The Remote CEO Life Podcast

S312: What Is A Digital Nomad? The Truth Behind The Nomad Lifestyle

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 3 • Episode 12

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In this week's episode of The Remote CEO Life, I’m sharing the answers to the top digital nomad questions that everyone asks when starting the digital nomad lifestyle. 

After four years of living and working remotely, I’m giving you the real talk on how to become a digital nomad, what it means to be a digital nomad, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

I'll cover everything from how to find remote jobs, freelance life, to online business opportunities that support your dream of location independence. I’m also diving into digital nomad visas, and what you really need to know about countries with digital nomad visa options.

Plus, I’ll share my best advice on finding nomad accommodation, making friends whilst travelling, and building community. Whether you're dreaming of van life, nomad life, or just working remotely from anywhere in the world, this is your no-fluff guide.

👩‍💻 Watch this if you’re ready to start your digital nomad journey and create a life full of freedom.

#DigitalNomad #DigitalNomadLife #DigitalNomadLifestyle #DigitalNomadVisa #HowToBecomeADigitalNomad #RemoteJobs #WorkAndTravel #DigitalNomadTips #LocationIndependence #TravelQuestions #FreelanceLife #OnlineWork #RemoteWork #VanLife #LaptopLifestyle #ExpatLife #TravelVlog #DigitalNomadCommunity

About The Remote CEO Podcast:

This podcast is for freedom-seeking online entrepreneurs, offering practical, actionable advice to help you step up into your new role as CEO by building an online business that works for you - not one you work for.

Hosted by Sophie Biggerstaff, an online business mentor, e-commerce founder, mental health advocate, and full-time digital nomad. 🙋‍♀️

👆Want to start an online business? Take my quiz to help you get started

👆 Want to achieve more freedom in your life? Find out how you can make it happen in my free masterclass.

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👍 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share to hear more conversations about starting and growing an online business.

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Sophie (00:00) Hello and welcome back to the Remote CEO podcast.

Today I am doing a little solo episode because more recently I have been invited quite a lot to speak on other people's podcasts to talk about being an Indigenous Nomad. And I feel pretty well-versed to talk about this subject because I have been Nomadic now and living nomadically for the past four years and I've been traveling for the past 11, 12 years. So I have a lot of experience in setting yourself up in new places, in being able to work remotely and setting up yourself and on

online job or an online business and also understanding of the nomad scene, the nomad community, to go about setting yourself up for that if that is something that you're looking for. So I thought today, because so many other podcasts are asking me these questions, maybe I should talk about this on my own podcast around what does it actually mean to be a digital nomad and how can you set yourself up to be a digital nomad. So I've been doing a little bit of research into some of the most asked questions on the internet about becoming a digital nomad.

to address some of them. So the first, we're going to start at the very beginning for those of you that are not into the world of digital nomads and we're going to look at what is the meaning of a digital nomad. So what is digital nomad?

And a digital nomad is essentially somebody that can work online and travel at the same time. they are essentially somebody that works on their laptop and they can work wherever the wifi is. Essentially the definition of being a digital nomad. And that could mean different things in terms of work. That could mean that you are working for a company remotely whereby you probably have set hours, you probably work for one company specifically, you have set job roles.

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and you are literally just able to work from wherever you want in the world. The other options are that maybe you're freelance, so you might have like multiple projects on the go and be doing lots of different things, or you might be a business owner and be making money of your own accords, whatever that looks like for you. So there's different meanings to being a digital nomad depending on probably what job you actually do. And there's so many different jobs which I can go into in a second, but...

