Digital Nomad Stories

Facing Your Fears For a Fulfilling Digital Nomad Life

• Anne Claessen • Season 2 • Episode 186

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Ever found yourself at rock bottom, only to discover a hidden strength that transforms your life? Cassidy Amber Chapman, a life coach, speaker, author, and artist, walks us through her journey from financial crisis to becoming a full-time digital nomad. 

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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 Cassidy Amber Chapman. She is a life coach, holistic life coach, speaker, author and artist. We met in Columbia and I already know a little bit about her story and I feel it's so exciting and so interesting. So I'm super glad to have her here today and talk more in depth about her story. Welcome, cassidy.

Speaker 3:

Hi, I'm super excited, excited. Thanks for having me here yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 2:

So maybe before we start, where are you currently, right now?

Speaker 3:

I am back in the US.

Speaker 2:

In Boston, I'm visiting family so, yeah, we met in Colombia and now we also travel a little long Latin America. Quite a lot, yes, and maybe let's start in the beginning. I think your story of how you became a digital nomad is quite inspiring for others. So, maybe take us on your journey.

Speaker 3:

Well, let's do it Well. First, I would say that's when I became a full-time digital nomad. When I was just starting my business around I don't know three and a half, four years ago, I called myself digital nomad light. I would move to a country for a month and then have a base in Boston. But when I decided that I was going to become a full-time digital nomad, that's when everything really in my life absolutely changed and I really identified more-time digital nomad. That's when everything really in my life absolutely changed and I really identified more as a digital nomad.

Speaker 3:

And in that time it was not easy, it was kind of rough. I had this, this calling in my soul that I could just feel that I was meant to go to Columbia. And it was just, it was a knowing, it was signs, it was synchronicities and I can get into that in a second of what those signs were. It just was almost undeniable that I was meant to go. But I could feel for almost a year it was just this pull, it was this magnetism, that I just had this feeling I was meant to go and in that time I was really scared to leave because I was scared to leave my family. There was a couple of things that I was really scared to, feeling like things would fall apart if I had, if I had left and actually my family had went through such a. There was a crisis that my family went through that ended up me losing all of my money in almost overnight and all of my savings. Everything was gone. And it was crazy because in the same month that everything had left, a lot of my clients had left because they got laid off, not because they didn't want to leave. They also had weird kind of circumstances that stopped them from being able to be clients for a little bit, and it was just a crazy whirlwind of circumstances that all of a sudden just created what seemed like an impossible thing to leave. And at the time, too, I was so feeling this calling, yet not understanding that I had zero dollars in my bank account at that point and I had no idea how I was going to make anything and be able to live abroad. So things had fallen apart and I was like it was either time to figure out how to stay or it was finally time to leave. Because I was going to be, I had to leave my living situation anyways, and basically it was now or never kind of thing. Yet I just didn't know how I was going to do it. But I kept feeling this calling, these signs and these synchronicities, that I was meant to go. And so I bought the one-way ticket on a credit card, not knowing how everything was going to turn out.

Speaker 3:

And usually, energetically I don't take a new clientele when I'm in kind of chaos, because I really hold the fact that when people are investing in me, they're investing in themselves. They're not really investing in me, they're investing in themselves. And so I hold my energetic capacity and container of who I allow in and when I allow that in to be very clean. And so I didn't really know how it was going to happen. But the day after I had bought my one-way ticket, my old boss had called me and, by the way, I had bought a ticket for about a month and a half away and my old boss had called me and she goes hey, I know you have a business, but I need someone to work for this month, like five days a week, 12 hours, a business.

Speaker 3:

I know you, but I, I I need someone to work for this month, like five days a week, 12 hours a day, and like I really need help and I said you have no idea how perfect this is. So I worked like crazy that month, right before I left, and I was able to have a savings again and I and then after that, of course, once I had left and everything had happened, I I was able to do my business, you know, picked back up because I energetically had more space and capacity for my clientele and it was just incredible.

Speaker 2:

One question yeah, that's super interesting and I feel like a lot of our listeners are maybe some of those situations we want to go. But then I get a lot of times a question but I don't have savings. What should I do? How can I become like, calm and getting income? So you didn't have any saving in the moment you bought your one-way ticket. Do you remember what was it? What made you brave, like, oh, like you felt this calling, but how did you really become brave to finally buy the ticket from your credit card?

Speaker 3:

Oh, my, this is such a good question. Well, first of all and that's kind of well first of all is one of the big things that I help my clientele with is to have the courage to walk by faith, to do things that may just absolutely scare you, but you can feel a calling in your intuition. It's almost like you know things are going to be okay. There's this knowing inside of you that everything is going to be more than okay. I kept having this feeling in this call, but it was these signs and these synchronicities that began to just tumble and just make everything seem like everything was going to be okay. Now, of course, that call was one of them, but even after the call, in knowing that I had maybe some work to do, I still was terrified and scared.

