Notes From a Neuro Nerd: The Science Behind Living Your Best Life

25. Journey of a Digital Nomad

• Austin and Monica Mangelson

Share episode

Welcome to the digital nomad journey! In this episode, we'll be exploring the various phases of the journey, from daydreaming about traveling and starting a business to succeeding and finding happiness on the road.

The digital nomad journey is a unique and exciting path that combines travel and work. It is a transformative experience that requires resilience, perseverance, and a willingness to take risks, but in exchange, it offers a sense of freedom, happiness, and fulfillment that is not found in a traditional 9-to-5 work life. It is a journey of self-discovery and personal growth that allows you to experience new cultures and work from anywhere in the world.

We've divided the journey into 4 phases, each with its own set of challenges and rewards. Each phase includes action items to help you progress through this journey and achieve your goals. 

Tune in to learn more about each phase and discover where you're at!

Book your FREE discovery call with me!

-----------------------------------

Schedule a free Coffee Chat with Monica!

Get access to my Trust Your Gut Decision Making Guide.

Visit me at my home on the web for more resources.

Today we are talking about the journey of a digital nomad, as Monica and I have been reflecting on our own journey. And looking back on how we got started with working online and starting our business. And when talking with lots of other people who are digital nomads and working online, and they're on their own journey, we've noticed a lot of commonalities. And a lot of similarities between our stories and others, and a lot of kind of motifs that we find in a lot of other people's journeys. And so, we've mapped out what we're calling the journey of a digital nomad. And we're going to be exploring the different phases of the journey, and kind of mapping out the different symptoms you could call them or identifiers of each phase, and then things that you can do to move you from one phase to the next.

Yeah, and while each digital nomad journey is unique and super exciting, they all kind of have this commonality, right, so you might not fit into every description of each phase of the digital nomad journey. But generally, everyone's gonna fall into certain phases as they're going through this transformative experience. We oh my gosh, I'm sure if you listen to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that we absolutely love being digital nomads. It's such a transformative experience. But it also requires a lot of resilience and perseverance, and a willingness to take risks. But in exchange, you get this great sense of freedom and happiness and fulfillment that we couldn't find anywhere else in our traditional nine to five, right? We are really taking control of our our lives, we are the author of our lives. And that as you know, that's kind of our catchphrase, right? Like we get to create the life that we want to live through this digital nomad journey. And we were we've been really blessed to be able to talk to other people who are experiencing the same thing as us. So we're super excited to share with you our findings of this digital nomad journey.

Being a digital nomad is really interesting, because it's a combination of your career path. And a lifestyle like it's not fully one and is not fully the other. It's kind of this unique blend and mix of the two. And like Monica said, everyone's story is going to be a little bit different and unique. And it's a very personalized journey. But we're going to be outlining four different phases. And as we're talking about each one, we want you to think about where you fall in these phases. And again, maybe not everything is going to describe you perfectly. But think about how what we're explaining maybe fits or doesn't fit into your story. And then by the end, we want you to have to try and guess where you are in your journey. Try and estimate which of these four phases best categorizes where you're at in becoming a digital nomad. 

Phase 1: Daydreaming

So without further ado, let's dive into phase one. And this phase we call the daydreaming phase. Okay, this is a pre digital nomad phase. And in this phase, people in this phase are starting to feel discontent unfulfilled or unhappy with their current lives. They're beginning to wonder if it's too late to start traveling and chasing their dreams. And they feel FOMO right? This the fear of missing out and envy towards others who are on the road and living their life to the fullest. These people are researching and daydreaming about potential travel destinations and lifestyles. Or as we like to call Pinterest shopping for a new life. Because I spent a lot of time on Pinterest. When we were in this phase, there's a sense of misalignment with their current life and they desire a change. And they're waiting for a sign that it's time that they can do this and they can start this journey on their own.

Yeah, this was the phase that Monique and I were in right after we graduated college, we had to move in with my parents for a little bit and we got jobs, and just kind of whatever jobs we could find. So we were working in healthcare and I was waiting at a Mexican restaurant. Monica was definitely in this phase more than I was she would come to me every day and she had pins different things on Pinterest, and she every single time she got an email from Camilla travels, she told me she's like Austin, we can get a flight to the Caribbean for $300 or for 150. Like every single day, there's always new exciting things that she could share with me about something she's on Instagram or Pinterest or something that she had heard or some YouTube video about traveling somewhere. So she was definitely in the stage of researching and daydreaming and wanting to learn more about this lifestyle and wanting to make it part of our life story. But we were stuck. We were at least I was kind of depressed after our trip to the Peace Corps fell through and so we were kind of bummed out we were discontented with where we were. We weren't super happy with their situation but didn't really have a lot of drive to do anything beyond daydreaming and wishing that something was different. Those are some classic symptoms of people who are in the stage dreaming phase. It If this is you, we have a couple of things that you can do to help pull you out of the stage and bring you into the next phase phase two, which we'll talk about in a second. The first thing you can do clarify your purpose. And what we mean by that is take time to reflect on why you want to travel. What's your core motivation? What's really driving you to want to live a digital nomad lifestyle, to take your work on the road and to travel to different destinations. We call it your why what is your core? Why we want you to write it down and identify it and have that recorded somewhere.

Yeah, and it's totally okay. If your why seems like a selfish reason, don't feel bad, just know that this is going to be what helps motivate you if things ever get hard. Okay? All right. Next, we want you to start exploring all of your options. So right at comprehensive list of your skills and interests, and anything that you could do to make money, and then we're gonna determine the various ways you can monetize those skills. So this could be literally anything if you're good at photography, if you're good at knitting, if you really like to write if you really like graphic design, anything that you have, let's write it down. And then we're gonna start looking at those monetization options. 

One really great way to do this is drive Venn diagram, a three part Venn diagram, one circle are skills. Another circle is your passions. And the last circle is things that people will pay you for. And just fill that Venn diagram with everything you can think of just brain dump everything, and then that sweet spot in the middle where all three intersect, if you can find something that fits all three of those, that's what you should start considering and working towards, for a, an online job. We also want you to start thinking this is action three, is to determine your path and start considering what lifestyle is right for you. So there's a couple of different paths available to you could become a remote worker, a freelancer or an entrepreneur. And in a future episode, we're gonna dive deeper into what each of these means, but you want to know what the right lifestyle is for you. And that's gonna determine kind of what to start working towards. In addition to your career lifestyle, we want you to start thinking about your digital nomad lifestyle, as far as Do you want to be traveling to new places every other week? Do you want to be staying in one place for several months or a year and relocating every couple years? So how long do you want to stay places? What type of traveling Do you want to do and start really, like really visualizing, and actualizing this idea that you have, rather than it being a daydream, start visualizing it as if it's happening right now. Yeah, and
you definitely don't have to have anything, for sure figured out especially when it comes to lifestyle and how often you want to be traveling. But we really do want you to get into that headspace of, okay, like I am, I am in a new country, and I'm here for three months, and then I'm moving and I'm going to another new country, and we really want you to start thinking through those things, even though that'll probably change start your journey. And that's okay, that's one of the great things about being a digital nomad is you can change and adapt your journey to fit your current life circumstances. So don't worry about having this like set in stone or anything, but definitely start that more solidified daydreaming.

And then the very last action step for this is to really dig deep and ask yourself a hard question. And that question is, if I'm being totally honest with myself, what is the number one thing that's holding me back from this journey, and this is going to take some real honesty, it could be fear of what your family's gonna think it could be maybe some negative self talk, and you don't think you're capable of building a career that's totally online, whatever it is, like, be honest with yourself, be transparent, write it down somewhere. Once you have that identified, that's gonna help you overcome that in phase two. 

Phase 2: Taking the Leap

And phase two is what we call taking the leap or business and travel experimentation.
In this phase, you finally decided that you are going to become a digital nomad case, this is where kind of the rubber starts to meet the road. Okay, you don't exactly know how you're going to make it happen. But you are determined to make it happen. In this phase, you are shooting to overcome initial obstacles and challenges like What will my family think? What am I going to do with all my stuff, what I do about taxes, so I need a visa to starting to formulate more concrete plans here. You're gaining clarity in your business and freelance plan and income source. But you're still feeling unsure about the next steps. And occasionally, you get really overwhelmed and discouraged. You're excited about navigating through these trials. And they're having some trial and error with some limited success. So a lot of people kind of get stuck spinning in this phase, right? So a lot of people are excited and start making money online and then they stop making money online and they kind of freak out and then and then they start maybe trying something new and they start making money online and then it doesn't work out or the income is not as consistent as they would like it to and they kind of freak out or they pivot and teach directions inside. They don't like it. And a lot of people spend a lot of time spinning their wheels In this face.

So if you are stuck in this spin cycle and you feel like you identify with somebody in the taking the leap, or business and travel experimentation phase, then what can you do, we have four action items that can take you out of this phase on to phase three. The first one is to really get serious about overcoming challenges and obstacles in our experience. And what we've seen from people is, like Monica said, people get stuck in this phase, because they'll recognize some hurdles. And that fear is a little bit a little bit too much and holds them back from actually making plans. So we want you to make a list of all the things that are holding you back all of your roadblocks, anything that you're going to have to logistically plan in order to leave the country. And then we want you to come up with potential solutions. So let's say for example, you have a house. So I mean, that's, that's one big obstacles, you have a mortgage payment, well, you could rent it out, you could do house swaps, you could sell it, which is obviously a big step, but that's a potential solution. So just write down all of the roadblocks, all of your potential solutions, get those wheels turning in a progressive way. Next, we want you to start showcasing your skills through a portfolio. So the first thing that's really going to help you get some traction with your business is assembling a portfolio because that's going to demonstrate your experience to any potential future client of yours. So whether you are doing digital art, or digital marketing, photography, or whatever it is that you want to do, start collecting pieces of evidence of your skill set and your quality of work so that you can show people,
your portfolio is so important because it becomes your online resume, right? In the online space. People don't really care about where you went to school, or where you worked before, they want to see what you can do now. So find some kind of a visual presentation that you can put together to show people what you got, right. And this can be super simple, it can literally be a Google Drive folder. Alright, next, you're gonna start gaining valuable experience. So start doing projects to get hands on experience with your business, so that you can build credibility and establish yourself as a trusted expert. Now, this seems really big. So let me break it down. Super simple for you. Offer to do free projects for your friends and family, and then put it in your portfolio and get testimonials. Okay, and then each time you do a project, start increasing the price. Okay. When Austin I started our web design business, we started out I think we did two websites for free. And then we did a couple at like the $500 range, and I bumped it up to maybe $700. And now we're charging several $1,000 to build a website. So it comes little by little, but start getting that valuable experience. So you can gain the confidence needed to move into Phase Three.
If you're somebody who is, you know, the business idea that you've come up with is something that you already have some experience with, you don't necessarily have to start with three projects, if you already have, you know, some evidence and some proof that people will pay you for your work, start collecting that. And you know, that experience is great. But if this is something new to you, then free projects is a great way to get started. And you don't have to feel bad about doing it that way. And and you really only have to do a couple free projects, because like Monica said, it'll pick up pretty quickly. And then our last action step is to start building your business or your credibility through word of mouth, we want you to expand your network, create a referral program. So this could be offering cash to somebody who refers a client to you, this could be a percentage kickback, or a flat rate, kickback, anything that incentivizes people to share you as a service provider, that's going to really start attracting new business opportunities for you in the future.

So just a small example of that Austin, I offer $100 To anyone who refers us a client, and that client signs a contract with us when that contract is signed, we'll send them $100 Doesn't matter who they are. Most of them come from past clients, but it doesn't necessarily have to be past clients that we send those referrals to. As you do these things, you are going to move into Phase Three and phase three is really where things start to happen. And it starts to get really exciting, okay. 

Phase 3: Business and Travel Take-Off

Phase three is called business and travel take off in this business and travel take off phase things are really starting to pick up okay, you're feeling really good. You have some business traction, you have some travel traction, you've got a couple of countries under your belt, and you're generating consistent income through your online business. You're experiencing growth in your new business ventures, and gaining tons of momentum. You're starting to cater to a specific target audience or otherwise you're niching down and it's helping you progress your business and speak to your audience more you feel more aligned with the business that you have. you're pursuing your travel dreams you're visiting bucket list destinations, you're building relationships and collaborating with other digital nomads and you're feeling confident optimistic about your Nomad journey. So this phase looks and feels fantastic. And you're starting to feel like you've made it. But it's a lot of work still. So while things are really starting to look up, you know, you have the potential to scale, you know, you have the potential to make more money to possibly work less hours, you might be feeling a little bit burned out by the work you're putting into your business. And you're starting to look for ways to remove yourself from the business just a little bit, work a little bit less, so you can enjoy your travels a little bit more. 