In essence, a digital nomad is basically somebody that can do their work fully remotely online and it doesn't necessarily matter too much around like time zones. They can be traveling in between the work that they're doing and most likely the people that become digital nomads and go and pursue this route are people that ultimately have a really strong passion for travel and I've been traveling since I was 21. I first went on my backpacking trip when I was 21. I went all around Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia.

and

I was gone for about seven months and I just completely fell in love with travel and ever since then travel has been such a big part of my life and it's funny because when I last went home I actually read one of my journals from when I was about seven or eight years old and the one thing I've written down in there is that when I'm older I want to travel, I want to move to Spain and I just think that's really interesting because I've always had this desire to travel so much so that when we were kids and I don't know if anyone ever remembers like when you used

to book holidays through a travel agent. If my parents wanted to go on holiday, we would usually go into a travel agent. I was very fortunate that we did go on holiday, usually about once a year. It was normally to Spain, but we would go to a travel agent and we would get the books that basically showed you all of the different options of accommodations. That might be like Thomas Cook or Tooie, for example, and they had all of the different options of the accommodation that you could book. And I was obsessed.

with these books, like completely obsessed. And I would go through and plan like all of these fake holidays, work out how much it was going to cost for my whole family to go on this trip and then propose it to my parents and be like, I think we should go here. So travel has always been ingrained in me. And then when I was actually 16 and I left school, I didn't go to university, but I did want to go to college. I did want to continue education in some way, but I wanted it to be way more practical. And actually my first choice of what to do at college was travel and tourism.

For whatever reason, I didn't go down that route. And I find it so interesting that I didn't go down that route because then I went into the world of fashion and I did buying and business. And that's obviously served me a better purpose in terms of what I do now, which is online business mentoring. However, it's just so interesting that this theme of travel for me has been relevant my whole life. So it feels very natural for me to be living in this way right now. I moved abroad multiple times over the past few years and I was always like a boomerang. I always came back to the UK.

or I would travel through work for example. So at one point in my 20s I was out of the UK most of the time. I'd say like six months of the year I was out of the UK and that was because I was traveling for work, was traveling on personal trips. I just wanted to explore, I just wanted to see the world. So this lifestyle that I now live which is fully full-time travel and working remotely is very normal for me but I fully understand that it is not normal for most of the other people in the

However, I do know that there is a really high proportion of people that do want to live this lifestyle. So when we're talking about what is digital nomad, that's why I wanted to kind of clarify that it's usually somebody that really does have this deep desire to be on the go to be on the move to go out and explore and There's a question that I get asked all the time and it's like what are you running away from and I find this question hilarious because I just think like You can't run away from yourself, right? And the most of the problems that we have in our lives are actually caused by us

in our minds and I if you if you followed me for a while you'll know that I've struggled with my mental health many times over the past few years and I have done a lot of work to curb my anxiety depression and panic attacks and I have that whole time I've been traveling I've never been able to get away from that right like I've had to work on my things throughout that time but what I have learned and for years when people ask me the question what you run away from it did make me question like what am I running away from

I've not been running away from anything. I've just been trying to find the right environment for me. It's not that I'm running away from something. I could have a nice life in the UK if I really wanted to, if I really tried to set myself up there. But I know that that's not where I am the best version of myself. I know that I am a better version of myself when I travel. I know that there's other countries that suit me and my personality and things that I like to do way better than it would be for me to live in the UK. to me, the concept of being a digital nomad isn't necessarily about running away from something.

about finding the thing that actually serves you about purpose and for me that is living by the beach, having a really healthy routine, being able to be outside and being around really like-minded people and if I'm really honest I don't get that in the UK. It's too cold, it's too rainy, the mindset is very closed so for me I've been able to find the best version of myself through becoming a digital nomad because I've been surrounded by the right environment, by the right people that are really able to

to push me and progress me into the world and the lifestyle that I want to live. So that's why I just wanted to give that bit of a background story because I know that the word digital nomad, it can sound a little bit cliche and people have a lot of questions around it. And in some ways it's a bit of a tarnished word because people are, oh, you're a digital nomad. That means you're not living reality. But actually this is my reality. This has been my reality for four years. Like reality is subjective to whatever you're living at that moment in time.

My reality doesn't make sense for me to be in the UK. My reality makes sense for me to be here. So right now I'm living in Thailand on an island called Koh Pheang.

