41. OUR Purpose and Passion: Entrepreneurship and Traveling

Last week, we discussed purpose vs passion and why both are necessary for creating a successful life and online business. This week, we're getting personal. We're diving into OUR purpose and passion, what gets us going, and why we do what we do.

In this podcast episode, we reflect on our personal experiences of starting an online business and how it has allowed us to live a life on our own terms. We also discuss how traveling has transformed our lives and how it can help people become more empathetic. We encourage people to travel more and experience the world beyond their cultural barriers. 

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 38: Navigating the Hiring Process as a Digital Nomad | Interview with Rebecca
• Episode 1: How Our Business and Nomad Journey Began
• You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

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.

Chapters

• 1:01 Introducing the Six Week Digital Nomad Moneymaking Roadmap
• 2:16 Reflecting on Personal Business Journey
• 8:40 Impactful Moment of Convincing Austin's Mother to Visit
• 10:08 Transforming Passion into Purpose
• 13:56 Creating a Life Aligned with Your Purpose
• 15:36 Digital Nomad Consulting Offer

Transcript

Austin (00:00:03) - Hey, you guys, it's finally time. We are so thrilled to introduce you to our new consulting offer, the six week Digital Nomad Moneymaking Roadmap. This is a program that's going to give you guidance on transforming your career into online work and becoming a successful digital nomad.

Monica (00:00:20) - This six week digital nomad moneymaking roadmap is a one-on-one consulting offer that's going to help you avoid wrong turns, stay on track, and avoid feeling overwhelmed. We're gonna help you find your passion, set clear goals, and make living as a digital nomad, a successful and sustainable lifestyle.

Austin (00:00:38) - With our expert guidance, you can learn how to build a digital nomad career that allows you to work from anywhere in the world. We'll help you every step along the way too, from identifying your strengths to finding the best opportunities that match your skills and your interests.

Monica (00:00:54) - Don't wait any longer to start living the life of your dream. Sign up for our six week digital nomad moneymaking roadmap today and get on the path to success. You can find more information and sign up at Austin and monica.com/moneymaking roadmap.

Austin (00:01:10) - So let us help you transform your life and take it on the road.

Monica (00:01:14) - All right, let's dive in today's episode.

Austin (00:01:18) - What's up, everybody? This episode, this is a follow up to last week's episode. Last week, we dove into purpose and passion. Why a life founded on purpose is going to lead to a more meaningful and impactful life than one founded on following your passion. And this week's episode, we wanted to give a little more insight into Maya Monica's life personally, and give you a little reflection of what it looks like for us. Uh, we were having a really good conversation with our friend Rebecca. We actually just recorded an episode with her two episodes ago. So, uh, if you haven't heard that one, go listen to it. Rebecca's really awesome and we spend some time on the roof of our apartment building just kind of chatting about why we started our podcast and why we're doing what we're doing. And she is really passionate about what she does in her business, and she's found a really great purpose to work towards. And she really feels strongly about what she does, and it was really inspiring to listen to her talk about it and then also cause a lot of introspection for ourselves when she asked us about our business. So we wanted to have that conversation with you on this podcast and just to kind of open up about what we find meaningful in our lives and why.

Monica (00:02:28) - Yeah, our goal is to share more. So you'll have to let us know if you like kind of this more casual storytelling episode or if you like it a little bit more

Austin (00:02:36) - Structured. So a story comes to mind when thinking about this that I think really drives home why Monica and I do what we do. So this was right after the whole thing happened with, um, not being able to go to the Peace Corps. We really recommend, if you haven't heard it already, go check out our very first podcast episode. We dive into all the details of what happened. But long story short, we were supposed to go to the Peace Corps. Covid happened and we didn't. We were both working in senior care, and I also got a job as a waiter at a Mexican restaurant. And I remember I had specifically asked my boss not to schedule me for Sundays because it, it was important for me not to be working on those days. Uh, not only was I scheduled for a Sunday, um, like I had asked not to be, but it was also, I was also scheduled to work on a day that my family was having a big barbecue and pool party and get together.

