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Digital Nomad Stories
Digital Nomad Stories
Embracing the Sun-Soaked Digital Nomad Life: Productivity and Community in Paradise
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Join my conversation with remote product manager and digital nomad Abdi Bedel. We talk about nomad destinations, avoiding cold winters, slow travel, and working as a remote product manager.
Connect with Abdi:
- travelwithabdibedel.com
- @travelwithabdibedel on instagram
Connect with Anne:
- Leave a review or voice message at digitalnomadstories.co
- On instagram @annes_nomadstory
- Learn more about my business: The Podcast Babes
Digital Nomad Interview With Abdi Badal
Speaker 1Hey , nomads , welcome to Digital Nomad Stories , the podcast . My name is Anne Claessen and , together with my co-host , kendra Hasse , we interview digital nomads . Why ? Because we want to share stories of how they did it . We talk about remote work , online business , location and dependency , freelancing , travel and , of course , the digital nomad lifestyle . Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes ? Visit digitalnomadsdoriesco . Alright , let's go into today's episode . Hello , hello , nomads , welcome to a new episode of Digital Nomad Stories . Today , I'm here with Abdi Badal . He is a product manager and digital nomad , of course , and he's here today to share his digital nomad story with us . I'm very excited to learn more about his travel lifestyle and , of course , also where he is now . Abdi , welcome to the show .
Speaker 2Thank you well , thanks for having me on . Yeah , excited to have a nice little chat .
Speaker 1Yeah , me too . So where are you now ?
Speaker 2Currently I'm actually in Dominican Republic . Awesome very cool . Yeah , dominican Republic . So I'm here for a month or so . We're spending Christmas and New Year's here with a few friends that are joining me as well . So , yeah , that's the plan for now . See what January brings .
Speaker 1Cool , so it will be a very tropical Christmas .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Love it .
Speaker 2It's been quite a few years since I've had a cold Christmas .
Speaker 1Ah nice .
Speaker 2And it's my husband . Tropical Christmas is for the last few years .
Speaker 1Yeah , do you avoid the more winter temperatures and winter in general ?
Speaker 2I keep making this joke to Peter , but I just used to believe in winter anymore in my life . I just don't want to shed the season , but soon as they had to winter in Europe , I always seemed to fly off on extended periods and some more tropical . I'm trying to enjoy that and the sun .
Speaker 1Yeah , same year , though I don't like winter , so I also definitely around October , november at the latest . It's like okay , I got to get out of here , can't do that . Yeah , on a sense . So yeah , to give you context , I'm in Spain , the Canary Islands . Actually I'm in on Gran Canaria at the .
Speaker 2Moment .
Speaker 1So , yeah , yeah , I was here two years ago because I literally googled warmest place in Europe in winter and it's the Canary Islands . So here we are .
Speaker 2Nice . Is this the first time . Are you based there for the whole year or do you just go there on October time ?
Speaker 1So this is my second time here . I was here two years ago for a few weeks and then now I came back for slightly longer . But , yeah , not necessarily based here , at least not yet but I really like it . I'm thinking about coming back again because the weather is just literally perfect it's not too hot , it's not too cold , it's sunny most days , there's lots to do and to see on the island , even though it's a small island . So , yeah , I really like it here .
Speaker 2Nice . Yeah , no , I'm up here . I think I'm going to be heading to Spain and setting up a bit of a base in Barcelona as well , make sure next year . So I can fully understand why you chose Spain . It's the kind of warmest place in Europe . I mean really good quality of living .
Speaker 1Yeah , and the culture ?
Speaker 2You really can't go wrong . Yes , the culture is a lot of attention . You can't really go wrong with it .
Speaker 1Exactly yes . So what brought you to the Dominican Republic this time ? Why the Dominican Republic ?
Speaker 2So Dominican , specifically , was more a choice with my friends , where every year we have a tradition for seven , eight years almost now we fly to somewhere for New Year's , and me obviously always working in the sun and trying to escape the European winter . I left back in October , I think it was , and now I spent a while in Colombia and Costa Rica and then I'm just trying to spend a month here , and I have a thing where I stay , taste tend to stay in countries for a month or more in order to fully explore the country and travel slowly . That's a really big , big , big factor for me . I want to travel slowly because I want to make sure I'm still working . It's very , very easy to get slipped into holiday mode and just continues to try to explore country and we can not get any work done . So I just get here early and just really take my time and enjoy myself , and while still continuing you know work , etc . Yeah , exactly .
