At Locus, we’re proud to be more than just a coworking space—we’re a meeting point for people from all over the world, each with their own unique story and spark. Meet Tyler and Brady, who have been Locus members for about two years and whose friendship began right here in our community space. This is a story of how two American guys found their way to Prague and Locus Workspace.
Tyler: After working seasonal jobs in the States for a couple of years, I decided to follow my lifelong dream and move to Europe. I got a contract to teach English in Spain, but then I met a Czech girl and ended up moving to Ostrava, Czech Republic, instead of Sevilla, Spain. I lived there for a year and there was just no international scene, it was really difficult to meet people. I stuck it out for a year and then ended up moving to Spain to fulfill that plan that I had abandoned. It was there that I started making YouTube videos, and that was kind of my introduction into marketing, growing a YouTube channel. I’d studied marketing, but this was an opportunity to put the theory into practice. And then I ended up getting a job in marketing, which allowed me to move to Prague. Prague’s been great. There’s a great international community. I mean for the first eight months or so, having a remote job, I tried to work from home, and I was really struggling to meet people, but then I came to Locus, and coming here changed everything. I made a ton of friends here.
Brady: Similar to Tyler, I moved to Prague because of a Czech girl I met in Salt Lake City. For me, I didn’t have much change in my job. I was already working on a global team, and it kind of made sense just to move here. Half the company was in the UK, half was in the US, and some of the others just stragglers all around the world. They just asked me to open a business in Prague, and it was simple enough, so that’s the route I took. And very similar to Tyler, at first I didn’t know anybody in Prague, I didn’t speak any of the language. I had no idea where to go, or what the right place was. I tried a few other co-working spaces but just didn’t like them. So ultimately, I came to Locus on one of the free days. And it just made sense. There were a lot of people with a similar job to me, and they were nice, fairly youthful, so it felt right to keep coming here.
Tyler: I work in marketing. I’ve been with the same company for the past three years, but they’re kind of an umbrella company. They own a bunch of different software products, so I’ve moved around. My role has changed, and the products I focus on have changed. I now work with the product called Touch Stay, which offers different digital guidebooks. On a daily basis, I’m in control and in charge of managing all the content, so I work with writers to make sure that they’re producing articles. I edit their articles. I also make changes on the site and create new landing pages, links, that type of stuff.
Brady: I do consulting for software engineering, generally cloud-based software engineering. It’s a lot of back-end work, but also a lot of automation for business processes and stuff like that. I’ve been doing that for five years now, getting close to six. In the past, I have also had a few other projects, the main one being Živno.cz, which I kind of built for myself, and then a few other people have been using it as well. It’s an invoicing platform for freelancers here in the Czech Republic. It does a lot of things for you that normal invoicing software doesn’t do, or at least doesn’t do specifically for Czech compliance and regulations. You can send invoices in Czech and English, as well as in multiple different currencies, it helps you track your clients, your payments, expenses, things like that.
Tyler: I think we differ on this with Brady. I really hate working from home. I only come here (editor: to Locus) two days a week now, but then those other days I work from the other office I have access to. So that’s been massive for my productivity. I get anxious at home.
Brady: I think we do differ a bit on that. I like to work from home, but also I can’t work from home every day. I need to go out and socialize. Locus is a nice place to talk to people, you just end up talking to people all the time, generally. Another thing is that you meet a lot of people who are freelancers and are in a similar position to you, so they’re very like-minded. You get to see people from all different types of work, who generally have this kind of business mindset, and so you can really discuss many different types of topics with people here. As well as language exchange, which kind of comes with it – we have some language days at Locus (editor: language lunches, where the conversations are held only in a selected language).
I remember when I first started coming here, I just wanted to meet some people, some freelancers, and then from there you get involved with more things, like padel, climbing…. You also meet a lot of people who just travel in general, so if you’re going somewhere…at least one or two people have probably already been there before, and you can ask them for advice.
Tyler: There’s that. You also meet potential travel buddies. Most people have a lot of flexibility in their schedules, and so they are very spontaneous with their trips here.
Tyler: There have been a lot of memorable events, but I remember one time, it was like a year and a half ago, there was a guy in town just for a few weeks from Mexico, and he organized an entire barbecue and cooked Mexican street tacos for us, with margaritas as well. It was so good.
