The Life Changing Benefits Of Living Abroad With Nienke Nina

“It’s been a wild ride! Like really real wild. There have been moments that I ran out of money, moments that I had too many projects going on and I couldn’t figure out my schedule and here have been moments I felt so sad… This relates a lot to why I started Digital Nomads Daily.”

Living abroad was the best thing that ever happened

The digital nomad journey of Nienke Nina didn’t precisely start the same as how people decide to become digital nomads these days. Her first experience abroad as a student in Denmark was a stepping stone to this new and adventurous lifestyle. Back then, she didn’t speak English and one of her goals was to learn the language.

In Denmark, people from different countries joined the program and it was her first time living in an international environment. After six months, it was time to go home, but that was not what Nienke Nina wanted. So she applied for internships abroad and her next stop was Milan, Italy. Working and studying abroad are very different experiences and Nienke Nina missed a sense of community during the internship. Luckily she made a friend who ended up a housemate. She extended her stay and decided to write her research thesis also in Milan and going back to the Netherlands was not an option.

Meeting the first digital nomad

After living abroad in Europe, Nienke Nina decided to move to the Philippines. You might wonder, why the Philippines? During one of the trips with her friends, they invited her and from that moment on, she set eyes on moving to Asia. After a couple of months of preparing, she found a job, bought a one-way ticket, and moved to the Philippines.

She took the role of community manager in a startup focused on education. While she lived it, the startup life wasn’t always as sexy as it sounds. Working many hours eventually created signs of burnout, but this wasn’t a discussed topic back then. A friend of Nienke Nina suggested coming to Bali for two weeks to work remotely and get some air from the big city of Manila. He was a business owner working remotely and the first digital nomad she met.

Bali is a digital nomad magnet and a great place to start

The Indonesian island is a digital nomad magnet and people who joined the podcast started their digital nomad journey in Bali too.
For example, our guest Tiffany went for a holiday and ended up staying too. Digital nomad Kenny went to the island during his sabbatical and redesigned his life.

After living the lifestyle for two weeks, Nienke Nina also got hooked. But why do people love Bali so much? It’s a great destination and especially for newbie nomads. Here is why:

❤️ Attracts many digital nomads and entrepreneurs
❤️ Affordable cost of living for a high quality of living
❤️ Many conscious living activities and healthy food options
❤️ Beautiful scenery like rice fields and stunning sunsets
❤️ Lots of co-working spaces with good internet speeds

This is why Bali is one of the best places to start your digital nomad lifestyle.

How to really become a digital nomad

So after Bali, Nienke Nina returned to Manila to plan her new lifestyle. You see, it sounds easy just to pack your bags and leave, but the transformation was rather large Nienke Nina realized this. She quit her job, returned to Bali, and found a remote job. Like many newbie digital nomads, she was curious about how others do it and started interviewing other digital nomads. She recorded this and this is how Digital Nomads Daily came to life. Back then, it was a blog and since 2022, it’s a community platform and podcast for digital nomads.

Living this lifestyle is a lot of fun, but Nienke Nina shares that it can be challenging. Even now, after so many years of nomadding, she still faces many challenges and this is part of the lifestyle. This podcast is one way to find comfort, inspiration and motivation. She also shares that tuning in with yourself and learning how to listen to yourself is very important. So keep asking yourself reflective questions about your personal, social, work, and goals.

Final takeaways

🌱 Nothing happens overnight, so take your time and allow yourself to experiment.
🌱 Try living abroad for at least a couple of months once in your life, whether it’s as a digital nomad, volunteering, or learning a new language.
🌱 Tune in with yourself and ask reflective questions to help design your life.
🌱 Be open-minded to new things and learn because only then you can grow

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

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #39: The 5 misconceptions of the digital nomad lifestyle with Charlie

🎧  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

Building The Ultimate Freedom Lifestyle With Jon

“The learning has been that I’m much bigger than my business is at the moment, I have so much more potential. So, how I’m doing at the moment doesn’t show anything about my value or my happiness.”

