Latest / Digital Nomad Life Podcast / 113) Doing It Scared: How Virginia Started Her Entrepreneur Journey Without Having It All Figured Out

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113) Doing It Scared: How Virginia Started Her Entrepreneur Journey Without Having It All Figured Out · Digital Nomad Life Podcast

• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: In this life, nobody should tell you how to live it.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say yes to life and you say yes every day to new experiences, then I don't know how that could be a bad way to live.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Krista, also known as Christabella Travels, on social media.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: You can always feel free to slide into my Instagram DMs and let me know that you heard this episode.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think that you will be very inspired by it today, especially if you are someone who's coming from a corporate background.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm joined live today in Bali, Indonesia, where I live with my good friend Virginia Campo, who has a really interesting story about how she came from a pretty traditional background in nonprofit, ultimately networked her way into an amazing digital nomad opportunity before it was really even a thing, like before it was really even a movement.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: Then went her solopreneur, instapreneur route, and now is actually scaling an HR consulting agency and is just absolutely killing it.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, she's here in Bali and has a super freedom-focused life.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I just think there's a lot to learn from Virginia and her story.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm super honored to have her here today.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome for super honored to be here.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: All right, amazing.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I know I just gave a little intro, but um, maybe you could add a little bit of color to what I just shared about you.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's your story?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Where do you come from?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: How did you end up in Bali, I guess?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: How do we know each other?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would love that.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, well, first of all, I was born in Colombia, grew up in Panama, and then been nomading since 2015 with a break of having a home base in the US for six years.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I shared this because I think when I my parents decided for me and my sister to move out of Colombia is when I think I had a very, as a very young girl, I was seven, eight, um, a shift of wow, the world is huge and there's so many countries and cultures and types of people.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was always so intrigued by it.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that led eventually for me to study international relations because I wanted to be a diplomat and travel the world.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like you said, and we'll go deeper into this, ended up also stumbling upon the term of digital nomad and branding helping build a digital nomad brand.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then been living this lifestyle lifestyle ever since.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I feel very privileged that I get to design my life.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, came to Bali in 2017 um when I was going through a burnout, and then I said, this is definitely gonna be my home base for life, or like one of my home bases where I come to like heal, regather, get shit done.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I don't know if we can say that, but uh you can swear it's they're chill.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then I met Krista.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we met through like one of uh, in my opinion, the best communities out there for digital nomads.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was in Nomad Cruise.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I've been doing Nomad Cruise also ever since since 2017 and Nomad Bases, and then we've been kind of like in each other's circles ever since.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if anybody hasn't heard of Nomad Cruise, you can actually just search um in the titles of this podcast.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've talked about the Nomad Cruise in several episodes because it really is a super important part, I would say, catalyst to my nomad life as it um was for you, but it wasn't just the nomad cruise.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious, you um said that you began your digital nomad life in 2015.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: I had never I at that time for me, I never heard of that term before.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: I learned about the term digital nomad in 2016, which usually when I say that to people, they're like, oh, you're super OG, but you're you're like really OG.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about um if we can go back in time to what life was like before you knew this term existed.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: You shared you wanted to be a diplomat because you wanted to travel the world.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously that intention um and love for the world was there.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, like what was this moment like when you learned that this new kind of lifestyle was possible?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: And how did you get involved?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's I I love this story because I think it was such a turning point in my life.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I always thought I studied international relations because I wanted to travel the world, live everywhere.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in my head, and I think in everybody's head back then, for you to travel the world and live everywhere, you had to be like a diplomat or an expat, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: A company had to take you to another country.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or a travel blogger.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: For me, that would that's what I thought.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, that too.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I was like, Oh, I'm definitely gonna be a diplomat.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm gonna work in the embassy and I'm gonna go everywhere or the UN.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, I so that's how I started my career.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I actually worked at the UN.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was the youngest employee to work at the UN in Panama.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I started working at the UN when I was 18.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Damn, girl.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know, and um, and then what was funny though is that very quickly I realized that it was too bureaucratic and boring for me.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, there's gotta be another way.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started doing nonprofits.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I started like I worked in Kenya with a nonprofit, I worked in the US with a nonprofit, I worked in Colombia with a nonprofit, and and um and then I realized, okay, I love nonprofits, I love people, I love helping people that has remained consistent throughout my career.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am definitely a people person, but I was like, there's gotta be a way or a business model that can have impact but revenue as well, because this is not sustainable.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept on seeing this throughout like, you know, different experiences in nonprofits.