Finding Your Dream Remote Job With Ikigai & LinkedIn with Kenneth

“When you have to pitch to 50 people that you are great at something or are interested in something and it’s not true, you realize that super quick.”

Meet Kenneth

Using Ikigai to find his remote job

With a broken heart and without a job, Kenneth had to figure out his next steps. A Japanese practice he annually does is tuning in to his Ikigai. The meaning of Ikigai is reason to be or purpose of life. It’s a diagram of 4 overlapping circles which stand for:

⚪️ Circle 1: Passion – what you love

⚪️ Circle 2:Vocation – what you are good at

⚪️ Circle 3: Mission – what the world needs

⚪️ Circle 4: Profession – what you can get paid for

In 2022 however, it wasn’t about fine-tuning his Ikigai but about redesigning his life and Ikigai, including his career.

50 virtual coffees to find clarity on your career path

The Ikigai process requires deep thinking about who you are and what you want. To do this, he created his Ikigai and his next step was to hop on 50 virtual coffees to get inspired. Kenneth also wanted to meet new people so he went on LinkedIn, searched for people, and whoever caught his interest, he invited him for a virtual coffee.

After only a few sessions, he realized that some things on his Ikigai weren’t exciting to him anymore or even felt authentic. So after each virtual coffee meetup, he improved and updated his Ikigai. By removing and adding things, his Ikigai started to represent Kenneth’strue self. During this process, after 20 virtual coffees, he learned that he was passionate about the future of work and in particularly remote work. His new mission was to find ways to contribute to hybrid/ remote work.

He dedicated the next 30 virtual coffees to getting as much knowledge as possible on this topic.

Starting a podcast to build your network

Transform your network and expertise into a dream job via LinkedIn

The next step was to transform his growing network and new expertise into a dream job. Kenneth knew he couldn’t become an expert in such a short time and there is still a lot to learn, but it didn’t stop him.
He needed a strong personal brand and Googled how to build this. His leading platform is LinkedIn, a place where Nienke Nina is also very active and building her personal brand. His network started growing and with a strong LinkedIn Profile, he was able to find his dream job. During this process he:

🔥 Connected with people in our community
🔥 Posted almost every day
🔥 Tag relevant people and companies in your post
🔥 Interact on other people’s posts
🔥 Created videos targeting companies

While Kenneth and Nienke Nina both love LinkedIn the platform is still a social media channel. And just like Instagram and TikTok, spending too much time on LinkedIn can get distracting.

The Malaga Remote House

Many things were unsure for Kenneth in 2022 but one thing was certain, he loves Spain and his 4-bedroom house just outside Malaga. The networking on LinkedIn also brought him many digital nomads and he loves the community.

His house has extra rooms, so he decided to open it for digital nomads who want to work remotely from Malaga. The house is listed on Bunking.com and has a pool & outdoor kitchen. You will get to enjoy great views of the Mediterranean and a 5-minute walk to the beach. His idea is that you all will support each other to get work done. For example, by weekly goal-setting and daily check-ins to keep each other accountable.

Kenneth is offering all Digitial Nomads Daily listeners €200 off on the first week (€400 per week). Check out the house on Bunking.com or message Kenneth directly on LinkedIn and tell him you find him through Digital Nomads Daily to enjoy the digital nomad discount. 🎉

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 Kenneth:

Find him on Instagram @kennethhellem

Find him on LinkedIn: Kenneth Hellem 

Check out his website: www.kenneth-hellem.com

Listen to his podcast The Future is Remote

Other episodes you might like:

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

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

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

How to Travel the World As A Digital Nomad Couple with Dom and Jo

“I think one-way people can struggle is if they are just hustling and just working. They have nothing. That’s all they have in common because they have no other hobbies or things to do, and then I think that can become tough.”

Meet digital nomad couple Dom & Jo

How digital nomads make money online

The answer for many digital nomad entrepreneurs is creating multiple income streams to find things they love doing and turn them into an income stream. Jo dropped out of college and took a course focused on becoming a virtual assistant. She found a job as a VA, and this gave her the freedom to work from anywhere.

Another benefit of taking a course and gaining work experience was that she had time to figure out what she liked doing. During this time, she learned a lot of handy skills, many of which are handy in her current business. By turning things they love doing into multiple income streams, they feel less at risk. If one stream isn’t going well, they still have the others, so they feel pretty confident and secure. Today they are working on multiple things, and here is a quick overview of their income streams.