Meet freedom seeker Jon

Can you imagine living in a self-made house in the middle of the Estonian woods? Jon is a freedom seeker living an extraordinary life and is somewhat of a digital nomad. While other digital nomads love to travel or live abroad, Jon’s ultimate freedom lifestyle is being surrounded by nature, consuming little and working whenever he wants. He used to live in the Philippines and used to have a corporate life as an analyst. He discovered his passion for entrepreneurship and focused on building something for himself.

Like many other guests on the podcast, he has multiple income streams. He has an online business, a tea company and receives grants from the European European Innovation Technology Institute EIT.

Designing his own life

The ultimate dream was to build his own house and be free from others and typical society things. He saw a documentary about the island and found a beautiful land in the forest in Estonia on an island called Saaremaa, situated on the west coast.

He lives a conscious lifestyle and learned how to build his own house from scratch using sustainable and green materials. He is also testing sustainable building materials, and the project is currently growing. Since his business is climate-friendly, he receives grants from the EIT because they fund European green companies. It is a very unusual way of making a living but aligns very well with the essence of the digital nomad lifestyle – designing your own life.

What is crucial for building healthy habits?

Building habits is vital for everyone but even more so for freedom seekers. When you live a lifestyle where you decide what time to wake up, when to work, and how much you want to work, you need to make some decisions and set boundaries. This isn’t how many people are raised and it comes with some challenges.

Digital nomads who travel experience similar challenges. In fact, everyone who takes ownership of their life will face this. Healthy habits are the key to success and we asked Jon what habits are crucial for him to live a healthy and happy life.

🌱 Starting a new habit means repeating it before it becomes a habit.

🌱 Reward yourself after you complete the action

🌱 Let the habit sink in and give yourself time, say 40 consistent moments.

🌱Make the environment comfortable for you to stick to that habit.

🌱 Do it together with a friend or other commitment partner.

🌱 Share your new habit on social media and activity report about it.

🌱 Financially commit to your habit so you won’t lose the investment and get results.

Mindset tips for digital nomad entrepreneurs and solopreneurs

Jon is an entrepreneur in many ways and he shared some of the biggest lessons of his entrepreneurship journey in this episode. We love talking about this on the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast because it’s inspiring and motivating to learn from other digital nomads.

Digital nomad entrepreneur lesson 1

Take care of your foundation, meaning your mental and physical health. This is the foundation of your business because it impacts your work and environment if you are not feeling OK. So it’s effortless to get lost in the doing and forget your own mental and physical health and you have to be mindful of this.

Digital nomad entrepreneur lesson 2

Health goes further than your body; another focus should be developing your mental fitness. You do this by reading, being surrounded by people who positively impact your life, and by setting boundaries.

Digital nomad entrepreneur lesson 3

Your business is not a reflection of you and Jon shares that he realized that he is much bigger than his business is at any moment. He knows he has so much more potential and how he is doing now doesn’t show anything about his value or happiness.

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 freedom seeker Jon 

Find him on LinkedIn @jonender

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #25: How To Optimize Your Brain To Increase Performance With Angela

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

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

Why Choosing To Become A Digital Nomad Freelancer with Dianni

“It took a bit of trial and error to figure out what I actually want this to look like and how I am going to make it work.”

Meet digital nomad freelancer Dianni

She started her nomadic lifestyle backpacking and has been enjoying a travel lifestyle for four years also. At the beginning of her journey, she wasn’t a digital nomad though because she would save up, travel and go home when she was running low on cash. Then, she would return to the United States to work and save up enough to head out and explore the world. The longest she would stay abroad was around six months but Dianni desired more.

How Dianni started her freelance career

Before freelancing, Dianni taught English in Spain. It’s common for Americans to start their abroad journey teaching English and digital nomad Natasha also did this in Spain. Dianni had one of these pivotal moments because it was time to pack her bags again, but she decided to find a way to stay abroad and became an au pair. The downside of this was that as an au pair, she wouldn’t earn enough to live her dream life so in another pivotal moment, she decided to figure out how to enjoy her travel life while working online.