Speaker 1No , I totally hear you . It's very , very easy to just do all the things , except for work .
Product Management and Remote Work
Speaker 1So you work as a product manager , right ? Can you tell me more like ? What does that look like ? Are you employed ? Are you freelance ? Do you have your own business ? Yeah , what does that look like exactly ?
Speaker 2I do see things . Yeah , so I'm currently employed through a consulting company . We work with different clients throughout the world , so working being in the Caribbean or sexy quite convenient , because my clients is now American we've got American time zones , a lot of them , so it makes it a lot easier for me . But , yeah , that's working out quite well . And yeah , for anyone who doesn't know , product management is helping , you know , ruin software . It's just really helping companies build products , software products . I'm looking at you know the many different layers to it , but it's really scaling up products , looking at how the customers , the end users , use the products and building , getting the requirements and actually launching and looking at the market and the promotion as well , and then working cross-club collaboration across the organization and to ensure that launches and , yeah , in close .
Speaker 1So making software products successful . Basically , why would you say that in one sentence ? That's it , okay , yeah , very cool .
Speaker 2Yeah , so it's been doing that for a while , and then at the same time I'm also running a travel blog website as well . One into the mini started started around four months ago , so now I'm slowly starting to be a bit of traction . But I've been wanting to share my stories for a while now . So , yeah , it's getting onto the blogging now and sharing stories etc and anything else , so that's actually gained quite well as well .
Speaker 1Awesome , very cool . And do you work your product management job ? Is that a full-time job or is it part-time , like what is the kind of time that you spend on product management versus on blogging ?
Speaker 2It's full-time , the product management , especially within product management , there's some jobs which I'm probably better suited , I would say , for remote , because it requires they have more flexibility in meetings . So , working as a product manager , I own on this kind of spaces , va although you have to lock your thing remotely , there's a lot of meetings you have to attend , so I'm a bit restricted in terms of my meetings and I kind of work , try to work around that on my day-to-day work . I do that in my own time . Actually getting work done is kind of is very flexible and then I really just make time for my blogging when I have fun in my own kind of calendar or planner , missing activities I need to do each week and I make sure I schedule them , not blogging and maintaining on the extra job of things I need to do .
Speaker 1Okay , so do you usually just work product management probably then Monday to Friday , like regular business hours for you right now , because you're in the same time zone as clients and then do you work on the weekend at all or Monday to Friday more .
Speaker 2I said , the idea of Monday to Friday on 9 to 5 goes out the window .
Speaker 2I think most of the channels would say that it should work when you feel productive and finding a little routine wherever you are .
Speaker 2So sometimes example when I was in the weekends I would start maybe I become an early riser recently , so I would start maybe 5 , 6 , be on my laptop , work till 11 , 10 , 11 , go out , have breakfast , lunch , maybe , do some exercise early in the morning and then I would kind of go back to my laptop or two and do some more work and then if I wanted to do an activity or an excursion in any day of the week , I would then make sure I had the morning off , do my activity and then go back to work in the afternoon . So it's really just you know , you know what you need to do , you know what you need to get done , and then just trying to plan in advance and then just do whatever works for me . Just again , why I like to stay in places for a long time because it just takes a few days just to find that little routine , find out the good cafes . Where can I work , where can I have quiet zones where I can actually do meetings , etc .
Speaker 1Yeah , absolutely so . Do you usually work from cafes , like you mentioned , or also a lot from your accommodation ?
Speaker 2It depends on what work I'm doing . So if it's meetings , I usually either will do cafe and one of my testing , you know , key like always noise-tensoring headphones , really good noise-tensoring headphones , so you can work on cafes and you have a little bit of flexibility . Yeah , if it's one or two meetings , I'll be from a cafe . If I have a day back-to-back meeting for two or three , two or three hours , I will turn to either do it in the call-working space or just in my accommodation , and as soon as I'm kind of finished with that , I'll then close the laptop , go out for a little bit off the screen . So it depends on the work I'm doing . And if it's just no meetings , I'll probably go to like a beach location and somewhere nice where there's a breeze and I'm just sitting there and have a beer and do some work .
Speaker 1More relaxed . Yeah , that sounds like cool .
