Starting an online business as a digital nomad with Anne
Anne is a Dutch digital nomad who has lived the digital nomad lifestyle for over three years. She joined the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast to share her story about becoming a digital nomad and building her own business. She is the founder of her successful podcast management agency, The Podcast Babes.
Anne describes the digital nomad lifestyle as less glamorous than shown on social media. One of the things people often talk about is their successes but forget to talk about the small steps in between. This creates an unrealistic view of this lifestyle and building an online business as these smaller steps are part of the journey.
How to make money online
Knowing she wanted to work online and live this lifestyle was one of the first steps. To find out how to make money online, she took a course to learn how to become a Virtual Assistant (VA). The class about podcasting caught her attention and this is the start of her podcast agency. She learned all the skills needed to help others create a successful podcast, including writing show notes and editing.
Starting an online business as a digital nomad
Anne explains that she was doing all the work herself before building her agency. She totally underestimated the work part of the digital nomad lifestyle and frequently felt overwhelmed. Luckily, once she started outsourcing some of her tasks, her agency began to shape and she could focus on the things she loved doing.
“I think something that many people don’t talk about that much is that building a business takes time and patience. It’s very important to give yourself that time. I didn’t do that and it caused me so much stress”
What it takes to build an online business
Anne’s expectations of achieving success were high. She shares that one of these expectations was fully supporting her lifestyle with this business. Another expectation was that she would make a lot of money and make a lof of money. AAnne’simagination didn’t become a reality and this caused stress and many uncomfortable moments. She couldn’t relate to the digital nomads who show how great their entrepreneur travel life is because she found herself a lot of hours working staring at a screen.
The conversation with Anne is very insightful and you can learn from her personal experience as Anne shares many things she wishes she had known beforehand.
One of these learnings is having patience with yourself and with your business. She explains that businesses don’t take off out of the blue and that it requires a lot of work. Some of this work are small things you work on now but can have a huge impact after for example a year.
Anne also talks about a concept that is called “planting seeds.” This basically means that you lay the groundwork for something that can develop in the future. For example, you share your work on social media, although this probably won’t give you new clients immediately. However, by frequently sharing posts about your work “planting seeds” you build a network for yourself and credibility which could lead you to new clients.
Tips for creative freelancers and digital nomad entrepreneurs
Have a financial buffer to cover your expenses
Be patient and give yourself time to build a sustainable business
Think about what you can do in the short term and the long term
Plant seeds and let other people know what you are working on
Anne shares more tips for freelancers and entrepreneurs who want to live the digital nomad lifestyle. If this is something you would love to know more about just listen to this episode. Anne shares more helpful tips and a ton of motivation to start your own online business as a digital nomad.
Align, Design, and Sustain with digital nomad coach Andrae
Meet digital nomad and solopreneur Andrae. She quit her job to embark on a new journey and started her travel company Work Wanderers in 2018. It’s a growing travel community for digital nomads founded in Cape Town. Due to the pandemic she had to pause her travel company. Still, she pivoted into a new online venture, a digital nomad coach to help her community plan their digital nomad lifestyle.
From a travel company to a digital nomad coach
With retreats to Bali and Europe, Andrae was living her dream life. Unfortunately, travel and any in-person community events were paused for almost two years during the pandemic, which also meant that Work Wanderers was put on hold. Even though she couldn’t continue running her business, her entrepreneurial soul found a new way to sustain herself while helping others and pursuing her dreams.
On the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast, she shares her story and what she is working on these days. She refers to the first months of the pandemic as a dark moment as she felt completely stuck and wasn’t sure about her next steps.
Andrae shares how she felt lacking clarity and had to develop a new idea to make money. Working closely with a business coach helped her pivot into her new business. Today she is helping others gain clarity and build on online business while traveling the world. As a digital nomad coach she offers online training and a special weekend program. This month, she is organizing a special Successful Digital Nomad VIP Masterclass Weekend from May 28-29.
Before launching her program, Andrae started working with people who reached out to her personally via DM. She shared her story through Facebook Live Events. She touched on the business and strategic decisions she had to make throughout her career. This information was helpful for her community, and slowly, her online program became a reality.