💰Personal brand and blogging
💰Podcast management Agency with her partner
💰Virtual assistant-related tasks

Digital Nomads need human interactions

It’s very true, and just because digital nomads love traveling, it doesn’t mean we love being alone. On the contrary, one of the most exciting things aside from beautiful travels is meeting other people, especially the digital nomad community. Don and Jo also feel this, and one of their favorite activities is hiking. So the couple is currently working on organizing a hiking trip, and they invite other digital nomads and hike lovers to join them.

So looking at their quick list of income streams, the hiking trip will be added to that as well. It’s a perfect example of turning your passion into an income stream while keeping things fun.

Life as a digital nomad couple working together.

In 2022 we also interviewed digital nomad couples about how to manage their day-to-day life as a couple working together on the same project. Every couple experiences its own challenges, and also Dom and Jo share some of their biggest challenges of the lifestyle as a digital nomad couple working together.

Couples business partners

This is probably the most obvious struggle that all couples face when working and living under the same roof. A hack is to have moments together where work-talk is simply not allowed. No matter how upset or excited you are about something – work is not discussed at, for example, date night. It sounds easy, but Dom and Jo share in the episode that even after years, this is challenging, but they get better at it.

Focus on individual needs

The couple loves hanging out with friends and hiking but also has their own individual needs and ways of relaxing. So they like to travel to places where they can do what they both like doing and fulfill their personal desires. Community plays a big part in this because relaxing time is often with friends.

Outdoor activities

Staying away from your screen is a great way to disconnect from work, and the same goes for digital nomad couples. A short walk outside in the forest or at the beach or more adventurous trips like hiking, cycling, or think about watersports like canoeing. Outdoor activities have multiple benefits for digital nomads, like the nurturing of mental health and physical health. Surrounding yourself with different environments also sparks new conversations and energy, so that’s why this is a great tip for digital nomads.

Listen to the episode for more behind-the-scenes digital nomad tips.

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 couple Dom & Jo

Find them on Instagram @redwhiteadventures

Check out their website www.redwhiteadventures.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #01: How to Thrive in your Digital Nomad Relationship with Anat & Orr

🎧  Episode 13: How To Pivot Your Passion Into An Online Business With Andrae

🎧  Episode 61: How Creatives Can Build Multiple Online Income Streams With Bri

Tips For Organizing Your Daily Digital Nomad Life with Eddie

“Whatever routines you have to prepare yourself for work, it could make you more productive or less productive.”

Meet digital nomad Eddie

His digital nomad journey kicked off in 2019 and he is currently enjoying the Brazilian summer in Florianopolis. Eddie works as an efficient and productivity consultant helping teams and individuals to manage their work better. He also co-founded Rise Higher, a company organizing conscious retreats to help people break down old behavior patterns and develop the mind and body.

Digital nomads love living a conscious lifestyle

Eddie’s passion and work are very much focused on understanding how people do certain things and assessing if it can be done better. This means he is always experimenting with different habits and routines in his personal and work life. He is very passionate about his work and it’s sometimes challenging to find the right balance due to everything. He needs to constantly figure out how to be successful as his main job, organizing the retreats and of course, his own well-being. Since many digital nomads are multi-passionate entrepreneurs, we asked Eddie what works for him. Check out his tips below:
🔥 Prioritize creating a comfortable workspace where you can focus and don’t have any unnecessary distractions.
🔥 Organize your calendar and don’t shy away from having call-free days or moments throughout the week.
🔥 Work from different places if you can. So for example, go to a cafe for a couple of hours after working from home.
🔥 Create a morning routine focused on setting yourself up for a successful day.
🔥 Check the Wi-Fi connection beforehand because you don’t want to miss any important calls due to internet issues.
🔥 Set a moment of the day when you deal with your inbox and avoid checking your inbox and messages sporadically. You will save time and lessen the chances of important notifications.

How to organize your digital nomad life

Eddie specializes in productivity at work and brings his knowledge and experience to his digital nomad lifestyle. The tips above already point this out. Eddie also shares a handy hack for digital nomads to keep track of important things.

Productivity hacks are often supported by using the right tools, and as a consultant, Eddie gets really excited about this. Even though his advice might be too geeky for you, we do advise you to consider his tip. Are you ready?

