Why I'm NOT a digital nomad

Episode 28 - Why I'm Not A Digital Nomad (EDITED)

Tue, Jan 09, 2024 12: 07PM • 16:37

Tue, Jan 09, 2024 12: SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Tue, Jan 09, 2024 12: digital nomad, travel, business, newsletters, block, people, laptop, photo, episode, retreat, love, hours, create, run, sitting, share, emma, talked, india, article

00: 01

00: Do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell show, a place where we talk about living a life you love now, I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world. And now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure to it's possible and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams to create a life you love until you get now don't wait for a time and or someday in the future. I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, wins the challenges and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love.

01: 03

01: I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land waterways and skies where I work live. Listen, learn and play. From here on you can bear country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present.

01: 28

01: Hello lovely and welcome to today's episode where I am sharing why I am not a digital nomad. I know that it might seem like I am one or you might have not heard the term before. But I don't believe I'm a digital nomad because I think there's a certain classification of what that means and why I think running my business and traveling the world is different. So I just wanted to kind of give the I guess definition of what a digital nomad is.

01: 59

01: But for me what then it looks like as well. So didn't remember it was kind of a term that was created. I don't know, I'd say maybe like 10 years ago, when traveling, you know, in working independently was kind of a cool thing. For me, when you think of a digital nomad, you get that picture of the girl sitting by the water with her laptop and a coconut. And you're looking gorgeous. And just you know, being on holiday while while working. I actually did a photo the other day of me working by the beach, which was quite a rare thing because I actually don't like working outside very much. I find

02: 40

02: I get too distracted. I take way longer than I would usually I'll occasionally work on my in laws balcony. But if I've got to do actual work, like right now I'm recording a podcast, I need to be in a quiet room or quiet space with my devices set up. And I can do that anywhere. But it's just not going to be it's not very beautiful.

03: 03

03: You know, sometimes I try and do lives outside even and you know, it's Sonny's it's glary and I'm squinting. It's windy, so the sound isn't good.

03: 14

03: Yeah, I'm just distracted by everything that's going on around me. So having a beautiful backdrop sometimes in actually doing the work is not how it really looks. And I think as well sometimes with the digital nomad things, it is just to me speaks to someone who's probably solo

03: 33

03: off in Bali, and kind of doing it for a short time. Sometimes it's a longer term thing, but it's sort of, it's almost like, to me, it's like the new backpacker thing. This is me probably being very dodgy. So if you're a digital nomad and you're listening, I'd love to hear from you. But I've even been featured in articles about digital nomads. So

03: 56

03: let's go to Wikipedia because that's obviously the most reliable source. I love it. The photo that comes up is a photo of a lady sitting in a lovely cafe with greenery all around her laptop and phone post. done many of those photos for my photo shoots. But basically it says digital nomads are people who travel freely freely while working remotely using technology and internet. So that's kind of the basic and it's but it's also saying that there are people who generally have little material possessions and they work remotely in temporary housing, hotels, cafes, public libraries, co working spaces, rec vehicles and they're using Wi Fi smartphone hotspot to access the internet. So sort of people who are really on the go and it yeah it digital nomad means that it really you are working online so somebody who works in the online space you don't need an office you don't need a workspace. You can work from anywhere, your computer or your laptop or your phone. Now why I don't like being called that is because I do have a home I

05: 00

05: Do you have a house, I do have a family. I have had those things for a while. But even before then, even when I was single, I just didn't do the travel the way that I think a lot of digital nomads do. digital nomad to me means that you're on the go, like you've decided you're doing three to six months or a year. And you're going to go and live somewhere, probably use it for a block of time, you're gonna do a bit of slow travel, so you're gonna do like a month or so, two months, three months in a place. Yep, you're gonna be working out of hotels, or your Airbnb or little co working space and things like that. And places like Bali have really set themselves up for that.

05: 41

05: And you kind of going to be a little bit of a local for a little while before you move on.

05: 47

05: I don't do that. I basically, Work and Travel intimately intertwined. I always have. Sometimes that is looked like work, work, work at home, work, work, work, and then go away. But even when I say I work at home, sometimes I'm at my home, sometimes I'm at a client's office, sometimes I'm at the other house, my in laws house, sometimes I very occasionally go to a co working space. I work in airports a lot. I think some of my best work is in the airport, you know, 20 minutes before my flight goes on, right? The best newsletters I send, I just think it's more intertwined. And it's just a part of my life. I write newsletters. So even though I say I don't like to sit with my laptop, in that post a photo that we see,

06: 31

06: which I should ironically use as the cover photo of this, like I had to do a photoshoot for an article I wrote I wrote an article called how I run my business and travel the world, which I also did a podcast episode on that. And it's episode number three. I had to pose that photo, we were in Italy and I had to go to Matt, I need you to get me photos of photos of me working or pretending to work because I just don't work like that. The way I work if you were to see me is the way my hair is now like messy bun. No makeup. I'm wearing my one of my dad gifts T shirts. Love it so comfy. So cute. I, um, probably at 7am or 6am. That's the time I like to work. And that's what I suggest in this article. I'm like, create a block of time, like get up early. Or if you're a night owl. Maybe you do a block of hours at night. So my husband goes to bed earlier. I do it a couple of hours and I sleep in a bid. That's a really good time for me to work. I find the middle of the day, honestly is a really fun time for me to work.

07: 32

07: So when I'm traveling, yes, working from like six till 10 or 7am till 11am Perfect don't hold a rest of the day three or four hours solid block. Amazing. But I just think that the travel for me the reason I don't want to be called a digital nomad is because it's not a time of life. For me, it's not a little hobby thing that I'm going to do. It's, this is my life, like my life is always going to include that I will run my business from where I am. I am I like to be called more of like a location independent business, if you will. So I don't have a set location. I'm based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. I live like my home is here. But in the next few years, we really do plan to do a lot more travel. I've got at least six weeks this year that I'm going to be in India, Sri Lanka and possibly Nepal I'm going to be in that part of the world.

08: 29

08: I'm going there three times at least I'll be going in February for the shift rates retreat June for the tiger tour. And then I'll be there in India for another clients retreat as well as CO hosting a retreat with the wonderful Jade Swan which we will soon release that we will see all the details if you're interested please write to me. But

08: 53

08: you know those are part of my work though as well. So that's the thing with also not being a digital nomad. My business is no longer just digital services. It before it was copywriting, social media marketing and predominantly those services were online. Then I moved into coaching, which again are predominantly do online. But I also host workshops, I host events, I host retreats. I speak in person as well as online. So you know my, my status or my work delivery has changed. So even though I'm going to be in India,

09: 28

09: I won't be digital nomadic. I will be co hosting retreat, and I will be continuing to run my business. Some of that is because I have amazing support team. I have a VA in the Philippines who can support me with that. I also have a EA in Australia executive assistant who is helping me to keep things going. You know I have a bookkeeper on my team. I have a web guy Ray moving from left solutions on my team.

09: 55

09: You know there are people on my team now where I think digital nomad again it's like no

10: 00

10: mad, you know, those people might also engage virtual assistants, things like that. But it tended to be as well, you will kind of that solo independent worker, almost a freelancer or running a very, very small business just working new to your client direct. And working from wherever you might have a contract. But it's really it's you, you, yourself and you, me, myself and I. Whereas my mind is a business, I run a business, I just happen to run that business from anywhere in the world. The point and the moral of this episode is to one not put me in a box, don't put me in a box. But also not to put yourself in a box and not to think that I will I can't be a digital nomad because I can't take three months or six months off a year off, or be away from my home for that long.

10: 50

10: And therefore, I can't have that experience. You can have that experience for a week if you want.