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to study something called human-centered design, which is kind of like design thing thinking and how to design a product, a service, a company around the people you serve, but with a business model.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I come back to Panama where I grew up, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna launch this business.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then I get invited to a conference uh in the middle of the jungle.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was also like very kind of like burning money.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, they have a whole camp in Burning Man.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Hatch.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hatch a Better World.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm gonna have to go see that out once I get to the playa next year.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, there's a missing crossover between Burning Man and entrepreneurship, or like I don't know, yeah.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Keep going, tell me.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can definitely go into that as well.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I end up in the middle of the jungle in this conference with a bunch of entrepreneurs and me, like, you know, still young, I was 25, trying to launch a human-centered design agency with like just the course I took.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then we're doing an icebreaker and we're supposed to share what is our biggest challenge and um that we're struggling with as entrepreneurs.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I get teamed up with this like really big guy, you know, piercing eyes.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like he just like knows what he wants.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I had no idea who he was.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like super bubbly and like young and all this like fresh energy.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, I am building the largest hospitality chain for digital nomads.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, digital nomad?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: 2015.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then he goes, is people that can work from anywhere in the world because all they need is Wi-Fi, they can work remotely from their computer, so they need somewhat of an office space that feels comfortable and stable, and a place to stay.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm building a brand that makes us co-living, co-working, great Wi-Fi and like community.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I so this was Selena, and uh Selena back then had one location in a surf beach in Panama called Benao, and I had been, but Selena was a hostel, so I thought it was like a party hostel, you know, like uh, but he's like, No, yes, that's how it started.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we are turning into this brand that's gonna take on the world and it's gonna be the brand where all the digital nomads go to to work, to stay, and to meet people.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I need to be a part of that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to my luck, he said that his biggest challenge was to find the right people and create the right culture.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, I see this as a pitch opportunity for me to tell him, Well, guess what?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I do human-centered design.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, Sure, when can you start?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, Krista.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was like that.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, Well, what about in two weeks?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because next week is my birthday.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's like, Okay.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then next thing you know, I start.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I end up being employee number five at corporate level for Selena.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the first, let's say, woman, non-Israeli, non-Jewish, Latina in the company, um, building the company and then leading HR, because Rafi thought that human-centered design was the same as human resources, right?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: It has the name human in it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's like, and you're a people person and you're likable.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're not, you know, we're Israeli, we're tough.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you're the perfect person for this.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember, you know, my first day, people are like, so I need to hire this, and can you revise this contract?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, what did I do?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is a crazy part in the story to stop at.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's just a lot of things I want to dial in on.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so first of all, when you were like, oh, this is a pitch opportunity.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you had studied human-centered design, but you hadn't worked in it at that point yet.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I really wanted to bring this up because um, if anybody doesn't know, if you're if you're new here listening, hi, I'm Krista and I'm a career coach and a business coach.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, when people first start working with me, they usually are coming from a corporate background, they have no idea what business they want to create.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: I help them choose a business and then they have to go embody whatever this thing is and step into entrepreneurship, launching this business for the first time.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: And something that I hear my clients struggle with a lot is introducing themselves as I am this or I do this.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, I think because maybe they don't feel fully embodied in that or they have a little bit of imposter syndrome.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I hear them all the time, you know, wanting to go to these networking opportunities like you did, but being challenged with saying what they do in their elevator pitch.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have any advice about that?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Or like how did you handle that at the time when you you were brand new or hadn't even really started yet?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's such an interesting topic because I think and we kind of talked about this, it's it's changed a lot.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was very fortunate to grow up in a household where my parents supported me in all my crazy ideas.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I grew up in a household where I didn't really know what no meant because I was like, I want to do this, and they're like, okay, go for it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they always gave me a lot of freedom to choose what I wanted to do, to choose what I wanted to learn.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like there was never a limit.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I had a really, really strong support system that was always validating me and saying you can do it.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and therefore, I I do think, like, you know, well, I I I started in the UN when I was 18 because I had I was gonna go study in the US and I had eight months where I didn't have anything to do, and I just wrote a CV that said I was leader of the debate club and I did theater and I took it to the UN and I said I want to intern here.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom helped me print it and take me to the UN so I can give it under reception.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's like I think with me, it was of course, this is uh something I'm very grateful for.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was my upbringing, my parents' support, my parents always telling me I could do anything.