Her answer was starting her freelance career. Dianni is a creative digital nomad and has one thing in common with Nienke Nina, podcasting. She has her own podcast, While She Is Away, which brings in some income combined with affiliate marketing, but her main income stream is her freelance work. She offers podcasting-related services like editing, management, and setting up podcasts for others. She also does some community management User Generated Content.

Becoming a digital nomad

Starting a new career can feel overwhelming and sometimes very unpredictable because you are unsure when you will get the job or your first clients. Combining this with the digital nomad lifestyle adds even more stuff to think about. Dianni decided to ease the process and work with a coach. Her strong passion for podcasting helped her define her freelance services and the process of transforming into a new lifestyle took around six months. So while it looks online that people pack their bags and leave, many digital nomads take time to think it through, create a plan and build a solid foundation before nomadding. It doesn’t sound sexy, but the overall experience will be less stressful, so you can enjoy your new lifestyle even more.

The perks of the freelance lifestyle

Some people might argue that freelancers aren’t real business owners, but if you are a solopreneur and have your own thing, at Digital Nomads Daily, we see freelancers also as business owners. We ask Dianni the biggest perks of the freelance lifestyle and she shares:

1️⃣ Less responsibility because she receives the task, does the work, and then gives it back to her client.

2️⃣ More flexibility to work on long or short-term projects. She prefers long-term projects and podcasting services work great as it involves a series of episodes compared to a blog post or website where you might only do a one-time project.

Figuring out your freelance style comes with experience, so if you are thinking about freelancing but aren’t sure about your offerings yet, go experiment and find out what sparks joy and take note of this.

If you want to ask more questions about this or learn from others, join our Digital Nomad Freedompreneur Group. We will share life lessons and stories from other digital nomad entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Life lessons with digital nomad Dianni

On the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast, we love to ask about BIG learnings and support other nomads. This lifestyle had many fun elements and we all love it, but let’s face it – it’s not picture perfect!

It’s not easy to work online from anywhere.

The lifestyle is very romanticized, so we are interviewing digital nomads. Dianna shares that she would just go to Europe to work from her computer, and everything would fall into place. She was wrong about that and learned that you need a ton of discipline to contour distractions and focus on work.

Fast pace travel doesn’t work

During her backpacking years, she would hop from one spot to another spot quickly. As a digital nomad, she has to prioritize different aspects, like a Wi-Fi connection, a proper workspace, etc. So logistically, it was also figuring out how to work and travel simultaneously. On top of that, travel takes time, so spending a lot of your time unpacking, packing, working, socializing and traveling gets tough.

Digital nomads needs also need sense of home

Feeling grounded is a common theme in this lifestyle and we talked about it with digital nomad Kasia on the podcast. Staying in the same place for at least a month allows you to do all the sexy and fun things, work online and take care of your well-being. Knowing how you are REALLY doing helps you learn more about yourself and grow on multiple levels.

All struggle digital nomads struggle

Anxiety, impostor syndrome and uncertainty about your next steps are entirely normal in the digital nomad lifestyle, especially for freelancers and business owners. Everyone has experienced this, no matter if you are in your first week, haven’t even started yet, or are in your 3rd year.

All of this above is part of this journey and our advice from talking with hundreds of nomads about this is to take it easy and find a community to support you. Our group is one of these places where we openly do this, so make sure to join us!

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 Dianni 

Find her on Instagram @whilesheisaway

Check out her TikTok account @whilesheisaway

Other episodes you might like:

🎧 Episode #39: The 5 misconceptions of the digital nomad lifestyle with Charlie

🎧 Episode #49: 8 Freelancer Mindset Challenges to Overcome For Success With Steve

🎧 Episode #64: Tips For Organizing Your Daily Digital Nomad Life with Eddie

Why Digital Nomads Love Living in Chiang Mai with With Evelina

“For me right now the biggest struggle is trying to find the balance of when I want to work and what type of routine do I want to have… There are so many challenges in that sense.”

