How To Start Your Digital Nomad Journey — 6 Lessons Learned by an Experienced Nomad
By: Michelle Maree
Tags: Working Remotely, Digital Nomads, Remote Working, Covid 19, Working From Home

How To Start Your Digital Nomad Journey — 6 Lessons Learned by an Experienced Nomad Michelle Maree Jun 3, 2020·7 min read

‘I want able to work from my laptop, so can travel the world and work remotely!’

The world is/will continue to change to accommodate to more global health crisis. How can you get ahead of it?

I can remember that I said this to myself about 3 years ago. I was watching all these free webinars, beautiful Instagram profiles, and tutorials on Youtube.

It seemed like everyone online figured out how to make this happen. And for me…it was a mystery. Now, 3 years later I am doing it. Finding out that it is NO rocket science at all! You first need to understand that….

Digital Nomad is NOT a job itself!

Digital nomads are people who have a job that they can do digitally and choose to travel the world while working on their online business, projects or job. They mostly work as a freelancer, have a remote job, and are on the payroll of a company that works with remote teams or they have their own online business.

My Lessons Learned: Things I Wish I knew before I started my Remote Career

After 3 years figuring it our I can share with you what I have learned and how you can start your Digital Nomad life the fastest.

Lesson #1:

Surround Yourself With People Who Are Already Doing It

Why work it all out on your own when you could learn from people who have been on the journey you are starting out on and can teach you everything they learned along the way?

I have spent countless hours watching tutorials, reading blog posts, joining webinars, and reading books about the Digital Nomad life but still, it was very vague on how to achieve the ultimate freedom lifestyle.

Until I traveled to the ultimate Digital Nomad destinations such as Portugal and Bali and joined Digital Nomad events, meetups and retreats. Finally, I met people who are living the life I always dreamed of and I connected with them!

I asked them about their background and journey and found out many never did an official study for what they are doing today!I met teachers, nurses, lawyers and car mechanics who today work as a digital marketer, copywriter, software engineer or photographer.

I asked them about their journey, and what steps they have taken to become where they are today and asked me to teach me some skills.

This experience is worth GOLD! You learn SO MUCH FASTER from experienced people instead of trying it out all yourself!

In one hour of talking to a digital nomad I’ve learned more than one month of watching tutorials on youtube.

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Lesson #2:

Find out what you are passionate about and enjoy doing

Before you dive headfirst into becoming a Digital Nomad It’s really important to take some time to focus on YOUR OWN career and life goals.

The desire to have freedom and travel can be so strong we’d ‘do anything’ to make it happen but just like any other job, it won’t take long before you start to get bored and unhappy if you’re not doing something that really lights you up.

If you are motivated to start this lifestyle but don’t know where to start is answering first these 4 questions for yourself:

1. What are you naturally good at, what comes naturally to you? What do friends say you are good at?

2. What soft skills and hard skills do you have and what work experiences?

3. What do you love? What are you motivated for? What can keep your attention when it comes to working?

4. What can you make money with and what pats well? Do you want to start working as a freelancer, start your own business or do you want to have the safety of being on the payroll for a company?

After answering this you can do research about what jobs would fit you and what makes you enthusiastic. This Venn Diagram can possibly help you structuring it down

Source: https://bobbiblogger.wordpress.com/

Finding a source of income is one thing but as a digital nomad you are the only one motivating yourself to get out of bed in the morning and do the work. That is so much easier and life is so much more enjoyable when you’re working on projects you genuinely care about.

Lesson #3:

Develop your skills in the area you’ve decided to focus on

Once you have a clear idea of which direction you want to go in, you can start to develop or add to your skills in this area. Decided you want to start your own business? Become a copywriter or software engineer?

Take an online course, watch youtube tutorials. Platforms like Udemy are full of learning and there are countless experienced remote workers and business coaches out there with courses you can learn from. Figure out everything you’ll need to know and go learn it!

The course I personally took was a collection of 10 online business courses of NomadX. It is really helpful and explains you step by step how to build an online community and generate leads in an organic way.

You can also start to speak to people who work in your area, join Facebook groups, follow successful digital nomads on Instagram, chat with them, ask them questions, attend meetups to get advice, and open up new opportunities to work with people.

The more skills, experience, and contacts you have, the higher your chances of landing higher-paid remote work or being able to charge more for freelance clients.

Lesson #4:

Find the right advisors when you want to register your own online business

One of the most daunting parts of working online can be having to set up your own business, working out where to register your company, how to pay tax, etc.

We found the solution and they helped us set up our business too!

MyDigitalCompany is the solution that modern entrepreneurs need to build their global business, open bank accounts and access all the tools they need to start and run their businesses. All online, remotely, without any geographical barriers.

>>> MyDigitalCompany, the solution to registering and managing your business online <<<

Lesson #5:

Budget and Plan your finances

Now you know what you want to be doing, it’s time to plan how much money you will need to live and travel then work out how you are going to bring in that income to make this lifestyle sustainable.

If you’re working in a job at the moment, keep developing your skills and putting plans in place whilst you’re bringing in an income.

Remember there are lots of hidden costs associated with working and travelling at the same time. Short term accommodation can be expensive, laptops, wifi routers, co-working spaces, travel insurance for extended trips. It’s a good idea to do some research and have a rough idea of how much to budget for these things before you start travelling.

Lesson #6:

Take a leap of faith!

Lastly, don’t wait till you’re ready! There will never be a perfect time and you might never have the exact number of clients or the exact amount of money in your bank account you wanted.

Of course, I don’t recommend quitting your job with no plans or money in place but at some point, you might have to take a leap of faith and trust that when you do create space in your life for new opportunities and put yourself out there, they will come!

It might be a rollercoaster ride and it won’t all be sipping coconuts on the beach, but it will be worth it for those days when that’s exactly what you’re doing!

Over to you my friend. Where are you on this journey of becoming a digital nomad? Let us know!

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