Digital Nomad Stories

From Corporate Fashion to Conscious Travel: Veronica's Journey to a Nomadic Life

• Anne Claessen • Season 2 • Episode 164

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Veronica's story is one for anyone who's contemplated swapping their desk for a life on the road. Once a corporate fashion buyer, Veronica ventured into the realm of therapy, yoga, and leading retreats. 

She takes us on her incredible transition, starting with the leap of faith that catapulted her from the familiar grind to the vibrant streets of Spain. Her narrative is not just about changing careers; it's about daring to redefine what success truly means.

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Connect with Kendra:




Speaker 1:

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anik Lassen and, together with my co-host, kendra Hosse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location independency, freelancing, travel and, of course, about the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadsco. Alright over to Kendra for today's interview.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Kendra and I'm your host today. Today, I'm joined by Veronica. She's a therapist, yoga teacher, retreat leader, meditation trainer and the founder of her own brand, el Poderizana, and she's doing all this while she's traveling and moving from different places, so I'm super excited to have you here, vito, and hear more about your story today. Welcome.

Speaker 3:

How are you Fine? Thank you, kendra, to invite me to this space. It's beautiful to share our experience of different human beings, that we are traveling around the world and giving our love and our mission to people, so thank you for inviting me to this space.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome and maybe we directly start with. What is your mission Like? What do you want to bring to the people?

Speaker 3:

Well, I had a very extreme change of life. I used to work in retail, in corporate, for 10 years and five years ago I realized that that was not fulfilling my soul and my purpose in life. So I started to be a therapist. First of all, I started with massage and regressions, which is a therapy where you can go in your life, in different aspects of your life, and try to heal them Hypnosis. It was so crazy because I changed from being like a fashion buyer to this.

Speaker 3:

But after that, all the elf of the other thing, which means the power of healing, it starts to came into my life and I realized that my mission was to open spaces where people can open their hearts in order to heal, because I realized that when I start to heal myself. When I was from my childhood, I started to discover new powers that I had, because everybody had a power. So in my case, the healer personality starts to came out, and also the musician and also the traveler. So, yeah, right now I think my mission is just to open the spaces which now I call them retreats or travel or trips, conscious trips, where people join me and we have a different experience, where we share yoga, also theater activities, also ceremonies, and yeah, the idea is to promote space where people that is very into corporate life or like the rush of life in the cities, where they can come out of that space and have this opportunity to look inside them and heal and heal, start the journey to heal themselves.

Speaker 2:

That's beautiful and I'm like curious before we talk about more about the retreats and the spaces how, as you said, you changed your life from a corporate world to now to a person. How did it help to you being like then, becoming a digital nomad? How was traveling part of this journey? How did it help you? Because I feel like a lot of digital nomads start having a job in a corporate world and then they started traveling and then they changed their life, becoming a digital nomad. And how was this was transaction for you? Like, how did this traveling help you to understand more your mission?

Speaker 3:

Well, for me, actually at the start, when I moved to Spain. I think traveling is opening your conscious and be mindful that the world has so much things to offer you that your reality is not the only reality that exists. So when I lived two persons and I lived there for four years, working also as fashion I realized that people there had more balance between working so hard that we Colombians worked so hard and life. I realized that there's a place where people can enjoy life and not just work, work, work. So when I came back to Colombia, I just started to feel so bad in my job when there's something inside you, inside your guts, let's say you are not in the right place. And every time I went to my office I was feeling so bad and there was something inside me telling me this is not the right place, this is not the right place. So I opened the door to try new things and that's where I started to do. Well, I did a regression, like somebody did a regression to me, and there I saw that in my past life I was a yoga teacher. So I was like, huh, how funny. You know, I thought at that point I was a hippie in my past life. But then I went to a yoga class and I started to feel like, oh my God, I know this. You know, like I start to remember that I had that knowledge inside me and after I took a course to be a yoga teacher and after three months I was teaching, you know. So it was like wow, opening new powers. You know, like I was like, I was like you give that you already have and you just have to remember. And I had the opportunity to find some master, some guide, like Guru's in my life that showed me the path. You know, that invited me to healing sessions where I start to learn how to heal, and you know, this is a language. I think that is like me learning German is the same with the healing and with the holistic world, as you can talk like that. You know, it is like I start to understand that there are more than a physical body and that we are energy and that we can move that energy in order to heal and to change our lives.