Brady: Yeah, that was nice. Also, the barbecue last year was really nice. I think there were like 25-30 people here and just tons of barbecue.
Tyler: It depends on the season, but even throughout the day I like to go for walks. Prague is a very walkable city, so I like to go to Riegrovy Sady, one of the nearby parks. Or if I go home, I like to go for runs in the evening. Sometimes we go climbing after work.
Brady: Yeah, it depends on the season. I’d say in the summer, going for walks as well. I also walk a lot, especially because there’s a lot of green space in Prague, so it’s really nice. Near my place, there’s a park, which is super peaceful. It takes like 40 minutes to go for the walk. I also like to paint. Read a book.
Brady: It feels kind of crazy to just move to a different country. If you really think about it, especially coming from the US, because a lot of people don’t leave the US, it feels crazy. Maybe it doesn’t feel so crazy now, but at the time it felt very wild, it felt scary to go abroad. To kind of take your whole life and put it somewhere else and know that you’re actually not planning to move back. Like there’s no return flight, right? You just go, and it’s indefinite, and you don’t really know what’s going to happen on the other side, maybe you stay there or you go somewhere else, but it’s a lot of unknown.
Tyler: Yeah, moving abroad is a massive leap, especially the first time. When I moved to Korea to teach English, I knew nothing about Korea. I didn’t know anyone—that was pretty crazy, and I didn’t stay there long because that was too crazy, I think. So I went to Alaska and started doing these seasonal jobs. Also, not to, like, start flexing on accomplishments, but Brady has run a marathon.
Brady: Yeah, I ran a marathon two years ago now. Wow, it feels like forever ago, two years…
Tyler: I also walked the Camino de Santiago, and walking for a month does seem pretty crazy as well. That was the only goal each day – to just wake up and walk 30 kilometers on average. Maybe drink a couple of Kanyes along the way.
Tyler: For so long, I only ever stayed in a place for a few months or maybe a year, and it’s been a different kind of challenge to continue to invest in one place. Brady’s been much better about learning Czech than I have, but I did recently start taking Czech lessons, and I think that the more you commit to being in a place, the more rewarding it can be. It sounds kind of cheesy, but you can have a fuller life if you’re committed to being somewhere for a while. Because when you’re just drifting around, you can be in so many different settings, but it can all start to feel the same. And when you know you’re leaving the place, then in my own experience I start to just look ahead, and I don’t really appreciate the place I’m in.
Brady: I like Czechia, I plan to stay here. I’ve been learning Czech, and I think that’s one of the big barriers in general — most people stay in Prague and they just don’t learn Czech. But once you do learn Czech and you can actually interact with people outside of Prague, it can be really fun, because I think Czech people are a lot warmer than they appear on the outside. Also, another goal for me this year would be to do a triathlon…probably in August or early September.
Tyler: My favorite book is ‘’Norwegian Wood’’ by Haruki Murakami. Big fan! Why? I was in Japan six years ago, and I still constantly talk about it. Japanese culture is just fascinating to me. The book is set in Japan, and everything about it is just very nostalgic, but the writing style is really good too.
Brady: I have a hard time with favorites of any. Right now I’m also reading ‘’Norwegian Wood’’ and I really like the author’s writing style. If I had to pick a film, I can’t pick one…but the ‘’Lord of the Ring’’ trilogy I have probably seen more times than I should have, I really like the series.
Tyler: Yeah, I’m not good with favorites either, but a Norwegian film, ‘The Worst Person in the World,’ is what I’ve been saying is my favorite film for the past couple of years.
Brady: Teleportation. I mean, I think about it most of the time when I’m super tired. I would just love to open a little portal for myself and go home and be in my bed quickly.
Tyler: Teleportation is hard to beat, it’s really good. Superpower…I like taking photos, but I hate having to take a camera everywhere. So if I could just capture the image…without a camera, but still get a digital file, that would be nice.
Interview conducted by Locus’s Community Manager Stella Saul
By Noemi Nacci, Community Manager Intern Coworking spaces have become an increasingly common alternative to traditional offices, especially for freelancers,...
Prague has quietly turned into one of Europe’s favorite spots for freelancers, and it’s not hard to see why. Between...