Speaker 3:

And honestly, it was a couple of things Again, one of them being that this is something that I teach, it's something that I live by. It's a philosophy of being brave. No matter how terrified, you are taking brave, bold steps. The time is always now, your life. There only is this now moment to live, and you want to live it in the fullest sense, in the fullest way. And those signs and synchronicities that, for me that were actually undeniable was not only did that happen right after they bought the ticket, but the the day before I had bought the ticket. I was talking about how Colombia has salsa and I'm a bachata dancer and I wanted bachata and I saw on TikTok and it said and I was, you know, there was a. I just knew that I was meant to go to medellin and because that was the bachata capital of colombia and that was a sign for me yeah, it's so beautiful that you're saying also you were fearful, you were scared.

Speaker 2:

and then I think that's also important to say it's not that it's always easy and we take these brave decisions by starting okay our original, normal life, set our goal to a new place. Yes, we are also scared, but that the beauty is sometimes behind going into that fear. Yes, that then, like fear can also be our sign that the way to go, with that you know, yes.

Speaker 3:

I was actually bawling my eyes out as I was buying the ticket, because I was like I don't know what I'm doing. What am I doing? I'm so terrified, I'm so afraid. Yet there's just something telling me that everything is going to be okay, actually, more than okay.

Speaker 2:

And remember when was it Like? How long are you already now a digital nomad?

Speaker 3:

now a digital nomad. Well, I had left in August of 2023, okay, yeah, so, uh, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, about a year now, but now I'm a full-time digital nomad. I was kind of like I said digital nomad, like for a couple of years, but I had a base in Boston. More, yeah, it was just, it was a calling in my soul, truly, that I knew that I was going to be okay and I knew it was something that I needed to experience in this lifetime.

Speaker 2:

And now, like one year, looking back, how was it? How, also, like I assume, somehow you always had the financial stability, or at least there was enough income to go, and how was, like your year?

Speaker 3:

then, like the last year it was, I could cry. It was more than I possibly could have imagined. It was well, it just was. I can't even explain it. It ignited parts of me. It made me more compassionate for the world. It made me feel that I'm capable and that I am strong, and my quality of life went through the roof. It was just and obviously my business you know, kind of you know was doing very well at that point too, so I had the income to be able to do so and it just. I felt free, I felt just so happy. I felt my soul was being fed through different experiences, through different adventures and through meeting new people. I learned so much about myself and what I'm capable of. And we're kind of wired or told to be scared about the things that happen, be scared of Colombia, because there you know it's so dangerous there and you know there's people living there.

Speaker 2:

So there is ways to still live, and maybe I can even not. I don't know if I can tell it, but I even go with my blonde hair. You know, alone bike through Medellin. It's possible without like having any bad experience and you know so.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you know, like, where to go a little bit, how to behave. Obviously, I don't do it at night, yeah, so yeah, you can really have a nice time in Medellin. Oh, it's the best beautiful. So, as you said, it was like more than you could have expected. You know and I see your shiny eyes when you're talking about it what are maybe this three experiences that are directly popping into your mind?

Speaker 3:

oh well, one, as I didn't book the initial trip. So the the very first part, the reason that I had bought it so soon, the ticket ticket to leave and, by the way, I had sold almost all of my things and I only kept what could stay in my tiny two-door car. I did keep my car just because financially it made sense to keep the car that was already paid off and everything, just in case I did want to move back to the US or whenever I wanted to visit the US. But one of the things was when I first walked in to the first Airbnb in Colombia and I didn't book that trip at all and I had no idea what it was going to be. I expected it to be something I don't know, simple, but it was this incredible, almost castle-like place that I walked in and it was the moment that I had left. There was a cook there just made me fresh squeezed juice in the most incredible meal and I said what am I? A princess or something I have, you know, like? I just felt like the everything in my life aligned in that moment when I arrived, and it was beyond my wildest imagination for that to happen.

