Digital Nomad Stories

Remote Work, Productivity and Human Design, with Digital Nomad Elizabeth

• Anne Claessen • Season 2 • Episode 176

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6 months ago, Elizabeth traded her Orange County cubicle in for the vibrant streets of Medellín. She took her corporate career with her on the road and started her own business as a human design expert.

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Connect with Kendra:

Speaker 1:

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Annik Klaassen 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 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 digitalnomadstoriesco. All right 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 Elisabeth from Alighten, and she's a human design expert, so I'm super excited to have her here. I think it's a super interesting topic, so welcome, elisabeth.

Speaker 3:

Hi, I'm glad to be here, yes.

Speaker 2:

So maybe we directly jump into your digital nomad story before we start talking about human design. Maybe you can take us a little bit on your journey. So for how long are you already a nomad and where are you currently?

Speaker 3:

yeah, I've only been a nomad for about six months now, and I am currently in medellin, colombia.

Speaker 2:

Great, so I love it. Also like to have like fresh new moments, because I think then we will know a little bit better like this excitement about it, the struggles we have, but also like all these benefits. So you say like half a year, yeah, so what was? Maybe let's start with your motivation. Why did you decide to become a lawyer?

Speaker 3:

I was. I am currently in a corporate career and I was going in the office and I realized that what I was doing was not meaningful anymore. I was working on learning human design and being a human design reader at the time and I realized that just going in the office was not making me happy and then I wanted to leave, like I needed to leave the country and go experience something else Either leave the country or go to a different state. And I'm from the US, in California, so for me it started with conversation with my manager on being able to get out. That went really well and so I was able to get a remote position and some of the things that I've learned, I mean, I first went to a different state in the US for remote work and then I realized I want to go outside the country in Colombia was one of the ones that was recommended to me, and it's just.

Speaker 3:

I think I crave the freedom. Like the reason why I wanted to be a digital nomad is the freedom, the freedom of my time, being able to, you know, wake up in the morning, go exercise somewhere nearby or get tacos like, if I'm in Mexico, get tacos at the taco cart and then come right back up to a meeting, Like just that ability of having a more fulfilled life where you do more than just go drive into the office and then leave the office late at night and then say you know, I only have a couple hours left for my day, so it's like living life differently.

Speaker 2:

I get it, it's, it's, I. I really understand it and I feel like that's like common between us. But if I saw but you said you are still in a corporate. But then do you manage now being in Colombia, like, are you working now less hours, or how do you do to lift this freedom, still being in a corporate world?

Speaker 3:

yeah, so I definitely work less hours.

Speaker 2:

I am actually. Yeah, yeah, I work less hours. I am actually.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I work less hours because I'm not in the office. I get my my, my tasks done within a certain amount of time. I think I only work. I was working from 10 to four, with an hour or two in between. So the fact that I wasn't in the office also allowed me to just give myself more breaks and yeah, I have breaks in between. And when I come back after going to the gym or going out to eat with friends, I come back and I'm ready to do my work quickly within an hour or two. So in terms of that, it's been a big freedom of my time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting right when we know what fulfills us, that this also can increase our productivity.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great. So like yeah, half a year, you say what is it? What do you until now, besides the freedom you are really enjoying? Why would you not go back to the corporate world back home?

Speaker 3:

yeah, I guess back home. I'm from orange county, california, and I I had to drive everywhere and in. Whenever you go traveling whether it's mexico city, is digital hub there or medellin digital hub like you don't need a car, you can walk places and I'm able to walk a lot more. I'm able to eat healthier, because some of the food in the US is just not as healthy as outside of the US and there's just a lot of these things that made me think like I really like the life I'm living right now and going back and having to drive places everywhere instead of living in the city and having somewhere be affordable as well. So our money from making US dollars goes far more in Mexico or Colombia. So for me, I can do a lot of the side activities like dancing or or get going to the gym, but also getting a yoga studio pass, but also getting a massage every week and just like live a much better life because I'm below cost of living.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, better life because of the low cost of living. Yeah, yeah, I hear you and I really like also, as I know you, I know you are like really excited of being in Medellin, in Colombia, and do you say it's like the. The main thing is, as you say, this low cost life that you really feel you can give yourself, those profound lives. Yeah, it's part of it.