Speaker 2Yeah , I love more relaxed .
Speaker 1It's so funny that you're taking meetings from cafes , because I always avoid cafes from meetings . So we have exactly the opposite strategy there , which is so funny Outcome . Yeah , so I always feel , like many of the especially client meetings that I have we're going quite deep into , like there are strategies and stuff . I do podcast strategy so , and then I feel like everyone can hear me , you know , just blabbing on about podcast strategy . That makes sense . So I always feel like people are not listening to me , just like I don't know chatting with clients . So like sometimes I do shorter meetings or internal meetings in a cafe where I know that I will not be talking that much , but especially like one-on-one client meetings that are usually also 45 minutes , I always I don't know I always feel a little bit yeah .
Speaker 2It's interesting because I look at it from the perspective of if I have one hour or half an hour meeting and I kind of want to do some work before and after , I don't really like to work in my room or my house where I'm staying . Unless I have to , I like to get out .
Speaker 1I'm all okay okay , it's .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's not maybe the ideal place to have a meeting in a cafe , but it's just one half an hour meeting , I can bear it . Yeah , I never thought about it . I don't even listen to anything . I'm so focused . That's what I'm doing . I'm just . Yeah , that's good , though . Yeah .
Speaker 1No , that's good that you're so focused and I think , like you mentioned , noise-canceling headphones , they work really well for that , because you're literally in the zone and you won't hear all the cafe noises , which is done , definitely very good .
Speaker 1I always tend to do more creative work at cafes . So if I have to write something , or if there's something just incredibly boring that I need to get done , then I go to a cafe and then I give myself like , okay , I'm going to sit here now for 30 minutes , I'm going to drink this coffee , I'm going to do this work and then I leave . So at a really short time , just literally one coffee at a cafe , so that I have that , you know , literally time block .
Speaker 2That's interesting . So you would you say you use that as a technique or when you need to get things done that might be tedious or just you know , time consuming change the CD-rate ?
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly yeah .
Speaker 2I used to exactly ask the same motivation throughout my day , because the concentration and things like start off in the morning in one location and it could just be like the local cafe where I just work from , do some work , and then you could just be in my room , and then in the afternoon I'll always go somewhere else .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2When it's a bit later , maybe back home because of the time difference is like okay , now I don't have me to just do my own thing and it goes a bit nicer , a bit more louder place . Interesting , interesting . Yeah , pretty cool .
Speaker 1Well , interesting that we also have so different work styles and different approaches to work . I'm also I'm a big fan of routine . So what you said that flexibility , I sometimes take that , but I very much like Monday to Friday , even though I don't have to . But I still like to stick to Monday to Friday because otherwise I tend to not take breaks at all . So you know I tend to keep going , so I always stick to that and also some work hours that work well for me , so I'm not too flexible , also in the hour that I work . So that's pretty interesting , I think you know , for when you're listening , this is a great example of you can really choose what works for you and it can be very different .
Speaker 2Yeah . Yeah , it's one of the noxious things . I'm being a . No matter . We have to freedom to choose what works for us without we see some restrictions . The key thing is we have the choice of working for what we want to do . You think that's the best way to work over the next long , definitely .
Speaker 1So has anything changed in the past few years of nomadding , like maybe in your work style or pace of travel ? Probably , I think you know most people slow down after a while . But what has changed for you in the past few years ?
Speaker 2What's changed to me in the past two years ? I think the way I travel has where look at Savali has changed a lot Over the last couple of years . I've started to slow down more and more and more over , you know , over time , especially valuing I think I mentioned earlier the importance of staying in places for longer time periods .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Because it's getting into the routine and getting things done . And now I'm actually going to step further of having a base for the first time in four or five years and establishing myself somewhere so I can for a couple of years I'm still going to do my traveling well , limited to kind of one month , three months or the odd holiday here and there . But it's really important , yeah , I think , not getting caught up in the nomad experience of continuously traveling , working from a different location every week , because from my personal experience I felt it's getting my productivity in many ways and just keep finding kind of those new social groups , social entities , so more , it's just a bit longer and then just go away for the weekends or the week or three or three months and then come back and continue working .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , no , I definitely agree with you
Slowing Down as a Digital Nomad
Speaker 1and I've . It's very interesting also to see across all these interviews that I'm doing with digital nomads I would say most people . I have never had anyone on the podcast who said oh yeah , I am traveling faster now than at the start . Now everyone is like I'm slowing down , it was too fast . It was too fast , I need to stay more in one place . So that's yeah , that's very funny to see , and same experience here , and I'm even slowing down to two or three months in one location now because I feel like one month is still quite short , because one month , yeah , yeah , when you work five days a week , then one month means that you have four weekends , which is not a lot , you know . Yeah , four weekends is something , yeah , yeah , it's , it's .