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: But as you get older, uh you you have to like I feel like you also just have to convince yourself that you are capable and just go for it and deep dive.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love just diving in and taking a plunge and saying I'm just gonna do it.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And a little bit to to your point, like when I realized I'm like, oh my gosh, what did I sign up myself to do?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I go up to Rafi and I tell him, Rafi, there's been a mistake.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, like I don't know anything about HR.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, you know what he said?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, you're good with people and you're an entrepreneur, I'm sure you're gonna figure it out.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, and that's literally what happened next.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, my day to day was a constant figuring it out, but I was there, you know, I would show up, I would show up, and then I knew that I just had to figure it out and resolve.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then Selena became my PhD in HR.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: You gave me some crazy statistics earlier.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you started off as number five employee, and then what did it end up becoming?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when well, yes, I started as employee number five at corporate level, then we started opening locations all over the world, literally.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So when I left, uh, we were 2,500 employees in over 14 countries.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we did this.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was there only three years.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was in record time.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was hiring around 100 people per month when I had never hired in my life before.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: That is amazing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And again, that this is uh, I really wanted to have you on the podcast for this reason because when you're talking, I'm like, oh, I would love for you to share some of this wisdom with my clients.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: I can sit here and tell my clients all the time, just do it scared.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be ready.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I do tell them that, and I tell people in this podcast that all the time, but it's helpful to hear it from multiple sources.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, I just I I see my clients, I hear them hearing your story of being like, wait, but you how did you just become an HR person without knowing anything about HR?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how did you actually do that?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do you how do you go excel in something that you've never done before?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, do you have any advice for someone that's embarking on a new career?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine this is 2015.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was no chat GPT.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: With no chat GPT.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know those times there was no deal, for example.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So deal is a a startup I love that lets you hire freelancers from all over the world.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, we've come such a long way in the last 10 years.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And back then, I literally had nothing.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: But what I did was had I had a lot of will.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I just wanted to do it.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, yes, I believe in what we're building and we're gonna be a global brand.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, Selena went public.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we did build a global brand for digital nomad that went public in 2022.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so I just like I think I just I was just so on the train and writing it, and I was determined to make this happen that I would just figure it out.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: But more in the day-to-day, what I started doing was I would hire the right people.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, or talked to people that had the information.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say we were opening Celina, Costa Rica.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the first things I would do is like, okay, let me talk to labor lawyers there to understand how it works.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let me hire somebody local that can run HR there.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I was working in a company that we had raised significant amounts of money.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: At the beginning, not so much.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was very scrappy, but at some point, we did when we started scaling so quick, we had.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had the opportunity to like leverage uh and and hire people that were experts on on what I needed to know.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like an orchestrator.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but now, now there's even more resources, and you don't need to necessarily hire people when you don't know something.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: What you need to do is have the curiosity to learn it and to go after the knowledge that you need to know.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I use Chat GPT a ton.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I use, I mean, there's so many things now that you can use.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's like like I said, that there's companies that are building agents just to guide you, for example, on how to hire somebody in Poland because you've never hired in Poland.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so there's I I think the the main thing is probably the wanting the will to wanting to do something.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then two, like figuring out how do you you can fill in the gaps of the knowledge gaps by like looking, doing your research and looking for resources online or in person, talking to people.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you can bring in experts to execute on what you're not strong at, then that's also another way.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think a lot of people that are listening to this podcast, they are brand, brand new to entrepreneurship or they're considering it.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: I hope everybody listening eventually considers it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: That really is what I believe is the best way to set your life free.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but if I could extract the wisdom from that that would be most relevant to the listeners, what I'm gonna echo is that one, if you don't know how to do something, just go figure it out.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just go figure it out.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, and as you said, there's so many resources.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: And two, letting it be okay that you don't know how to do something and not letting that hold you back.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, and I'll uh yes, and to that, uh something very important that I till today makes me stand out in the HR field was not having an HR background.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: One, because I'm very candid and honest about it.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always like, oh, I'm an HR professional without the background.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then um what made that was in the figuring it out, I I'll give you a very, very good example that I thought was great was I had to hire a hundred people a month.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's insane.