as you can see,
I'm basically right in our living room. I have a long
desk here where I set up my computer so I can
be even taking meetings or 
doing writing or whatever
while my daughter is in the living room,
 sometimes watching a movie
or playing iPad. Her school desk is 
right here to my left, so we kind
of will share the same workspace as we start school.
And then she does have a playroom downstairs 
which I can kind of just send
her down there if I need a little privacy; but,
for the most part, we decided that I needed to be
available and around. So part of my challenge is
learning how to multitask or also 
like just quickly shift between her
needs and my needs, and that took a while. Sometimes I can get half an hour
of work done. Sometimes I rapidly 
switch between five minutes of work,
five minutes her, five minutes work, 
which is not necessarily conducive to
productivity, but we get it done.
Do you find yourself
working at certain times of the day, 
like early in the morning before she
wakes up or after she goes to bed or do you guys
both have your same work hours? You and your daughter?
Yeah, so I usually try to get up before her. 
It doesn't always work.
Then, I try to get--basically, I work from like
7am to 11 o'clock. We hit lunch and, then, sometimes I'll either
keep working; or we'll spend some 
time together, or I'll do housework.
It kind of depends on her needs, 
like if she's in more of an independent
kind of mood, I'll go back to work.
 Otherwise, we'll, you know,
hang out together. 
Yeah, but we do have a basic routine.
Morning is Daddy's work time, and afternoon is housework or spending time
together. And, then, Mommy 
gets home; and Mommy
gets to spend time with her. Yeah. 
And as far as ergonomics,
I just got a new chair which is really nice.
I was, like, going to the chiropractor 
and massage therapist every week;
because I had this really like dinky unpadded chair without any
arm rests or something; and I'm 5' 3"; so, like, my feet were always
dangling. I just got this really nice chair, and I
can already tell that it's 
making a huge difference.
I'm also 5' 3". --Yeah.
--I'm in a chair that I got from 
back in my Mayo Clinic days.
We had a Goodwill [correction: Salvation Army] 
that was in Rochester, Minnesota;
and, every time Mayo Clinic would 
unload their old office equipment,
those of us who were going to be 
working remotely were able to go in and
swing in and get a chair 
that would be like
an $800 chair brand new; 
and we could get it for $10.
But the first one that I got was kind of wonky, 
and the second one I got is
probably 20-30 years old now. And that's 
what I'm sitting in now; so, I want to
hear more about your chair. 
Is it, like, fully adjustable?
Yeah, so it's like goes up and 
down like most chairs; and, then, you can like
swing the back up and back. 
It even like tilts a little bit, so the
back can be higher than the front. 
So my feet actually touch. It's like the
first chair I've ever had that 
my feet can actually touch the ground.
And it's got armrests which 
I haven't had in like four years.
Yeah, and I also have this 
thing on my desk to elevate my
laptop; so, if I want to stand, I can; and it keeps me from looking down
like this at my laptop.
--Do you keep your laptop
propped up, and do you have like an 
external keyboard, or how do you do that?
Yeah, so I keep it at about eye level,
so I'm looking up instead 
of down; and I have
an external keyboard and 
an external mouse; so, I'm not,
you know, sitting like this, trying to type. 
I work on a laptop, and I have two monitors
as well. So I do kind of crank 
my neck looking at my other
monitors sometimes. That's probably 
the next thing we'll figure out how to fix.
And then what about like getting 
a little bit of physical activity? Do you
just like go run outside with your kid for a little bit,
or what do you do?
--Yeah, so we have playtime together. We'll go for
a walk on her bike or stuff like that. 
But I have an
elliptical right back here, just a little--
like I could fit it under
my desk if I wanted to. I try to actually start my morning doing about 20 minutes
of that. And then, sometimes, you know, if I didn't get at it, if she
woke up early or something, I'll just do like five laps up and down the stairs really quick.
I make my son do that
when he's super hyper. I'm like, 
you go take five times up and down.
It is a good workout. 
I'm usually out of breath by the time I do it. I'm a
little out of shape, but yeah. 
So, just finding
what you have around to kind of 
stay in shape is important, because
you sit in a chair all day, and 
your muscles and bones get kind of
achy; and I try to avoid that.
--I think what I found is, when I used to work
on-site
i would have to park my car about seven
onsite, I would have to park my car about seven 
blocks away when I worked for Mayo Clinic;
and you don't really think about it. It's about an eight-minute walk.