And I love it. Like I'm definitely the happiest, healthiest version of myself. I'm meeting like-minded people all the time. And for me, the flexibility that my online business has given me to become a digital nomad and to be able to live this lifestyle, I could never be more grateful for that because it really has allowed me to step into my full potential. And I would always urge somebody that is even remotely curious about exploring this, even if it's for a month, a couple of weeks, like whatever that looks like for you. I really highly recommend trying it out. Obviously I know that not

everyone has that desire but in which case you're probably not listening to this this episode but if you do I would really recommend going and checking out and seeing if it is something that you could explore and I don't beat around the bush and say that this is for everybody like it's definitely not I think it takes a certain type of person that set themselves up in a certain type of way to become a digital nomad and moving on to the second question

Sophie (08:22) So many people ask what are the best jobs for being a digital nomad? And this is really going to depend on you as a person, honestly, because you can be a remote worker that essentially has a job with a company and then goes off and travels by doing the same job that you've always been doing. And as long as your company is okay with that, as long as you are tax compliant, visa compliant in all the countries that you're going to.

There's no reason why you can't work remotely for a company and do that job from wherever you are. mean, I'd say like 70 % of the nomads that I meet are probably doing some form of remote work rather than have their own business. and actually that's, that makes it easier for you to just up and leave, I would say, because you already have that level of stability. You don't have to set something up.

You then just have to really think about like the survival part of like when you get to a new location, booking the flights, the travel plans, all of that. You don't have to think about necessarily how are we making money this month, for example, which a lot of digital nomads do have that issue. And I didn't become a digital nomad as soon as I started my business. Like that wasn't something that I was going to do. I actually left my corporate job in 2020.

and I started a business in 2020. I didn't become a nomad until the end of 2021. And that gave me enough time to lay the foundations of my business, which isn't fully online business. I set it up purposely so that I was going to be able to travel and fulfill the lifestyle that I wanted to live. And essentially, I made sure that my business was fully set up and making me enough money before I then pursued this lifestyle of digital nomad.

And if you are starting an online business, unless you have a lot of savings and reserve finance funds, I would really recommend doing that. Like waiting until you have an online business or a job that is going to allow you the security to set yourself up. Because when you first become a digital nomad and you're then trying to figure out like your whole life's new lifestyle that you've just created for yourself at the same time as trying to find a way to make money.

That is incredibly, incredibly stressful. And you are going to be exerting energy in so many different places and it is gonna be very difficult for you to focus on all of the things that you need to do. And I would imagine that is very anxiety inducing. So my best suggestion would be is if you are gonna be starting an online business, which I highly recommend, I think it gives you the ultimate freedom. And I talk about this in my Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass, where it's like, well, what level of freedom do you wanna create for yourself? Do you want time freedom, location freedom?

Do you want financial freedom? Do you want all of the freedoms? Now most nomads, their primary freedom desire is location, right? Like they want to be able to travel. But at the same time, you need some level of financial freedom in order to do that. So whatever financial freedom means to you, that might be that you've got a job that pays a significant amount of money and you're unable to just travel and do whatever you want with that. Or it might be that if you've got your own business, you have unlimited earning capacity in that online business because you can create whatever it is that you want to create and then grow it from there.

So if starting an online business appeals to you, I would really recommend firstly going and checking out my Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass because that really breaks down for you all of the different online business models that might be right for you based on the freedom goal that you actually have for yourself. And I think it's really important when you are...

becoming a digital nomad and starting an online business that you build your online business, especially if you haven't started yet and you've got opportunity to change this because I made this mistake, you build your online business with the lifestyle that you want to live in mind. So if you want to become a digital nomad and you want to spend half your day at the beach and then half your day working, you don't want something that's going to make you work nine hours a day, for example. You want to find a business model that is going to allow you to have that time flexibility as well as that location and also makes you money.

I talk through that all in the Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass. I really recommend it. I also have a quiz. If you're not quite sure about which online business to start, you can go and take the quiz. I will link it in the show notes and it will basically give you, send you a recommendation of what business model to start based on the skills that you have and the freedom of desires that you have. So the best job to digital nomads is subjective based on what it is that you're good at, what your goal is, how you want your lifestyle to live. So...