Speaker 2It's really isn't a lot . And yeah , when you break it down like that , like four weekends , oh , then you want to travel to the other places the side of the country , and then you've got to leave like on a Friday afternoon and come back maybe on a Sunday , and it's like I don't have a lot of time at all .
Speaker 2Yeah , and it really isn't a lot of time .
Speaker 2So I I'm fully ready and I think , first of all , I taste of it when I was in Bali and I was there for five weeks and I was like , oh , I much rather pick this , and it's also easy to build connections with people .
Speaker 2You know , building an , building a network of people around you that you can kind of also socialize , because I think that's , that's another big thing for , you know , first of all , to myself and I think probably not a lot of other nomads , is the social side of having to continuously build and invest energy into meeting new people and creating new connections . It's amazing as it is , you know , if you're traveling to a new place every two weeks , it really drains your social batteries very quickly and makes you kind of more isolate yourself , which I can create , loneliness and things . And you know another thing Staying in non-veteran , building those connections and those really tight bonds and networking as well . So it has a lot of benefits If you are traveling and you don't have any time limits . That's really . I think everyone will come . Hopefully , most of you come to the same conclusion .
Speaker 1Yeah , absolutely . So . Where do you usually meet people that also connect with ? Really well , where are the like-minded people for you ?
Speaker 2It depends . So , like I really trying to seek out over the last year to start to seeking out a lot more people in digital nomad groups . So , for example , in Mideen , when I was in Columbia , they have a massive , massive , expand digital nomad community . There's like hundreds of WhatsApp . There's a WhatsApp for just AI , you know entrepreneurs , everything you want , and it's really good because they always do meet lots .
Speaker 2And he went more from you know me kind of going out to meet your hostels . That's just kind of mutual style where you're like you know your backpacker , your traveler , you're like , oh , let me go to a hostel and meet people . I've switched a lot more my attention to looking at those WhatsApp groups and meetup groups and stuff like that so I can meet locals . It's , you know , it's amazing as it is to meet people in hostels . You usually get the I'm leaving tomorrow , I'm leaving in a few days , and you know they're gonna be so busy .
Speaker 2So it's , you're just , you're not compatible in the sense of the way you're traveling on your lifestyle . So meeting locals is a lot more of a better experience . I'm loving it so much more over the last year . They are , you know , they're there , you guys can do things together . You have similar schedules , luckily , and similar budgets also , so you can afford to do a little bit nicer things as well . So it's yeah , it's kind of how I try to meet people now . It's really really trying to find communities online and there's so many of them , so many .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I think meetups are a great strategy to meet people with similar interests , because everyone is there for the same reason , right ? If it's AI , entrepreneurs and they're all , they all have that in common , so it's so easy to connect because you have that topic in common . Yeah , so yeah , definitely . And do you also pick places specifically for the community , for example Medellin ? I mean , it's very famous now also as a visual normal hotspot . Was that one of the reasons why you wanted to go .
Speaker 2No , I went Medellin a few years ago and I just absolutely can love it . But and I still , you know , I absolutely love it and , yeah , I was looking to move there as well . So , like I love Medellin , and then the digital normal community was a massive bonus , one of the you know , one of the two kind of selling points for me . Oh , absolutely , I really see myself staying here . So I would highly recommend going to Medellin .
Speaker 2But I think before I go to a location , I look it up if it is a digital , not if I'm going on my own , if it is got a digital normal community , where the digital normal communities are . For example , when I was coming here to San Juan , dominican , I had the first two weeks and I kind of looked up where is the digital normal communities . And sometimes you may not find it's easiest in Medellin , where you just find what's at rooms at Y , x , y , z and everything is right there in front of you . It's a little bit more difficult , but you know you put the FA in , you'll definitely look on the expats , but yeah , you just go . Before you go , look at the areas and then trying to stay in some of those areas so you can be closer to them .