Plan your solopreneur journey with digital nomad coach Andrae
This month she is introducing a special come a Successful Digital Nomad VIP Masterclass Weekend from May 28-29. It’s virtual events where she helps you set up a successful freelance business and how you can travel the world. Through interactive sessions, you’ll learn how to reach your digital nomad goals.
Align your motivation with your career
The first step in her digital nomad coaching program is about gaining clarity and finding purpose. Without this, it’s hard to understand what career path is the best fit. The exercises in the workbook that come with the program help participants understand what motivates someone and makes them get up on a Monday.
A career is a long-term path and Andrea connects this to your personal intentions. She also looks at the current skill set, previous experience and what participants could do to improve this.
Designing an online business for digital nomads
Next, participants will map out how they will make money and design their online business. Andrae walks them through different stages like creating an irresistible offer, how to attract clients and developing your one-line sales pitch. She also shares how to create a monthly 10k income planning and build passive income streams.
Sustain your travel life
Her experience as a digital nomad and entrepreneur while running a travel business has taught her a lot about travel planning. With a new online business in the pocket, participants are almost ready to start their digital nomad journey. Andrae shows her tricks on how to create a realistic travel budget. And she will give travel hacks, especially handy for newbie nomads.
Join Andrae’s program and get $100 off!
We love Andrae’s program because it shows you how to sustain yourself. The digital nomad lifestyle is so much more than just traveling around and living out of savings. Often it’s hard work and a balance between hustling hard and enjoying your temporary home. As a digital nomad coach she helps you build a sustainable lifestyle. Andrae experienced beautiful moments but also went through a hard time when she had to stop her business. With the right mindset and through coaching, she was able to get back on track.
The nomad community is thriving. At Digital Nomads Daily, we love to support fellow nomads and entrepreneurs like Andrae. If you are looking for an interested in joining her program you can sign up here and use the code DNDAILY
And, we have a special promo and you now get $100 off! Get ready for a weekend of nomad wisdom and join the global community.
3 tips to master your productivity level as a digital nomad
Without a doubt, one of the main challenges as a digital nomad is to stay productive. The nomadic lifestyle comes with a lot of perks. Yet, being surrounded by palm trees and coconuts brings along lots of distractions too. In this article, we are sharing 3 tips on how to boost your productivity level as a digital nomad.
We had a conversation with James Bowen, a High-Performance trainer and Productivity Coach from Toronto, Canada. We talked about the struggles and what we can do in order to master productive days as a digital nomad. He has been traveling around the world as a digital nomad for almost two years but calls Bali for home now.
To watch the full talk go to our talk or read his three main tips below!
DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #01 – HAVE A DAILY GOAL OR DEADLINE YOU NEED TO HIT NO MATTER WHAT
As a digital nomad, it’s very easy to get lost throughout the day. However, setting a goal or specific deadline for each day will help to compartmentalize your time. It will add some structure and help you stay productive. So, what small changes can you do to ensure that you are reaching those goals?
You can start using a scheduler like Google Calendar. This will help you plan your day in detail and provide you the opportunity to schedule specific time blocks. It shows you where you are dedicating moments of the purpose of getting things done.
We asked in the DND Community what other platforms they use to manage their productivity. Other popular tools are Trello and Notion.
DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #02 – HAVE A MORNING ROUTINE TO BRING YOU IN THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND
A morning routine gives you the ability to manage your state of mind, your moods, and your energies. And this is why we share productivity digital nomad tips. Every place or city has countless factors that will challenge that. Especially in the Digital nomad capital Canggu there are endless distractions everywhere that try to get you off track and make you fall into temptation. Even though it may be fun, it also makes it harder to start your day off on the right foot the following day. That’s why following a specific morning routine is very helpful. According to James, your morning routine should always involve three things:
Learning 🧠
Exercise 💪🏼
Planning sessions to manage your day 👨🏽💻
DIGITAL NOMAD TIP #03 – RUTHLESSLY ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS FROM YOUR DAY
We live in an age where people scream for our attention. On our Facebook feed, the news, Instagram stories, people want to be heard. Especially when working in cafés or co-working spaces we get bombarded with distractions. Your phone pings or your friend drops by for a quick cup of coffee. It’s all fun, however, it makes dedicating your time and energy extremely hard. To boost your productivity level you, therefore, have to eliminate as many of those distractions as possible.