And, then, at my lunch break, you know 
I was in downtown Rochester. I could
swing around to the bank and to the 
restaurants, and I could do a lap or two
on my breaks; and I probably 
was putting in quite a few miles
a day without even realizing it. 
When you're home, it's just like to the bed,
to the bathroom, to the kitchen; 
and I realize it now.
You said, elliptical, is it like a manual one, or is it
like a little foot one?
--Yeah, you just step into it, and it's
basically just big enough for my feet to fit. And,
yeah, you can like kind of crank up 
the resistance and stuff. I always do it on
the lowest.
--I feel like I've seen one--like, can you
actually be using it at your desk, 
like under your desk?
Yeah, I could put it under my desk. 
I have a little bar under my desk; so, it
wouldn't fit too well; but it is it is technically made to be under my desk.
Yeah, I'll have you send me the link for that so I can put it into the show notes.
Yeah.
--If people are curious? And your chair, too, 
because I am kind of in the market.
My husband just got a new desk 
and a new chair
provided by his company, 
and he was given like a $500 budget actually.
Oh wow.
--That included-- he could choose like 
monitor, chair, desk. Actually, the chair--
anyone who lived within 70 miles got the chair;
and, so, he was able to get like a standing desk
and a monitor with that money. 
I'm a little jealous,
because I'm in the closet; and he is in the bedroom.
So, when he's working onsite or when he's not
actually working, sometimes I sneak out and sit at his nice desk in his nice chair.
It's kind of nice. 
--Yeah. 
--Do you ever take over your wife's office?
I don't, she's got a lot of like inventory
and stuff. So, if I need a change of scene or if I need to hide from my kid,
I go lay in my nice queen size bed 
and just sit with my laptop there.
Been there, done that. 
--Yeah.
--Actually, I sometimes go
on my bed in order to be closer to my kid; 
because she's got her desk set up
next to my husband, like you 
and your daughter do.
And, then, I come in here when I need to be in a call.
Now, do you often do like conference calls or video calls, or is most of your
communication--how do you do it?
--I'd say 90%
is probably just via messaging apps, 
but I'm doing more
podcasts and phone calls and stuff 
as I get deeper
into project management. So, I usually just say "Hey, I'm in a
meeting. You have to go play iPad for a little
bit or go play in your play room and just
pretend like you're not here; 
and, miraculously,
it usually works.
--I can't believe it, because 
I have a five year old; and she's
literally the opposite of that.
--Yeah
Well, we got lucky.
--Let's talk about some of the tools you just talked about. You said
messaging apps. What kind of tools do 
you use as far--we just talked about,
like, ergonomics and like desk equipment and
physical exercise stuff; but let's talk about like
digital tools. What do you use?
Yeah. So, as far as messaging goes,
I usually use Discord. It's kind of 
the new kid on the block
for messaging. You can do voice; 
and it's almost like
it's almost like a forum, 
except for it doesn't
pin stuff very well. But you 
can have different channels and stuff.
It's very good for carrying 
on multiple projects
and conversations at once. 
So that's what I use mostly for
messaging. And, then, I use 
Google docs for pretty
much everything.
--I do too.
--Writing, editing.
Yeah, I just love Google Docs. 
And, then as far as actual like organization or
project management, I use Trello. Yep.
--Tell me, why do you like Trello?
It's just very streamlined, and it's 
very intuitive. Like, I don't need a lot of
bells and whistles. I've used stuff 
like Slack, or Airtable.
And those are great, but it's it's more than I need.
So, I just prefer to streamline it so I'm not
messing with or using a bunch of distracting tools that I don't need.
Right. Well, let me see here 
we've got a few more questions, and then I think we
can wrap things up. 
Okay. What are some
things that you would like to improve? 
I think you've mentioned a little bit,
in your work-from-home situation that would make, I know that we're in
a pandemic right now... 
Even so, what are some things that
you feel like will help you with that work-life balance.
Yeah, I think
remembering why I work from home. 
I work from home for the freedom,
for the ability to be around my 
daughter and provide her what she needs.
So, I think the times that I lose track of that
is when I tend to work more, ironically. 
So, just being better with that mindset.
And then I can guarantee that I will
need improvement in my 
time management
skills as school starts up.
--Oh yeah, it's a whole new ballgame.
Yeah, I'm like, excited and also like 
very, very worried about
not getting any work done. 