Speaker 3:

It's part of it, but I really love the community. I think just being surrounded by so many digital nomads has been and the community in Medellin has been really, really like. It makes me feel like I'm home. So I'm meeting other people that are living their dreams. Because I am in corporate right now I'm remote, but in the future I want to be able to sustain myself through my own business, through my own human design business. So, seeing everyone that is a digital nomad, everyone's doing something different. Some people are are basically like moving in terms of their dreams, moving towards their dreams, just like you self-love journey. You're also doing that and I think it's so inspiring. And there's a big conscious community here where, if I talk to someone about human design, they're like wait, what is that? I want to know more about it. Tell me more. They're so interested. I think the energy here is just more of awareness and awakened. You know at least the digital nomad community that I've come to know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I also think that Medellin is, like, really unique for digital nomads because there's still this possibility of also meeting local people. So it's not that we are just in this bubble of experts, of internationals, and what I also really like about is this conscious community.

Speaker 2:

So just like, as we're keeping it for our listeners, as medellin is becoming more and more always already the trend for the digital nomads and I sometimes get the question but what is really so special about medellin, you know, why should I, as a digital, go to me and I feel exactly what you say and like so many possibilities to make community, like in different interests we have.

Speaker 3:

And it was dancing, if it's conscious of its magnolia, a full entrepreneur, whatever is happening yeah, and I and I think there is also the ability to give back to the community. I just went to a dinner last week where it was a dinner where you donated to an organization to help Medellin communities. Medellin kids go out of the city to a farm and get to know and and visit a farm because they don't really have the resources to do that themselves. And my friend and I we were asking, like, do you have volunteer opportunities? Because we would. It would be great if digital nomads did get into the community and it wasn't just coming and maybe changing things, because one thing that I also think about is the whole gentrification can happen. So it's like what can we do to help the community and keep the culture as it is?

Speaker 2:

And it's like volunteering, helping in any way that we can. Yeah, beautiful. And I think this is also part of this full-sourced lifestyle right, that in the culture where we are, we get something back. And the more and more I also realize I or I also hear from other people we also connect with the culture, with other communities, the more we really become kind of a citizen in the city, in this country, in this world. Yeah, maybe it's kind of a recommendation for other nomads, so let's talk about human design.

Speaker 3:

You said like you're starting right now your own business, also as a human design expert, right? Yes, so I give human design readings, and human design is is a sort of system similar to astrology, but it's more. It more closely aligns to your energetic blueprint, so you can you use the same details as your birth chart in order to get your human design chart, and it is based around your energy and it's it's to get ourselves out of the mind and into our heart and into feeling, emotions and feeling through decisions and being able to make the right decisions for us instead of thinking and being in anxiety mode. So there's a lot of a lot that you can learn from human design in terms of making decisions that are right for you, by connecting with your body, and it also is how you move through the world. There's five energy types and they all move differently depending on which one you are, and some of them are more. There's more of a population of certain ones and maybe some of them are more rare.

Speaker 2:

Lisa one question. I'm just thinking about our followers. Someone who doesn't know Burst Chat, you know because like how can we? Explain where to get your human design so everyone can follow us. Like if you say it's something similar than your birth chart. You know, for me the version is like what time at the place in the world like I was born and based on this we can understand our energy type. Right, and there are five types.

Speaker 3:

Like to re-tap it and then easy yeah, so in order to to pull your human design chart, you'll need your birth time, birth date and birthplace. You need all those three to pull the chart.

Speaker 2:

Great, so now everyone can follow us, so perfect. So we were talking about the five energy types. Let's focus on digital nomads. Would you say that also one energy type that is more common for digital nomads, or are we like digital nomads? Representative all of the different energy types?

Speaker 3:

yeah, it would depend, because my experience might be different than your experience and what I've noticed is that we're we're kind of attracted to the same or the opposite of us. So I am a manifesting generator type and I live in a house with four other women who are manifesting generators, so the most common for me that I've seen is manifesting generators. They're one of the, they're the second most common uh type, but I have um and then I've met like one reflector which is only one percent. So it's been a variety. In digital nomad there is no just one type.

