Digital Nomads Aka The Early Adopters Of Remote Work With Mitko

“I think perfect is really dirty word in business, life and really everything because it stops you from doing things.”

Meet digital nomad Mitko

He has been nomadding since 2017 and his first digital nomad location was Bulgaria, where he is organically from. Mitko is currently staying in Queretaro, a city in Mexico. He is also known for his podcast That Remote Life, which he started in 2019. Before starting his podcast, he was already writing content on his website Thatremotelife.com.

His podcast was an idea he talked about many times but has yet to bring to life. His friends, including travel podcasters, motivated him to stop thinking and talking about it and do it. His story is a great example of why community is essential in the digital nomad lifestyle and career. His podcast started just before the pandemic and before remote work became the new reality for many people. So it kicked off strong, but Mitko also shares that making a podcast work isn’t easy. The production process is challenging and to make it financially attractive, you need to hit good numbers. On the other hand, a podcast is a great connecter and conversation starter. So it’s beneficial if you are new to an industry, want to become an expert, or are looking for a job or new clients.

Mitko has multiple income streams and next to his podcast, he is also a consultant focused on operations and making remote work actually work. He describes himself as a fractional head of remote, someone who goes into a company and spearheads the adoption of remote work. Before the pandemic, he focused on operations, where he mostly worked on processes and developing documentation. As demand for remote work specialists is rising, Mitko saw a great opportunity and his podcast and writing helped promote him as a remote work expert.

What makes remote work so challenging?

Mitko sees that many remote work struggles are embedded in how work is done, which lies in how the company operates. Especially for large companies, when this isn’t defined well or when there are sudden large changes, challenges arise, like a pandemic where remote work became the new way of work.

Learn how to really work remotely

One of the first steps for every company is to adopt remote work, and the number one mistake is that they need to actually invest in developing this side of their remote work capabilities, according to Mitko. This is not just for employees but for every layer of an organization, especially management and leadership teams. Other podcast guests like Chase Warrington, the head of remote at Doist, shared his story in episode 54 and Iwo, who joined in episode 69: Making Remote Work Actually Work shared similar thoughts.

Embracing asynchronous communication

A perk of remote work is that you can hire from anywhere, but companies hold back because of admin practicalities like legal. We also see companies not going all in because of timezone differences, but teams don’t always shave to be in the same timezone to get things done. For this to work, you want to adopt asynchronous communication methods and project management tools, create a company wiki and use new communication styles like screen recordings. So working asynchronously means working when you don’t have complete overlapping time. Since this is a new way of working for many people, training is what needs to happen, which ties to adoption.

The remote work mindset shift doesn’t happen overnight

Mitko is convinced, and we at Digital Nomad Daily too, that remote work is the new normal, but there is still a lot of pushback, and it all comes down to mindset. So even though companies, especially larger ones, were forced to go remote and struggle to make it work now, it will happen, but it will take time and patience. As more companies become open-minded, more digital nomads will join the community.

How can companies feel more confident working remotely?

We asked Mitko what his first steps are when he is consulting with companies and he 2 two things he does as a fractional head of remote.

Create your company wiki

His starting point is documentation which begins with writing down everything on how work gets done and collecting company recourses. Notion is a really effective and affordable place to do this. Important in this process is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, Mitko shares the following.

‘“The word “perfect” is a really dirty word in life and business because it stops you from doing things. Where if you would have started and eventually get to 80%, a lot of times that’s good enough and most people won’t be able to tell the difference between that.”

Search first, ask later

It’s a mindset that only works when you have documented everything. He explains that whenever people need to search for something before asking around and by adopting this mindset, a company figures out if there is an existing document with that information for future reference and if not, it clearly shows that it needs to be created.

So if you, as a small business owner or larger company start there, it will eventually be much easier for the transition of working remotely. This principle also goes for freelancers because you might outsource part of your work later and if you have it all documented, it will be easier to hand over the work.

Digital nomads are the early adopters of the future of remote work
We asked Mitko about the future of remote work and how it will evolve over the next years. As a sci-fi fan, he believes that humans will be a multi-planet species; remote work needs to exist for this to happen. He sees the digital nomads as early adopters because digital nomads already prove that you can work from anywhere and at any time without being in the same place or timezone. He breaks it down into three parts:

Where we get work done

We are currently in this change and this is precisely what freelancers and digital nomads prove, you can work from anywhere as long as you have good Wi-Fi. Some people prefer to work from home, while others feel more productive in a co-working space and some people are known as cafe hoppers. In essence, you can work from home, party in the office, party remotely so hybrid, or work in a place that is neither your office nor home.