I'm not gonna sit here and list off all of the jobs that you could potentially do, but I would really recommend going and checking out those free resources because I will explain that in so much more detail over there. So in essence, you've got a couple of options. You can either do the remote work, create yourself an online business, or you could potentially tap into that freelance jobs, project work. But essentially it's gonna be something that you can do online. Now, the reason it's gonna be online and the reason you want it to be as...

easy as possible because you're going to be traveling to different places. And the next question that I would like to answer is like, what are the best locations for digital nomads? And there are so many options that I could then choose from. And I think the reason I would suggest going back to the Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass that I'm talking about is I really ask you questions to figure out like what lifestyle do you want to achieve based on starting this online business and

The same question is valid for what location is going to be best for you as a digital nomad. Now I could sit here and list up all of the locations of digital nomad and I will list off a few, but they're not all going to be right for you because, and I'll give you this example for myself. My personal preference is to live by the beach, to live in locations where I can access healthy food and affordable food, where I don't have to cook because I really despise cooking. It sucks all of my energy.

places where there is a wellness and fitness community. So like really nice gyms, yoga, pilates, Muay Thai, somewhere that has an entrepreneurial community because I really like surrounding myself with people that I'm inspired by and one step ahead of me so that I can be expanded by what it is that they're doing. And I find that through entrepreneurial communities. So.

If I'm not by the beach, if I'm not working out all the time, if I'm not eating healthy food or if I'm having to cook, and if I'm not surrounded by the right people, I'm not happy. So I'm basically living this digital nomad lifestyle that doesn't fulfill me, doesn't fill my cup. And I think a lot of people go wrong with thinking, that person's enjoyed Thailand, for example. That means I must like, will like Thailand as well.

That is not a given. You need to think about what do you like because I know some people, for example, love to be in the city. They like the conveniences. They like to order food on the map. They like to be able to jump in a taxi and go wherever they want. In that case, island life is definitely not for you. Some people like to be in the mountains. They like to be surrounded by nature. So I think when you're thinking about what location is going to be best for you as a digital nomad, you really need to get specific on how you want your lifestyle to look and research the locations that are going to

be able to accommodate those things for your lifestyle. And I think it also depends as well on if you're a new nomad or if you're a bit more of an advanced nomad, if you've been traveling for a while.

or not even Nomad, if you're a noon traveller versus an advanced traveller, there's very different places that I would personally recommend to you to go because I think some places specifically in the Nomad world, because when you get into this Nomad community, you start to realise that there are certain locations around the world that everybody kind of goes between.

And if you've been to one place and you're in that world, you've probably heard about the other places because there is a huge nomad community across the world and there are a lot of places where nomads generally veer towards. So you're going to find different styles of nomads in different variations of those.

Now, it's also going to be dependent on how far you want to travel. So if you're based in Europe, whether you want to stay in Europe, if you want to go to Asia, if you want to go to Latin America, and also on your budget, because just because it's a nomad location doesn't mean it's cheap. There are a lot of nomad locations around the world that are actually very expensive to live in, in which case you need to be making sure that you're earning enough money to fulfill the lifestyle that you want to live there. So if I was to suggest a place for a brand new digital nomad,

there would be like a couple of places that I would suggest. And one, the obvious one, and everyone will probably say this, is Bali, of course. Like that was the first place that I went as a nomad. And I would explain why. it is because, one, it ticks all of those boxes that I spoke to you about earlier. There is a beach. There is healthy food. I can get it on delivery. I don't even have to think about cooking or going out to eat. Massive wellness community. All of the things that I love to do, going to the gym.

and getting involved in some kind of like wellbeing practices. It has so much to offer, so much available for me there. Massive entrepreneurial community and loads of meetups that I can tap into. So for me, Bali was the perfect location because I had a ready-made lifestyle that I already knew that I liked to live ready for me in Bali.

Again, you might have different preferences to me, so you're going to have to do your research. But Bali is really well set up because it has the co-working spaces. It has the WhatsApp and Facebook groups to help you meet people. It has the gym classes that you can just tap into whenever you want. So if you are a beginner nomad, my best suggestion for you would be to start in Bali. And Bali is a little bit of a love-hate. It's like Marmite. Some people love Bali. Some people hate Bali. I personally love Bali, but I was there during the pandemic.