Speaker 3:

Now, also on that trip, because I didn't plan it again because I was so. There was so much emotion before I left. It was so hard to leave. It was not knowing when I would see my family again and selling everything that I've owned since I was a baby. There's a lot of emotion and fear in that. So when my friend had booked it, she was just like you know, I'll just, I'll book it and you show up. I said OK, and so one of the things that we did on that trip was we actually we went to Minka in Colombia and it was in the rainforest, in the jungle. We stayed in a tree house and so I got to live in a tree house in the rainforest. That was one of the most incredible top 10 experiences of my life and I just cannot ever not think about it. Just how amazing it was and how I just felt so free, so connected to nature. So I it just was beyond anything I could have thought of to live in a tree house in the rainforest. As you woke up and you, the birds were chirping and there was, it was an open air tree house and you see, you had you slept with nets to make sure there was no mosquitoes. It was, and I just remember sitting journaling at the edge of the treehouse looking at the most incredible view of the rainforest, like we were really high so we could see the mountains and everything, and I just remember thinking I did it, I did it, I did it, I took the leap, did it, I did it, I took the leap. And so that was one of those moments that just felt like beyond my wildest imagination.

Speaker 3:

And one other, the third, in Peru. I I ended up noticing that I was going to so many events in Colombia and I realized that the expat and nomad community in Peru, they like there wasn't as much events to go to. And so I created an event and it was just. It was just from my heart, just seeing what would happen, and I wanted to build my skills as a community builder, as a community builder, and I created an event and it became a weekly event until I left and even after it continued, of an authentic connections night.

Speaker 3:

And what for me, that was is it's just. I created an event in a country I had never been in before, the people I didn't even know, I had no connections. I just created it and it created an incredible amount of connections between people and it just it was this wow, what is possible in the world? Like there's so much that I'm capable of and there's so much that can just happen. It was just incredible to see what that was. It just made me feel as if I could go to any country and make anything happen, no matter the you know, making it a bilingual event of Spanish and English, and just there's things that those are things that I never thought were possible or that I was capable of prior, and it really just made me feel so free beautiful.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for sharing. Like just listening to you, I really get like remembered and inspired about living every day without expectations. You know, like really following, like just our calling, as I say, like our heart you said your soul, yeah, whatever you want to call it, but and then just enjoy it, trust it, be grateful for it. I think with this we can really make this.

Speaker 3:

The digital moment lifestyle is so undrafted, yeah it is absolutely possible to anybody and, yeah, it can be difficult. You know, I I will give it the fact that I was creating a business for two years prior to me leaving, so I had, you know, an online source of income that you know I had created for two years prior. So there was an ability to do that. But there's always online jobs or exchanges for, you know, services for food and boarding and things like that. There's always online jobs or exchanges for, you know, services for food and and boarding and things like that.

Speaker 2:

There's always a way, maybe yeah for our listeners to follow better. We haven't talked about your business. Maybe you can explain a little bit. What is your business? You are, like I said, like a holistic life coach. Yeah, what is it what we were like exactly doing, so we can follow you a little bit better?

Speaker 3:

yeah, absolutely so. I help people love their lives and build lives they love through coaching, one-on-one or through the communities that I build, and what we do is really allow your limiting thoughts to just kind of melt away, to learn how to take that brave, bold steps towards every dream that you've ever had and to really become who you are meant to become. And so I help people in that way, and there's I also do, you know, some speaking engagements. I have a book as well. I'll I'm reading writing my second right now, and I also release music that helps with this empowering messages that I have in each of my coaching and so you really have your online business going?

Speaker 2:

yes, this enables you to keep traveling yeah, absolutely they aren't. That's so beautiful and I just was thinking, when you say you have people to relive their lives, what are like the limit, what is like the most common limiting belief that maybe also people in the dirt ditches your normal life have what?

Speaker 3:

is maybe this belief that sometimes limits us to really take this wave step you know, that's a great question, because it's something that stopped me for a while, even though I kind of had the feeling that I was meant to go. It's a a fear of getting uncomfortable, first of all because it's something completely you don't know, but it's just this feeling of I can't or I'm not capable, and it's so crazy because there's so many people that told me I can't, I couldn't do what you do. You're a woman traveling alone. There's just no way I could do that.

Speaker 3:

There was a point where I thought that too, that that was my belief. Oh, there's no way that I could travel alone. But if you try it, if you do it, you realize you are capable and you're very much capable, and you don't really know until you try. And so one of the things that I really help with my clients and myself in just embodying my message is you got to just take a step and try and take a risk. That's the only time you'll ever actually know what you're capable of is by trying, is by doing, is by taking a risk and doing something scary. You realize there's it's not as scary as you really thought it was beautiful.

Speaker 2:

I think that's really like helpful, because sometimes you need to listen to realize. I would add also to it, because I feel it's my deep limiting belief is I'm not good enough. So am I really allowed to do it? You know like what? If yeah, am I allowed to create my own business, to travel like I'm not good enough to receive like this abundance and or being like abundant? And I think the more steps we take in that direction, we can prove ourselves and show ourselves we are capable, we are good enough to do so I think it's nothing that happens automatically, unconsciously.