When you work

This taps into asynchronous communication; people can get work done without depending on other people’s schedules. This enables people to integrate work into their lives instead of designing life around work. Many freelancers and digital nomads already master this, so we think it’s great to have digital nomads on your team.

Mass fractionalization of work

The side hustle and doing your own thing are becoming popular and more and more people are choosing a freelancer lifestyle. They might be part of companies but as contractors because it enables people to work on other projects. This means that companies will become more open-minded to hiring based on business needs and hire specialists and freelancers. So work is broken up into parts and people generate multiple income streams is what Mitko calls mass fractionalization of work.

In essence, Mitko shares that we need to have an economy that’s asynchronous first, and eventually remote work will be the answer.
something unexpected.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet digital nomad Mitko

Find him on Instagram @mitkoka

Find him on LinkedIn: Mitko Karshovski

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #60: The Benefits Of A Remote Job In A Remote-First Company With Vincent

🎧  Episode #66: Finding Your Dream Remote Job With Ikigai & LinkedIn with Kenneth​

🎧 Episode #69: Making Remote Work Actually Work With Iwo

Why You Want To Create Your Personal Brand With Marina

“You are the one that gets to decide what the narrative is.”

Meet digital nomad and personal branding expert Marina

Before working online from anywhere, Marina was already into traveling and her travel journey started in 2015. She is originally from Egypt and is an entrepreneur who started as a freelancer offering creative services. Marina also loved to travel and create content like writing and photography and shared her travel journey and tips on her blog. She has 4 years in business now and 2 years as a digital nomad.

Other digital nomads who joined the podcast, like Tiff in episode 15, Anne in episode 22, and Steve in episode 49, Marina’s business also pivoted multiple times. Today she is focused on personal branding and helps other entrepreneurs create a strong personal brands. You might wonder, what is a personal brand? Here is how Marina describes it;

‘‘Personal branding is taking the persona and their skills, what they are and what they represent as a human and packaging that and teaching them how to show up online in a way that matches their personality.’’

A big benefit of having a personal brand is that more aligned opportunities will appear and you can monetize your skills. So a personal brand is great for anyone with a serviced based business, especially speakers and writers.

How to pivot your business

So marina’s business looked very different today from when she started. While this is entirely normal, it can be overwhelming. Marina shares that something is off if you are still running the same business as when you started. Transformations and pivots are part of the entrepreneurial journey and you have to find a way to deal with them. Marina shares a few things that help her go through these transitions.

Getting outside support

Steve also experienced this and got, just like Marina, a business coach to help and see other opportunities. Together with her coach, they focused on what Marina was passionate about and skills she could monetize. Then, she morphed that into a signature service that combined the things she liked. It resulted in her signature service as a personal brand coach, where supporting people through coaching and design comes together.

Avoid focusing on what others would think about you

As silly as it might sound, a mindset struggle Marina and so many other digital nomads face is worrying about what other people think whenever you post something. Having a personal brand helps feeling more confident because if it’s aligned with who you are and your values, it shouldn’t matter. Marina says in the podcast episode that she adapted the mindset of not caring if people would cringe at her content because she decides her own narrative. It’s her responsibility to show up as true to herself as possible because that is how she can sustain her business.

There is no such thing as one size fits all strategy for your business

Some years ago, this massive wave of content where people would focus on 3 steps, 4 steps, or 10 steps frameworks were booming. We have discussed this with other creative digital nomad entrepreneurs on the podcast and our conclusion is that it doesn’t work. Even though there are success strategies and great ideas to implement that could drive success, every business has its own process and timeline—especially those who are combing this with fun things like traveling the world.

Manifesting itself won’t be enough

The same goes for manifestation techniques. You may have read somewhere that people manifested cars and successful businesses and found happiness and fulfillment through manifestation.

At Digital Nomads Daily, we love manifesting but we 100% with Marina that it only works with action. Behind all that result of others, there are smaller steps taken that got the person there, and this is not what you see online in a 30-second reel. Your business is an ongoing process and it takes time, energy and other investments to make it work.

