How Leaders Can Strengthen Remote Company Culture With Jürgen

“Many of the things that you shouldd be doing if you are leading a remote team are things that should be already doing anyway even in an office team.”

Digital nomad startup founder

Creating a digital nomad-friendly work environment

Tips for remote workers and digital nomads

🌟 Respect the trust your company has in you and don’t just go remote without letting them know. It’s bad for the organization, for yourself and puts a bad label on other digital nomads in the community.
🌟 With so many changes, habits are a powerful tool to nurture your well-being. Find out things that work for you and make them part of your day-to-day life.
🌟 Mirco-management can happen anywhere and also in work environments. So if you feel uncomfortable with the management style ask questions about why this is and what they want to get out of this. Perhaps there is a reason or they are not noticing it. If you cannot communicate this, then it’s probably best to find another job.

Tips for organizations who have (aspiring) digital nomads on their team

🌟 Stop talking about your people but focus on having conversations with your employees and co-create a remote work environment. Ask your people how remote looks and feels to them and see how your company can reshape its culture.
🌟 Adapt a startup mentality where you experiment with different ideas. If your organization is new to remote work, get tools and recourses to help you become successful so your organization and people can thrive.
🌟 Focus on the results and what people deliver instead of controlling how many hours someone is online. Controlling work environments isn’t pleasant and by giving people autonomy, they become more engaged and committed to giving their best work.

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 Jürgen

Find him on LinkedIn: Jürgen Pretsch

Find his App: www.shap.market.com

Instagram: @shapmarketplace

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #16: The Future Of The Digital Nomads With Pat 

🎧  Episode #41: The 5 Key Ingredients To Work Remotely Effectively with Anna Maria

🎧  Episode #54: What Makes a Remote-First Company Culture with Chase

How To Find A Remote Job And Take Ownership Of Your Career With Juliana

“Remote work for me is about making better choices in general.”

From recruiter to remote career coach

Juliana has been working fully remotely since 2019 and is tuning in from Tirana in Albania. While this isn’t a digital nomad hub yet, the city is working on this to facilitate more digital nomads in the future. She has a long career as a recruiter, where she helped companies to find talent. Her work experience helped her understand what companies are looking for and how candidates can present themselves better online and during interviews. Her goal is to help individuals get more clarity about their careers and land jobs faster. She follows a six-step process and works 1:1 with people.

Searching for a remote job feels like a job

Looking for any job, remote or in an office, takes a lot of time and often feels like a job in itself. Juliana shares some common mistakes job seekers make when searching for a remote job. By changing the way you look for a job, you can increase your chances of landing the desired job. Let’s look at the common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Looking for ANY remote job

Remote work is popular and many job seekers look for any job as long as it’s remote. Juliana shares that this is a mistake because you will not find the right job if you haven’t clearly defined what type of job or company interests you. So stop looking for any remote job.

Lack of research

This may sound boring but research is part of the job hunt. When you apply for just anything and everything, you may waste your time, energy and perhaps even money on things that aren’t a good fit. You can research company values, previous employees’ work experiences, etc.

Unclear message

A clear message always sells better and this starts by creating clarity for yourself about the type of job you’re looking to land. Make sure that this message is shown on all the necessary places like LinkedIn, your resume and other content interesting for companies to check out.

Creating an action plan

Randomly looking for jobs sounds like hoping to find the right job. Hope is not a strategy in business and the same goes for landing your ideal job. So creating an action plan that specifies how you’re going to get this job and the different tasks help you land a job faster.

Losing confidence

Well, first of all, this makes sense because not everyone deals well with receiving a cold, harsh NO. Rejection is part of the process; if you’re being rejected repeatedly, this could put a dent in your confidence.

While it makes sense, it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. Taking care of the previous common mistakes is the first step and accepting that you can get rejected is the other important step in the job-hunting process.

Losing confidence

Juliana often says that not the best candidate will get the job but the candidate who sells her/himself best lands the job. So while you’re busy job hunting don’t forget to pay attention to how you sell yourself. Presenting yourself in the best way already starts with how you present yourself online. So make sure your online resume and LinkedIn have a clear message and show your important skills and interests.

You are never to old to switch careers

These tips are super helpful; we hope they will help you find your job faster. Juliana also shares that many people are looking for a remote job or thinking about switching careers.

For the career switchers among us, the first thing to remember is that you’re never too old to switch careers. These days it’s pretty normal but somehow the “feeling of being too old” always pops up. The truth is that you are never too old to change careers and she even hears people in their early thirties saying they are too old. This mindset isn’t very positive and thinking this way will hold you back from actually shifting careers. So please don’t think you are too old to do anything. Make your peace with it and whenever you think it’s time to have a career change, it’s probably the best time to act.