Speaker 2:

Everyone is part of the digital nomad journey, depending on the human because I'm, for example, I'm a projector and I've met a lot of projector, digital nomad friends. So it's also because maybe we are at work you know like the energy type. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about like them, the generated manifestos, like if I, for example, I'm a nomad and I do know my birth chart and we can also put it in the show notes for the people, maybe like a link.

Speaker 3:

There's a link, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then so if I get it out and I see, okay, I'm a generated manifester, what does it mean for my digital nomad lifestyle?

Speaker 3:

let me say yeah, if you're a generator or a manifesting generator, they account for 70% of the population and if you're in that type, then, in terms of digital nomads, what it's really good that you're out doing something that brings you joy, because for the generator types, we get energy when we do things that bring us joy, when we do things that we're meant to do. And if we're doing something that frustrates us or depletes our energy, where we feel like I don't want to do this, this is so frustrating, like you're in a frustrating job or you're doing a frustrating task, like you're meant to just stop and like, take that in and maybe see if how you can do less of that. Because when you're doing something that frustrates you constantly, it depletes your energy and you're actually supposed to be a very energetic type of person, like you're supposed to be gaining energy from the type of tasks you do, from, from living life with joy. If you're a projector, a projector isn't a sacred being like a generator. So a projector is someone that's like a consultant, someone that has, like the the big bird's eye view, that can direct energy of other types. And because there's this big energy in terms of like you can reserve, you can observe things that other people don't see. You use so much of that energy and observation in that, and that you might not have that much energy yourself. So if you find yourself seeing the being depleted of energy, maybe you you're you're doing the things that don't bring you, don't bring you happiness or don't bring you um, like your passion, um.

Speaker 3:

For for projectors, they're really meant to go after their passions and really take a look at what it is that they're interested and then they go build it, they go do it, you do it and the whole world follows. That's what. That's what projectors are meant to do, because if you wait for someone to tell you, it's not going to work the same way. But there's also this sort of invitation that we've talked about. There's. Each type has their own strategy of how they're meant to work with the universe and work in the world, and projectors are waiting for an invitation. So maybe someone may recognize that you're really good at women's circles, and so they keep asking you, hey, do you want to run this women's circle? Do you want to run this women's circle? And then that's when you look at that and say, hey, there's something here, let me follow this, and that's what projectors are meant to do. So, yeah, every type is different, every type is special.

Speaker 3:

We're all unique beings and what this human design chart tells you is that all the things that you thought might be wrong, or you might be thinking like, why is life so hard? It might be because of your chart. Some people have this trial and error uh, resilience energy, and they keep thinking that they make mistakes, but actually they're. They're a number three. Their character, their character and profile is three. It means that they were given so much resilient energy in order to go through these mistakes, because that's how they gain experience. They don't gain experience through books, it's better through experience. So once people learn their charts, they start thinking like, wow, I always thought this about myself and now this confirms it and it actually helps in their spiritual and self-discovery journey.

Speaker 2:

Amazing, thank you. I think if they were like a manifesto or a projector, it's amazing to get the info, and now I'm also imagining like someone of our listeners now is motivated to, and they get their human design chart. What is like the information? You would say. If we are like the beginner in this, where should we focus on? Like, on what things?

Speaker 3:

yeah, yeah, the main place to start is your energy type and your authority. What the energy energy type means is every energy type has a strategy, so it has a way to work with the universe, whether it's a waiting to respond strategy, a waiting for an invitation strategy, or awaiting a lunar cycle. There's different strategies for each type. So once you understand your type, dig into what the strategy is for that type, and then the second most important is your authority, which is just another word for your decision making system. A lot of us, you know, think of like we make decisions through our intuition, our guts. It's very true, but it's different, for it's a little bit different for each person.

Speaker 3:

Some people have an emotional decision making authority, so that means that they actually have to wait a few days. It's really hard. It's not good for them to make spontaneous decisions, and there's some that are not that. It's just like they'll feel the gut response it goes either goes yes or it goes no. And for other people it's different. They might need to be talking it out until they get to the answer themselves. And so those two things together will help you navigate yourself in the world where, if you before felt so much, so much restriction to you, to your path. You kept trying to go this path and then you felt resistance. Once you learn to to apply the human design principles in terms of type and authority, that resistance will clear out.