Solopreneurs can’t be online all the time

Solopreneurs wear many hats, and they need to take care of everything, including accounting, HR, personal well-being, promotion, and serving their clients. So let’s get one misconception out of the way first. Marina shares that it’s an illusion to manage all platforms, thus being online everywhere and showing up authentically.

When she started her business, she focused on mastering Instagram because that platform had writing and photography, two things she enjoys doing. She began sharing blogs and newsletters and over time, she gathered a team and created a workflow that enabled Marina to show up on various platforms. Getting support and outsourcing tasks only happened once her business started picking up, which was a strategic decision for her. Today she creates the main piece of content and her team members will turn it into blog posts, newsletters, TiktToks, etc.

Digital nomad life advice Marina would tell her old self

A question we love to ask our guests is “If you could give your old self advice, what would that be?” In this episode, we also popped the questions and Marina shares 3 things you want to know too.

💙 Get rid of things that don’t work faster.

💙 Prioritize your energy

💙 Take care of your health.

Marina shares that it’s always good to try new things when you run a business, but if it clearly doesn’t work, just get rid of it and don’t force it upon yourself. As a last piece of advice, your energy and health are part of your business and a successful business goes hand in hand with a healthy YOU. So take care of yourself and get regular health checkups, implement healthy routines, eat well, exercise, socialize etc.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet digital nomad Marina

Find her on Instagram & TikTok @vivaciouslymarina

Check out her website and blog: livingvivaciously.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #22: Facing The Realities Of Online Entrepreneurship with Anne

🎧  Episode #27: How To Improve Your Relationship With Money And Create An Online Business You Love With Laura

🎧  Episode #50: Creating Your Career Around The Lifestyle You Want To Live With Natasha

🎧 Episode #57: 5 Tips To Live A More Intentional And Balanced Life with Kasia

Making Remote Work Actually Work With Iwo

“A lot of companies simply struggle with having a good culture in general. So it doesn’t matter if it’s a remote, non-remote, or hybrid company, there is just a foundational problem.”

Meet digital nomad entrepreneur Iwo

Working in more than 15 different countries, digital nomad Iwo has been nomadding for 5 years. He calls himself more of a slomad because he enjoys staying longer in places. He lived in Asia, the USA, and Europe.

In 2017, he co-founded Remote How, a global marketplace for remote work experts. Before the pandemic, Iwo was already spotting trends and seeing that the future of work is remote.

Aside from working with future remote work experts, Remote How also launched the world’s first certification program for experts, remote workers, managers, and HR professionals. In 2022 he co-founded the initiative Remote First Institute. It’s a non-profit initiative that supports companies, remote workers, and consultants. The goal is to educate, support, and make ‘remote work’ actually work.

Making remote work actually work

Iwo is one of the biggest remote work advocates and experts among our podcast guests Chase Warrington and Rowena. Aside from our usual digital nomad chat, at Digital Nomads Daily, we love to chat about the future of remote work because many digital nomads prefer a remote job over the freelancer or entrepreneur path.

We asked Iwo how he helps companies become remote-first and practice what they preach. Because saying that you are a remote-first company isn’t enough to build a successful remote work environment.

A broken office culture

Time and technology are moving fast and Iwo explains that many of the issues seen in the office today already existed before the pandemic. So the general work experience before March 2020 already had problems, which is probably why the earlier digital nomads decided to pack their bags instead of working in an office.

Let’s have a look at some of the challenges Iwo shared in this episode:
❌ A lack of trust
❌ No transparency
❌ How the work is done
❌ Bad leadership
❌ Micromanagement
❌ Too many meetings
❌ Being available when everyone else is
❌ Lack or no asynchronous communication

Why is it so hard to create a successful remote-first workplace?

These problems mentioned above are reason enough to avoid the office and even change careers. So many of the issues weren’t visible before the pandemic and one thing the pandemic did was shine a light on how broken the office culture was. While companies tried maintaining an office culture but just doing everything remotely, the real struggle began.

Iwo shares that are going remote or hybrid requires a full mindset shift and as we all have seen, not every organization is open to this or handles it well. In the last months of 2022, we all saw internal emails from the Twitter office circling around and it was bad.