Speaker 3:

So I start to like go with the flow in these new things that start to appear in my life, even if it was a little bit weird because I was very, very corporate, but I was like, okay, I'm just going to do it, okay, I'm just going to follow that. And there's where the change started happening. I feel like I always say that I had like the call. Instead of me trying to go there, there was, from that were, a call for me to go there. You know, like, like the masters start to appear and I start to follow them and and in that way, I start to change my life.

Speaker 3:

When, because I was very scared of making the change and I know that it's very scary to that to make that new step I made a plan and I start to make a budget in order to quit my job and quit my you know, the security that I had with my income and be ready to do that this time. And at the beginning it was so scary because it's something new, is a new path, something different. And also my family was scared of that change and my partner. At that time. Everybody was like what is going on with you? And I didn't know that. But I just follow, follow what my heart and my God said. And it was good, because paying attention to what your body says is so important. You know, like, every time I did a massage, I felt so good after that and every time I finished a corporate meeting I was like, oh my God, I cannot do this anymore. So so I start to follow that, that language of my body and my intuition. And yeah, it was a long process, but it's been five years.

Speaker 2:

Every day I'd be friend, challenge no congo, that you really made it like happen like this. And I think it's like inspiring to hear for a lot of listeners because, like I feel like being a digital norm it helps us to start creating a new life, the life that we want. And I didn't know that we have almost like the same story, because I also was like in corporate. Then I didn't want it anymore. I started like also organizing all the spaces with retreat and just listening to the voice of my heart and following it. And I think like also what helps us is being in that community of digital norm, because there is, everyone is like open minded, you can try out, you can be authentically you and not being forced in the society where everything needs to be, and for me, that's like a huge, beautiful benefit and magic of being a digital norm. So you already mentioned a little bit Columbia, Barcelona, so what are the places you are moving from?

Speaker 3:

So I like to travel between Columbia. Columbia is the country where I was born and I really like it. So whenever I'm in Columbia, I try to go to Medellin to vote. My place is La Sierra, santa Marta, where I live, but I don't know. I always, when I'm in a place like more than three months, I start to feel like, oh, I need to move, I need to change.

Speaker 3:

You know, I also travel, like I try to go once a year to Europe, where I go to Spain, also to Germany, and also doing this, like when I start doing retreats, I also realize that what I really love to do is traveling and being able to travel with the group that I'm leading. It was my dream. So since last year, I started to do trips where we go and do yoga, but we also travel, you know, and get into the culture. So now we're going to Morocco and to Amazon and, yeah, the idea is also to be to eat, yeah, to keep moving and, yeah, experiencing these spaces of conscious, but probably yeah, maybe next time I'll dive a little bit more deep into this, if some of the listeners are interested, like you know, to also go on this conscious journey.

Speaker 2:

So, for example, the one in Morocco. You do it once by here or often, and then what are you doing there?

Speaker 3:

Well, the idea with Morocco was that I went in 2015 and I really loved it. What I'd like to do is to connect with powerful places in the world and, well, think that Colombia has many, but I was like, okay, we are in the heart of the world and we are in the jungle, but also the desert is like a special place, especially for silence, which is a practice that I love to share. So the idea was to go to Morocco in order to get to know the culture, but also guide the travelers in different practices. So we had yoga every morning, we had medication every night and then we had two days of silence where people can really experience the power of the desert when we were in the desert. So, yeah, it was amazing.

Speaker 3:

We spent 10 days around the country. We went to different cities, because I also like to travel a lot when I go to a new country, so it's just not one city because every city is so different from each other. So the idea is we went to five different cities. So it was a nice trip, like a mochilera thing, going with our bags and moving around.

Speaker 2:

I love it because it's like then sometimes we are like traveling and searching for these conscious places and then we don't know where, and then it's a beautiful opportunity to go on the trips to see a little bit more of the country on a conscious way, because then also we just can start experiencing the country. You know, like when we are more connected to ourselves, how we are feeling. And yeah, so, as I understand, until now you do like the trips, until now to Morocco, amazonas, you're planning to do it in India and you do retreats in Colombia.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and the idea, especially when they realize that we are human beings, we really have needs of community. There's a lot of people that maybe they don't have a couple or a family to travel with and sort of traveling is great, but at the end people really like to share. You know, when you're traveling and you have the opportunity to share those moments with people that get very close to you is more. It has a very bigger result from the experience you know. So when I realize that traveling in Morocco is something amazing for every person that goes to the group and there's a bond, like a really close bond between the travelers, and that's what I really like make community, to make people feel closer and like together.