Austin (00:03:27) - And so I was gonna have to miss it. And I remember I'd reached out to people, uh, other coworkers to see if shifts could be switched and it wasn't gonna work out. And so I had to go into work that day and I remember having to get dressed and get ready for work and leave right about the same time that that get together was starting. And so as people were coming in, I was going out and it was, it was such a bummer. And I remember that shift lasted what felt like forever. Cause I knew the whole time I was working, I knew all of the people that I loved spending time with were back at home, partying it up, having a great time, enjoying each other's company. So I had a really hard time focusing on the tasks at hand. Not only that, but it was compounded by this feeling that my boss didn't really care about my personal life.

Austin (00:04:11) - He didn't care about my, my personal preferences. He never really seems to put much care into scheduling my time around that. So it was kind of all these, um, kind of heavy negative feelings on top of one another. And I remember that that shift ended a little bit early. So I rushed home to try and catch the tail end of that get together, but by the time I got there, it was over and most people had already left. So that was, it was really crushing to me to have missed that. And I remember that being a catalyst for this feeling of not wanting my life to be on other people's terms. I hated the feeling of asking for a time off when, when there was something important in my life that I wanted to attend and not being able to be in control of having that time that I wanted.

Austin (00:04:56) - I didn't really realize it at the time as much. I feel like I was kind of lost still in this, I guess, depression of the whole thing with the Peace Corps falling through. And I didn't really have time or space in my mind to dive into alternatives. I just was kind of waiting for something else to pop up in my life. But Monica had very similar experiences and, uh, she was much better at recognizing that something needed to change and started this process of finding us online jobs. And that's when we ended up looking at becoming virtual assistants, which later turned into a year, year and a half of virtual assistant work. And we grew our business, which then turned into a web design business for a little bit. Honestly, starting this business was never something that I had planned on in my life, but it was one of the best things that I've ever done.

Austin (00:05:42) - And I'm so grateful for Monica for inviting me to make that change because of this online business that we have. I live a life where I can choose when I work and I can choose if there's something important to me going on in my life, I can rearrange my own schedule to have that time off. If there is a family event that I want to attend or a get together, or maybe someone's getting married or someone's having a birthday, I don't have to ask permission for that time to do something that's meaningful to me because I am in control of my own time and I'm in control of, of what I do. It's so life changing to, to have that transition and to be in the space. And so now what we do is we help other people who want to create an online business so that they can travel, or so that they can ha experience something like this where they are creating a life on their own terms. That's really what lights me up. That's why I find purpose in what we do is because I can help other people create what I needed and wanted in my own life.

Monica (00:06:48) - Yeah, it's been really interesting to go back and, and reflect on our business journey and our, our travel journey and to think about where this all started from and the changes that have been made. I mean, as Austin mentioned, we were both in really, really dark places, uh, before this business journey. And now since then, we, we've been able to travel all over and, and be there for friends and family when people are having babies or they have house projects that they need help with or, um, we've been there for friends and family going through major life changes and they needed some extra support. And we've been able to invite people in our lives to take a look at the life path that they're on and make changes and, and realize that they don't have to do their traditional life path. They don't have to just accept what's coming to them.

Monica (00:07:42) - And watching the changes that we have made has really inspired people to, to make changes in their lives. And that has absolutely been worth everything that we've been, we went through. I, for me, a really impactful moment was when we convince Austen's mother, who is probably listening to this episode, I love you out to You, mom, but she, we convinced her to come visit us when we were living in Guatemala. And she was so nervous. She does not like to travel. She does not like to be in an airplane, but we convinced her to come visit us. And so she, she braved the airport and she braved the airplane. She came and she visited. I remember she had just had a full knee replacement. And so we were getting in and out of the boats, we were hiking up volcanoes, um, horseback riding. We did so many things and we planned the whole trip out. And just to watch her and Mike discover Guatemala and to discover this beautiful land with this really rich culture and to, you know, go to cooking classes and museums and, and to really understand the beauty of the place we were in, really, really left an impact on me. Uh, since then, I mean, we, my, both of my parents have been to Guatemala twice. My brothers, I think three of my four brothers have been, and my sister,

Austin (00:09:07) - All of your siblings, but one Curtis, were coming for you.

Monica (00:09:10) - . Yeah. And my, my brother-in-law and stuff and everything and everyone's life has been impacted and, and touched by this community in Guatemala and participating in these trips that we went on. And it's been unbelievable to me to watch the transformations that taking trips and traveling has on people. It really, it changes everything. It, it builds, uh, you know, a sense of wonder and it builds empathy and it builds connections where there weren't before. And it's so addicting. I love it. I love watching the spark that gets reignited in people's life through travel that maybe, you know, they lost somewhere along the way as they were doing their, their day-to-day tasks.