So, many great talents who were called back to the office said a hard NO and quit.

Kenneth, who joined the podcast in episode 67, is an excellent example of this. He was working at Google and when the offices opened up again, he was called back to the office. He likes life in flip-flops better so he decided to quit his well-paying job. Want to learn more about this story? Click here to check out the episode with remote work advocate Kenneth.

What is the right mindset that a remote-first company should have to be successful?

Mindset comes with great values and this is part of the company culture. Even if you are a small business owner or freelancer, we believe that all digital nomads should care about this because you might hire people in the future. Many digital nomads have remote jobs part-time or full-time and these values also apply to them.

Trust

This is a two-way street. The company should trust that the work will get done and that the individual will deliver. So the individual needs to do a good job at self-management and make sure the work gets done.

Communication and great writing skills

It would be best if you learned how to formulate your thoughts and execute this in a way that your co-workers across the globe can use this information to get their work done. So for formatting your writing, getting straight to the point, making clear calls to action etc.

Diversity and inclusion

In today’s world, this is the reality, but it goes deeper than just hiring people from colorful backgrounds. It’s about adapting and understanding different cultures and approaching things with an open mind. It’s a necessary soft skill and digital nomads handle this well.

Tech-savvy

Tools and remote work go hand in hand. Basic knowledge of commonly used tools is something that all digital nomads, remote workers, and companies need to master. Learning project management tools, clouds, video calls, and screen recording tools are a few examples. Both companies and individuals must have an overall eagerness to learn new tools.

2 Most common misconceptions about remote job

There are many misconceptions about the digital nomad lifestyle and we talked about this with digital nomad Charlie in Episode 39: The 5 misconceptions of the digital nomad lifestyle. Iwo shared 2 misconceptions he has seen about remote work.

❌ Remote workers don’t work, which is strongly linked to a lack of trust. According to Iwo many companies focus on working hours (a very office-style approach) instead of output.

❌ Building company culture is simple. A lot of companies simply struggle with having a good culture in general. So it doesn’t matter whether it’s a remote-first, hybrid, or non-remote company because this it a foundational problem.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet digital nomad Iwo

Find him on Instagram @szapss

Find him on LinkedIn: Iwo Szapar

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #12: The Secret Of Finding A Remote Job With Jordan Carroll

🎧  Episode #37: How To Find A Remote Job And Take Ownership Of Your Career With Juliana

🎧 Episode #53: Must-Know Resume Tips To Land A Remote Job with Michelle

How Digital Nomads Can Benefit From A Home Base with Nicole

“I still have a hard time finding the balance. I find that doing client work is really hard for me when I’m traveling, but doing other personal work or more business building works great when I’m on the go.”

Meet digital nomad entrepreneur Nicole

Many digital nomads combine this lifestyle with travel and while Nicole loves traveling, she also likes to have a place to call home. She has been living abroad on and off since 2013 and her digital nomad journey took off in 2016.

Nicole is creative with words and she loves learning new languages. She is a copywriter who works as a conversion copywriter and messaging strategist. Her clients are typically entrepreneurs and small business owners who are really good at what they do but need help writing clear and compelling messages to promote their businesses. Before her career as a ‘word wizard’, she taught English as a second language in South Korea and did translation work.

The benefits of a home base for digital nomads

Many digital nomads don’t like to have a home base. In fact, they are trying to do the opposite to live in ultimate freedom. But some digital nomads, like Nicole, prefer to have a place to call home and she is not the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast guest only who feels this way. Digital nomads Kasia, Jeanna, and Tim also shared on the podcast that they enjoy having a home base instead of non-stop full-time traveling.

How a home base looks and feels is unique to everyone and for Nicole, it’s about having a consistent place to return to. She really enjoys traveling and created a lifestyle that allows her to work from anywhere and travel, but she loves the feeling of coming home.

She also shares that a home base is a place that brings you good energy and for Nicole, it’s in Boise, Idaho, United States. Other things she appreciates about having a home are:

🌟 Have a place that makes her feel settled and balanced

🌟 You can develop some roots in a certain way

🌟 Not living out of a suitcase and unpacking your stuff feels nice

🌟 It allows you to take some hobbies with your own gear

🌟 Focus on your business and don’t get distracted or lose time traveling

How to feel at home while nomadding and building your online business

Nicole built her career and lifestyle around traveling; when she travels, she wants to feel comfortable. So we ask her what she does to feel at home while she’s hitting the road.