Meet newbie digital nomad Evelina

She started her digital nomad journey only a couple of months ago but already lived abroad teaching English in Thailand. After her contract ended, she wanted to figure out how to live abroad longer and decided to start her freelance career. Evelina has been in business for five months now and her work is focused on web development, social media, and virtual assistant and groups it into digital marketing.

One of our podcast’s most mentioned daily challenges of the digital nomad lifestyle is finding the right balance. Many digital nomads are entrepreneurial and running a business while traveling can be tricky. Evelina is also experiencing this currently as she has many ideas for her business, but of course, she also wants to enjoy the place.

Why Chiang Mai is a great hub for digital nomads

There are many awesome digital nomad hubs and it all depends on your desires, work life and what you seek to find in a place. This changes over time and at this point in her life, Evelina loves being in Chiang Mai because it allows her to have a social life while keeping a high focus on work. But is Chiang Mai all about work? Of course not! Here are a couple of things this small city has to offer:

👉 Eat a looooot of pad thai and other Thai foods
👉 Discovering nice coffees shops
👉 Explore the mountains and go for hikes
👉 Hanging out with other digital nomads

What is the best way to meet people in Chiang Mai?

The city is known to be a safe destination and Nomadlist has it ranked number #5 the day we published this podcast episode. It has a good community and you can find digital nomads all year round. The easiest way to meet people is to join a coworking space for a couple of days, join several Facebook Groups for digital nomads and look for meetups. Evelina found a group interested in one of her favorite sports, volleyball.

We listed a couple of benefits of being a digital nomad in Chiang Mai that Evelina and other community members shared with us:

Why digital nomads love Chiang Mai

✅ Affordable to live
✅ Fast internet
✅ Warm all year round
✅ Digital nomads all year round
✅ Spacious and not crowded
✅ Easy to make friends

Why people don’t like Chiang Mai

❌ Limited activities around so much to do
❌ No beaches around
❌ Some roads are very dangerous (especially using scooters)
❌ People don’t speak English well

So one of the best places to find digital nomads in Chiang Mai is coworking spaces. We recommend digital nomads, especially newbie nomads who are just dipping their toes in this new lifestyle, to get a week or monthly pass to start making new connections.

💻 Elephant Cowork
💻 Planters Space
💻 Hub53 Coworking and Coliving Space
💻 Yellow Coworking
💻 Chiang Mai Buristro Bar Cafe
💻 Punspace Nimman
💻 The Brick Startup Space

Do you want more tips about where to meet digital nomads while traveling? We wrote a book Digital Nomads With Confidence where we discuss 101 daily digital nomad questions including where to meet people.

Get a copy of the book here and start your digital nomad journey with confidence!!

The first 5 months of the digital nomad lifestyle

Like any human being, we all have doubts, limiting beliefs, and fears popping up from time to time. It’s very normal and even though digital nomads live amazing adventurous lives, they also feel this. Evelina shares that she tries not to glamourize. Some people may say “oh I’m so jealous of what you are doing…” and this is understandable because others only get to see a sneak peek of what it looks and feel like.

Behind the scenes, she ask herself questions like:
🤨 What am I doing with my life?
🤨 Should I have a career at home?
🤨 Should I be thinking of buying a house?
🤨 Should I be settling down somewhere?

These are valid questions and we know that many digital nomads face this but luckily for you, we are here to talk about this openly. And this is why we love sharing real stories and real experiences on the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast and Evelina also tries not to glamourize the lifestyle.

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 Evelina

Find her on Instagram @evs_adventures

Find her business on Instagram @clikkmedia

Check out her website www.clikkmedia.com

Other episodes you might like:

🎧 Episode #21: 10 Years Of Traveling The World With Daisy

🎧  Episode #39: The 5 misconceptions of the digital nomad lifestyle with Charlie

🎧 Episode #59: How To Feel At Home In Your Next Digital Nomad House With Julie

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