Austin (00:09:59) - This is a really good example of what Monica, and I mean when we say that your passions can become your purpose for a while, traveling was just a passion of Minea. Monica's from the very first time we started dating, we were traveling, it kind of started as road trips, and when we were engaged, it turned into some humanitarian trips. It's always been a foundation of our relationship cuz it's something that we've both been passionate about, but we've been able to turn it into a life purpose for the both of us. And it's, it's part of the purpose of our business, I would say. I mean, Monica was just touching on it. The overarching purpose for us, uh, centered around travel is to try and heal the world through helping people become more empathetic. We've seen in our lives a lot of conflict that has come from people not taking the time to see anything, to see an argument from someone else's point of view.

Austin (00:10:50) - A lot of times people have opinions, strong opinions about something, and it, it's fine to have strong opinions, but they don't take the time to, to see what it's like for someone else. And for us, traveling is a way to overcome that because when you travel to a place you've never been before, you can see the living conditions that people live in, in their day-to-day life and everything. I mean, everything in your world influences you, the city that you live in, the food that you eat, the things you see day-to-day, cultural influences of the country you live in, the religious influences of wherever you live in, even within a country, from town to town and city to city, things are different. The more you travel, the more you can see those different influences that affect people's lives. We've seen firsthand how traveling more makes you more aware of other people's points of view that makes you more empathetic. And when you form your opinions about the world, you can see things not just from, from your point of view, but from theirs as well. And it makes you more compassionate, more kind towards others. And so we really want to encourage people to travel more because we've, we can see how it makes the world a better place.

Monica (00:12:02) - We ultimately are so much more alike than we are different despite what the news and is telling us and what we see in media all the time, we are so similar. We have so many similar hopes and dreams and desires, and that crosses all cultural barriers. And I absolutely love the person I'm becoming because I am traveling the world and, and these people that I'm meeting are leaving a mark on me. And I'm, I'm changed every time we, we leave or come to a new place. And I absolutely love it. And I love being able to invite people to take these same transformations, to be able to financially be in a place where they can create a schedule. They can be there for friends and family. They can travel the world, they can evolve and build this empathy and, and make their sphere a better place and, and really touch the lives of everyone around them as well.

Monica (00:12:58) - I mean, I've seen it, I've absolutely seen it in our own lives. I've seen us become better people. I've seen everyone around us become better people. And I just love, love, love, love the space that we're in right now. I feel like we've really finally found a place where our purpose and our passions are aligned. And obviously, like we said in our last episode, not everything about what we do is super fun. Not everything about traveling can be super fun, but it is a hundred percent worth it. I just really wish I say this a lot, I think, but I just really wish I could share a little slice of how happy my heart is to everybody and just have them catch the enthusiasm for life that comes when you are able to be the author of your life and to create the life that is aligned with you and create a life that you are excited to live. Borrowing the idea from Jen Centro, um, this was kind of a theme in one of her books that I just read. You owe it to the world to become the best version of yourself. There are people out there who needs you to become the best version that you can possibly be. It's time to stop waiting for your, your passion or your purpose to just find you. And it's time to start creating that and to creating a life more aligned with who you are so that you can be the best version of yourself.

Monica (00:14:26) - All right, you guys, thank you so much for tuning into our podcast. We really hope that you found today's episode informative, valuable, and that you were able to find some actionable insights to apply to your life.

Austin (00:14:38) - If you're interested in taking your career on the road and becoming a digital nomad, then we invite you to explore our newest consulting offer, the six Week Digital Nomad Money Making Roadmap. This program is designed to guide you through the process of transforming your career into online work and living a successful, sustainable, and location independent lifestyle.

Monica (00:15:00) - With our years of digital nomad experience, we will help you identify your passions, set clear goals, and find the best opportunities that match your skills and interests, all without getting overwhelmed.

Austin (00:15:12) - So don't let the fear of taking a wrong turn or feeling lost hold you back any longer from living the life that you've always wanted. Sign up today for your six week digital nomad moneymaking roadmap@austinandmonica.com slash moneymaking roadmap, and let us help you turn your aspirations into a reality.

Monica (00:15:31) - Thanks again for joining us on this journey and remember to stay curious, stay adventurous, and stay connected.