Speaker 2:

I love it that you say it, because I was just thinking about asking you and what are the benefits of those cultural travels, like you know what you feel and I feel also it's exactly what you say like this, creating community, the sense of belonging. Because I feel, as we are like all the time as a genomics, alone Meeting, like maybe we are moving every month, every week, every three months, meeting new people, but you always need to start from zero and maybe you're feeling first alone in a group and it takes time to bond. And if we are like doing it, if you are more on the conscious level, if you are really there with, as you said, you're creating space to open our heart. If we are really there, connecting heart to heart, we can easily connect. Maybe, when we are talking a little bit about this, as I feel it's an interesting topic, what would you recommend to our listeners as well? Like to create the sense of belonging, to bond with other people, why they are like on their travelings?

Speaker 3:

I realize that when we travel, when we are solo traveling, we have this I don't know how to say in English like this cover, like that. You are scared of sharing, you know. So maybe you sit down next to somebody else with a computer and you both are working but nobody talks, and I feel like showing our vulnerability, you know, is something that completely breaks that cover. You know so, when I've experienced, when I travel, when I do solo traveling for example, when I went to Israel by myself, I didn't know anybody in the country, I didn't know anything from the country, but the first day I arrived to the wholesale and I had the opportunity to open myself and share to somebody that I was scared, that I was so by myself that I needed to connect with somebody, and I realized when a human being see another human being being vulnerable, they also open their hearts, you know.

Speaker 3:

So I believe that we've been taught to be strong and independent, you know. But I believe that in this new area, the idea is also to be vulnerable and show our feelings, because everybody, every human being, has feelings and have fears, and whenever you share them, you open and you start to get a new bond of hey, you need my help. I'm here for helping, help you. You know, and that's in my case, in my experience, that's the friendships that last the most, you know, those ones that start from me being a real human being, being vulnerable.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I love it. I love it because it's also like, yeah, if we just talk also about our emotions, how we are really feeling, and not having the superficial conversations like, oh, I'm working in this, I travel to so many countries and we are like all the time in this mode of comparing ourselves, maybe fulfilling any expectations, but then if we go like a little bit deeper and open up, then that's where we can really on an authentic level connect, and I think this is what we need a little bit more in this digital norm, but like this authentic from heart connection, and I believe that every person that have trouble by itself.

Speaker 3:

Every person know that you're never alone. You know at the end of your travel traveling alone, you never place your life there's somebody that wants to help you, that wants to talk to you, you know. So that's the wonderful thing about traveling that you can understand that the different cultures and the different human beings around the world, they all have a heart. You know they all have feelings and emotions and they all, at least, they want somebody. There's somebody that wants to help you, you know, not expecting anything in return.

Speaker 2:

It's beautiful that you're saying it also is worth alone. It always comes up and the other day we had like a woman circle just for digital synomids and there it came out that everyone feels lonely, alone from time to time, but we don't think it of the other people. So we were saying why are we not just telling the people? You know, I feel lonely, I need someone to have lunch with me. For sure there would be so many people who go with you. We just need to be a little bit brave to say it, you know, because it's okay to feel like this. You just said like, as you said, this coat, this mask, everything, no, we are like in a pen and it's all good.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I remember when I was in the operate, when I loved the most about going to the office with my friends, you know, like sharing with laughing, and, you know, feeling that they could help me with my work. But us are digital nomads. We are all the time with our computer or our phone and that's it. That's all the things that we need, but really deep inside, we also need a person to have lunch with and somebody to ask for. What do you think about this?

Speaker 3:

You know and I feel that's our biggest challenge being digital nomads, that we are always changing places and that means we are always changing relationships and bonds, because maybe you can make a really good bond with somebody and then you leave and it was like. You know that is like that hurts, but the magical about technology is that you can also keep that from long distance. You know, and if it starts with a deep communication and not, as you said, like what do you do, what is your word, we have trouble. But when somebody talks to you like for, about something that really it's a, it's hard, you will remember that and you will care of that person in the future.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's exactly. It's also about learning in another way of relating to someone, like the short relationships, this intense short relationship, and then, as you said, there's technology to keep on with it. And what I also feel sometimes it's funny because, as we are then all moving, we maybe meet in another country again, you know, in another place. Oh, we meet after two years again, whatever, but it's a beautiful if you meet again. And so, yeah, you also said that you are like, as we were talking about your organizers, travels, but you're also therapists and meditation trainer, and then maybe some people might asking it how does it work for you building this business while traveling? Because it's like you are doing events that need also community, right? So how are you doing community building while you are traveling?