Speaker 1Yeah , doing some research .
Speaker 2Yeah , definitely a little bit of research of where it was specifically aimed at , where digital nomads are , rather than saying where to stay in general , where for digital nomads communities or expat communities .
Speaker 1Yeah , can you take us back to when you decided you know what I want to travel , I want to be a digital nomad , let's go . When was it exactly , and can you kind of walk us through that situation , like what was going on ?
Speaker 2I think it was a combination of a couple of things . I started my first holiday and I went traveling and I , you know , I said everyone else you have to travel by and I love this . I went on a trip three year old and my friend . And then a second trip , I went on a solo trip . I went to Malaysia and I , you know , I was just loving it so much and I was just meeting so many people that was like , oh , you know , we're traveling with an unknown end date and I was like I would love to do that . I'm only here 10 years , 10 years , 10 years . I would love to be here for 3 months or 2 years , or at least not have an end date .
Speaker 2And then I started working towards that you know kind of it , relaxed in the you know big kind of show no really passion . And then was during lockdown , I think , when my mind said just completely switched and I think that probably a lot of people the same I was in a room and I was working on my room . We didn't have an other shared house or we didn't have a living room in , and so you're working from living , working from your room or sleeping in your room and chilling in your room and it's literally , you know , like one must be interesting , like , yeah , it's just insanity . So I was like no , this can't be . Yeah .
Speaker 2And then I see other people just chilling on a beach and I was like I have to find a way to see how I can do that . So I really , you know , went for it and I , yeah , was very specific in the jobs I was picking because I knew what I wanted . So I was willing to sacrifice salary and other things to have this lifestyle because I appreciated this more . And you know , once you get into it and you start meeting people and you start building up your career , you can definitely get those perks back . But you just really have to look out what you actually want location , freedom , or you prefer , you know , higher pay salary yeah you know another product .
Speaker 2So that's , that's kind of what it came down to me , and after after a while you will get both , but at some point you have to probably sacrifice one of them in your future to get started .
Speaker 1I absolutely agree with you , and that's not something that I knew when I started Nomadding . It was also a few years before the big Nomad Wave , you know . So I think now there's probably also a lot more content and a lot of more people sharing about this , but I initially thought a remote career , this is not gonna be possible for me , you know . So I just I have to choose . It's either a career or travel and digital Nomadding , and I agree with you , it's both absolutely possible . But there are steps that you need to take to get there , and it's for many people difficult to take that huge leap from not being location-independent at all to then having a high-paying remote career . Like usually , there are some steps in between that many people don't talk about , to be honest .
Speaker 2It's still and it's not easy to get to that level . It's not easy . There's a lot of creep you have to jump through and those jumps are really wanted by a lot of people .
Speaker 2Yeah , the hard to come is you really have to work hard on yourself and standing out . But I think what you mentioned earlier there is really important to as a starting from the mental thing is understanding you don't have to choose between travel and a career . You can truly have both . And once you understand that and you accept that and you really work hard towards you know that's a good starting point for people to start come to terms with .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , exactly . So what did you do before you started traveling ? Were you also in product management or anything related to it ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I was in consultancy . It was the same thing I'm doing now , but it was just for a company-based and it was a company , and it was a company that I really liked and I'm certainly absolutely an amazing company I worked for . It was just they could not help me to remote and you know , and winter was coming and I guess I was based in Amsterdam then and it was a little bit like you , based in the city , and I was like I like the city , but Covid started coming back again . I think during that time three years ago , most of the Covid started coming back and it was like lockdown and things like that . And I told myself , I promise myself I would never be in a cold country again doing lockdown . And it was just coming towards November . I was like , okay , this is it . No .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2And , yeah , I just really looked for new jobs and I was really lucky to find the current role I'm in While I was still also pursuing my other things , other sources of income , and I think that's really important as well . I thought they did so . Normally I was diversifying these sources of income and because , yeah , you don't want to be abroad , you just have a not-so-job , et cetera , and that's the thing to be . But yeah , that's when I started to change roles and I was lucky to have this job , and I think my first travel being a digital nomad was to Colombia . I mean , yeah , I was on three , actually two , two , maybe a year and I was in the sun and then kind of just kept going since then .