Speaker 2:

It's something we really need to work consciously on taking time for it, taking coachings, having our own maybe, like you also said, you're also journaling. I'm fully into journaling, you know, like really having like our routines and techniques to be aware of this limiting beliefs and then find our ways on how to first accept them and then really integrate and transform them.

Speaker 3:

You know that is another you know big one that I see. A lot of my clients have this thought of not being worthy of these things, and I, you know, I always offer the perspective of you are born worthy and absolutely nothing has changed. One of the things that we do is we idolize people, and when we do that, we think that someone else is capable of something that we're not. Or if someone else has a life that is beyond what we are experiencing right now, that it is not for us, it's for them. But what I like to offer is bringing us back to the basis of humanity.

Speaker 3:

If someone else is doing something, you are absolutely capable of doing it too, and the real truth is you were born worthy and absolutely nothing has changed. And, honestly, it's your duty to live the gift of this life because you are a miracle, you are a one in a trillion to be able to be alive in this moment, and that is an unrepeatable. You are an unrepeatable miracle and so it is your duty to live however your heart is calling you to. Duty to live however your heart is calling you to, life is hard enough. You don't need to make it harder on yourself and try to stop yourself. But that's the craziest part is we are our biggest enemies in stopping ourselves from making our dreams and our desires happen because we having this belief of that not being good enough. There's no such thing of not being good enough. It's more about just doing, trying, following your heart, because it is your duty to live in the fullest capacity, as this life is a gift that's so beautiful.

Speaker 2:

I always said it and, as you said, like your life is a miracle. It's also, then, about not comparing yourself. Why not? Oh, she or he is living like this lifestyle, or they are like so successful in building their business. I want to know it's like your life without like. It's not about comparing yourself with others or having expectations that you succeed the others. Yeah, it's like really staying true to your essence, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And what?

Speaker 2:

is like how you want to create this life Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

You know what? I also would like to talk about it a little bit, because you retouched upon it in the beginning.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, about a little bit, because you, you uh retouched upon it in the beginning how everything styled with you, like your capacity to create this financial energy. That's like you're really calling in the mind, because I think this is sometimes also a point when we are just genomics and not having already like a business algorithm, but really want to become it. Maybe we have a fixed job that is not possible to do on a remote level and I more and more get this question but are you not afraid of your financial?

Speaker 2:

so you need this financial stability security and as you're also like working with energy of having enough money or like are there some techniques or tools or recommendations or mindsets whatever you feel we would we could share with the audience? Yeah, absolutely like how can we call in this?

Speaker 3:

it's funny because I don't think it's necessarily calling in, because it's already the. It is just stepping into that reality of the person you become that can create that. It's always number one just embodying the person that can create the life that you want. And one of the things is is, if you're doing scary things, if you're, you know there's on. If you're trying to do entrepreneurship, which is, you know, one of the ways that you can become a digital nomad. I've met a lot of people who have full-time, online, remote jobs as well, and it's not just one way. Now, if you want to become an entrepreneur, that is a journey, that is, you have to become a person that's okay with inconsistent income, or you have to be okay with the ebbs and the flows of money coming in and out, and you also become a person to realize I can make money here, instead of you know, I don't have money, it's all right. What are the five different ways that I can make money this month? It's always having a solution mindset instead of well, I don't have it, it's well, okay. What are the opportunities, what are the ways that I can make it happen? This month, your mind goes into solution when you are in that space of how I can create it. When you're embodying that person, that is the one who can create those things, it becomes second nature. Okay, well, I need $5,000 this month to be able to do X, y and Z. So I'm going to create an offer, or I'm going to add value to this, or I'm going to somehow create an offer that is at that level and I'm going to create something that has that value to be able to make that money, to be able to pay this. Once you have a mindset of I can make it happen, it becomes a very different story. It's always about deciding with conviction you're going to make something happen, I'm going to go. I have no idea how it's going to happen, but I know I'm going to make it happen. And now some people say that and then absolutely do nothing, and then they're like you know, they think that something's going to happen just by saying it and feeling it With conviction. It's going to happen. But then no action, no ways of opening yourself up to opportunities, no ways of sharing an offer or sharing collaborate, like whatever it is. You have to move in that direction. You have to walk in that direction. So instead of saying you know, oh, I can't leave, I can't be a digital nomad because I don't have the funds. It's not about not having the funds, it's how do I make the funds? What are the five different ways? Okay, that one didn't work, let me try another one. The funds. What are the five different ways? Okay, that one didn't work, let me try another one.