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, how are we gonna do this?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Most HR people would be like, oh, let me post in this career site and this other career site and this other.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, you know what we did in Selena?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: I created something called Selena's Got Talent.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we literally would come into the city and post things everywhere, social media, Facebook back then, um, in in cafes saying we have Selena's Got Talent.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're recruiting for a new hotel.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a waiter, a housekeeper, maintenance, security, come over here.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: We would have lines, Krista, out the door, like like America's Got Talent.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, I mean, it was the same concept.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: We would have lines of people out the door, and then we had a panel of interviewers, and in one day we would hire a whole location, which was around 40 to 50 employees.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: No way.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think somebody with a traditional HR background could have never thought about that, right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: They would have never even like, yeah, had the idea.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, that's crazy.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna just call on a bunch of people to line out, line up outside my hotel.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it was like I always brought a spin from not having the know-how.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely love that story.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Something that I uh maybe I don't end up saying in this podcast so much, but I do have a whole episode all about do you actually need to go to college in order to, you know, do literally anything.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Personally, I'm not sure if I would go to an American university again, knowing what I now know.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, maybe somewhere where I wouldn't be spending as much money, then then okay.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: But like the amount of money that people spend on university degrees in the States is is astronomical, usually compared to what they can make.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: And to your point now, it's like actually, maybe when you all right, how do I say what I'm trying to say?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's like when you go into university, you are buying into a systemic way of doing something.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're in that systemic way of doing something, you're doing something in the same way as everybody else.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: And so, how can you ever really actually stand out if you're doing something in the same damn way as everybody else?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, another thing that a lot of my clients struggle with at the beginning is they're like, the market's so saturated or there's so much competition.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, if everybody is doing something in the exact same way, then you're right, the market is saturated and there is competition.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: But if you do something in a slightly different way, you get to stand out.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: And even in a saturated market, there can always be room.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I just love your example of how, like, yeah, having this non-traditional, non-educate, like the HR educated background um actually was your greatest asset.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: That is so cool.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, what a great story.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, okay, so takeaways.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Takeaways, you can do things that you don't know how to do, and you can just figure it out and you can ask AI and you can try, and you don't have to make yourself wrong or not good enough because you don't have the background or you don't have the experience.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can be like Virginia and create a whole new career out of a very cool networking opportunity.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that was one more thing.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think maybe I wanted to talk about the network.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you think you would have ended up what what do you think you would be doing right now if you hadn't met?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Rafi at that at that um entrepreneurship.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: My god.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes to think about you know writing a book or like choose your own ending.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because that would be it was such a pivotal pivoting.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Am I saying moment in my life, right?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I and I do think I'm like, wow, what would have been my life if I hadn't run into Rafi and been part of Selena?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because it shaped who I am professionally till today.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was always an entrepreneur.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was the girl that sold lemonade.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I like started a nonprofit when I was uh 17, another one when I was 13.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I like I've always been an entrepreneur.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think I would have started something.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I've always had a passion about traveling and seeing the world and meeting people from all over the world.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I would still somehow and had ended up in like living abroad or having somewhat of free this like location-independent freedom lifestyle.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I would have been an entrepreneur of some kind.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I don't know exactly what I would have built.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, interesting.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it doesn't really matter because you did you did meet him and you did end up going into HR.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just that's kind of how life works sometimes.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: So you you use this term.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: I actually had not heard this term before, an intrapreneur.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, which is when you were working at Selena.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then I I want to talk about what happened next afterwards.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: But um, could you educate the listeners on what an intrapreneur is?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the example I gave is exactly what I would consider an intrapreneur.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: An intrapreneur is somebody that works for someone else, so is an employee, let's say contractually, but has an attitude and shows up like an entrepreneur.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what you change is the E for an I, intrapreneur, because you're within a company, but you're building for this company as well.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you are adding value.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So for example, Selena's got talent, and then I also created the Selena Hospitality Academy, and Selena gives back.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I created so many things within Selena that were initiatives on its own.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, the Selena Hospitality Academy at some point almost got sold as a hospitality school.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because we did it was a hospitality school.