Speaker 2:

Amazing. Thank you. I'm curious Would you say that when you started to learn about human design and understanding your own profile, did it have any influence on your decisionmaking to start remote work and then, becoming like normal, going to Columbia A?

Speaker 3:

hundred percent. Did it influence you at all? It did, it did, yeah, it did completely. I did a whole like 180.

Speaker 3:

So I, during COVID, when I was during COVID, I was doing trail running, hiking. I did trail running and hiking for two years I was not even into human design. I got into astrology, I got into Reiki and then at some point after the two years, I didn't want to do mountains anymore. I didn't want to hike up, I didn't want to run. I had this really low energy and I thought I was depressed, I was like I just can't do this anymore.

Speaker 3:

But this thing over here, this astrology, birth chart reading and maybe learning this human design, is so interesting and I want to just keep reading it and investigating it and reading my friend's charts and all of this stuff. And so no energy, the energy for my hiking left and this newfound energy for spirituality awakened. And once I learned that I have to go where my joy goes, I realized I have to let hiking go, because letting hiking go would open up the space for me to go into this direction. And once I learned that, and I learned that I have to follow where my joy goes and, as a manifesting generator, I pivot every two to three years. You just pivot and just go some other direction. I was meant to let that go and just expand where I'm in, where the human design and spirituality community was seeking me, so that completely changed everything. And then I had the need to leave the country and then I, I went, I went for it and I did it and everything has aligned perfectly.

Speaker 3:

I meet people of this on the same wavelength. I also went through a breakup, because I that wasn't. I wasn't feeling good anymore and after that it just everything completely opened. So it's it's it's kind of a way to also connect with your spirituality, because then you realize that just connecting with yourself and following your heart and your passions and where you're you, you're meant to go, without thinking about your mind of how it's going to happen If things just open and there's a path that starts coming into light within that.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. Yeah, and I fully agree with it, because when I first time heard about human design, I read a little bit and listened to some podcasts.

Speaker 2:

For me it was like someone was telling me like finally, you're okay the way you are, you know, like I was thinking about something. But why am I like this? Why am I weird like that? And then I understood no, it's completely fine. That's like how a projector behaves, because sometimes we are comparing ourselves maybe to other people, but we don't know the energy type of human design. So me, as a projector, I wanted to be like a generator, you know, like super concentrated at the computer all the time. And when I understood, no, it's a project, I'm also waiting for invitations, I do what I want and then I take people on my journey. And that was also then when I started my nomad lifestyle building my own business. Then now I feel like way more aligned and that I'm really like living this both solid and authentic life.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think for projectors you can be a lot more conditioned, and they call it conditioning as in. You know, this is how the social structure has been. We work nine to five. Then you know we keep doing that and we work 40 hours a week. But projectors are not meant to be working that way. Those are more. That's more generators. Projectors and manifestors are not supposed to be working that way. Their energy just doesn't work that way. It you work for two to three hours. That's why we call you consultants, because you're really good at coming in saying, hey, this is what I see, this is what's wrong, this is what we should fix, and then leave and leave and have generators who have that energy to finish and complete these things, do the work. So, once projectors, this is a huge system for projectors because once projectors do learn that they are projectors, it is a big relief because you notice that you've been trying to be this generator type for so long and you're actually different.

Speaker 2:

Exactly Regarding human design, any question you feel I should have asked anything. We still need to talk about human design, so maybe our followers I think we will share. We will share for sure also your link, your instagram and the show notes and the link, but anything else you say now you're listened until here. Until that point, this information is missing about you.

Speaker 3:

Anything. I don't think I can. I had it earlier and then it went away, so yeah, I don't have anything at the moment.

Speaker 2:

No, but I think like it's like really it's all good because we like, we understood like how to get it, we got some insights and projectors and how to read it yeah, and it's.

Speaker 3:

It's not the easiest system to understand. That's why it's. You know, if you get stuck somewhere, just get get a reading if. If it helps, you can also there get a reading if it helps. There's also a lot of other apps that provide this information, but, honestly, it is something that will help you on your journey If you're trying to get to know yourself better, trying to understand who you are. It really is a system that provides that insight and you will definitely benefit from it.