Speaker 3:

You know, there's so many different options to that that are available out there, and it's about having conviction. If this is something that you want to do, it's going to terrify you, it's going to be really scary Sometimes. There's going to be times where you're like I have no idea how this is going to happen. And the thing is, is a digital nomad lifestyle is unstable. So if you want stability that doesn't align when I say stability you can income streams and flows however you want it to be, but I'm just saying that it's an adventurous lifestyle, so you have to become the adventurer. You and sometimes the adventure you is going to be absolutely terrified and that's okay. That's a part of it beautiful.

Speaker 2:

I think I don't have anything to add to the other thing. It's like, really like, I think it's always you always need to remember to really take those action steps right Because when we talk like spirituality manifestation, some people think you're just sitting there meditating and feeling how the money is in your bank account. But then, when you're not taking action, obviously it's not going to happen.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely Cool. Another thing I wrote down, because I think we talked about Colombia, but then you also said Peru, so maybe where have you been like the last year, in which countries have you been in Colombia and? Peru, or have you been?

Speaker 3:

in other countries. So I started in Colombia, and then I went to Nigeria, yes and then I went back to Colombia, and then I went back to Colombia and then I went to Peru, and then I went to Chile, and then I went to Dubai and then I went to Turkey.

Speaker 2:

so it was a year full of travel and uh, how like, as you said you are, you didn't plan, so how have you decided or chosen the different countries? It was almost like.

Speaker 3:

You know, whatever your belief is, god just unfolded it for me. It was the craziest experience of my life. You know, I had that calling, that feeling that I was meant to go to Colombia. And then I went to Nigeria because I was a keynote speaker. So I was flown out to Nigeria and I ended up just staying longer because I wanted to explore Nigeria. If I'm going to, you know, speak at an event there, I might as well stay longer. And when I came back to Colombia again, I just had a feeling that calling, so I just wanted to stay for a while.

Speaker 3:

Peru one of my friends that I had in Boston. She's actually from Peru. She hadn't been in Peru in two years and she took that semester off to see her brother. So I actually ended up spending the holidays with her family in Peru and I ended up staying longer after she left as well, so I was able to see her.

Speaker 3:

Then Chile I have clients and friends that were like come here because we have summer break at this month. It was just like everything was aligning perfectly. Every two months I had, well, we're free this month, are you free? I was like free, perfectly then. So that's where I went to Chile and then Dubai. I had friends from Boston going there and so they were like come to Dubai. And I said OK, and again it was friends from Boston going there. And so they were like come to Dubai. And I said okay, and again it was just the perfect timing thing. And then after that I just felt a calling to Turkey. And I didn't know anybody or anything and didn't know the language at all, but I just felt a calling and so I went there and stayed there for a while until I I didn't even think I was going to come back to the US soon. But I had an opportunity that came with a plane ticket, and so that's when I was like okay, you know, that's when.

Speaker 2:

uh, that's when I was like all right, I guess I'll, I'll come back good, and I just thought that you have your own YouTube channel where you talk more in detail about your experience in all of these countries, right?

Speaker 3:

Yes, so I did create a full digital nomad story on YouTube where I go into how everything started, the background much more into detail about each country, what happened there, my experiences, why I went, how everything happened, and it's a pretty cool series.

Speaker 2:

Cool. So I would recommend it to everyone who's interested because I think it's like really cool and for this podcast not just too long yeah it'd be a couple hours, so weather stories for sure. Exactly so. We will put the link in the show notes. Yeah, and anything before we finish this interview or this conversation, anything I should have asked you, anything I missed I forgot. Anything else you would like to share?

Speaker 3:

and talk about.

Speaker 3:

Well, I always. For me, it's really important to bring you back to your internal power. You know, when people are listening to this podcast, when you're listening to this podcast, you are looking for stories of inspiration, but I want to remind you that everything that you need is within you. You don't need examples, you don't need proof, because you are the proof. If you have that feeling inside of you, if there is something that is calling you, then you absolutely can make anything happen that you want to make happen. And so, for me, it's always important to bring you back to the real message, which is to be brave, to be bold and to be who you are meant to be.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. I think that was a beautiful closing. Thank you so much, Cassidy, for sharing your experiences and you are in our wisdom you just talked about. We have it all within us. Thank you for sharing your inner wisdom absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And if you want to connect at all, I use cassidy amber chapman for all my social media.

Speaker 2:

So if you want to connect on instagram, linkedin, facebook, youtube, it's all cassidy amber chapman and yeah, we will also put all these links in the show notes so it's easier to click directly on it. Awesome and find you. Thank you, have a beautiful day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, bye, bye 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 are going to leave a review. I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode.