Your Top Frequently Asked Questions on Travel and Becoming a Digital Nomad

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:       Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Badass Digital Nomads. I'm your host, Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin. And today I wanted to highlight a few of the voice messages that I have received from you guys, from listeners of the podcast. I appreciate them so much and it's been so fun to connect with you in this way. If you would like to leave a voice message, you can do so at TravelingwithKristin.com/podcast. And there is a recorder on the website there. And so, even though things have been a little bit crazy with all of the current events that have been going on in the world from the pandemic to protests, I just wanted to record this quick bonus episode to share some of the voice messages I've received and connect with some of the listeners in countries around the world. First up, we have Jeff and let's hear what he has to say.  

Jeff:    00:01:23    Oh yeah, thanks a lot Miss Kristin for the podcast and stuff. Of course, we like you so much and, uh, I mean the things that you shared with us are really helpful, and it's so nice that you're doing that for everybody. I don't know how much benefit you have for that, but that's really, really helpful and you giving so many good advices. I can imagine you being in the small 10,000 people capacity stadium and you in the middle and all these people, they come to you and try to touch you and try to, you know, like admire you for everything you does. The reality pretty much, that's how many people you just can follow. You appreciate so much because you really totally like changed my life now and turn my life upside down since I first subscribe to each channel on YouTube. And, you know, pretty much it gimme optimism that I won't be stuck in one place the rest of my life and slowly kind happening, but still, you know, like I'm not sure what the future gonna bring, but it's really optimistically moving me forward and forward of what you're doing in life.  

Jeff:    00:02:36    And if I can follow somebody like you, thanks so much. Appreciate.  

Kristin:    00:02:42    Hi Jeff. Thank you so much for that nice message that is so touching and heartwarming and humbling to hear how my content has resonated with you. So thank you so much for sharing that. You know, it's messages like this, of course, these are my first audio messages, but I do get, um, very kind, heartfelt, private messages from people all the time and it just really motivates me to always keep going and keep creating more content and keep thinking about, um, what I can create that will help the most and have the greatest impact. So thank you again for that. You know, this morning I was sitting outside because I always eat breakfast outside and my back, uh, patio and I live in, it's like a small block of apartments. So there's four apartments in one block, and we kind of all share the outside in the backyard.  

Kristin:    00:03:49    And even though it's the table at my house, my neighbors will come and sit there. And this morning my 80-year-old neighbor John, who's from France, he came over and, um, sat outside and we were having coffee together. And unfortunately he has a LS um, Lou Gehrig's disease and he only really only has a couple more months to live. And I was asking him, you know, Jean, what is the meaning of life? Or he has such a positive attitude, and he was talking about how it's okay, he's 80 years old, it's time to go, and he's had a good run basically at life. But he mentioned that he thinks that human beings are too consumed and caught up with the negative things that are happening in life with the, uh, fighting or political and fighting and war and money and all of these other kind of things that we have created as drama in our life.  

Kristin:    00:05:00    And he said, you know, what people really need to think about is that the ego is made for our survival because for thousands and thousands of years, humans have just needed to survive. And that we are all so lucky to be alive right now and to be living in this time and to kind of set our egos aside and live for enjoying the moment, enjoying the day, and, and for each other live, for helping each other and for celebrating the very short, short time that we have on this planet. Um, he was like, even if you live to be a hundred years, how long is that really in the scheme of things, <laugh> So in a roundabout way, uh, related to your message, this is what it's all about. Basically just connecting with people, helping each other to live our best lives and making the most of this time we have, and using it in a way that is fulfilling and positive and and helpful to one another.  

Kristin:    00:06:10    And, um, not losing sight of really what's important. So thank you again for, for saying that and um, for, for sharing how, uh, these ideas and concepts of traveling and living life on your own terms and making your own path in the world, how that is resonating with you because I'm sure that there are other people listening who are struggling with the same thing. Just remember everyone that you are all much more powerful than you have been told. And one of the things that can help you carve your own path in life is to question, really question what you were told in the past about how you are supposed to live life. Whether it's the American dream or the white picket fence or whatever it is. Sometimes you have to unlearn what you were taught in the past and replace it with a new paradigm of facts and logic and beliefs and dreams and principles that resonate with you as an individual.  

Kristin:    00:07:26    Just start small. Just embrace that spirit of what if everything I know is wrong, where would I start over? You know, how would you start creating life on your own terms? If you are starting over today because we get that chance to start over each and every day, if you have an idea or a dream for how you want to be, just don't give up on that. You don't have to know the whole path in front of you. None of us know. Just look at what is that next step? What is that first step in taking me in the direction of where I want to go and being open about where that inevitably leads you might be pleasantly surprised. The next message is from Edhar in Peru, and this was in response to a question that I asked in my Facebook group a few weeks ago, uh, checking in with people to see how they were doing with the quarantine and how they were handling life on a day-to-day basis. So hopefully things have lightened up a little bit in Peru, but let's see what he has to say and what daily life has been like in Cusco.  

Edhar:    00:08:41    Hello. Um, I'm Edhar. I am from Peru, uh, and I, I'm in Costco. I'm in Costco, Peru right now. The government has, um, shut down everything and we are in the mandatory quarantine where the army and the police are out. Uh, we only can go out for pharmacy, grocery stores. Uh, there's a curfew from 6:00 PM through 5:00 AM every day or no one can get out, otherwise they'll be arrested. And if you are out except for essential things, you may get arrested too. We'll do travel planning. So, um, not many travel planning projects right now due to the travel restrictions, uh, but also missionaries so I can, I can keep working as a missionary and also helping the church here, uh, with that techy things that I know. Um, I spend my time reading, working, uh, writing, um, and like that. And I'm grateful for the opportunity, um, to be able to connect with others remotely who are going through the same situation.  

Kristin:    00:09:54    Thank you Edhar, so much for sharing your experience. I know that South America has been very hard hit with the Coronavirus and most of the countries in central and South America, with the exception of Mexico, are basically on lockdown still indefinitely in many cases or until the fall or through the end of the year. So I hope that you're staying safe over there. I hope that things are getting better and better and please up us again soon. The next message is from Michelle Olivera and he has a question about productivity and staying on track. So let's listen to that and then I'll give some of my advice.  

Michelle:    00:10:40    Hey Kristin, how's it going? Um, I got a question which is deeply right in my side, psyche, when you kind of been all over the map, what kind of strategies do you use to get back on track and do things with more effectiveness then? We, it worked done before because most of the time we got sidetracks along the way when we learn some skills or do a project or whatever it is. So yeah, that's my question. Uh, I wanna, you know, say thank you for all you've been doing. You know, I'm here from Michelle from Brazil and uh, yeah. 

Kristin:    00:11:39    Thank you Michelle for your question. So I have a few different tips for you. The first one is how to get back on track from a general macro perspective. So this can be when you have a goal or a dream or something that you're trying to accomplish. And as time goes on over months and sometimes over the course of a year or even longer, a lot of things are always happening in life because life is always changing in life is very dynamic. So sometimes we can get off track on the bigger picture of our goals. And so what helps me with that is writing out like a goal vision. You can do this for how you want your life to look in one year, three years, five years and 10 years, and then you can work backwards from that and break your big vision down into smaller steps.  

Kristin:    00:12:38    So that is an exercise that I learned how to do back in 2012 with, uh, conference I went to by Marie Forlio and also one of my, uh, mentors and business coaches has recommended a similar strategy. So it's basically kind of like a design your life brainstorming session. And then you wanna keep your number one goal, whether it's for one year or three years or five years, you wanna keep it top of mind. So you wanna post it on the wall next to your desk, put it by your bed so that you see it before you go to sleep. And we're all human, we forget stuff. So we want to be able to remind ourselves what our number one goal is, and that's just by keeping it around in our environment so that we don't forget. And then another thing is staying on track on a more, uh, weekly or monthly basis.  

Kristin:    00:13:34    And for me to do that, I had joined a free mastermind or you can create your own, just find at least one other person, whether it's somebody physically near you or somebody on the internet that wants accountability. So you basically have a goal accountability partner, and it can be a friend or a family member or somebody who you don't know who you meet in a Facebook group or in a forum. And I meet with my group on a weekly basis, and after about a year and a half of doing that, I actually joined a second mastermind. So that's really helpful as well because it forces you to review your progress towards your goals on a weekly basis and then compare what you did that week to with, with what you said you were gonna do. And so you can do this for yourself on an individual basis, but I found that it's more effective in a group environment.  

Kristin:    00:14:30    And then my third tip is for staying on track on a daily basis. And the most helpful thing for me is to only pick one thing to work on for the day, no more than three most important tasks. And whenever I feel overwhelmed and I don't know what to do next, I will literally ask myself out loud, what am I doing right now, <laugh>, what is the most important thing for me to do next? And what am I gonna start doing in the next 10 seconds or 30 seconds? What is that one thing? And then I work on it until it's done, because sometimes it's really easy to sit down in front of your computer and open it up and get distracted by all of the infinite, you know, millions of things that you could be doing from web browsing to consuming content, to answering email and messages.  

Kristin:    00:15:24    And then at the end, your head is just spinning and you forget what you even started off to do. So I, I actually have a article about this on Medium that I'll link to in the show notes. And sometimes my most helpful productivity tip is just stating out loud what I am about to do next and then doing it. And then our last voice message today is from Fiona Brander, who I met in Arctic, Norway at the Arctic Coworking Lodge in the Lofoten Islands. And she is coming to us from Guatemala with a little overview of what life has been like there during the pandemic.  

Fiona:    00:16:05    Hi Kristin, it's Fiona here. Um, so as you know, I'm British. Um, I'm a travel agent and um, I arrived in Guatemala at the end of January and, um, moved in to an apartment in Antigua. Um, my plan was to leave at the beginning of May, um, but uh, things obviously, uh, have gone a bit crazy, so now I'm just gonna stay here until the world is fixed. Um, and my plan really now is maybe just stay still until the beginning of 2021 when I, um, hope like everybody else. We hope that it's okay to travel again then. But, uh, the moment I'm just happy where I am. Uh, Guatemala is an amazing place to be, uh, at least it is where I am in Antigua, um, in a beautiful apartment that I share with a friend. And we are in a absolutely stunning gated community on the outskirts of Antigua.  

Fiona:    00:17:04    We can order all our food online. We have fresh fe, um, fruit, meat, fish, all delivered to us, um, uh, which we just order online and we can even order wine online. We go out about once a week to the supermarket, um, to get any like essentials, um, that we need that we can't get online. And, um, everybody's friendly. It's safe. I honestly could not be in a better place, I don't think it's absolutely amazing. Work, however, was crazy. Um, as I mentioned, and as you know, I'm a travel agent. I'm a corporate travel agent, uh, work for a company in Grand Cayman. And, um, this all bank, this all covid thing started for, for me in January when people started to cancel trips to China. And then it suddenly took a term for crazy by like March and I spent three weeks just doing little house but rebooking people.  

Speaker 5    00:18:03    So, or booking new flights for people so they could get home before borders closed. Um, I didn't sleep really in those three weeks. Um, and now I've gotta start refunding and extending all these people's travel that I had for them, you know, traveling the next, well, the rest of 2020 really. Um, and I'm constantly reading airline policies over and over again 'cause they continue to change every day or week. Like it's just constant change and I'm having to email and re-email clients with their options as it changes. It's like a waiting game really until the airline cancel your flights because once they cancel, then maybe you can get a refund. Um, or maybe the best option is to take credit and use for future travel. Uh, so, you know, just rereading and reading and reading covid policies. I'm down to a minimal wage now. Um, maybe soon it would be zero wage, but I still have to work.  

Fiona:    00:19:03    I still have clients. Uh, the travel industry is struggling, uh, but hopefully it will get back to normal once the world is fixed. And, um, hopefully I will get and continue to have very loyal clients, um, because I helped a lot of people who can get a hold of airlines when they book direct. So hopefully it'll be okay for me and my company. Um, and I hope things do get better to normal. In the meantime, I'm gonna work on my blog. I'm gonna try and improve my Spanish, and most importantly, I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the time, the downtime and, um, and honestly at the moment, you know, quarantine is nice. It's good. Uh, I'm happy. Uh, obviously I worry about the future. Um, I'm sure everyone does. Uh, but you know, I've got a great friend with me. Um, we have a cat that's very entertaining and, um, every day seems to whiz by. Uh, I haven't actually reached any boredom at all yet. Uh, so it's all right. I cannot complain. I'm getting a chance to catch up with people as well. So that's it. Uh, that's okay, and I hope you're fine. I'm happy to. Okay, take care. Bye.  

Kristin:    00:20:19    Thank you so much, Fiona, for sharing your quarantine experience with us. I have been following along on your blog and looking at all of your beautiful, beautiful photos from Guatemala, which is a country that I've never had the privilege of visiting yet. So I recommend everybody to check out Fiona's blog, which is called Travelwithfi.com, travelwithfi.com. Fiona, I really liked to hear how you've been dealing with the pandemic as far as your positive approach to continuing to work even though your income has been cut. And instead of focusing on what you can control, focusing on what you can, which is your daily life and enjoying it and making the most of it, and making new friends and using the resources that you have at your disposal, and also using this time to work on your side project. For anyone who doesn't know Fiona, she's in my Facebook group, Badass Digital Nomads, and she has a really interesting story because she lived as an expat for many years in the Cayman Islands, working physically for a travel company called Travel Pros Cayman. And she asked horror boss if she could work remotely, and that is how she became a digital nomad. So that's very inspiring.  

Kristin:    00:21:53    Thank you again to everybody who left a voice message for me through SpeakPipe. Again, if you'd like to ask a question or leave a message, you can do so at TravelingwithKristin.com/podcast where there is a way for you to record in leaving reviews for the podcast and sharing it with your friends. There's also a link in the show notes with a survey, so if you wanna leave any other feedback or request a guest or put your questions in there, if you don't wanna leave an audio message, you can do that as well. Thank you guys for listening and see you soon on another episode of Badass Digital Nomads.