by admin | Mar 9, 2022 | Digital Nomad Podcast
08: Leaving the corporate world behind and reinventing yourself with Tarek
Our guest Tarek is a social entrepreneur who has been nomadding for more than 9 years. He learned that his mission was to give back to the local communities. His businesses, Nomads Giving Back and Nomads Skillshare, are his pride and joy and the start of something big. In this episode, he shares his love for meeting nomads. Tarek talks about his beautiful learnings and the cultural shocks. The last part of the episode covers the future of his business and his motivation to give back to local communities.
“I would ask everyone “How do you give back to the communities?” “How do you connect with locals?” Most of the time they would say “I don’t know, but if you figure it out let me know, because I want to do the same thing.”
How Nomads Giving Back started
After 12 years of living the corporate life and feeling unfulfilled, Tarek bought a one-way ticket to the unknown. He was certain about one thing though, he wanted to give back through social impact. During his travels, Tarek met a lot of travelers and got to know many digital nomads. He fell in love with their way of living and thinking. Especially those people who were going after their dreams, leaving the unconventional life behind, and facing their fears.
When Tarek started meeting these remote workers, he used to ask them “How do you connect with the locals?” “How do you give back to the community?”. The majority of whom he asked had no clue how to support local communities but we’re definitely open to it. He often got answers like “I don’t know, but if you figure it out please let me know”.
In this moment he saw the gap and a new opportunity entered his path. His new journey started and he called it Nomads Giving Back. Just like the name reveals, he wanted to help digital nomads and travelers to give back to local communities.
Traveling somewhere? Here are 3 ways you can give back:
Aside from donating money, there are many ways to give back to local communities. Tarek identified 3 ways of giving back and can help you do this. There are three categories:
Advocacy
Tarek describes this as using your voice for social good. And as the nomad community is getting bigger every year, this will have a lot of impacts. You are not only inspiring other nomads but also the people who are in your home country and follow your travels.
Volunteering
The Nomads Giving Back team has developed a volunteer matching program. If you are interested in giving back in some way through your skills, Tarek team can help you. They partner you with one of their social causes that they are close to, taking into account your skills and knowledge.
Fundraising or donations
Fundraising and donations are always a great way to give back to local communities. Tarek and his team have many ideas and are connected to local NGOs to help you. If you would like to know more about this go to the website of Nomads Giving Back.
Learning from cultural differences
One of the craziest things that Tarek did was drive across India for 4000 km in a rickshaw. For our readers who don’t know what that is, it’s a mix of a tuk-tuk and a golf cart that is used as a method of transportation in many Asian countries.
It was a wild ride because the rickshaw broke down around 20 times. At first, you might think that this is terrible but Tarek found himself in a magical moment. Funny enough, Tarek always received help within 2 minutes.
One time the engine broke so badly that there was no option other than to take it to the mechanic. This was 2 km away and a local offered to push the rickshaw to the mechanic shop. After 45 minutes of pushing in the hot sun, Tarek insisted on giving back some money for anything the guy would need. The man refused to get paid, instead all he wanted was to be his Facebook friend.
Allow yourself to reinvent yourself
When you travel or explore new cultures, you learn a lot. Everyone who joined the digital Nomads Daily Podcast so far experienced one or more life-changing moments. One of the things Tarek started to notice was the difference between the people who were back home and his new community.
This might sound harsh but sometimes the people who love us and the people who we grow up with, are actually holding us back from growing. Of course, this is not intentional but does happen. Simply because while you keep reinventing yourself, back home people keep holding on to your old identity because that’s comfortable for them and especially for yourself! Don’t let yourself hold back by what other people expect from you and allow yourself to reinvent yourself.
Learn and give back to local communities
Nomadsskillshare.com is the a new social enterprise Tarek and his team are currently working on. At Nomad Skillshare you will find courses that are perfect to start your nomad lifestyle or if you wish to get in touch with nomads. All courses are in English and 100% online through Zoom.
You can find the courses below on
Nomadsskillshare.com
- How to get your dream online job
- How to become a social media manager
- How to become a virtual assistant
Nomads Skillshare also offers scholarships for locals to help local communities have a bigger chance of entering the remote work world. Through the Buy 1 Give 1 Program they ensure that local communities are not left behind by offering a scholarship to a less privileged student for every course purchased. Find out more at Nomadskillshare.com
Special offer: Get 10% Discount on all courses now with the code DIGITALNOM10
Tarek is a social entrepreneur with an MBA with honors from New York University and a career of working at top organizations like Goldman Sachs. In 2013, Tarek left the corporate world behind to explore the actual world.
After traveling to over 100 countries, running 25 marathons, and supporting social causes, in 2018 Tarek launched Nomads Giving Back. With the vision to inspire you to give back to the communities, you call home away from home. In 2020, Tarek and his team launched Nomads Skillshare!, a learning platform & community empowering you to learn the skills to live the life you imagined!
Quick links:
Follow his journey on Instagram @tarek.world
Find Tarek on LinkedIn
Learn more about how to give back to local communities at
Nomadsgivingback.com
Follow
Nomads Giving Back and
Nomads Skillshare on Instagram
Explore courses on
Nomadsskillshare.com
Meet your host Nienke Nina
Instagram @nienkeninatravels
More Digital Nomad Stories
Instagram @digitalnomadsdaily
by admin | Feb 9, 2022 | Digital Nomad Podcast
🎙 The Digital Nomads Daily Podcast Episode #06
The Power of Planning with Digital Nomad Entrepreneurs Anastasia & Tomer
👇 Or listen in your fav podcast apps👇
Learn from digital nomad entrepreneurs Anastasia & Tomer:
🔥 How to become a digital nomad
🔥 How to build an online content business
🔥 How to shift to an online entrepreneur journey
🔥 How to check in with yourself regularly
🔥 Tips if you’re thinking about becoming a digital nomad
🔥🔥🔥 And so much more must-know digital nomad lifestyle tips for (aspiring) digital nomads!