Speaker 1Very cool
Transition to Remote Work and Multiple Income
Speaker 1. Would you want to share a little bit more about how you made that transition , Because I definitely hear you on . You know , having a few different income streams as a digital nomad is important . You want to make sure that you have the finances to also sustain yourself and to keep going . You don't want to be somewhere who knows where and then run out of money . That would be unfortunate . Can you share a little bit more about kind of the income sources that you had and kind of how you transitioned that ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I think if in general , maybe it's not as much as you do with digital nomadting , because in general there's some things called having multiple sources of income , the . You know we never guaranteed our jobs . At the end of the day , we cannot be let go . It's important as we may think we are , and many people have in the company to go under you can do such a big client and stuff has to happen . So , yeah , I think I've always had the mindset of the importance of having multiple different sources of income , passive incomes here with the SenseYL . So , you know , I run my travel blog site . I also have my own personal professional site as well and I do a bit of content creation as well . So it's trying to stay busy with as many different things as possible while also doing my career , which I looked , you know , luckily for someone like me , I actually really enjoy my career . I wouldn't want to give it up . I actually enjoy what I do .
Speaker 2So here's the transition . My transition was , yeah , when I just wanted to start traveling , it was like , okay , it's the two things are going to happen . I'm going to start on a path of , I'm going to learn how to . I'm going to earn these kinds of incomes because I want to do these and I want to travel and I have you know X amount of time before I can become I can have enough money I can sustain myself and keep going . Otherwise , the plan B is to find a job and plan B seems to come first . So , found a job , I'll fully remote and then I kind of also continue the passive income . So you know , now you have both and then you've kind of trying to push both alone at the same time .
Speaker 1Yeah , awesome , that's really cool to hear that worked out for you that way . Do you have any tips for people who are applying for their first remote job coming from a more corporate background ?
Speaker 2Don't budge into remote part . That's what we got . First advice . I've seen another people that's like , oh , no , like they want me to come into the office once a month and stuff like that . No , it's like you need to make sure that's almost in the contract , like there is no it's . I've seen it . They changed their mind next week , whether like from January or you will have to come in once a week . So I think , first things first , really truly ensure that the companies of remote first-led culture and they appreciate what people are from the time zones . And then I would say , more importantly and I you know this is the end of people that you know younger , you know mental and I coach I always say really welcome building up your online profiles .
Speaker 2So these remote jobs are very difficult . You might get lucky , but don't count them luck . You really have to build up yourself online . You know , create a creative block , start up like those regularly . And they didn't engage in meeting with other people . You have an online presence on . People do search you up Like , yeah , they can find some examples of work , etc . A graphic designer's coders is much easier because you obviously have GitHub and your graphic work . You have all your visual examples of someone in my product managers or maybe digital marketing and stuff like that . It's another bit more difficult to actually show the works . It's really important . Yeah , from the early days you get into the culture , you get into the habit . Rather , I'd start posting online and showcasing what you've done previously .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2You see things like online press and you stand out more , teaching a lot more by fighting chants .
Speaker 1Absolutely . I mean , I've also now been a few times on the other end , where I've been hiring remotely , and it's wild to see what people send in as resumes or just their whole application . Like some people are amazing . But then there's also a lot of people who don't spend the time at all on like that . You get a resume and they're like , wow , this is so bad . Like , how can you send this ? You know that's also .
Speaker 1But then the next step is so like , my first point is just like making sure that all your stuff looks nice and it's easy to reach for the people who actually receive it . It's so important as a first step . But then I think that your online presence it adds so much from for the person hiring because they can really see okay , well , I have the resume . They have recorded a one minute loom video introducing themselves . Okay , that's cool . But then what ? Right , like , you're just providing so much more information and especially in a remote hiring setting , that extra information is so valuable . So and I've also I also always do just like a quick hack also , like I always have some questions in the hiring form that are optional , so you can record a video . You can also choose not to record a video but I have never hired anyone who does not record an extra video , like those optional things . They're like optional but it's to see if they're next for a mile .
Speaker 2You know I actually thought about those . Yeah , I remember one of the applications is like oh , I think it's interesting because I look at it from the applicants perspective , right , I feel . Then 10 different companies , the additional questions just like I can't , I've just done the compulsory one for 10 different companies . I think they all will look like it's actually interesting the way you put that . I'm going to give that a pull next time . I actually final five rolls and look the roll .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , it is , it is . It is literally going that extra mile . And yeah , well , you know what I usually like to say is , with my CV , I'm telling you what I can do . But you know , with my online presence , I'm showing you what I can do . Yeah , you can see for yourself exactly what I can do and I don't have to tell you , I can just show you that that is powerful . You need to tell .