Secondly, always take into consideration what you already know. Skills and experiences gained in previous jobs are often transferable skills and relevant for your next job. Try to find companies that are open to hiring people who don’t have direct experience in that area to increase your chances. You don’t need to start from scratch or take up a junior position when you have skills. Of course, also here, it’s important to learn how to sell yourself.

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 Juliana

Follow Juliana on LinkedIn

Check out her Instagram @juliana.rabbi

Watch helpful videos on YouTube

Other episodes you might like:

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

🎧  Episode #41: The 5 Key Ingredients To Work Remotely Effectively with Anna Maria

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

How To Become A Digital Nomad Couple Sailing The World With Ryan and Sophie

“Embrace all the challenges and embrace falling on your face. It will evolve and that’s the beauty of this lifestyle.”

The boating life looks glamorous but doing it full time also means…

Work-life balance for sailing digital nomads

Expectations s reality

‘‘It’s getting painful. Embrace all the challenges, embrace falling on your face and embrace the fact that it’s going to be hard because there’s always going to be good stuff.’’

Your spouse becomes your life partner.

One of the hardest things, aside from managing the boat, is maintaining a healthy relationship. Their reality is so much more than just a romantic love story. Both Sophie and Ryan had to redesign some of their communication styles and habits and really work on themselves to keep up with their lifestyle.

Digital nomads Julia and Gidi also speak about their digital nomad couple’s life and how important it is to spend time apart. Since they are limited to the boat, this doesn’t go for Ryan and Sophie. So the couple isn’t full-time on the boat simply because it’s healthy for their relationship and personal well-being.

Seeing a couples counselor helped them a lot and here some other tips (which are also super helpful for any digital nomad couple are)

The most important key is communication, which means you want to create a space where you can talk openly.

🌟 Find space for yourself and disconnect from your partner. This could be a workout routine, reading a book, or another hobby in your own space.
🌟 Take breaks from this lifestyle if that’s what you need. Both Ryan and Sophie share that they learned it’s not healthy to live on the boat full-time. They need to go home and be with family and friends. In fact, during the episode, they both tuned in from different locations.

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 nomads Ryan & Sophie

Find them on Instagram @ryanandsophie

See them on their Youtube channel: Ryan and Sophie sailing

See their website 

Other episodes you might like:

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

🎧  Episode #10: Working Remotely From A Van With Digital Nomad Chelsea

🎧  Episode #42: The Entrepreneur Story Of The Nomad Soulmates Community With Aline 

Building A Successful Creative Freelance Career With Suzanne

“There’s no bright time to pursue a nomadic lifestyle, so just do it but have a bit of a plan!”

Starting her freelance career as a creative

Suzanne didn’t start her journey as a digital nomad. In fact, she only found out while she was doing it that she was actually living the digital nomad lifestyle. During her first years of traveling, she worked in exchange for food and accommodations. It’s a popular way for low-budget traveling.
Over time she offered her creative services through freelancing. While many people believe in finding a niche, Suzanne enjoys doing more than one thing like entrepreneurs and podcast guests Chels and Micaela.
So Suzanne mostly does concept development for boutique hotels and restaurants and offers various creative services like photography, branding, and design. She loves both, so she decided to combine her passions, giving her creative and financial freedom.

How to find clients as a creative freelancer?

Just like any freelancer and business owner, you need to find clients. Suzanne has different marketing strategies but also shares that this isn’t always easy. One of the challenges she is facing is wearing many hats so she doesn’t always find the time to work on promoting her services. To tackle this Suzanne plans and creates content for a month and this is how she’s been able to market herself.

Another challenge he faces as a creative freelancer is coping with client feedback. Especially at the start of her journey, she would take feedback very personally, which would affect her well-being. Over time she started to understand that it’s never about her but feedback about the work. So Suzanne was able to distance herself emotionally from the feedback, treat her as clients’ needs, and adapt her designs according to their values without feeling offended or upset. This is an important lesson for anyone who is doing creative work.

‘‘Know what they want. Know which direction you want to go and it’s never the same.’’

Suzanne identifies herself as an introvert like Marcel, who also joined the Digital Nomads Daily Podcast. Both Suzanne and Marcel share on the podcast that this lifestyle taught her how to network better. Here are 3 things that helped her feel more confident:
🔎 Join co-working spaces because it’s easy to meet other people
🔎 Go to networking events and set small goals for yourself. For example, talk with 3 people about my work.
🔎 Schedule social/networking nights in your calendar and stick to it. It may feel uncomfortable but if you stick to it soon, it will feel more natural.