10: 57

10: You know, I've been on trips for a week. You know, sometimes you want to take a holiday, understand that and just have a break. And there are there are certainly times we've blocked out in the year for me that I will be off limits, including this. This Friday. I'm going on the Disney Cruise, I will not be working on the Disney Cruise, I will not be taking my laptop, I'll have three days I will not be doing anything. I'm so excited.

11: 18

11: But there are other times where like, Yeah, I'm in India, I'm running a retreat, but I can keep things going along in my business.

11: 26

11: Hello, my name is Kay toon. And I'm the founder of stay tuned a collection of digital education companies. I've had the pleasure of working with Emma Lovell on a number of different occasions. Not only will she emcee at my imperson book launch event, she also helped me out on the virtual launch, too. I've enjoyed photoshoots with her and Jade, and she's an excellent speaker and presenter, I chose Ella because she is just so full of beans, she brings life energy and enjoyment to wherever and whatever she does. So she's highly recommended.

12: 01

12: You know, we can keep creating things, we can keep doing customer service, we can keep the doors open. Because that's the nature of the business that I'm running now. And that's what I want to kind of impart is that you don't have to be a digital nomad, you don't have to have a set physical business. There, you can make your business look the way you want it to look. And you can find the way that works for you. And when I was going back to before, it's like I don't sit by the pool with my laptop and look all glamorous. But I do sit with my phone and record newsletters, like I record a voice memo of a newsletter sitting in a beautiful spot. I'll go for a walk sometimes, and I'll record things I was driving the other week and I put on The Voice Memo app before I started driving to be safe. And I just talked as I drove and I just talked about ideas, I talked about content, I talked about my newsletter, I talked about an auto response for my out of office like you know, that's a different way of working as well. And it's not just sitting at your laptop in a beautiful location. If you want to do that, by all means, as I'm saying it doesn't always work for me. So I have elements of my life that have been digital nomad, and I was featured in an article called digital nomads. Well, it's called digital nomad share tips on how to balance working remotely and traveling. And that was back in May 2019. On sheeter find, I'll share the link in the show notes. And my tip was

13: 32

13: to do those time blocks, so to allocate allocate time blocks so and I would say that regardless, like you absolutely can travel while running your business, but you must make time blocks where you can dedicate solid amounts of time. I've made a rule now the first few days of travel, especially for international travel, sorry, if the international travel, the first few days are blocked out for jetlag for travel jetlag. And then you know, then we can look at doing three hours a day, tend to not work on weekends. But you know, if I feel inspired, and I want to do things I can depends what we have on but you know, looking at the time looking at what activities, if it's a transit day, we don't work. I've just found that I always think, Oh, I'll have two hours in the airport. And I'll have two hours on the plane. And certainly not when I now have a child. So I did an episode about my epic Europe trip and what worked and what didn't.

14: 24

14: And I'll be doing an episode about traveling with kids as well. So yeah, basically, I'm not a digital nomad, because the travel and the business are part of my life. And I just harmonize it and make it work. I bring in the self care as well. So like I said, there's times where I just now know to block out time and go, I can't do the business. I've just got to do the travel or there's times where I'm like, I just got to do nothing, and I've just got to take care of myself. So I'm learning I've learned that over 14 years of doing this. And you know, I want to keep experimenting and keep showing you how I do it.

15: 00

15: and then helping you to find the way that you can do it. So, I'd love to hear from you whether you agree with my stance on digital nomad thing or not, and how you're incorporating, travel into your business or business into your travel, whilst also taking care of yourself. All right, I'll share those articles in the show notes about how I run my business and travel the world and how I was what the digital nomad life can look like. And

15: 27

15: yeah, if you do need support with this and want some help, you can also book an hour of my time in my hour of power, and we can talk about making a strategy for you and I will give you all of my tips and tricks and download all of that for you in a one hour coaching call. So all the links are always in the show notes. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next time.

15: 48

15: Or I'll talk to you next time. It's a podcast.

15: 54

15: Thank you for listening. Lovely one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today. If you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected. Come and join the live a life you love group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au, the same as my website. But all the details are in the show notes lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom seeking Now go out there and live a life you love