Speaker 3:

Well, every time I do a trip of me, the community is there Like because people, if I told, you get these bonds that usually they become friends from life. You know. So, in every retreat we have a small community. And then three years ago I started a meditation group because my mom was not having a good time and I didn't know how to help her. She was having a depression moment and I just told her, like let's meditate, let's meditate every day until you or me die. And that's just a promise that we did together. And since two years we start to meditate.

Speaker 3:

At the beginning I was living with her and then I moved, like I moved back to the Sierra and I was like how can I still meditate with her? So I was sending her voice notes, like this is the meditation today, this is the meditation today. And then one friend it was pandemic and everybody was feeling so bad. And then my friend told me like hey, I'm having a depression moment, so I send the same message to my mom and then took him. And then another person said so I sent three message. And then I said like okay, I'm going to create it where I send one meditation and then they can enjoy it, and right now we have 500 people in that group because everybody had to share to everybody.

Speaker 3:

Like, hey, there's a meditation group where you can, and my point is, like I never said like you should do that you should make meditation at this time. It's like it's there for you. This is my present to the world. You know my offer, my offer, like you can do it, you can do it, but it's there and I'm going to do it every day Because, yeah, I believe that we need to help each other. You know, and that's my offer to the world.

Speaker 3:

So, right now, I believe that that's the community that is always together, these people that wants to meditate every time, and usually what happens is that somebody says to somebody hey, I went to the retreat, you know, like mouth to mouth, like that's the way that more people start to come. And also, of course, instagram. That's the way that people know what I'm doing and I really like to share, like wellness practices through my Instagram and my webpage, which is El Poder de Sanar, where I try to keep the community together. All like these are people that have the same interest and it's fine to feel better every day, and I've made practices that help them to feel better.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful, yeah, that's good, and I'm just thinking so wow, it's already like five years that you started this new journey and you told us, like before you fell, not fulfilled something that's not. And what would you say? How do you feel now, right now in the stage of life, as really being a norm, right, a digital norm, with creating the life you want, having your own business? How does it feel like?

Speaker 3:

Well, actually I was thinking about this like in the last days, because even if it looks like, oh, that's a wonderful life, you know it's very hard, like during these four years. I would say that it's been very hard, very hard, because one, first of all, is like bring him down all the structures in my mind about what is successful, what is, you know, feeling happy, what is feeling abundant? Because I was taught a different thing, you know, so successful for my family and for my community, all of my society was like having the job I used to have. So now I was feeling like, oh, I'm quickly to that, you know. So am I successful? So that was like this thing that I've been going through.

Speaker 3:

And also, what I told you is like the feeling of of by myself, you know, and every time I go from one country to another, I have to change my friends and my community and and that's hard also to make new relationships. But in this year I realized that what I told you, that the people that really want to connect, they're going to be there even if you're in another country. So I've been feeling like more stable. Even if I'm moving around, I feel like the balance and the and the connections that I've been doing lately are more strong and they keep, even if we are far away. And also feeling that every time somebody comes to one retreat and that person go back for when bring two more people, that means for me that I'm doing a good thing, you know.

Speaker 3:

So that's all my pain and like, feeling that somebody comes or they repeat retreats for me is like, okay, this is, this is working, and I I don't see it as a work, I'd see it as a game, you know, and just play life of let's, let's travel, let's play to be better human being, you know, to see what happens with that. So right now I'm feeling fine, I'm feeling pretty happy with what I'm doing and feeling like I'm getting into to the, to the top of the mountain. You know, the hard part, like has passed and and now I'm, I'm feeling that I'm getting used to this kind of life because we are also being so of, you know, like getting used to new thing. So now I feel like I'm learning how to handle all these changes that I had and now I'm. This is my life, you know, I feel it, I think you just said you are learning like to handle it.

Speaker 2:

You get used to it and I fear this is maybe something for the listener super interesting. What helped you to get used to it? What do you have some tools that helped you to adapt to this new lifestyle, or was it just on an unconscious level, something that came over time?