But we'll figure it out.
She's independent and stuff, so.
--Do you know if your online classes
for your daughter will have like a 
set meeting time every day, or is it
going to be kind of different all the time?
--Yeah. So, from what
I'm told, there's only two like 
online actual live
classes a week for half an hour 
twice a week. So, like, based
on what I heard about other schools, 
it's like we really lucked out there.
That just means I'm doing more of 
the hands-on teaching myself,
so it kind of a trade off.
--And some people would say 
you lucked out and some
people would say "What? I want 
my kid to be occupied more!"
Our daughter is getting about 
15 minutes in the morning, and we
haven't even had small groups 
developed yet; and it's been like five weeks.
So, when I signed her up for 
half-day kindergarten,
I didn't want to have to pay the extra $300 
a month for her to be in full-day
kindergarten and have to have 
me helping her for those extra hours. So,
I thought, if we just do the half day, it'll be really consolidated. She'll have
like all the learning in the morning, 
and I was envisioning two or three hours
of her on a computer every day, 
and it was like 15 minutes. 
--Yeah
So that just means that she's, like I said, 
she's not one that plays independently very
well; and she's like our little 
buddy right now, we're
hanging out a lot.
--Yeah, I'm sure it'll take some adjusting.
I'll give you one tip, if you can set 
recurring alarms
for those dates. --Yeah.
--I do a five-minute reminder, and a two-minute alarm that
goes off before the class. 
Because, in five minutes, you can get
distracted and forget what 
you were doing and that you need to log in,
trust me.
--Yep, I definitely could see that happening to myself.
Yeah. I will take that advice.
--So, you mentioned that you're getting some
housekeeping help. Is there 
anything else that would make
this a dream job for you? 
I know you're on your way.
Um, yeah. I guess just like 
getting more formal or professional
training for doing these jobs that I'm just kind
of making up on my own, or like 
having like a group of contacts
or something. Basically, 
like what you're
starting, a bunch of people 
in the same spot and
with various skills that, you know, 
we can kind of just
draw from or tap into as needed. 
I think that's very useful. I love--
Thank you for saying that! 
--Yeah. No, I'm super
excited about what you're doing. 
And I think
it's a huge help having those 
resources just all
in one place.
--Do you know other people who work from home?
Do a lot of the people that you 
freelance with, are they all?
Obviously, now, many people are. 
But did you have a community
at all of people who work, 
like you do, from home?
Yeah, I mean a bunch of them 
do this just as a side gig;
but, especially lately, 
a lot of them are home.
And a few of them do it full time like I do.
So, I do know a good crowd of 
people at home; but it's
not something that we talk about.
Like, I don't know why.
--You just talk about work, but you don't
talk about the lifestyle?
--I feel like people just kind of like
feel like they just have to deal with it and handle it on their own,
like they don't realize like what 
talking about it and
sharing their struggles is--how 
it's gonna help them
find people to empathize with or to, 
you know, give them legit advice
about, you know, your back 
doesn't have to hurt
working from home, 
or you don't have to get
distracted by Facebook every five minutes, I do
sometimes but...
--Have I told you my magic trick
about Facebook?
--No. Oh, yes, yes you did. 
--I did! Okay, I'll tell everyone else, though.
--Yeah. 
--So, I use Facebook a lot for
business, for multiple reasons, different
jobs I've had along--in the past, and currently now, and in the future,
just being part of like this 
community of entrepreneurs. But,
especially like, during the pandemic, 
and the news, and the school options, and all
the things that are going on, it's 
easy to get sucked in for like, what, four or
five hours! I mean, I'm not going to lie. 
I mean this happened.
Newsfeed Eradicator is a Chrome extension
you can use, and it basically hides your
timeline
your newsfeed--it hides your newsfeed
so that all you see is an inspirational quote.
And you can still use it. You can 
still search for, like if I want to go
check out Ryan, I can just 
type in your name,
and it'll bring me straight to your wall.
I can see what you've been up to. 
I can go to my groups. I can see my
notifications. I can see my messages. 
I can see all the things I need to see
except for the noise that distracts.
Yeah, the temptation is not there.
I do keep it on my phone, 
but I put a timer on my phone; 
--Perfect
I have an iPhone, so I use the Screen Time 
feature; and I put a limit, a time limit
of how much time, and it 
gives me a warning; and then I have to
put in a passcode. 