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: We were training people how to do their jobs, and um, so I was an entrepreneur.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, I was also very fortunate to have Rafi and the founders, Rafi and Daniel, and in general, like all the leaders of Selena, just give me that space to create.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I know not everybody has the fortune to also be like, oh, I can create whatever I want at my job.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's what an entrepreneur means.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much is an entrepreneur within a company that's bringing value and creating things.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: So kind of like exercising your entrepreneurial muscles without maybe having to be a complete solopreneur from the beginning.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, did Rafi and the other guys that were like the founders or organizers um mentor you much?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: No, really.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, that's one of the things, and one of the reasons why eventually I burnt out and left.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was because I was very alone.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they were, I mean, they were focused on building a company and acquiring assets and growing, growing, growing.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was focused on people, culture, training, uh, compliance, which became a huge thing.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you start scaling, then compliance is like sucks the life out of you.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Damn.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had like I was very alone, which I loved because it gave me a lot of freedom to create and do things how I want it.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they always said, you know, the people department's yours.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're not good with people, you do that.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I felt like I mean, I was 25 when I started.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was 28, 29 when I left.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I did need mentors.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I like, and I I didn't know where to seek for them also because we were building something so unique that I was like, who who can coach me on this?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's beautiful, and it becomes a little bit of a full circle story, is that when when you know, I did raise my hand, I'm like, I need like I need a mentor, I need a coach, and they get me one.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and is this wonderful woman from Israel?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she was a coach of like women leaders, executives, and then we start talking, and then it's so funny because it kind of became a um Rafi kind of chatted himself on the foot because my coaching with her ended up me leading to the decision of leaving.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, but here's why because I was like, I don't think I'm the best person to take Selena.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was the best person to take Selena from zero to one, but I don't know if I'm the best person to take it from one onwards.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this realization, and I was like, no, I'm a builder, I'm gonna go build again.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And next thing you know, um, so I say I'm leaving, I headhunt my replacement who became a mentor and a coach of mine throughout the rest of my career, and who now is my business partner.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Your business partner.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, yes.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we are skipping a step in the story that I do want to make sure we touch upon.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, I mentioned this at the beginning of the episode.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: You have an agency that you're currently scaling right now.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you basically went from being an entrepreneur, and then I think from what I understand and know about your story, you went from being an entrepreneur, then back to a solopreneur.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then you had your journey of a solopreneur, and now you're scaling your like you went from solopreneur to agency, and now you're scaling your agency.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_02: Is that correct?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's pretty much it.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, great.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to um yeah, basically pick up from this moment where you were like, okay, Selena is no longer the match for where I'm at right now.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: So um, I could imagine that was a pretty scary move to leave this opportunity that had really shaped your career and gave you so much interesting experience.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: And you were obviously with a lot of other people.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, and I think a lot of listeners who work in a corporate or company environment where they're not by themselves.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if they want to become a solopreneur, it's just a it's just a pretty big change.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, can you walk us through like the early days of making that transition?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so mine unfortunately started out of burnout.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: That I burnt out a lot of people listening to are burnt the F out too.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I came to Bali as one should.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Classic.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I was like, okay, I need to like chill for a little bit.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then here, actually, opportunities started coming to me.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And people were like, hey, what are you doing?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you left Selena.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, would you do a consultancy?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Would you coach me on this?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Would you advise me on this?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, huh, okay.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess I built a credibility and reputation for myself.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let me see.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: It started just kind of like being little tests.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: I would hire someone for someone.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I was doing headhunting.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Selena as well was like, hey, we're like, we're expanding to Europe.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to do some of our headhunting in Europe?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, why not?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it started almost like very one-off.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: People would reach out and I would say yes, let me give freelance freelancing, basically.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like freelancing, yes.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started saying, okay, well, there's something here.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: How can I make a business out of this?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: How can I like formalize it a bit more?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just people kind of like texting me and saying, we need to hire this person.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Are you free?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help us hire this person?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I started consulting.