Speaker 3:

I just believe that in the path you learn, you know like there's a course, tools like meditation, like silence. As I told you, I don't treat it as an, as, which I think is the best thing I've done for my mind, which is 11 days just meditating and being with yourself, and whenever you learn to be with yourself, you can be anywhere, you know, by yourself. So so I believe that, yeah, there are tools, but at the end, just your path and your experience is what is going to help you to go through. What is a challenge for you, you know, because maybe a challenge for me is, I don't know, being by myself, but the challenge for somebody is changing home, you know. So it's like what I feel is the most important thing is just to get to know yourself, you know, get to like, really enjoy the time where you are by yourself, because you can start learning who you are. You know, usually we are all the time with somebody.

Speaker 3:

So whenever you're traveling with somebody is like, okay, let's go to a museum and maybe you don't want to go to the museum, Maybe you just want to spend the time in the park, but you just go to the museum because somebody told you.

Speaker 3:

But whenever you're out by yourself, you, you learn that, okay, I'd like to spend my time in price. So there's what I feel good. And then you start to feel where do you feel good, what kind of activities makes you feel good? And I think that's the process getting to know what is your practice, what is what is made that makes you feel alright. And then, when you realize that those things are making you feel alright, you can start to practice them more frequently. You know, in my case, for example, I love the parks, I love the nature, and whenever I go to a big city, for example, barcelona, that only has two parks, I spend almost, I try to go almost every day to the park or to the beach because I need it, I need the nature in my life. So so I think that is getting to know yourself, getting to know what is good for you and practice it more often.

Speaker 2:

I love it and like as a little addition, like, like on a conscious level, right, because maybe we need I feel we need some time sometimes to breathe, to reflect on what makes us feel good, Because if we are all the time in the hassle, hassle, hassle, maybe we don't learn of what really makes us feel good because we cannot distinguish. But then if we take some time, sometimes it will reflect wow, this really makes me feel good and then accept it also and allow ourselves because maybe some people would say, oh, but it's so complicated, going every time to the park, I cannot, I need to sit at the desk and work. No, but allow yourself to accept what makes you feel good and then take responsibility for it. Yeah, I think it's an amazing message, also for our listeners, to allow ourselves to feel what makes us good and then act like this.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, also, I realized that we, coming from corporate world, we were not taught to not do anything. You know, for me it was so hard to stop the race of life or doing, doing, doing, doing and like really top and said what I really like to do. You know, and there's where I discovered the music, because I had the time to sit down with my ukulele in front of the beach and just hard to play it, even if I didn't know how to. You know, but whenever you stop your life from doing, doing, doing and you give yourself some time and some silence and some observation to see what do I really like to do, what do, what is, what is that that moves my heart? You know, that makes me feel powerful and happy.

Speaker 3:

Whenever I do. That is when you start to understand the path and the purpose that you came for To be smart, you know, you didn't care. Well, I believe that I didn't came to be a buyer, a fashion buyer. I came for more people, you know. So it's beautiful when you release, talk and look at yourself and connect with what really makes you feel good.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. Thank you, I think it was a really beautiful closing message. Do you have anything else you would like to share before we close this episode? Anything else, that's still on your mind.

Speaker 3:

What I really like to do is that light is a game. Light is a game. Life is less serious than we think of what we think, and maybe sometimes we were taught to be very serious and very formal in everything you do, but at the end it has a game over. And when I quit my job, my friend died and that was the best thing that happens to me, because it showed me that also my game could finish soon, you know. So it was like what do I want to do before my game is over? And every time I go to bed every day I'm just thinking did I pray what I wanted to play today, you know, and not what society told me to play. You know, it's like I really want to play the life I really want to enjoy, even if sometimes it's hard. I don't say that my life is perfect and I'm fighting all the time, but at least I'm trying to play what is happening and to go through that as a game, not making non-stealing it so serious, you know.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. I think it's an amazing inspiration, Like asking ourselves that before we go to sleep. Did I really play today? Did I enjoy? I love it, Thank you. So everyone who would like to know more about your offerings and getting in contact with you, we will share the show notes, your Instagram, your website and all the contact details.

Speaker 3:

No, it was just like. If somebody wants to contact me through Instagram, El Poder de Sanar and my website, she's with sayingco. And yeah, I really love to make community and enjoy life Late, late, late.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. Thank you, vera, it was really nice having you.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, Kendra, to invite me and open these spaces to share different kind of flights. That's amazing.

Speaker 1:

And 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.