Combining work and travel

Final takeaways

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 Suzanne

Find her on Instagram @suzannesomewhere

On her website www.suzannesomewhere.com

Check out her LinkedIn Suzanne Schuringa

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #28: How Digital Nomads Can Become Successful Entrepreneurs With John

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

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

The Power Of Mirco-Loans With Wanderers Helps

“Wanderers Help project is neither mine nor my co-founder’s main business activity. We just really want to be able to give back to inject some money back into the community and to keep them a helping hand.”

Creating impact with Kathy aka digital nomad tax expert Wanderes Wealth

Kathleen is a location-independent international tax consultant and the founder of Wanderers Wealth. She’s been nomadding for four years, combining her love of travel with her entrepreneurial spirit.

She used to work in a corporate job as a tax lawyer. Yet, she realized that she wasn’t made for the corporate world. So, she booked a one-way ticket to Bali and started networking, and found out that people needed her help with regard to businesses, logistics, taxes, visas, residences, second citizenship, and bank accounts. She is solving a huge problem in our community and serving many digital nomads. She is also named in The 2022 Remote Influencer Report by Remote.com.

Kathy’s goal at Wanderers Wealth is to help independent entrepreneurs, digital nomads, freelancers, expats, and remote workers improve their tax situation and corporate structure. Consequently, she aims to empower them. Kathy also offers services of global diversification strategies for digital nomads.

The microfinancing project in Uganda: Wanderers Help

Recently, Kathy launched a microfinancing project, Wanderers Help, in Uganda. Her strong education and successful background are behind this project. She went to Uganda ten years ago for volunteering purposes for a social organization. Even though she studied financial system economics, Kathy ended up in financial/international business law. Moreover, she wrote her final thesis on “Micro-financing in Uganda.” Through this project, they will be able to give out more micro-loans to small business owners in Uganda.

She thought that maybe this project would happen later in her life, maybe in 50 years. But this year, she decided to launch and go entirely into it. Because she was obsessed with the topic and also surprised by the big distribution of wealth among countries. When she saw this inequality, it became inevitable for Kathy to support underprivileged people.
She is driven by the idea that while the western world has the privilege of citizenship, travel, and lifestyle, people born in less fortunate countries do not have that privilege. Thus, it is important to help these people by asking questions like, “How can we help? How can we have a lasting effect and help them in their world as well?”. Giving back comes naturally for Kathy because of her religious background, and we appreciate it!

How does this micro-loan work?

There are many ways to give back, and a popular method is via donations. However, Kathy explains why she’s not a big fan of donations: “you make people dependent on simply receiving more money. Receiving more money and not necessarily stepping up and being responsible for their own livelihood.”
“A lot of studies have shown that it has a great impact on the local communities that wouldn’t necessarily have other ways to get an extra income flow.”

Instead, they create a higher impact through microloans. In Kathy’s words,

‘‘micro-loans are basically handing out small loans to those individuals that are in a less fortunate situation. A lot of them already run their own businesses to survive. Those microloans are meant to help them out so that they can grow their businesses and make them think more about money so that they can implement a business plan and be stricter and have a bit of feeling around what to do with that money that they get.’’

The microloans can have a much bigger impact because the money is given directly to recipients with the condition that they will repay only a small amount over time. It also sounds better than taking loans from the bank due to the interest rates. While banks’ interest rate is up to 20%, Wanderers Help’s rate is 10%, which is minimal. So, it gives an opportunity to a community to enable them to build a business and sustain their life.
The 10% interest is reinvested in the project. For example to compensate petrol expenses to visit all the recipients and hand over the money. Apparently, it’s not about getting a profit from it, but it’s truly about giving back. It’s about making sure that people can go on with their dream business because they wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. And this is exactly what makes Kathy’s story inspiring.

She also told us that it’s not just her running this project. She has a lot of support around her. Kathy surrounds herself with the right people who know how to help, like her co-founder, who’s been an international development consultant for 15 years, a local person from Uganda who can speak the language, and different consultants and lawyers.

How can digital nomads contribute?