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And back then, my focus, my niche, I think this is something important, is that I realized that I'm like, okay, who's writing me?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And most people that were writing me were people that knew my work.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: So they had worked with me, I had hired them sometimes, actually, a lot of the times.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so they knew my work.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And back then it happened to be that most of them were in hospitality.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I became kind of like the consultant, because yeah, I do think you need to define your ICP, your persona that you're going after, but you're also your niche.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So back then my niche was hospitality startups or hospitality chains growing internationally.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up like I was a consultant for Hacker Paradise, for Remote Year, for Outpost here in Bali, for Selena.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: If anybody's not familiar with these brands, these are all the digital nomads brands.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Digital nomad, like the ones that started all the digital nomad like travel companies.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, so like I ended up like consulting for companies that I really believed in and loved.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I did that until COVID.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, crazy.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there was something that I was like, oh, that I think this would be an interesting clarification for people that are listening.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so when I was like, oh, it was like you were freelancing.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: So a distinction that I want to draw for people is a difference between having a free being a freelancer and having a business.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I think when you're a freelancer, you kind of just approach, approach the world, approach people and say, I do this.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then people are like, oh, cool, can you do this for me?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: Here's what I need.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you kind of let the client decide how you will fit into their organization.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you're just like, Yeah, sure, I'm I'm available, like, and then you charge them an hourly rate or something, or you know, you make something customized for them.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the different and the work that you do for any different client could be super, super different.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: But then when you go from being a freelancer into having a business, you say, okay, here's how I do things, and I'm gonna try to take this way that I do things and tell other people I can do this for you.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, as that.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I guess like the move from freelancer to business is like in a business, like you said, you are building more of like an offer, yeah, the standardized.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, versus in a freelancer, there's a bit more of like, I'm still testing the water.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great, it's a great start.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Totally to freelance, see what people resonate with, what sells best, uh, what and then from there create a business.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you when you went from being a freelancer into an entrepreneur, solopreneur, um, what was your first offer?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I did um well back then it wasn't called this, but now it is.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: I did fractional HR.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Back then it was like HR consulting.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Can you explain what fractional is?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think this would also be interesting.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so fractional HR, and this happens a lot in like the startup ecosystem.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh startups usually are, you know, they they don't have a lot of resources, and HR tends to be one of those departments that they don't prioritize because they're like, well, I don't need an HR person yet.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And usually the founder, the leader is the one doing HR.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that works until it doesn't.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so fractional is um they bring an expert, right?
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: So there's no learning curve, they don't have to like train someone, and no, they're hiring you because you already know how to do this.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they cannot a lot of the time, they don't they cannot afford you full time, and nor do you want to be full time.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so they're like, for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time, I hire you to, and my goals are to set up a performance structure.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you are their CHRO, their BP of HR, head of HR, HR business partner, depending on your seniority, for five hours a week.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they and they you're taking care of everything HR related or whatever you prioritize with the client.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that was my offer.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: But back then it was called consulting, and now it's fractional.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, semantics.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: So you were a consultant slash fractional.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you got to a point where you were like, okay, cool.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: How many years was it that you did that?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I did it for two-ish because then COVID happened, and then my niche pretty much this disappeared, right?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because my niche was hospitality.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: But then this took me to another iteration.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I did have to go back to like the labor force and get a job, and and then I explored another side of like my people side, which was I went into community building.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was really fun.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but what was cool is that I ended up in the tech startup ecosystem.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I moved from hospitality to tech startups industry agnostic.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I did that by working in a fund, in a VC fund that gave money to startups to grow.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then so I was there pretty much like throughout COVID, and then since 2024, again, I was like, let me go independent again.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: But now my niche was early stage tech startups, not hospitality startups going global.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then that kind of that's this next phase of being independent that started in 2024.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's been yeah, two years.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: So cool.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And now you're scaling your business.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: So only four months ago, I was still alone doing my thing.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then we were talking about this too that when you're a solopreneur, there's a lot of benefits to it in the sense that, like, you know, you own your own time, there's a lot of flexibility.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you also reach capacity, right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you know it's like I cannot take more than five clients because it's me.