Alright, so many freelancers and self-starters use project management tools to organize all tasks. But why not do this for your personal life too? As digital nomads, we must think about many things every time we go to the next spot. So why not add all things nitty-gritty things to your project management tool, so you don’t have to think about this anymore. Let’s look at some examples:
👉 Visa documents and extensions
👉 Flights and reminders
👉 Places to check out
👉 Reminders of checkout or booking dates

The biggest benefit of adding this information to your work tool is that you can easily share it with for example your partner. These tools are created to make collaboration easier, so it’s really smart to use this also for your digital nomad lifestyle. Eddie is using Asana to manage all his work projects and personal/digital nomad-related task. So he has a collaboration project with his partner to not forget the important things like finding a new house or applying for visas.

Tools for digital nomad freelancers and entrepreneurs

Eddie is passionate about tech tools and as an online entrepreneur, he also uses many tools for his business. While tech is great, it could be very costly too. A $10 bill here and there can easily pile up in a large tech bill every month.

Luckily many tools have free plans with basic features for you to run your business. Some of the tools Eddie is using for his business are to manage work Asana and Hubspot for marketing and sales purposes.

In this article 8 essential collaboration tools for digital nomads, we share some of the tools we are using at Digital Nomads Daily. Many of these tools also have free plans and even the paid plans are pretty affordable.

If you would like to get more tips and business advice, make sure to join our free online community Digital Nomad Freedompreneurs 💰🌏 For Freelancers & Side Hustlers

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 Eddie

Find him on Instagram @eddiedelso

Find his retreats on Instagram @risehigher.world

And check out their website RiseHigher Retreats

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode 48: How To Set Boundaries and Why You Want to Go Slomad with Kristin

🎧  Episode 52: Connections Stronger than Wifi With The Bucket List Queen Nini

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

Navigating Through Life When It Goes Upside Down With Daisy

“If you feel like you are not succeeding, look back and see what you have achieved so far.”

Daisy joined the podcast in 2022 and shared the beginning of her journey about how she became a digital nomad. She has been traveling for 12 years and wanted to continue her travels. So she bought a one-way ticket to Mexico and focused on getting a remote job. After 6 months of searching for jobs across various platforms, she landed a role as a community manager at Hackers Paradise. On the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast we often talk about remote jobs. Click here to learn more about how to find a remote job with Michelle in episode 53: Must-Know Resume Tips To Land A Remote Job with Michelle.

Meanwhile, Daisy is a creative who loves capturing her travels on social media. She started her Instagram and TikTok accounts, which took off after a while. Even though Daisy was happy in her job, her creative and entrepreneurial spirit asked for more and when she got her first brand deal offered, a dream of becoming a content creator slowly became her new reality. After gaining confidence and courage, she quit her job and started a new digital nomad journey.

The digital nomad lifestyle is an ongoing transformation. Many digital nomads start their journey with a remote job while working on a side hustle. This is only sometimes what you see but we uncover these behind-the-scenes insights for you on our podcast. We also chat about the transformations every digital nomad goes through and also Daisy’s digital nomad lifestyle has significantly shifted. The majority of her first year as a digital nomad, Daisy shared her experienced 24/7 with her partner. Her income stream was based on her remote job and her life consisted of many consistent things. Those two consistencies, relationship, and money/work, transformed into new adventures for Daisy.

Her relationship ended, and suddenly she was a single female digital nomad solo traveler. When you are alone, your habits and routines could differ from when you are with someone else. It’s also challenging to think about everything and not rely on someone else, even for the small things. So it’s a huge emotional transformation with many practical adjustments. Daisy went home for the holidays to give herself a breather and reconnect with herself. It’s important in moments of large emotional change to prioritize your own well-being and we are very grateful that she shared this delicate story with us on the podcast.

The second large shift Daisy experienced was around her career and how she makes money. Instead of one job at one company, she is currently creating multiple income streams focused on content creation contracts, social media marketing strategy and travel coaching. On the podcast, you can listen to interviews with self-employed and more entrepreneurial digital nomads, but we also interview people with remote jobs. Both are great ways to make money remotely; one is not better.

We want to share some examples of the differences between the two:
👉 Consistent income vs fluctuating income
👉 Security of a contract is not sure if you have projects
👉 Clear expectations of what needs to get done vs you are in charge of your tasks
👉 Fixed team to work with vs working alone or with lots of different people
👉 Fixed number of work hours vs you decide how much and when you work
👉 Potentially company benefits vs you are your own Admin/HR/Manager while getting work done

Anne describes her nomadic entrepreneur journey as “Entrepreneurship is a self-development journey on steroids.” in episode 22: Facing The Realities Of Online Entrepreneurship with Anne. We 100% agree with her because life could become exciting and overwhelming simultaneously when shifting from all the consistencies to the unknown. Daisy followed her passion and had to learn a lot of basic practical things while making it work simultaneously.