So it was a lot quieter than it is now. So I think it's about finding your place also. Bali is a big place. You don't just have to go to Changi, for example. There's Ilawati, there's Ubud, there's Senor. There's so many different places that you can actually go within Bali. It's about finding the right location for you within that country as well.

Same with Thailand. There's different places in Thailand. Like Thailand is a great place for beginner nomads. However, I will say that it is slightly harder to meet people than it is in Bali. I feel like the communities here are not as well developed as they are in Bali. It is something that I'm personally working on here on the island of Kaipayang. I have started a co-working community here and we are trying to build out a bit more of a nomad community here. But still, when I came to Thailand for the first time two years ago as a nomad, I actually found it very hard to meet people. However,

Thailand does have the facilities for nomads. The wifi is very, very fast. The accommodation is very affordable. You can eat out and be living a very nice lifestyle. There is wellness options. There is a massive community of entrepreneurs here. There are co-working spaces. So places like Chiang Mai and Bangkok, for example, are really well accommodated for digital nomads. If you want to stay closer to Europe,

For example, if you are from Europe, my best suggestions in Europe would be Barcelona and Lisbon. Again, for the same reasons, they are set up already for digital nomads to just take their life there, book an Airbnb or book an accommodation and be able to access the co-working places, be able to go and find new friends because there are meetups for that, they're going to accommodate for that. So the places where it is the easiest to set yourself up.

are the places that I would suggest if you're a brand new digital nomad. And that's not to say you can't go to any other place. Of course you can, it's going to be totally dependent on you. But if you are a beginner traveler, a beginner nomad, you really don't know where to begin. That is where I would start. The other thing that you could do if you are a beginner nomad is to jump onto a nomad retreat or one of the nomad facilitated events, which there are a few, I can drop a few links to some in the show notes.

And basically you will then go on a dedicated itinerary. Someone else is basically planning your trip for you. You'll go for a dedicated itinerary and you will just show up and you will just crack up with your work because somebody else is already making the plan. there my best advice, if you are a new nomad, just make it as easy for yourself as possible because when you actually get into a new location as a nomad, you kind of go into survival mode because you've got so many things that you need to think about. need to think about where you're going to sleep, where you're to eat.

how you're get money out, what the wifi is like, how you're gonna make friends, where you're go and exercise. There's so many different things that you have to factor into your life when you become a digital nomad. You do kind of go into survival mode and that happens pretty much every location you go to. And even now, I've been a nomad for four years and I still go to new places and I'm like, my God, I've got to start again. So there is an element of survival all the time when it comes to being a nomadic.

The more you do it, obviously the easier it becomes. You know how to set yourself up in those locations. But as I say, if you are a beginner at that, make it easier for yourself. Go to one of the locations that is already really well accommodated for those people. If you are a more advanced nomad and you've been traveling for a while, and again, this is subject to space on like you and how you feel in different places. But my suggestions would be to come to places like Copiang, go to Medellin in Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Buenos Aires and Argentina.

Morocco, Vietnam, the Canary Islands, other places in Portugal like Aracera, Sagres, the Philippines like Chagall, Brazil, Guatemala or Georgia. All of those have really buzzing digital nomad communities and if you have been doing this lifestyle a little while, you will know how to integrate yourself and set yourself up for that.

Now, another question that is very popular on Google right now is the what, how do you set yourself up for a digital nomad visa? Now, I think a lot of people don't realize this when you, when you leave your home country that, and obviously there's passport privilege all over the world. Like I have a British passport. It's, it's okay. Like it's pretty strong. I can get into most places, but obviously I now have that limitation the rest of the same as the rest of the world with Europe, for example. So I can't just freely live in Europe.

in which case I have to apply for visas in quite a lot of places if I want extended stays. Now, most nomads will start their journey off on tourist visas and go to a place on a tourist visa to check it out. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Obviously, in theory, you're not meant to work in all of these locations. But as long as usually if you're earning money outside of the country, it's not as much of an issue. But I'm not a visa agent or a tax consultant. So you do your own research on that. However, for me personally, I really believe in

being an ethical digital nomad. think that there are a lot of problems with becoming a digital nomad that the places that we are going are now facing, which is like accommodation crisis, cost of living crisis. And unfortunately, in some cases we are contributing to a problem. So I'm trying to make personally for me, my decisions to be as ethical as possible. So I will always get the relevant visa that I need for a country.