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was a bit stuck in that mentality.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, I cannot take more than five clients because there's 24 hours in a day and I work 12 of those.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I cannot take more than five clients, you know, like I but it was very limiting.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then my excuse was like, Well, I wish I had a partner.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: So then we could double.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, but I would love a partner.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kept on saying, like, I want a partner, I want a partner.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And four months ago, I get a phone call from Angie.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Angie was my replacement in Selena, so I hithunted her.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally, I always say she inherited my mess.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then she said, Well, it was a beautiful mess because it worked.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh she uh calls me and she's like, We had been following each other's careers, and like I said, I always saw her as a mentor and a coach for me.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, I'm leaving.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: She was also in a fund and I'm looking into going into consulting.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've been doing consulting for the last years.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how's it going?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: What are you up to?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was, and then I tell her everything, and she's like, Well, what do you think about joining forces?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, I was here in Bali too.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I manifest today.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: The magic of Bali.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and then we joined forces as of October last year.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been incredible.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are, yeah, it's just been we're growing super quick.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then she is a great balance for me, and we're both now on this mentality of like we're not limiting to our capacity.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we're building a team, we're building an a proper agency with people and systems, and and so it's like taking it to the next level.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: And now, uh as of Monday this week, we're a team of six.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, three months.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: Congratulations.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I heard that update.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, cool.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that is impressive.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we had a little chat before we started recording, and I was like, okay, there's a few key things that I want to extract from your story and stare share with the listeners.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we've talked about a lot of them already, but one of them is that I hear this phrase a lot of people that um are coming from a corporate background and they're considering they want to change your life.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone who's listening to this podcast, they probably found it because they typed in digital nomad into Spotify or Apple Podcasts or something.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: Whoever you are listening to this, I see you.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know you want to change your life.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of people listening haven't yet.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they hear this phrase entrepreneurship is risky and businesses fail.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um I think that with your story, we didn't really talk about what ended up being the fate of Selena, but just like to summarize it, it Selena ended up shutting down, right?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like a it went public and a year and a half after going public, it got delisted.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it was big news in the digital nomad community for sure, because it was a really, really well-known brand.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody loved, I love Selena.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: I stated it so many times.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: But if it's not profitable, then it's not gonna last very long.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that for a lot of people, when they think about entrepreneurship or starting a business, they imagine something like Selena, where there's employees and locations and just so much overhead, operational costs.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And that agreed is pretty risky.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's like it can be risky to start a business like that.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, you want to have funding so that you're not taking on all the risk.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: But there's a different way to do entrepreneurship.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that is what I am here to preach, which is that it doesn't have to be that risky if you start off as a small service provider, which is what you did with your consultancy.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's what I did as a coach.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, there's lots of ways to scale a service provider business.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the next thing that I wanted to extract from your story too, is that the um path in entrepreneurship is not a straight line like a corporate ladder.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I think a lot of people have this conditioning that it is.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: So they think, oh, if I go into being an HR consultant, I am therefore stuck doing this one thing for the rest of my career.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: Or if I hit, you know, my five clients a month, I am now capped at my income and now I've dug myself into a hole that I can't get out of.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: But there's actually so many different ways that you could scale a business.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: And what you did is you got a partner and you've created an agency model, and now you're hiring people to outsource part of it or, you know, take on some of the work.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's like a completely different business than it was when you were offering HR consulting as a solopreneur, even though technically what you're offering is the same.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think uh what you were saying is sometimes we get caught on like, oh, I have to build a product or a company, or I would like first go and say, how can I add value to the world?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you have some sort of quality that can become an expertise and know-how that can become a service that you can sell.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, all you need is yourself, yeah, you know, and maybe invest a little bit on marketing or not even a website anymore.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, there's so many things now with AI, it's even cheaper and so easy.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Resources are abundant, abundant, yeah.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's you don't need to hire a website builder, uh, a developer because there's AI website builders that throw a website, like put a website together in 10 minutes or a copywriter for something.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's is it's now more than ever, it's so easy to become a service provider.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you don't need a ton of savings.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to know, be very clear on what your offer is and how it stands out.