😊 Fast Wi-Fi: Of course is this at the top of the list for all digital nomads but it’s sometimes harder than you think to get good WiFi.

😊 Morning routine: Typically, it starts with yoga, some light stretching, and sometimes the ads 😊 meditation and journaling. she doesn’t always do it, but it helps her feel more at home.

😊 Regularly Exercise: She likes to be active and adds any exercise or fitness regime to her daily.

😊 Access to nature: They try to rent any place close to nature.

Tips for how to learn a new language for digital nomads

Top website where you can book 1:1 sessions to learn a new language:

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet digital nomad Nicole

Find her on Instagram @nikkii.elliottt

Check out her website: www.nicoleelliott.co

Find her on LinkedIn: Nicole Elliott

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #17: The life of a Digital Nomad Copywriter with Jamie

🎧 Episode #50: Creating Your Career Around The Lifestyle You Want To Live With Natasha

🎧 Episode #58: Generating Passive Income To Create Your Travel Lifestyle with Dain

7 Digital Nomad Tips For Facing Cultural Challenges with Mirjam

“The challenge is to be open to new experiences and that is not always easy.”

Cultural challenges digital nomads face in the digital nomad lifestyle.

The different cultures, environments, and even lifestyles taught her that in essence, as humans, on some level, we are all the same. Meaning that we all want to have a beautiful life and want to connect to other people. People also seek to be loved and to be understood. So people’s basic needs are the same but how we live and think about life varies. So this goes back to lifestyles, religions, beliefs, cultures and traditions we follow and also applies to all digital nomads.

Mirjam finds living abroad as an expat or digital nomad pretty courageous and to go out in the world and enter the unknown and we couldn’t agree more.

So what are some of these challenges of living and working abroad?

🥺 You don’t know how things work or what can happen.

🥺 We have to go beyond our comfort zone constantly.

🥺 The challenge is to be open to any experience, which is not always easy.

The challenges might stay but over time, it will become less intense. Mirjam shares a few practices that help her feel more grounded and comfortable.

What digital nomads can do to feel more grounded everywhere

The digital nomad lifestyle often looks sexier on social media. We already showed some challenges but the digital nomad lifestyle is also a great opportunity to grow and give yourself and sense of safety, according to Mirjam.

💜Wherever you are in this world, it’s important to have a sense of home. You need to actively create this and bring something with you or go to places where you can follow a routine.

💜Try to be open to people from all backgrounds and cultures and focus on what you can learn from them. One of the most beautiful things about this lifestyle is that you will meet all kinds of people, so try to embrace and celebrate it.

💜 Accept that for a while, it won’t be so easy and comfortable, but keep in mind that this isn’t static and will change over time. For that to happen, you will need to check in with yourself constantly and make small adjustments in your day-to-day life.

💜Find a moment in the day when you connect with yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings. Some people prefer to meditate, while others enjoy journaling. Digital nomad Kasa shares more helpful practices to feel more grounded in episode 57.
Click here to check out her tips for digital nomads.

💜 Find like-minded people that you connect with and build strong connections so you can support others and also talk about what is keeping you up at night.

💜Enjoy adventures and hobbies in group form and focus on meeting people in places where you like to hang out too. It’s common advice shared by
Marcel in episode 26 and Dain in episode 58

💜When there are not many digital nomads around don’t shy away from meeting locals. It’s a fun way to learn about local culture, and a new langage and really get to know the country.

Connect with our Nienke Nina and our guests

Your host Nienke Nina

More digital nomad tips and life advice via instagram @digitalnomadsdaily

Connect with Nienke Nina on LinkedIn @Nienke Nina Keizer

Find Nienke Nina on Instagram @nienkeninatravels

Meet digital nomad Mirjam 

Find her on Instagram @_livingjoy_

Check out her website: www.living-in-joy.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode 46: The 5 Best Ways To Find Friends For Digital Nomads With Marina

🎧  Episode #50: Creating Your Career Around The Lifestyle You Want To Live With Natasha

🎧 Episode #55: The Digital Nomad Family Life As A Gay Couple