It is quite simple, the more things we engage ourselves in the less energy we will have towards what we need to do. So, for a start, you can close all tabs and social media apps. You want to make sure that no one can talk to you when you are supposed to be working. It may sound a bit tough, but James had a good point and quoted: “Addiction to distractions is the death of creative production”. As digital nomads we create and we build. So, if you are addicted to distractions you are not in a good state to be productive. It takes a lot of effort, but at the end of the day, it will be worth it.
Key Take Aways For Nomads
✅ Eliminate as many distractions as possible
✅ Set a goal for each day to compartmentalize your time
✅ Use a scheduler like Google Calendar to plan your day in detail
Watch the digital nomad interview with James
The nomadic lifestyle comes with a lot of perks. Yet, being surrounded by palm trees and coconuts brings along lots of distractions too. Watch the full talk to learn how you can boost your productivity level as a digital nomad.
A conversation with Adeline about when it’s the right time to start your digital nomad journey
Meet location independent entrepreneur Adeline Er, from Sydney, Australia with Malaysian-Chinese roots. She has been running her digital marketing agency Your Digital Ninja since she quit her job in accounting. She is also running two websites, Not So Basic.Life and TravelGig where she is on a mission to inspire millennials to live life on their own terms.
Adeline started her digital nomad journey in January 2018 and has been working and traveling in Singapore, Shiang Hai, and Hong Kong. In 2018 she arrived in digital nomad hub Canggu, Bali. Her experience started in Ubud to first explore a spiritual journey. She noticed that the entrepreneurial scene is more active in Canggu decided to stay in Canggu instead.
Tips about from digital nomad Adeline
Digital Nomad Tip #01 – Guard your mindset
One of the first things Adeline mentioned in the conversation is to believe in yourself and whatever you want is within you. Mindset is really important, not just for digital nomads but for basically everyone. Many people are thinking about taking the leap and dreaming about traveling and working at the same time. Adeline’s advice is to ask yourself carefully if this lifestyle is really for you before taking action.
Digital Nomad Tip #02 – Dealing with guilt
One of the first things Adeline mentioned in the conversation is to believe in yourself and whatever you want is within you. Mindset is really important, not just for digital nomads but for basically everyone. Many people are thinking about taking the leap and dreaming about traveling and working at the same time. Adeline’s advice is to ask yourself carefully if this lifestyle is really for you before taking action.
“Don’t compare your day number one with someone’s day 562”
Digital Nomad Tip #03 – The comparison trap
There are a lot of ‘successful’ digital nomads, especially in nomad locations like Canggu, Bali. So of course, it’s tempting to look at other people’s success. The truth is that by looking at what other people do and how successful they are, it won’t help you to become successful. You might get inspired and there is nothing wrong with that, in fact, it’s amazing if you feel motivated and inspired by others. On the other hand, looking at others and comparing your day one with someone else’s day number 500 is a totally different thing. Keep in mind that everyone has their journey and all this success didn’t happen overnight.
The right time to take the leap for digital nomads
Taking the leap, runoff and just hop on a flight and start your journey sounds like a dream. It is a commonly asked question when the right time is to become a digital nomad. Adeline’s digital nomad advice is to first ask yourself if this lifestyle might be for you. Another tip from Adeline is to first start with traveling to a digital nomad location such as Bali and get a taste. Other nomad advice is to take care of your finances because you don’t want to run out of money and always think about your safety, especially for solo traveling women.
Key take aways for when you are a starting digital nomad
✅ Don’t feel guilty about living a different lifestyle and wanting other things in life than your family or friends desire
✅ NEVER compare yourself with nomads who have been on the road for a while.
✅ Have a plan to manage your finances
Watch the full interview with Adeline for more digital nomad tips