Speaker 1Yeah , absolutely A hundred percent . Yeah , it's so true , and I think it's a great advice for anyone . Well , actually for anyone like if you're looking for a job , if you're starting a business , it doesn't even matter , I think , just anyone who is career oriented you just need an online presence . I absolutely think so .
Speaker 2That's a really , really good book I highly recommend for anyone . Is called Show your Work by Austin Cleon , and he really just goes in and he talks about the importance of this , like this exact topic of showing work online and just Not showing work and showcasing work in general , and he goes as far as to say , you know , just post anything . Don't think you need to post one thing , need to be an expert to post or something , because even if some earner there's someone who knows less than you and they you know , they keep the lens from from you best .
Speaker 2So in other ways an Expert has a much more hard problems , much more trouble teaching a you know Some cases because they are next , but then it comes so much easier for them , while someone who's a learner , someone who's that you know , just kind of a entry level , probably easier teaching someone who's a little bit more than because they just learning and they just know it's fresh in their mind . So if you start to look at whether you're posting is valuable for someone out there and help someone out , or and it doesn't have to be structured If you just get it on there you can structure it and later they just Just start somewhere .
Speaker 1Yeah , don't overthink it .
Speaker 2It's a bit over thinking and then not a bit son .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , absolutely . I think you have a great point .
Online Business and Digital Nomad Life
Speaker 1I mean also just looking at online business . You know there are so many people with online business tips and you know experts and this and that , but I've been in online but I started my online business almost five years ago . So I can , you know , I know things , I know what worked for me , I know what did it work for me , but when I started my business it was five years ago Like that's quite a long time in internet years so I what I did probably doesn't work anymore now , you know . So I think actually the advice of someone doing it one year ago it's probably way more valuable , because I also I forgot all , most of the issues that I had or challenges that I had to overcome . Probably .
Speaker 2Yeah , and how did you do you start your business with the attention of becoming remote or where you already remote , and then you know Let me start a business . What's first ? The year .
Speaker 1So for me it was I started traveling and I didn't want to go home , so I started traveling for a year and that's years ago , so still going strong . So it was basically how can I make money Online so I can just take the job with me ? And I looked into some remote companies and and things . But yeah , like I said , it was a few years ago , there were less remote positions available and I didn't really have a ton of experience . Luckily , to start an online business , no one asks you about your experience . You just figure it out , you make it work . So that's that's what I did , and it was very stressful . It's not necessarily what I would recommend , but yeah , it worked out in the end .
Speaker 2But you don't think . That is why maybe some cases work that because you didn't have safety now comfort zone , and you just you had to , you had to make it work . That's sometimes what I also tell you this life if you really really want it and you have the luxury you know luxury is one word but if you have , you know the savings or whatever and you can go , okay , I can just tell myself into the six months and I have to get it to worth it and then Motivate you a little bit more to push yourself .
Speaker 1I think you definitely need some sort of urgency , but I also do think that I had a little bit too much urgency where I couldn't Really make objective decisions anymore because I was in fire flight mode instead of Okay , how can we make this a good long-term decision ? So I think there needs to be a balance . I think some urgency is good , but too much panic is also not good . That's how . I see it , yeah , I mean panic is the word .
Speaker 1Yeah , panic mode is not where you that that's not the more you want to enter when you're building a business . I think no , yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , I can definitely understand . Yeah , I've seen desperation mode . Yeah , when you start making this , when you start making the wrong decisions because , yeah , you're desperate Exactly when you get the wrong clients- because again , it's for the whole desperation . It's a change . How did you stop yourself ? How did you ? How did I switch for you ? I don't know . Stop me , for in plan of All right , we miss acknowledged those signs . Oh , I might be making the wrong decisions . I was just a . You'd made them and then learn .