I have tried to train
myself that, when that warning 
goes off, to just opt out, to just
back out and just be like, "Oh, yeah, my time's up."
Unless I'm like literally in the 
middle of a conversation.
Yeah, yeah that's excellent advice,
I should follow it.
--It's helped me so much, 
and it just helps me have a lot more peace
during this time with people 
with so much noise and information,
and I still get to--oh, and also, 
another tip on Facebook, is to
mark the people who you really 
are interested in following as like your
"close friends" or to "see first" 
or to be notified when they do
post, so that your feed is filled with the,
maybe the more positive things 
that you want to see if you
feel like you're getting down 
into that rabbit hole of negativity.
So, that has also just helped me. 
I do see the stuff, but I don't see it as much.
Yeah, yeah. That's all excellent advice.
So, Ryan, how can people find you?
Well, I have Facebook, Twitter, 
and email. So you can
you can reach out to me on
 my personal Facebook account
at Ryan.Langr, I think, is the Facebook. 
You can reach out to
at Ryan.Langr, I think, is the Facebook. You can reach out to
name in there, or you can email me 
at realmwarpmedia@gmail.com, and I'm always
happy to take questions about working from home
or take your editing or writing commissions
if you want to pay me, you know. All that stuff.
--Did you mention a website? Did I miss that?
I do have a website, yes. It is
realmwarpmedia.carrd.co.
And we should probably just mention
that Langr doesn't have an E in it, because I lived with that name for 31 years.
It's LANGR. L-A-N-G-R.
--Yes.
It was Czechoslavkian or something from over there.
Yeah, they took out the E for some 
reason; it doesn't make sense, but it
makes us unique.
--Yes, it's easier to find you when you can
spell it right.
--Yes.
--Well, thank you Ryan. Is there
anything else that you want to share 
with people that might inspire people
who are getting started 
or to encourage those
that are in the middle of it, working from home?
--Yeah, yeah, I think,
if you can work from home, if you can justify
it financially, you know, take the leap and do it. It's definitely an adjustment, but
but the amount of freedom that you have
 and the amount of flexibility that you have
is worth it and just commit to training yourself to getting
into those good habits, and, 
you know, it can
you can even improve a job 
that you don't like.
Yes, just go for it. 
Right. I had a job with Mayo Clinic that I didn't enjoy
when I was onsite, 
but when it allowed me to move to a new
city where I could keep my same job and my
benefits and my higher base rate that I had from working for
a Minnesotan company when I lived in another state that had a lower cost
of living, they also had lower pay. And, so, I was able to live in a nicer house
Yeah, that makes sense, right? 
Yeah, I was able to live in a nicer
house than I could have in Minnesota.
--Yeah, because you moved
to a more affordable area.
--Yep. Now, with you, you are an entrepreneur; and,
so, you do have that time flexibility. 
Some people who work from home
don't. They have to still clock in. 
Have you ever had that experience of having
to work for another employer 
at certain hours or anything like that?
When I had a real job, yeah, 
but never from home, no.
I could see how that would 
make it a little more difficult,
and I do understand that 
a lot of people like the
sociability that they get at work. 
So I think if you are working from home and
you crave that kind of interaction, 
definitely find some
way to do that via through 
Zoom meetings or, you know,
keeping a text app open or whatever, as long as
your employer is okay with that; but working from home doesn't have to mean isolation.
Or starting a hobby, a local 
hobby with like real people. 
--Yeah. Yeah.
What do you do?
Well, I don't really need friends.
You and my husband--no, I'm kidding.
--No, that's not true.
Yeah, that might be one 
area where I need
to work in. But I'm really 
quite happy with just
my wife and daughter 
for the most part; and,
for the most part, 
I really enjoy my coworkers;
because it's a naturally fun job, 
so I will spend some time talking with
them most days, going off on tangents that
aren't work related. But, it fulfills 
that social need; and I
think
i think that's great you know you you
think that's great. You know, you gather 
around the coffee pot or the water cooler
at work; so why not do that at home?
--Right, and you
said you had the D&D going for a while, too.
Yeah, yeah, and I play with my colleagues, occasionally.
Awesome. 
--Yeah.
--Well, thank you so much for being here; and
I think we'll call this a wrap.
 Thank you so much, Ryan.
Thank you for having me. It was a blast. 
And say hi to Grandma if you see her soon.
I will try. 
--Thank you so much.