And there are countries where you can get specific digital nomad visas. They are encouraging foreigners to come there and work on a remote work visa and they can do it all legally. If you go into a country on a tourist visa, you are not technically working there legally. Like there are some loopholes for sure. And it is the way most people do it. I'm not making an advice to you. Like you're going to have to do your own research on that. But

My suggestion personally would be if you know you want to stay in a country for a longer period of time, try and get the most appropriate visa that is going to be beneficial for the country and also for yourself because otherwise you're going to find yourself even more stressed out because you're to have to do visa runs and it's not great for the economy of that country either. I personally believe that we should be supporting these countries and doing things by the book if they are accommodating enough to allow us to live there.

When we're not from there, let's at least try and make it as legal as possible, as ethical as possible, and contribute to the local economy. That's my take on it. Everybody's got their own take on it. But I personally believe in getting the correct visas. And there are countries around the world now, like I say, that does have this digital nomad visa or a variation of the digital nomad visa. Some of them include Thailand, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, Dubai, Costa Rica.

Bali has a variation of it. There are more, which you can ask Chachibuchi, he will tell you. But if you're staying for short periods of time, obviously it's a little bit challenging to apply for a whole digital nomad visa. But if you do plan to stay in a country for a more long period of time, because there's also different...

Timelengths of digital nomads, some people are slow-mads, they stay in places for months and months on end or maybe even years and others want to move really quickly. If you're moving really quickly, most likely you're not going to apply for digital nomad visa because you're never going to be in somewhere long enough to want to apply for those visas. But if you are staying more than three to six months, really recommend applying for the nomad visa if you can in that country. You also need to think about tax.

I'm not a tax advisor, so I can't advise you on that at all. Everybody's situation is different, but I would really recommend looking into that. There's so many different loopholes and laws all around the world, but I would highly recommend you think about that. If you are becoming a digital nomad, just because you are getting paid in one country doesn't necessarily mean you should be paying tax in that country. So do your own research on that. So now we've talked about what is a nomad, where you're to go as a nomad, and how to do that ethically.

What about setting yourself up in that place? So how do you find accommodation as a digital nomad and how do you go about making friends as a digital nomad? So in terms of accommodation, don't book for long term on the apps like booking.com or GoDa or Airbnb because you will definitely not be getting the best rates. They are highly inflated. In some cases they might have long stay rates, but in general, then you're not going to get the best deals. So my personal

what preference of booking accommodation. I have two ways to do this. The first way would be to go on the booking platforms, go on the Airbnbs, thebooking.coms, find the things you like the look of and message them directly. Find them then on Google, find their number. Usually they have a WhatsApp group or something and you can go on there and message them directly to see what the best long-term rates are because most likely you're gonna stay somewhere like three, four weeks maybe.

maybe longer, in which case you are probably eligible for like some discounts instead of paying the nightly rates, which you're going to be paying if you're booking through one of the platforms. So highly recommend taking inspiration from these booking platforms, but not booking directly on their booking directly with the accommodation. The other thing that you can do is join Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups for those locations.

And within those WhatsApp and Facebook groups, there will be accommodation in Barcelona, for example, accommodation in Bangkok. You are going to be able to find accommodation that is either being subletted or just leased for you to rent. And you are going to get the best prices directly with a local owner of that accommodation if you can find them. So we highly recommend doing your research around that. Like I think usually when you land in a place,

Booking and accommodation for like a week, two weeks is a really good idea, like through one of the booking platforms. But anything that's longer than that, I would really recommend going down one of those routes and trying to find accommodation in a more local way, because you will get better rates. And most places have Facebook and WhatsApp groups for accommodation. So check on Facebook and then through Facebook, usually you get taken into these WhatsApp groups.