Speaker 1To me I would say made them and learn from it and at some point I just gained more and more experience so I could get better . Clients Tried out a bunch of stuff , some stuff that it works , some things did , and I kind of figured it out that way . It was a long and painful process but , like I said , I mean , eventually it worked and some some things work better than others and for some reasons it was , I think , just time . I just needed time to figure , figure out what would work . So I just I think the the main thing for me was time and just to keep going , not giving up . I think that was that's literally it .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , and not really the sexy answers were like oh , I'm so smart , you know I can figure anything out , but I like no , it's just , it's just the cute going , that's that's right . Yeah .
Speaker 2I think I don't think any successful entrepreneur , anyone who started their own business , will say that I said . I've never met someone who says that I said no , we have to figure out as we run along and that's the truth . You know , you can't , you can't possibly know everything . And then you get to the next stage of your business , where you , like , can now need to hire people who are really expert to the . I need to now start delegating , because I can't be an expert and everything . I need to focus on what I'm good at and then and to different stages of building the organization .
Speaker 1Exactly , and I think the same goes with digital nomad life . You mentioned that you you travel a lot faster when you started and then at some point you're like , oh my God , I need to slow down , like I need a month in a place at least , and then now you're entering the next chapter of settling down in Spain and getting a home base and traveling from there , which is also a next evolution , if you will , and I think you know the same goes with online business . I think digital nomad life , online business , has a lot of overlap , because the thing is , you have all this freedom and then the question is what do you actually want like ? What do you actually want to work on ? Where do you actually want to live ? What do you want your life to look like ? So that's the fun challenge that we have with digital nomads , I think .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's . I think as you get up in the ages that comes into a lot of it as well as the next phase of you want a family . What do you want to make ? The actual mistake is , as amazing as it is , being a digital nomad . It does have a . Yeah , that's it's you get . You can't really do it with kitchen family . Haven't made anyone that do it yet . Are we really interested to see how that works out ? And by some point you're going to have to settle a little bit more and traveling and slower . Just come for the minute .
Speaker 1I've had a few people on a podcast who travel with their families , so it is possible , but there are pros and cons for everything , of course , and the same thing goes for digital nomad life , and nomadding with the family will probably be more complicated than nomadding alone or with a partner .
Speaker 2I'm going to have a look at those . I'm going to have a look at those . I'm going to listen to those , because I'll be reading to you to see how they managed to pull up . Yeah he just in my head . It just seems like it sounds like a lot of not of yet not complex .
Speaker 1There is definitely planning involved , as you know what , what they've told me , but it's apparently possible because they're doing it . So is that also a reason why you're settling down in Spain a little bit more ?
Speaker 2Not as much as necessary to settle down to have a family right now . I think it's career wise . So I have a lot of career aspects and kind of getting into the kind of the early 30s is where I have a lot of experience and I can really really push now . So that's one of the reasons why I'm kind of slowing down a little bit , to the extent I'm looking to stay there Six months , seven months of the year and then go traveling to the rest , to a couple of countries . But yeah , it's mainly driven by career choices and having a having a base for the next year , next phase of my life and until next years , and then I'll see you and I'll see my mom on that .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's super exciting . That's a new chapter of nomadding .
Speaker 2Yes , precisely yeah . It's really coming along and you know I'm really looking forward to . I was there four months for the summer , so I'm already kind of knowing what you expect and everything else . So yeah , yeah it's walking into some media . Media circumstances Should be a lot of fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah . I totally understand your choice . Spain is amazing . Out of Spain . I keep going back here as well . I was already shared . Yeah , cannot get it , cannot stay away . So can you share where people can follow the journey and where they can find you ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so I post regularly on my Instagram , so I'm sure I'll be linked to it somewhere and I know so on my travel blog . You can follow my travel blog , my channel , my stories and just just in general , just tips on traveling and being a nomad , and then where to , where you know , where I find it needs to work from and how to feel community across different places I go , and so I do give them a little few tips and hints on how to do that as well . So really just follow the number .
Speaker 1Cool , awesome . Well , thank you so much for being here today and sharing your story with us . It was really fun to chat with you , and also thank you for asking me those questions . That's , that's also fun . I feel like we have some things in common and some things we are totally different with our working styles , which is also super fun to see . So , yeah , thank you so much for coming on the show today .
Speaker 2Thanks for having me on . I really appreciate . You had a great time .
Speaker 1And that's it for today . Thank you so much for listening . I appreciate it very , very much . I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts for me . That way , more people can find this podcast , more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing , and the more people we can impact for the better . So , thank you so much if you are going to leave a review . I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode .