How and Where To Start When Going Location Independent (100th Anniversary Episode Part 2)

Kristin:    00:00:00    I think everyone needs to do whatever personal work on themselves and know that we're all a work in progress. And the more you look in the mirror and do that inner work, the easier it is to take outward action. I've done mantras. I've like literally brain my, brainwashed myself into taking action by just talking myself into it over the years. And so that will pay off in the long run.   

Jeremiah:    00:00:25    So what you're saying is when you're, when you're alone and no one's around, you're a real weirdo <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:00:29    But I do think it's all related to the ability to take action in a society that is paralyzed by fear. 

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.

Wise

Kristin:    00:01:00    If you've ever had to send money abroad or pay someone in a different country, you know how expensive wire transfer and foreign exchange fees can be. That's why I've been using Wise, formerly known as TransferWise for more than seven years now. Sending money internationally with wise is between five to 13 times cheaper than traditional banks. It's also fast and easy with a Wise multicurrency account. You can manage your money in 50 plus currencies and send money internationally directly from your phone in the app. No filling out paperwork, no calling your bank branch, and most importantly, no outrageous exchange rate. Sign up with Wise today to join more than 10 million people in businesses who are managing their money across the world. With Wise, you can get your first transfer up to 500 British pounds for free by using the link in the show notes or by going to travelingwithKristin.com/wise to learn more. That's traveling with Kristin.com/ W-I-S-E.  

Kristin:    00:02:16    Hi, everyone. Kristin from Badass Digital Nomads here. And on last week's episode, we did part one of a special two-part anniversary issue to celebrate the 100th and 101st episodes of Badass Digital Nomads. And this was actually the idea of one of our listeners, Jeremiah Bradshaw, who sent me a message on Facebook and asked if he could interview me for my podcast because he had a lot of questions about how I got started as a digital nomad, more about my personal life and travel, and just things that I wouldn't normally ask myself and that other podcasters have never asked me before. And so I thought about it, I slept on it, and I asked my Patrons on Patreon and they were down for it. And so I said, okay, let's do it. And invited Jeremiah on. And so last week's episode was more about travel. And today's episode we're getting into more of the details about how I actually became a digital nomad, what I've learned in that process, and my advice for other people who are just starting out in the digital nomad lifestyle. So I hope you guys enjoyed this two part anniversary episode and let's get into it.  

Podcast Interview:

Jeremiah:    00:03:41    It's funny, we're on this topic now because I've, I've sort of been perusing the questions that I prepared here, and there's some of them that just aren't necessarily as practical as I thought they would be. And we're getting to the point where I, I wanted to start asking you questions about remote working and digital nomad lifestyle. And, uh, we, you know, we've touched on it from time to time, but you were just talking about like focusing in on a way for you to make sure that you provide for yourself. I think a lot of people, especially if they want to become entrepreneurs and work for themselves, can make the mistake of thinking that they're just gonna set something up and then that's just gonna be a cash register on the side that's just bringing in money for them. And you really just have, you have to really commit and plug away and work every day and grind it out for a long, long time before you can ever get to a point where you've actually got some sort of passive income.  

Jeremiah:    00:04:26    So I, it's a misnomer, I think that people can jump into being a digital nomad by just plugging in some system that's gonna provide them with income and allow them to, uh, to just travel the world on it. And that asks that, that leads into this question that I wanted to ask you. There is so much online chatter these days around becoming a digital nomad. How much of the conversation are you familiar with from the perspective of people who want to transition into being a digital nomad? And is it something that you've been immersed in with people in your coaching and so on with helping them focus in on that thing that they're now gonna do to provide for themselves? Or is it something that's sort of on the periphery? What, what is your experience with that, that challenge of, okay, I need to focus in on what it is I'm gonna do to be able to make the money to pay my bills, to have internet, to be able to work outside of the country and figure out how to live this lifestyle? 

Kristin:    00:05:25    So there's this misconception that becoming a digital nomad means you have to have some kind of passive income business, but yeah, that's not true at all. And actually, even though that's ideal or people think that that's ideal, I actually did a poll in my Facebook group saying, what would be your preferred way of becoming a digital nomad? And almost half or more of the people said through passive income, or partially retired or, or actually retired or retiring early, but that is just a means to an end. So I've had people that are retired on my podcast and they're all working because even if you have your bills covered, you know, there's a reason why trust fund kids aren't known as being the happiest people in the world. You can have that income coming in that's not going to provide fulfillment or solve your problems or anything.  

Kristin:    00:06:17    But what does give us purpose in the world is living in our purpose, um, doing what we care about doing for work and doing things that we like to do, things that fulfill us. And so that is where I coach people on becoming a digital nomad is, is following that inclination of what are you already good at doing? What do you already know how to do and what do you like doing? And finding that intersection. So I helped people with two things. I started with helping people with the travel side. So I helped retired people who already had an income invest in properties in foreign countries, specifically Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua. And then I moved into relocation because re-- buying properties in another country is just one way to live there. But that's not the way that I was living there. I just wanted to not just help people with buying the property, but I wanted to help people of all ages be able to live in foreign countries on their own terms, whatever that meant.  

Kristin:    00:07:20    And so, I started with helping the, uh, retirees buy properties, but then I focused on rentals because I didn't think that it was necessary to buy a property in another country to live there. I thought, you can just go rent a property, have that experience, and if you decide that you really wanna live there forever or that it makes good business sense for you, then buy something. And that's when I started my online company in 2011 that was helping individuals move to different countries. So they all had jobs of some kind, so they weren't retired, but they had some job that they could do online and they just wanted to have a different experience. Or not even online all the time. Sometimes it was like a personal trainer who was going to train people in person. They just wanted to live on the beach in Costa Rica and train people down the street versus training them in New York City.  

Kristin:    00:08:12    And so, and now you can do that remotely, right? So I started helping people with moving to different countries for fun so that they could have a lifestyle change no matter what they were doing for work. And now it's kind of come full circle where not only am I helping people move to other countries for fun and travel the world, but I'm also helping on what I call the digital side of the digital nomad. So I, I help on the nomad settler side, but now I'm helping on the front end of the digital side with people to help them figure out what they can do to make money online so that then they can have the other side, which is the, the freedom, the location independence and the financial freedom and flexibility to be able to travel or live abroad while working. And so I think that has all come full circle because that was something that I struggled with for so long in the early years, was figuring out what I wanted to do for work and how to invent my own job. And, and now I've become like a mentor to people that are doing that are going through the same thing. And I can empathize because I've been there.  

Jeremiah:    00:09:14    Yeah, that's, uh, there's a lot in, in that answer that you just gave. Um, so, so basically what you're doing now is you've got a, uh, coaching program that you're, um, you're able to help people focus in on what they're good at and marry that to what they can do in order to, uh, make an income. And that helps facilitate their passion of being able to travel. Wow. That must be really rewarding to do that. Have you been, how long have you been doing that?  

Kristin:    00:09:40    The, the career consulting, I guess you could say in the online business consulting? Yeah. For probably two or three years now. I don't actually even advertise it <laugh> much, but  

Jeremiah:    00:09:53    Yeah, you've made reference to it in some of your videos that you do coaching, but I didn't know specifically what it was. And so I, if you don't mind, I want to kind of take a rabbit trail here and ask you some more questions about that, because that sounds super, super valuable and interesting to me. And it's not, definitely not on my list of questions of things that I wanted to ask you about. But you've, this, this is another feather in your, in your cap here that you've been out of the country working. You, you've always been financially self-reliant. we talked about that earlier. A lot of people just assume that you're not, which is kind of douchey, frankly. But, um, but you know, there are people that aren't too, they are trustafarians and you're just, you're not one of 'em. You've been financially self-reliant, but you've also had these moments in time where you thought, shit, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to keep doing this.  

Jeremiah:    00:10:42    And that sort of lit a fire under you to get out there and hustle harder. And then it's taken you time to get to a place where actually you have my, I'm, I'm gonna guess that you would answer it this way just based on the little that I've gotten to know you in this conversation. But my guess is the thing that you have now that you didn't have as much then is confidence that you know that you can do it. You're like a bird that knows how to fly now, and you are like, I'll, I know I can rely on my skills to know that if I jump, I can catch the wind and I can do what I need to do to, to do this. Is that accurate?  

Kristin:    00:11:15    I would say I never thought that I had a problem with self-confidence or self-esteem before, but in hindsight, I must have because I was still concerned with what other people thought of my lifestyle. Not to the point where I would change my lifestyle for other people, but I was still, I was aware that, you know, people wouldn't really understand what I was doing. I thought it was weird, but I found solace and the expats that I met in those other countries, specifically Costa Rica, Costa Rica has such a big and diverse expat community. And the more people that I met that were my age or older, 'cause at the beginning I was one of the youngest people 'cause I was like 20. But the more people that I met, that solidified my choice. And so I thought, well, even if my friends back home can't relate, 'cause they haven't been here and they haven't met these people, at least I'm meeting people from all around the world that are living their ideal lifestyle here.  

Kristin:    00:12:16    And they're very unapologetically doing it. And many of them were older, so they had more life experience and they had more confidence and conviction in what they were doing. And I fed off of that. So where I was not exactly sure how long I was gonna be there and thought maybe it was a temporary thing, the longer I was there and the more people I met, I just thought, no. Like this is what I'm doing. And, and I feel like Costa Rica in a way was a little bird's nest that I was able to get out of at one point because I, I came to this crossroads where I felt I had come to the decision point of do I want to get residency or get on a path to citizenship here and buy a house and stay here, or do I wanna go explore the world?  

Kristin:    00:13:01    And I very quickly decided I wanted to go completely remote. And this was also before I knew what a digital nomad was. So I couldn't define what that meant. I just knew that I didn't wanna stay in one place anymore and that I could do my job online and that I wanted to see the world. And I just designed my own around the world trip, not within around the world plane ticket, but I just made my own it itinerary because that was my job, was to do itineraries for people, you know, travel planning, relocation planning. So I used myself as a client and I created my, I actually had a project in my project management system, like a relocation plan for myself to go to all of these other countries that were on my bucket list. And so then that kind of helped the lifestyle continue.  

Kristin:    00:13:43    So to bring things full circle, I have different business models now than I did before. And I don't talk about the one-on-one coaching so much because I can only take so many clients per month. 'cause there's only so much time in a day. But that is one of the reasons that online business is so powerful. And this is something that I admittedly haven't been that good at because I decided to write a book launch two YouTube channels and a podcast and all this stuff at the same time in the same year. So I haven't fully like built out what I would like to do, which my idea was to basically create an education company to teach people life skills that include creating their own jobs or finding remote jobs and being able to be self-sufficient and live in any country anywhere in the world. And so that's my bigger picture.  

Kristin:    00:14:35    It's like a school of life, but I can't, let's say 500,000 people watched this video about whatever it is. Okay. I can't talk to all of those people one-on-one, right? So the only what the solution is for me to replicate my knowledge, right? My duty, my responsibility, my purpose in life is to make this information available. And it, it's not only accessible in a one-on-one phone call from me, but I must put it in audio format, in video format, in written format and give people these roadmaps. It's just finding a way to, to replicate and share this knowledge in a consumable way. And I'm basically creating it from nothing. Right? Right. Creating a roadmap on how to do things that took me many years to learn and that I didn't have a roadmap for. So it's not just like, you know, how to build a WordPress site or <laugh> like how to do copywriting.  

Kristin:    00:15:37    It's, it's like these skills are very layered and complex and it has taken time for me to create frameworks that are applicable to multiple people and not just the person that I'm coaching one-on-one. So I feel like I've gone on my own what Steven Pressfield refers to it as the difference between the hero's journey and the artist's journey. So the hero's journey for me was probably this whole 15 or 20 years that I was traveling around and learning all of these things and doing all of these jobs and working for people. And then the artist's journey is compiling that information and transforming it into an ingestible format that can be distributed to people. Right? And that is where I'm at right now. And so that is my challenge now that I'm working through on a, on a daily basis. And so we'll see what's coming out in the next year as I work through these things and produce things that I've never done before.  

Kristin:    00:16:37    And I'm learning how to do that at the same time that I am compressing and organizing the information for people. So if you're listening, that is what I'm working on behind the scenes. And that way I can help more people with how to create their job other than like one-on-one phone calls. And so what I'm creating is basically a digital nomadic academy, or I have a website, digitalnomadbootcamp.com, but it only has a couple of options on it right now. Like it has my make money mentorship course where people can, it's for freelancers to learn how to monetize their skills and make money online. But, you know, that's only one way to make money online. So if people are interested in working with me, one-on-one, I'll drop links in the show notes on how you can do that. 'cause I am doing consulting calls on an hourly basis or a monthly basis with three month packages if people wanna work with me. one-on-one for the, either the relocation aspect or the, the career and online business aspect. But then you can also jump on my email list. So if you wanna be notified when more types of courses and group programs and books and things like that come out, then you can stay in touch and get notified. So I'll leave that there  

Jeremiah:    00:17:55    And that'll, that'll be in the link there. And then also you said digitalnomadbootcamp.com is your website? And so people I'm sure can get on your list, your email list there, and then see this, uh, um, those few selections that you have available now as you continue to build out the site.  

Kristin:    00:18:11    Yeah, the email list is at  travelingwithKristin.com/subscribe. And okay. Also, if you go to digitalnomadbootcamp.com and download any of the free, it's like the remote jobs guide. There's all sorts of resources that go with different videos that I've made just to provide more exercises that people can do.  

Jeremiah:    00:18:33    I've already favorited a bunch of websites that you've recommended that are, uh, just tools to use to before you set out on your journeys and so on.

Kristin:    00:18:39     Yeah. So if you download anything there, like the Make Money Workbook or the Remote Jobs Guide, or you'll also be part of my email list. But you can also just go to TravelingwithKristin.com/subscribe and then you'll get my weekly newsletter on Fridays. Alright.  

Jeremiah:    00:18:55    Well let me jump into like a final stretch here with some questions just about your time as you, you basically started out as a regular old nomad, you know, <laugh> somebody who's just, uh, traveling the world, right?  

Kristin:    00:19:07    An expat at first.  

Jeremiah:    00:19:09    Yeah. Okay. And, uh, I mean, we're all, like you mentioned earlier, we're all human beings, right? So like humans started out as nomads. Uh, we were all traveling and settling, not not necessarily settling in and, and building cities in the very, very beginning. So now we've got this sort of weird thing that's happening where a lot of people want to kind of go back to that genetic predisposition to go see the world, right, <laugh>.

Kristin:  Yeah.

Jeremiah:  And that's what led you out to you. You just, you followed your curiosity. You were an expat, you wanted to see what the world was like. Did you ever have any normal jobs? Were you ever a dishwasher? You said you were a waiter at one point. What other like, regular old jobs did you have in the beginning? Times  

Kristin:    00:19:46    When I, before I was nomadic, it was mostly working at the surf shop, lifeguarding, surf lessons. And, oh, in college I started writing for Surfline.com. So I've always been writing, you know, I, I didn't, I don't know why I didn't consider that as a career path. Actually. I do know because in my family and in my surroundings in school, becoming an artist or a writer was considered kind of a Hail Mary as a career. Right. It was like, if you're gonna be a writer, you have to be a journalist or something, but if you're going to, you know, be an artist or a filmmaker, you're not gonna make any money. These stereotypes were pushed into my head very early. So I didn't even consider those as viable career paths. So I was taking accounting classes that I didn't like. And then on the backend, I was writing in my free time for 2 cents a word for internet websites and back in the early days. So it's so obvious I even had a blog in 2007. But anyway, so what I did when I was in--   

Jeremiah:    00:20:52    And now you're writing a book,  

Kristin:    00:20:52    And now I'm writing a book. Yep. <laugh>.  

Jeremiah:    00:20:54    Right. And, and from this conversation, I can tell you've got a lot of, uh, like I I can almost tell you, I can almost guess at what some of the headings of some of the chapters are. It sounds like it's gonna be a fascinating book to read because it's, um, I, my my guess is you're gonna be inviting people into, uh, a place where they elevate their thinking to believe that what is impossible is actually right at their fingertips.  

Kristin:    00:21:16    Right. And this has been a big struggle for me 'cause I started writing books in college and I never published any of them. That's why I love really Steven Pressfield, because it took him 30 years to publish his first book. It won't take me that long, you guys. I actually already finished the book, but then during the pandemic I started rewriting it because everything changed. Not everything, but a lot changed during the Pandemic to where my book that was written before the pandemic would not make as much sense and I needed to update it basically. So anyway, actually writing this book has been a really big challenge for me. I have a sign in my kitchen that says perfectionism is an excuse for procrastination. And so I have to really be cognizant of that because that's my, one of my biggest--

Jeremiah:    00:22:06    I can relate to that. I'm, I, I write as well. I, I, I think I am a writer. I've never, um, been published or, well, I mean, I've done a little things, but, but it, it's, it's the thing that I naturally come to. I I do. And I, I, I will rewrite something a thousand times if I'm left to, to do it for that very reason.

Kristin:    00:22:24     It's a rabbit hole. I just fill my brain with Ryan Holiday podcasts because he, he's such a machine when it comes to writing and it helps me just keep going every day and do, and like James Clear said, and a, a conversation with Ryan Holiday on The Daily Stoic recently, he said, when you write a book, you have to be okay with it being a hot mess 98% of the time. Like, it only is good at the very last 2% where it's finally coming together and it has a cover on it and it's printed, but before that, it's just a hot mess for, for years at a time. So I, 

Jeremiah:    00:23:00    I like that.  

Kristin:    00:23:01    I am finally, I am making money with my writing on medium and, well, I haven't been writing on there lately, but last year I was, and that's a big passion project. But I would say for people, like thinking of the way that they can become nomadic and, you know, you asking me how I did it and how I transitioned into nomad the real main source of income for me for the first few years, seven or eight years when I wasn't nomadic, I was just self-employed or working with a brokerage in real estate. Like that was my only source of income. So when I traveled, like I would travel from Costa Rica to Europe, I would have to take off time and lose months of income to be able to go somewhere else. And then when I started my relocation company, I was at a decision point where I was done with real estate. I just didn't like it anymore. And I was I was applying for jobs in the US because I didn't know what else to do. The minimum wage was really low in Costa Rica. Like, I didn't wanna start a brick and mortar business there, like a restaurant or something. And I felt like I didn't have many options. I wasn't even thinking of starting an online business. I was applying for jobs in California to be near my brother.  

Jeremiah:    00:24:22     Yeah, You wanna come out here to California?  

Kristin:    00:24:23    Well, I realized, well, you did. After crunching the numbers, I was like, so I'm gonna take this corporate job in California, work my ass off, and basically be living on the poverty line because of like, I know the salary and the cost of living. And I just thought, no, I'm not gonna do that. And so then that's when, um, I had the idea to do the relocation company, which I did physically for a year and a half before I went remote. So that is a really key point. So I continued living as an expat in one country in Costa Rica, in one city, in Escazu in San Jose. And I had a staff that lived next door to me. I was working in an office physically. And then it got to the point to where we all started working from home and stopped going to the office.  

Kristin:    00:25:10    And then we had a meeting once a week, and then it was like a phone call. And then I realized that I didn't need an office at all and I didn't need to be in Costa Rica. And so that's when I decided to start traveling. So that really worked for me. It was living abroad, doing a traditional job, and then moving into my own business and then making that business remote.

Leave a review

Kristin: Hey, it's Kristin. If you're liking this episode, I would be so appreciative if you could help the podcast grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform or by sharing as well, send this episode to someone you think it might inspire or share it with your friends on social media. Badass Digital Nomads wouldn't exist without listeners just like you. Thanks for your support. And now back to the show.  

Jeremiah:    00:26:06    How old were you when, when you did that, that transition that you just decided?  

Kristin:    00:26:09    I was 25 or 26.   

Jeremiah:    00:26:13    Okay. Okay.

Kristin:  Yeah.

Jeremiah:  So a lot of people get paralyzed by, you just described how you were thinking about this. You were thinking about that you were applying to jobs, you were considering doing something more traditional back in the States, and then you just thought, you know what, why not explore the possibility of people transitioning from, you know, moving from one country to another of, of providing a service that I can make a living on doing that. I think a lot of people, when they think that, when they, when they have a thought like that, they have a hard time taking action. You don't seem like you're one of those people. You don't seem like, even though you're a very thoughtful and pensive person, you don't seem like you're somebody who allows yourself to get caught in the trap of sort of paralysis by over analysis. Am I correct in that assumption or?  

Kristin:    00:27:01    I think I probably don't give myself enough credit for that because in my head, the un the number of things that I wish were already done <laugh> and that I wish I had already completed. It's, it's such a long list. And so I feel like I'm really slow at taking action, but I also, I try again every day. Every day is a fresh start. And I'm, I've been meditating for years and I've been doing so much, to be honest, pretty weird healing <laugh> types of modalities, therapy, sound healing, Ayahuasca

Jeremiah:    00:27:37    --doing like the sound goals in there and like, oh, hey, all right. Yeah.

Kristin:    00:27:39   I mean, I've done all kinds of stuff. I've, because, you know, traveling around the world, I've just been exposed to so many different things, acupuncture, and then I don't know, like I've, I've gone to so many retreats and I've done, I've, I've sat with enlightened people from Malaysia, At a farm in Norway. Like I've just really done the work. I think everyone needs to do whatever personal work on themselves and know that we're all a work in progress. And the more you look in the mirror and do that inner work, the easier it is to take outward action. I've done mantras, I've like literally brain my, brainwashed myself into taking action by just talking myself into it over the years. And so that will pay off in the long run.   

Jeremiah:    00:28:26  So what you're saying is, when you're, when you're alone and no one's around, you're a real weirdo <laugh>, you're like talking yourself and doing--  

Kristin:    00:28:32   oh, probably  

Jeremiah:    00:28:34    <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:28:34    Well, I don't have to do it that stuff as much anymore, but I just always kept an open mind. So I, I got certified in reiki healing and like would do theta healing and I've done past life regressions. Like I've really just explored the rabbit hole of what it means to be, um, a soul and a human body on this planet. And this is getting really weird right now, <laugh>, but I do think it's all related to the ability to take action in a society that is paralyzed by fear and paralysis by analysis and yeah. Yeah. So that really, that really helps. But I would say, if I could give a practical tip on that, making things less scary for yourself. So it's just breaking things into the smallest possible piece. That's why I love things.

Jeremiah:  Oh yeah, that's good.

Kristin:    00:29:26    Things like Atomic Habits, The One Thing, the 1% rule, like I had on my to-do list to film five videos that are #Ask Kristin, like Q&A videos. because I have a list, a spreadsheet with 8,000 questions in it from people. And I was, I didn't do it for two weeks. And I was like, why haven't I done this yet? Well, probably because I'm subconsciously intimidated by recording five videos in one day. So I was like, maybe I should just make it one video. And if that's too much, maybe I'll just put on my list, write down one question to answer for somebody in a video, because I can do a live stream or a podcast interview where I answer 200 questions. But when it comes to producing a video, all of a sudden it becomes intimidating. And so the key is to just break down whatever the task is that you wanna do into the smallest possible element. Think of it as a, not an atom, but like a proton or a neutron or an electron, like the smallest possible particle of the thing that you wanna do. And then just start there. And I just do that over and over.  

Jeremiah:    00:30:34    Is this a practice that you do now in a, like a sort of planning phase? Or do you just catch yourself and implement that where you need to, um,-- as you going? 

Kristin:    00:30:42     I just, I, I can catch myself having been a business owner for so many years now and having done so much personal and self-development and now creating content about it and how my clients with it. I can see if I am doing something that I don't wanna be doing or if I'm not doing something that I wanna be doing, I just notice it and I'm like, oh. And so I try to find a way to talk myself into it or trick myself into doing the work. But you know, what else is, helpful is having that public accountability. Like, I, I think I only skipped one week of this podcast during the Black Lives Matter 'cause it was on a Tuesday that I was supposed to publish. And then that happened on a Tuesday, the B lackout Tuesday, I think. But in general, like when you make a public commitment to something, it's just like travel where you want to fit in with a community.  

Kristin:    00:31:34    You don't wanna be excluded from the world because a long time ago, if you were living in the, in the plains in the Midwest and you got lost from your tribe, like you were done, you were gonna die <laugh>. So most likely. So, you know, we need people we're genetically predisposed to help each other and to lean on other people for help. And so when you make a public accountability for something, you don't want to let other people down. And so it's really sad that we can let ourselves down before we let other people down. But sometimes it helps to have, you know, other people depending on us.  

Jeremiah:    00:32:13    It is, I agree with that, but I've thought about that before. 'cause like if I cook, I always cook better if I'm cooking for somebody else. And I was sort of trying to reverse engineer that and realize, you know, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I think that, like you said, it's, it's this, um, I don't think we're individuals. I think we think we're individuals, but I don't think we're, I think we're a collective. That's why, you know, you can be, you could be in solitary confinement in prison and it's not worse torture there than it would be if you're just trapped on a desert. I, uh, a uh--

Kristin:    00:32:46      Right

Jeremiah:    00:32:46    A paradise an island by yourself. You know, we all need to be connected. Right.  

Kristin:    00:32:51    Like that paradise becomes hell if it's just you and Wilson <laugh>. 

Jeremiah:    00:32:56    Exactly.  

Kristin:    00:32:56    You and the vol, the volley ball or  the coconut.

Jeremiah:    00:32:57     Exactly. And you go crazy. So I don't, I don't think we really are individuals. I think we're more like bees. Like we have to be buzzing with a hive. Right. That's a, a another topic altogether. This has been really great. I think I've covered a lot of the areas that I wanted to ask you questions there to move things toward wrapping up and be considerate of your time here. I think we're headed getting close to a couple hours here. Maybe in the home stretch. I can ask you just a couple more questions about advice that you might give to people who are kind of like where I am. We haven't yet made the leap. We're trying to figure out exactly where we want to dive in, uh, and how we want to dive in. So I guess I'll ask you this. You've been doing this for so long that you organically you, you arrived where you are today.  

Jeremiah:    00:33:44    Not, not because you made like a 20 year plan, but because it just sort of happened organically and the world is so different now. You can connect to the internet almost from almost anywhere now. You know, being able to be connected online and use all kinds of social media platforms and so on is available now in a way that wasn't when you started, if you were knowing what you know now. If you were looking out at the, the open water of a digital nomad lifestyle, can you think of some really high level pieces of advice that you would give that would be like the umbrella under which much of what people need to learn or or do it would sit as a heading above those? What what would be the advice you would give to people jumping in now that in a, in a world that's a lot different than it was when you jumped in?  

Kristin:    00:34:40    Yeah. No pressure there. Yeah. <laugh>, I would say, I would say that everything boils down to mindset. I was able to live this lifestyle when there was dial up internet and I didn't have a cell phone or I had a flip phone. No, I didn't have a cell phone when I moved to Costa Rica because you could only have a cell phone if you were a resident or if you owned a company. And so I literally lived in Costa Rica selling real estate with no cell phone and no internet at my house.

Jeremiah:  Wow.

Kristin: We had satellite 128 kilobits per second connection at our office. And to get to that office, I had to ride on my four-wheeler down dirt roads, <laugh>. And so there I was for years.  

Jeremiah:    00:35:28    It sounds so romantic though. I mean it's cra-- like if we think about it in today's way, we, we don't like the idea of not having that connectivity. But there's something about that that just sounds so romantic to me. It's just, it's so adventurous, you know?  

Kristin:    00:35:40    Yeah. It was definitely unnerving and scary sometimes because if you just broke down in the middle of nowhere, which happened a lot in Costa Rica 'cause the roads are so bad. I mean, I didn't have a phone, so that meant waiting for someone to drive by. Getting help from them getting a ride to the gas station using the payphone. I mean, but the thing is, is there's always a way. So for people that are thinking about becoming digital nomads, put yourself first in the mindset that what you want to do is 100% possible. If we have Elon going to Mars and we had my clients running online gambling companies from an island in the South Pacific in 1998 and we had people making money on YouTube and SEO and stuff like back in the early days. So interesting. There have always been people on the fringes of this lifestyle that were making it work with the most rudimentary, limited tools for this time in history that would've been like wizardry a hundred years ago. Right? 

Jeremiah:  Right.

Kristin:    00:36:47     So first of all, know that whatever you wanna do is possible and there's a path to doing it and it's probably not unattainable and it's not impossible. And then the other thing is that could, that can help you is put yourself in the mindset of 10 years from now. Not just what you wish you will have done, but what is everyone else gonna be doing? Because it's still, it's in the early adopter tipping into mainstream acceptance of this lifestyle and of these lifestyle choices. It doesn't mean you have to travel full-time, but just the lifestyle of doing what you wanna do for work, self-employed or whatever you invent. And being able to do it from anywhere, like this is the beginning, beginning after the pandemic, um, of like mainstream acceptance. And think about how mad you're gonna be 10 years from now if you don't take action.  

Kristin:    00:37:43    And then all of a sudden it's okay with everybody else that you do this because that's what's gonna happen. All of a sudden, you know, it's already in the mainstream news. So how annoying is it gonna be when the most like traditional closed-minded people are like, oh yeah, digital nomads not even blinking an eye. You're gonna be like, wait, so I just sacrificed my whole life not doing this thing because I just wasn't sure about moving forward. And now all of a sudden a billion other people are doing it like no big deal. You're not gonna be mad that they're doing it too. You're just gonna be mad that you waited. And that's hard to think about because it's only been this year that companies are like, yeah, work from home, work remotely after they told everyone that it was impossible to do it for 50 years.  

Kristin:    00:38:30    And that is like, get mad <laugh> because those, those policy makers, executives, everybody that had that was in a position of power to make remote work allowed or mainstream or encouraged or practical. And they chose not to for whatever reasons that they had, whether they didn't believe it was possible or whether they didn't think it was financially viable or whether it was bad for their company culture, whatever their excuses were that they came up with. Now for it to take a deadly pandemic to force everyone into it. And now for them to be outwardly speaking about like, yeah, remote work is the new normal and it's the future. It's like, well, what were they doing for the last 50 years that it wasn't allowed? And so just put yourself in that mindset that you can do it. Whatever your idea and your brain that is meant for you, you should do that.  

Kristin:    00:39:24    And if you don't know what that is yet, then you can start with that self-exploration path. Yeah. You wanna start with that inner work and then, and then start the process. And then when it comes to where to go, 'cause I help people a lot with where they're gonna live or where they're gonna move to. Don't worry about necessarily what are the best places for digital nomads because the best place for you is gonna depend on your phase of life and where you wanna go and what your job is and what your budget is and what time zone you need to be in. And so, you know, stick with the places that are on, like your short list. If someone said you can only travel to three countries the rest of your life, like what would those countries be? Try to limit your options and, and focus in and get clarity on like, what's most important for you. Um, and, and don't worry about what everyone else is doing because you're gonna find your tribe wherever you go and you're gonna find like your place. And if other people don't understand that or don't wanna go there or don't know why you wanna go there, then like, that's their problem.  

Jeremiah:    00:40:28    <laugh>. Yeah. So it sounds like there's no magic place, there's no magic decision that you can make. There's no magic potion that you can drink and suddenly you're gonna be a digital nomad. Is that what you would say? Or, I don't know, let me ask you this, this, this way. Do you think it's a good idea to say, Hey, I'm gonna go try to do this. What would be a good way of doing it? I'm gonna go try to do two months in this place. Start with like a short trip and just see if you can get your legs under you and learn from that experience as opposed to saying, okay, I'm moving outta the country and I'm never coming back and I'll figure it out as I go.  

Kristin:    00:41:01    My method is always with helping people at their roots, at the root foundational level of where they are. So I am against, I, I don't wanna be against anything, but I haven't had much experience with leap before you look, you know, the one way to get to Bali and figure it out when you get there. That's just not how I operate. That's not how my brain operates. And in my experience of coaching a thousand, over a thousand people, 1500 people, like one-on-one, it always started at the beginning. When you're taking the first step on your journey, where are you stepping from? That's where I, where I help people is with that first step. So I don't wanna go out into the world without being prepared because it takes the focus away from like the reason that you're doing it. So if you just wanna go on sabbatical for two months to a country and just go around and traveling, that's one thing.  

Kristin:    00:42:00    But if you wanna have this sustainable lifestyle, it does take preparation at the source, like at your home base. Like if you were going to war the, the military, the strategy is gonna happen at the headquarters, <laugh>, you know, we're not going to war. But, uh, anything that you're gonna do, if you're gonna go trekking, you've gotta prepare at home. Yeah. You gotta do the physical preparation, the mental preparation, the actual logistical preparation of what you're gonna pack in your backpack, what kind of food you're going to eat, how are you gonna find water acclimate at different levels of the oxygen and the atmosphere as you're climbing. So you gotta take it step by step. And so that is the way my process works. So I don't even think you necessarily have to know or have a positive attitude, even <laugh>. You just have to, um, start where you are and know like what you want your next step to be.  

Kristin:    00:42:55    So your next step might be Googling something. Your next step might be hiring a coach like me. It might be reading a book, it might be watching a video, it like whatever your next step is, it's gonna depend on the person, but eventually you're gonna get to the point where it is time to take action tangibly on what that is. And typically it's gonna be related at first to what your source of income is, how can you get that sorted? And then once you have your income sorted, like I work with people that have remote jobs and they're making like $350,000 a year for this tech company and they gotta focus on their work. They're not a travel and relocation expert. So they hire me to plan their travel and to help them make sure that they're gonna get to the right place first. So they're not overwhelmed with like, which country or which city and which neighborhood do I go to and blah, blah blah.  

Kristin:    00:43:49    Because you're still gonna have that adventure once you get there. It's just, you know, getting to the, that place first. And so when I look back at how I started, I didn't choose to go to Costa Rica, I wanted to go to Italy or something. I got sent to Costa Rica and I found my way from there and it made sense looking back in hindsight. So I think you can start from any, any country. And, and the difference again is when I went to Costa Rica, I had a scholarship. So I had my income covered when I went to Australia, I had scholarships to do that too. I had my income covered. I had like food, I had a place to live. And when I went back to Costa Rica, I had a $1,000 per month salary and I had an office to work in where I could generate an income through selling real estate properties. And I had a broker who mentored me and taught me the ropes of how to do it. So I always started with like having an income of some kind and then built from there. And that's how all of my clients, um, do it as well. So whether I'm working with them on creating that income stream or on where they're gonna go after they have that income, it always starts with some form of stability.  

Jeremiah:    00:45:04    Yeah, That makes a lot of sense. I think that's the, the thing that everybody's trying to, well, when I say everybody I'm talking about the, the, the places that I've been exploring online, it seems like that's the, the starting point that people are looking for is how can I take care of myself and then journey out and, and start to explore the world from there. So.  

Kristin:    00:45:22    Yeah. Because it's not that fun to be out exploring and traveling and like know in the back of your mind that time is running out. If you don't find a way to make money by next week or something <laugh>,  

Jeremiah:    00:45:33    That's the worst feeling ever. Yeah. Like ruining your experience. I remember having that feeling in Italy once, like, I'm running outta money and I'm like, I'm supposed to be having the time of my life here, um, exploring and traveling and yet I'm stressed out about money  

Kristin:    00:45:46    <laugh>. Yeah. So if you have that, like, even if it's on a low cost of living, you know, I was living in Costa Rica for a thousand dollars a month, but I had a place to live and a place to work and I had a four wheeler and I was good to go. You know, I could use those tools to, um, make it work. And then I supplemented with literally waiting tables and doing, you know, do whatever's below your pay grade just to get by if, if it's necessary. But then don't limit yourself.  

Jeremiah:    00:46:13    Well, thank you again for indulging me and, um, just a, a, I guess a fan I guess, or a follower <laugh>, uh, somebody who's, um, who finds that your videos and your expertise is, comes from a place of deep experience, but also is very practical and allowing me to ask you these questions today. I appreciate it, Kristin. 

Kristin:    00:46:37    Oh, thanks Jeremiah. Thank you for reaching out and I hope that for everyone listening, I hope that your questions resonated with them and my answers and I hope that it shed some more light on how I got here and how you can all get where you're going too and hopefully together. I I'm so grateful to be helping people. It just boggles my mind just reading YouTube comments and messages from people. I just, it's like overwhelming in the best way. I think that like, I appreciate it so much because I lived in the time with, I don't wanna say with no technology, but with really limited technology. You know, like not have Facebook and not have FaceTime and all of the things that we have today. So it, it's, I used to have pen pals, Jeremiah <laugh>, like I had pen pals in in elementary school, high school where we would write letters to each other in China and stuff.  

Kristin:    00:47:35    And just the concept that I can in one day record and publish a video or a podcast, well sometimes it takes three months depending on what it is. But you know, that I can make something and connect with someone in another time zone or that people in multiple time zones around the world can be watching the same video at the same time. And then for that video to have like an impact with people that I haven't met while I'm sleeping and they're watching it in another country, I, I just can't get over it. Get just, yeah. So it's pretty cool. Surreal. 

Jeremiah:    00:48:12    You're, you're a pretty cool person. <laugh> like, like you, you, you've always, from what I've learned from you, um, in this conversation is that you've always been somebody who likes to think about what's possible. And this is again, something I'm, I'm somewhat fascinated by. Like when you come across something that you're, you, you have to figure out how to do something, you figure it out and then you go and you and you do it. And so we're living in this time where, from basically what you just described, because because of technology really the possibilities of being able to connect with other people around the world and the size of the world in general, the possibilities have just fanned out into like limitless and the size of the world has gotten so small where, you know, we have infrastructure and logistics in place where you can, you can almost pick up a, a globe and just point your finger to a spot and say, I want to go there and you could probably be there in a week.  

Jeremiah:    00:49:08    Yeah. And now you're this person that you are this fascinating person that I was making mention of earlier that's always like, how do I do this? And what, what would I, how, how can I make this happen? You're like really grateful that you have that ability and also excited about what the possibilities are. And I guess I would just say, I'm not sure if we would be at the point where we already cut off this, this part of our discussion. Like if we're kind of done, and it's just you and I talking now or not, but if we're not, I would say to anybody who might be listening to Kristin share her thoughts about becoming a digital nomad for the first time, that this is the kind of person that you wanna follow. This is the kind of person that you do wanna learn from and model some of your behaviors and habits off of because you're doing it. You've, you've done it and you're doing it and you're still doing it. And it sounds like you're still going to some pretty ex extraordinary places. You're gonna be, are you gonna be self-publishing your book? How's the book gonna come out?   

Kristin:    00:50:10    Well, I, I had shopped it around in 2018 <laugh> with publishers and no one understood the digital nomad concept. And then I tried self-publishing it and was publishing it in like the first quarter of last year of 2020 and then the pandemic happened, And then that just kind of froze everything. And then I just didn't do anything with it for about six, eight months. And I started doing other things like focusing on, you know, helping people with making money online and all this other stuff. And I just kind of put that on hold and then I was like, okay, it's time to pick it back up again. And literally this week got, I was on the a phone call with a friend who's publishing through a traditional publisher, and he's like, why don't you ask again if they wanna look at it again? I was like, yeah, you're right. It's been two years almost since I talked to them. And so I sent them an email and asked if they would wanna take another look at it or if they wanted me to send them another proposal since the pandemic and everything's changed. And they're like, yeah.  