The funds that enable them to give out microloans are collected in various ways. Organizations and individuals can donate, which will be used to fund the microloans. Keep in mind that you won’t get your interest back as a contributor. Instead, the money will be cycled and go towards another group of entrepreneurs or local staff in Uganda. That’s how the biggest impact will be achieved.
So what about you? It’s time to give back! If you would like to help Wanderers Help, you can make a contribution via this link: https://wandererswealth.mykajabi.com/wanderers-help

Quick takeaways

🌟 give at least 10% of your income back or put it into charity
🌟 you don’t have to be so old to achieve a lot of great things in your life
🌟 give a hand those who needs and unprivileged ones

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 Kathy

Find her on Instagram @wanderers.wealth

Kathleen’s personal Instagram @kathymcpaul

Wanderers Help to make contribution: https://wandererswealth.mykajabi.com/wanderers-help

Wanderers Wealth website: https://wandererswealth.com/

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #08: Leaving the corporate world behind and reinventing yourself with nomad Tarek

🎧  Episode #43: Remote Work Isn’t Just For Digital Nomads With Lorraine

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

How Digital Nomad Families Can Live A Boundless Life With Marcos

“Being able to adapt, being able to relate to others and feel comfortable with the unknown, with the discomfort, being comfortable in discomfort, it’s important, even if it’s not easy.”

The vision of world citizen and serial entrepreneur Marcos Carvalho

World citizen and entrepreneur Marcos Carvalho shares his story and the mission of one of the many companies he has co-founded, Boundless Life. It’s a purpose-driven initiative helping digital nomad families to overcome the practical obstacles of the digital nomad lifestyle. Boundless Life organizes cohorts across the globe and offers a combination of traveling, co-working and transformative education. If you are a digital nomad family and want to live a well-balanced lifestyle and connect with like-minded families, or think about your future family life, this is your episode!

Marcos Carvalho is one of the co-founders of Boundless Life and a world citizen. Growing up, he moved about five times and between Brazil, France, Canada and the United States. He is a successful serial entrepreneur who has founded several companies mostly in tech. Marcos is passionate about the future of humanity and you can clearly see this in the companies he has founded.

Marcos was introduced to different cultures and perspectives growing up and he shares this experience with the other co-founders of Boundless Life. Together they share the vision of transformative education and developing the entrepreneurial spirit in children. He has a purpose-driven personality and believes that combining traveling with future-ready education is the best way to raise the people who will develop the empathy, compassion, and kindness necessary to make the world a better place.

You can see his personality triads clearly back in his lifestyle and work and there is a lot to learn from Marcos’s journey.

What is Boundless Life

Boundless Life is an initiative helping families live fulfilling lives where travel, education, remote work, culture and meaningful connections are the stepping stones to a memorable experience.

Families from all walks of life bring their kids and work to one of the Boundless Life locations. The team takes care of all digital nomad families’ basic needs such as housing, a co-working space, cultural experiences and community events. Boundless Life is also known for its future-ready transformative education approach. It’s a unique education program developed to deepen a child’s core competencies based the world’s best educational practices. A couple of highlights of their education program:
🌟 Experiential learning
🌟 Personalized learning
🌟 Purposeful learning
🌟 Project-based learning
🌟 Future-ready
🌟 Holistic mindful well-being

‘‘It’s about building a structure to raise children so that these children will be well-prepared for the future and will be able to make a difference’’

Boundless Life develops an education system that enables the child to live the way they want and makes the nomadic life easier for families. One of the co-founders, Rekha Magon, creates a curriculum with her team, but not from scratch. As Marcos points out in this episode, “We are taking the best of the best and then putting together and then adapting it to that nomadic lifestyle.”

Of course, it attracts open-minded families who love to travel and enjoy unique experiences. Remote work expert Rowena Hennigan joined The Digital Nomads Daily Podcast and talked from the Boundless Life co-working space in Sintra, Portugal.

Marcos shares that different profiles are joining the experience. Some are entrepreneurs like himself and others are consultants, investors or people that have been working remotely. It also attracts a group of people who already have their children in alternative education systems but are looking for a more culture-based experience. These digital nomad families are looking for something that offers them independence and doesn’t tie them down.

What everyone has in common are the kids. It also helps the parents even make stronger connections. Nevertheless, some parents wonder if they are doing the right thing for their kids and this is a common topic within the Boundless Life Community. However, Marcos shares that the kids often ask their parents if they can join the next cohort and he beautifully shares:

‘‘We don’t know what’s coming next. Being able to adapt, being able to relate to others and feel comfortable with the unknown, with the discomfort, being comfortable in discomfort, it’s important even if it’s not easy. It’s not always as charming as it seems. There are a lot of challenges… But change requires time.’’

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 Marcos

Follow his journey on LinkedIn @Marcosfacarvalho

Visit the website of Boundless Life  @www.boundless.life

Other episodes you might like:

🎧  Episode #16: The Future Of The Digital Nomads With Pat

🎧  Episode #19: 5 Benefits Of Joining A Digital Nomad Travel Group With Craig

🎧 Episode # 23: The Power Of Open-Mindedness In The Digital Nomad Lifestyle With Elle