✨ Connect with like-minded people
✨ Remind yourself daily of what you have achieved
✨ Accept that you don’t know it all yet
✨ Connect with people who cheer for you

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 Daisy

Find her on Instagram @daisystraveldiaries

Find her on Tiktok: @daisystraveldiaries

Check out her website: www.daisystraveldiaries.com 

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode 35: Building A Successful Creative Freelance Career With Suzanne

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

🎧  Episode 51: How To Live A Balanced And Joyful Remote Life With Ali

Digital Nomad Nightmare: When All Your Work Gear Gets Stolen with Matan

“There is a reason why happened. We still don’t know it, even if I don’t know it yet, there is a reason and it will lead to a better place.”

Meet digital nomad Matan

Digital nomad Matan loves traveling and it was an essential pillar in his life before he started his digital nomad journey. He learned more about the digital nomad lifestyle in a Facebook Group called Digital Nomads Israel. The group is run by Dean Kuchel, who also joined the podcast in episode 09: How To Achieve Financial Freedom With Digital Nomad Dean.
Everyone has their own unique way of starting the travel and work-from-anywhere lifestyle and Matan learned as much as he can about this lifestyle and making money online. He is also very passionate about photography. His goal is to make this his primary source of income and transform it into passive income by, for example selling his photos online.

When digital nomads get robbed and lose all their work gear

The digital nomad community is growing and aside from traveling the world, it’s one of the most exciting elements of this lifestyle. Meeting people from all over the globe with inspiring stories is what many of us experience. This is why many of us love to visit digital nomad hubs like Bali, Mexico, and Nomad Fest in Bansko. Matan also joined Nomad Fest in 2021 as a volunteer photographer.

While he was meeting people and mingling, one of the biggest digital nomad nightmares happened to him within minutes. All his stuff got stolen, including his photography gear, laptop, and keys to his apartment.

The true power of community

At first, he was panicking but luckily he was surrounded by amazing people in our community. Now, we have to say that the organization of Nomad Fest isn’t responsible for what happened to Matan. In fact, the community helped him out tremendously, and some people even donated money so he could buy new work gear.

So how did he tap into the community? First, the moment it happened, he was surrounded by many people because he was at a party. He also shared his story in the digital nomads Israel and nomad fest community so people are aware that this could happen anytime.

How to find a remote job

The unexpected ending of Matan’s digital nomad nightmare is that he got offered a job at an insurance agent company. His current boss read the story in the nomad community and wanted to help him by providing a job. Since they were both part of the digital nomad community, Matan was interested in exploring this position.

At first, the job wasn’t remote but Matan voiced from the beginning that his goal is to be fully remote and travel the world. The remote role required one year of training and during this year, Matan frequently reminded his boss about his desire to work fully remotely from anywhere. It’s a similar story to digital nomad Julie who shared in episode 59: How To Feel At Home In Your Next Digital Nomad House that she had to slowly convince her manager that this new way of working would not harm her work results. Matan also shares in this episode that it was a slow process but because of the training, he feels confident to work from anywhere.

So for everyone looking for a remote job, kindly voice your desire to your employer that you want and can do your work remotely and they will show interest in crafting a plan with your manager. It might not happen overnight but by showing patience, you can transition into a lifestyle you desire just like Matan. And if your employer is open to this idea, Matan’s advice is to look for another job.

Transforming a side hustle into a money-making business

We speak with many digital nomads who have remote jobs while working on a project on the side. It’s also known as a side hustle. Matan’s true passion is travel photography and he sells his photos online as a side hustle.

At this point, his income is low and unstable, but he has a clear goal in mind and is learning everything he needs to know to make his dream come true. We asked him how his week looks and how he is balancing his remote job, traveling, and transforming his side hustle into a money-making business. Here are some of the things he does:

😎 Explore multiple money-making opportunities

😎 Set clear goals and create a plan

😎 Block time to focus on his project

😎 Learn something new every day

😎 Include fun and adventure because life isn’t just about work and making money.

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 Matan

Find him on Instagram @thetravellingisraeli

Check out his website www.thetravellingisraeli.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  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

🎧  Episode 61: How Creatives Can Build Multiple Online Income Streams With Bri