Jeremiah:    00:51:17    I just think it's just so, such a perfect time for it the pandemic being this thing that has interrupted everyone's life in the world for the most part in a, in a, a negative way. There are so some silver linings, there are, you know, more people are working from home now. That's a transition that it was gonna take humanity a lot longer to make or it not for this pandemic. And the digital nomad, just that phrase is just exploded. It's, it's like almost a household phrase now. If it's not, it's getting close to being that. And I think just a short couple of years ago, it wasn't. So my hope for you is that somebody out there that's smart and sees what's coming on the horizon that does that is a publisher might say, let's, let's do this and that you might have a book that just explodes. I just, I could totally see it happening.

Kristin:  Thank you.

Jeremiah:  And I hope that works out for you because that could be, I don't know that it just seems like there's such a huge opportunity there and more so because there's so many people who would be interested in reading it. I certainly would wanna read it.  

Kristin:    00:52:23    Well, thank you so much. Well thanks also for the kind words and just telling people that, you know, other listeners what you think and your experience

Jeremiah: Yeah, sure.

Kristin:  And how I've affected that or impacted that. I really appreciate it. And um, you know, with this book, it's gonna get published no matter what, because either I'll do it or <laugh> Right. Or someone else will do it. And there's other books out there on how to become a digital nomad. And that's the other thing is I, I was like, oh, there's already books on how to do it. Should I write a book? And then that was that self-talk of like, it doesn't matter if someone else is doing what you wanna do that's a sign that you should be doing it too. If you, if you see that and you're like, oh, I could do that, or I wish I did that. And so yeah, I was feeling bad that I hadn't finished it yet, but now I'm like, okay, well maybe this year is a better timing and either I'll self-publish it on Amazon, or it'll come out through this other publisher that really makes sense to me. But if they don't understand it, then I don't wanna publish with them.

Jeremiah: Right. Yeah. Absolute.

Kristin: You know, like if someone doesn't get it, then like,

Jeremiah:  Yeah, absolutely.

Kristin:  Screw them. I'm gonna do it myself. 'cause that, that means those are people, people I don't wanna work with.

Jeremiah:    00:53:33   It's better for you to do it if they don't get it. Absolutely. I agree with that.  

Kristin:    00:53:35    Yeah. 'cause I know I'll be doing all the work anyway.

Jeremiah:  Right.

Kristin:  So, uh, we'll see whatever's meant to happen will happen, but everyone listening can be rest assured that it will be finished though.  

Jeremiah:    00:53:45    Right on.  

Kristin:    00:53:46    But right now I'm just focusing on my existing clients and getting, you know, the podcast out every week, getting a YouTube video out every week. We'll go from there.  

Jeremiah:    00:53:56    Well, again, I'm really grateful that you have given me a chance to even talk with you today considering how much of a pull on your time you have from so many different directions. So I appreciate your time today.  

Kristin:    00:54:06    Well, thank you. Um, thank you for reaching out. You know, I, I wouldn't have thought of doing this on my own, but I'm sure there's a lot of other people like you that really wanted these kinds of answers. And the reason I'm doing this is to make content that's helpful to you guys. So if this is helpful, like I'll do more of it. Maybe we can make it an annual thing or something.

Jeremiah:  Yeah, that'd be cool.

Kristin:  Like an annual interview. That would be cool. Um, but we can make it up. That's the great thing is we can make it up and co-create as we go.  And I want to be a partner and friend to everyone who's listening as much as a mentor and a coach.

Jeremiah:  Excellent.

Kristin: Um, so thanks everybody.

Jeremiah:  Cool.

Kristin:  I hope you all enjoyed it. And any closing words, Jeremiah?

Jeremiah:    00:54:50    Romulan. That's my closing word. <laugh>.

Kristin:  What is that?

Jeremiah:  I don't even know. I think it's a Star Trek. I think it's a, an alien species on Star Trek. I just thought I don't have a closing word, so let's use a random one. How about yourself? Any closing words or thoughts?  

Kristin:    00:55:03    No worries. Um, I guess if this is the 100th episode, I would just say thank you everyone for being here and don't give up on yourself. Don't think that it's too late for you to start this lifestyle or to travel or to start your own business or to follow your dreams. I've said this once or twice before, but once I found out what a podcast was, it was I think 2013 or 2014, I actually wrote it in a note in my Apple Notes to like look up what a podcast was and the different podcast hosting sites. And I did not launch the first episode of Badass Digital Nomads until May of 2019, and now we're on the 100th episode. So it could be a few years between when you have an idea and when that idea comes to fruition. But if you just don't give up on your idea and you take tiny steps to get there, even if it's like my book and you quit and come back to it a few times, eventually you will get there. So just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Those are my closing words for you guys. I hope it helps and I hope that we'll all be in this journey together for many more hundreds of episodes to come.  

Jeremiah:    00:56:19    Much better closing words than Romulan. 

Kristin:    00:56:21    <laugh>.  

Jeremiah:    00:56:24    Alright.

Kristin:  Oh god, that's good.

Jeremiah:  Thank you Kristin, very much. This was great.

Kristin:  Thanks. Bye everyone.

Jeremiah:  Okay, bye-Bye.  

Kristin:    00:56:36    As you know, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And in the Badass Digital Nomads Facebook group, you can connect with 4,000 other like-minded people from around the world who all share the same values of freedom and location independence. Plus, if you wanna become part of my inner circle, you can join my Patreon page for $5 per month and get direct access to private message me. Submit your questions for my podcast guests, contribute your opinion on new content ideas, and get early access to preview all of my YouTube videos before they're published. You'll also get to attend monthly private Zoom Hangouts with myself and other patrons. We just had a one and a half hour call last night with patrons from around the world calling in from places like Bali, California, Michigan, and Nebraska. It was so much fun. And you can join us for the next call by becoming a pat today at patreon.com/travelingwithKristin. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/travelingwithKristin.