And so we have come up with five action items to help you move on to phase four. Our first action item is to develop an attractive lead magnet for email marketing, email marketing is a huge way to build your business, it is definitely still a viable way to grow your audience and scale your business, find some free something a PDF, or some downloadable resource, or a quiz or checklist or something that somebody would be interested in filling out for your business, in exchange for the email address and start doing some email marketing. We also want you to start publishing some consistent in depth long form content. So for us, that's this podcast, could be a podcast, it could be a blog, it could be a YouTube video. And then you can take that content and reproduce it in other smaller ways. But choose one main long form content platform, and then just go to town on it. We also want you to create a unique, compelling signature offer, you can have multiple offers later in your business. But we want you to start with one core primary focus, what is the one service that you do best at the one thing you want to sell the most of and really build out that offering. This is also a great stage to build a professional website, if you don't have one yet. And then celebrate we want you to celebrate this is a stage to be really proud of yourself in, you've surely reached many milestones along the way to get to this point. So we want you to take a moment reflect on those and enjoy being here. Again, this is a really, really great phase to be in. But there's still a lot of growth to happen. Like this is the beginning of the growth of your business and travel. That's what it's called the business and travel ticket phase. It's it's really picking up from here. But there's still a lot to build and grow and learn and do.

Yeah, it's a really, really fantastic and fun phase to be in. So for those of you who are in this phase, and you're ready to move on and take those action items, you move on to phase four. 

Phase 4: Cruising Altitude

The fourth and final stage, which is cruising altitude, and this is where you can definitely say I've made it. I've done it. I'm living a successful digital nomad lifestyle, right. So you've achieved success in digital nomad journey, you're surrounded and by strong and supportive friendships, and the digital nomad community and in the communities where you're living, you're enjoying a sense of happiness and freedom and you're earning and saving money. We were saving money and building wealth consistently. And it's starting to feel easy, unlimited travel opportunities are coming your way, okay, you don't have to pick and choose what countries you're going to based on your income you can go anywhere in the world because your income that you built is enough to sustain that you continue to grow your business and your income is continuing to increase. And you're having so much fun, you are living the dream. 

This is the final phase of our digital nomad journey. And you might think there's nothing left to do at this stage. Because like Monica said, this is kind of where you've made it. But we still have some action items here. First, we want you to start striving for balance or harmony between your work life and your personal life, there's a really good chance in phase three, as you're building and scaling your business that you might have had to weigh your time, a little bit heavier on business time, and a little bit less time for personal interests or hobbies or travel. So this is the phase where you can really start enjoying a little bit better of harmony between those two things and really create the lifestyle in the way that you want it to look like. We also want you to continue serving your target clientele your target audience, there's no reason to pull back at this stage. Like there's still so many things you can provide an offer of you can come up with new service offerings, a new packages and programs that will continue to help the people that you've helped up to this point. There's also a mindset shift, which you can make at this stage. This is our third action item. That's kind of the shift from working on your own to starting to hire other people and bringing on more support for your business. So this could be a personal assistant or a virtual assistant, maybe even an employee. They're going to help you handle tasks and increase efficiently help grow and scale your business even more. This is a great stage to really build out more intricate processes and workflows and really streamline your whole process. Our last two action items are to continue to learn and grow. We don't wants you to start growing as an individual and as a business owner, like still invest in yourself continue to invest in courses and learning opportunities. And then the very last one similar to the last phase, or the last action item in the previous phase is to reflect and celebrate your success. You've done a ton of work to get to this point. So take time to reflect on your accomplishments and celebrate where you've gotten.

All right, and that sums up the four phases of the journey of a digital nomad. And we are so excited to hear from you to hear what phase you feel like you belong in and what are the action items you're going to be taking to move on to the next phase so feel free to reach out to us on Instagram, @austinandmonica. We cannot wait to hear from you!

People on this episode

Head Shot

Austin Mangelson

Host
Head Shot

Monica Mangelson

Host