Speaker 2:

Great, thank you. And if we go back, like to you as a digital nomad now, what are your plans for the future? So, because you said you started half a year ago, can you imagine to do it again half a year? Are you planning to stop it? Do you want to go on with it? What are your future plans?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so after traveling and doing this for six months, I am actually going to quit my job soon.

Speaker 2:

Yay, come play.

Speaker 3:

I'm ready to cut something that has led to a lot of frustration and open up the space for more opportunities to go on human design and where I'm meant to go. Yeah, I know that I never. I don't want to go back to the corporate environment. I don't want to go back to the U? S. I really enjoy I've traveled to 32 countries, so I really enjoy just right now staying in one place for a very long time. I've been in Colombia for, I think, now four or five months and I plan to stay here for years actually, because I don't need to move around. I like where I'm at right now and, yeah, I think in terms of my journey, yeah, it's going to be a big step to to quit my job and let that go, but I think it's for the best and for sure you know, if you feel it, that it's that way, it will happen, as it should.

Speaker 2:

And what would you like as you and then maybe also for listeners who are also just starting the digital nomad journey, or like a couple of months, what would you say, like your three secrets you would share with someone who's just starting the digital nomad journey?

Speaker 3:

I would say it depends if you're starting your digital nomad journey and you're working and you have. Depends if you're you're working for yourself or someone else. It's actually really nice to give yourself like a month or more in the location, because moving around too often can can challenge your nervous system. But it would also like it doesn't help with routines and I think for me, what I've learned is that having a good routine it helps me mentally. Having to sit down somewhere and figure that stuff out it's better than jumping around and just being very stressed about everywhere you go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, maybe I can jump in here quickly.

Speaker 2:

yeah, because I just experienced exactly the same, because I was like one month now in Palomino, in another Colombian city, and I realized after this one month I fully arrived, you know, because then you start meeting really the communities, you understand a little bit the city, what's going on, you managed your own logistics and also they are like you're going to a new city, like, at least for me. Then there's this restaurant, this coffee, this activity, everything you would like to do, and if you just have like some weeks or some days, you are just more like a tourist running from A to B. I think everyone needs to also decide what they want for their digital nomad life. But if you want to really get to know a place, if you want to have time to focus the world, to make meaningful connections, I also would recommend to make it more, a little bit slower and stay longer than once yeah, and a co-living.

Speaker 3:

I would recommend the co-living because everyone who you meet in a co-living is just going through the same journey you are. So if you're starting out in one new place and try to make the community come easily in the co-living and everybody's trying to do touristic things as well so it would help with those two things. If you want to do some touristy things but also want to meet the community and you settle there, then you'll start to learn oh, where could I jump to next? At least in medellin there's like a main, a main city, and then there's the other and then there's a little little um neighborhood that are in the city and there's different preferences depending on you know the city and where, where you would, what your interests are, so you can just move away from the touristic part and go somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

Now, that's, that's also what I experienced. That also helps us, like in the beginning, to meet people you know, because then also you might feel like knowing where to go, or this fear of missing, because then also you might feel like lonely where to go or this fear of missing out, and then at least like at home, like the people you are living with, you can start doing the plans. You have some first contact. That's always beautiful. Yeah, exactly Any third secret, you would say. Or are we good with this too?

Speaker 3:

A third secret would be do something. Do fun things like try to see what the what the country offers, and go do those fun things like. Even if you don't do it once a week, like once a month, if you're staying there longer, um, enjoy your afternoon. Because what I've realized is I do so much more now in the afternoons after work than I ever did when I was back home and I have so much energy for it and there's always someone available, because everyone's out here without their families. We're not like, oh yeah, you have friends that you meet that might leave in two weeks, might leave tomorrow, so you make the most out of your time and you go and visit new restaurants and things like that. So get out there, get into the community. You'll definitely benefit from it Amazing.

Speaker 2:

I think that was like really helpful and I think it was an amazing episode. Like we got like lots of insights from you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for having me and yeah, we will put the links to contact you in the show notes okay, sounds good.

Speaker 3:

I can send those over to you too exactly so.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, thank you bye, and that's it for today.

Speaker 1:

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.