“Sometimes you need to go through a short period of discomfort to create a lifetime of comfort”
The shift to an online entrepreneur journey
While working their regular 9 to 5 corporate job, they knew that they wanted to become entrepreneurs doing something creative. Even though they planned, what business they exactly wanted to build wasn’t clear yet. With savings and a passive income in the pocket, they started their online business journey. At first, Anastasia and Tomer spoke about the remote lifestyle and traveling via Instagram @Generationnomads and a blog. After a while, they found out that this wasn’t moving the needle. One they that stood out was that making money online as a content creator can be overwhelming. It requires the right mindset, some tech know-how, and of course, the right content. This is where they shifted their business into helping content creators like bloggers make money online by monetizing their content. They developed an online coaching program that walks you through the steps of making money online with your content.
Know the mindset that you are in that moment
You might not think of this when you dream about becoming a digital nomad but planning does come in handy. You need to have some sort of plan to make this sustainable so you can enjoy the journey longer.
It might sound boring but all you want to do is to make sure you enjoy your time as you have planned. Things Anastasia and Tomer typically plan or think about where to go next are for example where to work from and if there is community. It comes down to your intentions and what you want to get out of the trip or location. What is important is that you know what you are looking for and find a location that provides all you need. Funny enough is that also Digital Nomad Kristina and Taryn talk about this on the podcast. If you are just starting out and you have no clue what you want, visit your dream places and learn as you travel. Check in with yourself regularly and ask yourself:
- How do I feel here?
- What positive impact has this place had on my daily routine?
- If this place had ______, then it would be the perfect place.
- If this place had less of ______, then it would be the perfect place.
- What do I want to feel in my next location?
- Is it that I want to get out of this situation? How do I want to travel? What is it that I want?
While you are nomadding, don’t forget that all of this is a learning experience. There is no right or wrong as long as you are willing to learn from every single situation.
Keep an open mind
Planning is something that can help you make things go smooth but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes plans don’t go the way we expected and you need to adjust. In these situations, you must keep an open mind and check in with yourself. What do you need right now and what decision will help me get there? While you’re traveling anything can go wrong from small things to missing flights to larger things like safety issues.
This also happened for Anastasia and Tomer and found themselves in a situation where they thought it was perfectly planned but had to adjust to the situation. During their last days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they decided to go to the north of Brazil before heading back to Europe. Doing some last-minute research, they discovered how unsafe that area was, being the 7th most dangerous place in the world. Many questions started popping up and it was a stressful decision to go or not. After checking in with themselves they decided not to take the trip. Why? Because all they wanted was a relaxing trip to enjoy the tropical weather before going to Europe. A trip that could be very unsafe simply wasn’t what they truly desired. Canceling was the best option.
Tips if you’re thinking about becoming a digital nomad
- Sometimes you need to go through a short period of discomfort to create a lifetime of comfort
- Any kind of freedom that you want to create requires discipline first
- You appreciate it so much more when it takes something to get it
- Whatever you may need to make this happen, you already have it within you
- You can start becoming who you want to be right now, you just need to make decisions
- You already have everything that you need
- There is no better timing than today
Meet the digital nomad couple Anastasia & Tomer
Follow their journey via Instagram @generationnomads
Do you want to reach a digital nomad audience?
Reach a high quality global audience of digital nomads, remote workers and travelers.
by admin | Sep 29, 2019 | Remote Work
Wade Sellers about his digital nomad journey
In the first episode of DND Goes Behind The Scenes, we are interviewing digital nomad Wade Sellers. He left the states only 5 months ago to start his digital nomad lifestyle journey in Bali. Working remote isn’t a new concept for Wade because he has been cafe hopping back in Florida. He asked his boss ‘How remote is remote?’ and created his own opportunity by working remotely from Bali. He is enjoying the digital nomad lifestyle a lot but we asked Wade to chat about the #notsosexystuff.
What person changed your life and inspired you to live the digital nomad lifestyle?
Wade learned about the digital nomad lifestyle where you can work and travel via YouTubers Christian creator of YouTube Channel LostLeBlanc and digital nomad Chris the Freelancer.
Aside from his remote job, Wade is also working on his passion projects. He created video content on Instagram and has been playing around with funny video edits. Soon, his IGTV channel Apple Picking will be launched so we will see more of Nomad Wade!
What is main struggle during the week?
Figuring out your routines is super important. This especially goes for when you are working on multiple things at the same time. Back home in Florida Wade had a pretty solid routine. He finds it hard though to find balance in the digital nomad lifestyle because there is simply so much cool stuff. Finding balance and creating good routines is an on-going process but after 5 months he finally gets the hang of it.
Wade likes to start the day with structure and starts his morning routine always the night before. Three main elements of his morning routine are:
🙏🏻 Gratitude practice
📝 Accomplishment journal
✔️ Use a task organizer
How does a typical day looks like?
Wake up between 6:30 am – 7:30 am
Client Work from 8 am – 12 nn
Workout for one our
Me-time for my own projects
Dinner time 😍
After dinner Wade goes for another work session, do a yoga practice or just does fun stuff. He adds that it’s important to have a routine. On top of that, if you start your day early you have simply more time!