And this brings me on to how to make friends with digital nomad because WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups are one of the best ways and easiest ways to make friends as a digital nomad. Because when you get into those WhatsApps and Facebook groups, you are going to find a list of like events that are happening. You're going to find like-minded people. You can post in there about yourself and see if anyone replies. Personally, for me, most of my friends throughout my travels have actually been made through those WhatsApp groups.

and like the communities that have been built here. So as I said earlier, for example, here on Kaipa Yang, I have set up a coworking community, which is all about people that are entrepreneurs, business owners, remote workers coming together, working together and connecting over like-minded things that we like to do. So highly recommend seeking those out. They aren't always easy to find, but if you can find the Facebook group of a place, so that might be like Digital Nomads in Barcelona, for example.

You can then usually ask in there if there's any WhatsApp groups for Barcelona, which I know there are. And then you can in turn get into those WhatsApp groups and make your plans, make friends. The other way would be, especially if you are in a city, is looking on things like Eventbrite or Meetups for Digital Nomad Meetups. Because most places that are accommodating to digital nomads will have these once a week, once a month, whatever the frequency is. And they will allow you to network and connect with so many different

different digital nomads and like-minded people. You do have to take a little bit of courage to show up to those events if you are solo. But I would highly recommend it because you are going to get a lot out of those interactions and potentially meet very like-minded friends for life. I have made most of my best friends in the past few years as being a digital nomad and they're very like-minded people to me and I've got a lot in common with them, which has been amazing. So I highly recommend putting yourself a bit out there when you are

becoming a digital nomad and meeting new people and going to all of the events, trying different things. The other place I do generally meet people is at the gym. But I also think if you can just be a little bit more open when you're out and about, when you're out walking on the beach or if you're walking around the city or if you're in a cafe working and there's another person working next to you, give them a smile. You never know what these connections can bring to you. You don't have to just be like closed off like maybe you would in your own country.

There's so many opportunities. Personally, for me, I've made such great friends through being a digital nomad. And I know that everybody has that opportunity to make at least a few new like-minded friends. So I hope that has given a really good summary of what it means to be a digital nomad, some of the places that you can go, the visas, accommodation, and then making friends. All of the basics of becoming a digital nomad, I know that it can be very overwhelming. As I said, I don't believe this lifestyle is for everybody. I think you need to be able to have

quite a lot of resilience. If you're going to become a digital nomad, you have to be quite logical about the things that you're going to be doing. I know some people that have been nomads for years, like 10 years, and I know some people that do it for a couple of months and they decide it's not for them. So what I would suggest is like, if you can do that research, like I said, go through my Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass, that is going to be really helpful for you if you do want to set up an online business and you're not quite sure what lifestyle you want to live, that will definitely help you figure it out.

From there, you can start planning your routes and planning your locations as a digital nomad. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them in the comments. Maybe I can do another episode and answer any more questions that you might have on this lifestyle, in these worlds, in this community. But one thing I can safely say is that becoming a digital nomad, you are immediately put into a community, a massive pool of people that all are very like-minded, all have very similar goals, and love to travel. So I think...

You can't lose if you just go and try it. Even if you just go on a free week trip, like Elisha, you're to know that you said it, you've been there, done it, and if you enjoy it, great, carry on. If you didn't enjoy it, you don't have to go again, right? I always believe in trying everything once. And even if you've got this like little ink in that this might be something that you want to do, highly, highly recommend giving it a go and taking the risk and just going for it. You don't have to sell your whole life or leave your whole old life behind. You can do it in little incremental steps.

So yeah, thank you so much for listening. I think that's pretty much everything I wanted to talk about on Digital Nomads. But like I say, if you've got any questions, let me know in the comments and I will post all of the links to the Find Your Freedom Model Masterclass and my online business quiz where you can figure out which online business might be worthwhile for you to start based on the lifestyle you wanna live. Because I do believe personally that having an online business whilst you are living this lifestyle is the ultimate way to achieve all of the freedom roles that you might want in your life. And that is very beneficial.

for setting yourself up for the long term, particularly if you see yourself living outside of your home country for an extended period of time like I did. So thanks so much for listening and I will catch you next time.