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and and yeah, and going back to what you're saying is like you can for for for two years, I was comfortable on only five clients a month because that's all I can handle because there's this many hours a day, and I'm happy with what I'm making.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: You can you can it's good to be in a position where you're happy with what you're making, exactly, and also having ultimate freedom.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: This this is something that um I meant to bring up earlier on in the episode.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've really been only talking about business and entrepreneurship here today, but um, the truth is you've been location independent the whole time.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: And you've traveled to all these places.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've been an international six years.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was based in the US, which in my opinion is even a bigger uh accomplishment because a lot of people, you know, are like if you're in the US, you better have a US job with a US salary.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: So True.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, to be working for yourself living in a country like that is impressive.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was always able to work in the US, well, live in the US while doing my business and then taking off.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been coming to Bali.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: Even when I was living in the US and I had a home base there, I would come to Bali for two months every year or four months every year.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yes.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: I want to actually talk a little bit about the lifestyle now because obviously, people that are tuning into this podcast, um I hope again that you are open and interested in entrepreneurship.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I just am a huge advocate.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's the best thing.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a huge vehicle for personal growth and for career growth.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just the best way for you to make the kind of money that you want to make and explore your skills.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like I love entrepreneurship.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: But the reason why I got into entrepreneurship is because I love the world even more.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: I love travel.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: I love having fun.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_02: I love meeting people.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: I love being an international citizen.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I know that you are like that as well.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: You obviously told us you always had the desire to travel when you were young.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, what was life like and how did it evolve over the years?
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because you said 2015 is when you started.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's now been, yeah, yeah.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: 11 years going on crazy.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me everything.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: What was like what was life like when you first started?
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because I also think when you first start the nomad life, you're so freaking excited about the freedom.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: I always get this visual of like this sounds so bad.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to make people out to be animals, but like an animal, an animal in a cage, which is kind of which is kind of like what I see corporate as.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're kind of a little bit in a cage.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then suddenly the door opens to the cage, and you're like, whoa my god, all the all the space, all the places that I can go.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you kind of like go ham a little bit.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: At least I did.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's really funny, Krista, because now that I think about it, so yes, I've been a digital nomad since 2015, but it was because I was building a digital nomad brand that let that took me to wherever we were building it, right?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like four days in Bocas del Toro in like an island in Panama, and then I would go to like Holbosh in Mexico and open another location, but I was location independent, but I was working.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, so I I remember being, you know, in front of the beach and people paddleboarding or surfing, and I was still like, you know, handling all these complaints by employees.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um so now that I think about it, I was building a digital nomad brand, therefore I kind of embraced the lifestyle, but it wasn't until I left that I really became a digital nomad and I became a client of Selena and stating all the Selenas as a client, and I was okay, as a guest.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I was like, okay, amazing.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um well that's I I also had that at the beginning of my digital nomad journey as well.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_02: I also started off as an employee.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was a, I don't know if you knew my this part of my story or if anybody listening does, but um, I was a remote marketing employee for a tech startup for four years and traveled all the time.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: So like it was, I was physically I not tethered to any specific place, but I was tethered to my laptop at certain times.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it just it wasn't an option to really like choose my schedule, you know?
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um, anyway, I guess there's two levels of freedom, right?
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the freedom of being location independent, choosing where you are, and then the freedom of also your time, yeah, and choosing when you connect and when you don't.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, so anyways, I like had built this brand for digital nomads.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was surrounded by them, and then finally I get to be one.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that was amazing.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, and I actually it started a little bit with nomad cruise as well.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because Nomad Cruise, when I did the first nomad cruise, I was still at Salina.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I did my second nomad cruise, I had just left.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I remember I spent a bunch of time in Brazil because that's where we ended up.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, wow, now I get to have the freedom of not just being wherever I choose to be, but also of plugging in and out and working whenever I want.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, no, I mean the lifestyle.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I I saw a reel, I have to send it to you, like three days ago that said the ultimate intelligence is the person that uses their intelligence to build their to design their own lives.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think like 10 people have sent me that reel.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh really?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because like that my that's my whole thing of like design your life.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I just really I do practice what I preach.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I obviously have designed my life, but I'm just always reminding other people too.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think when people see it, they think of me, which is so good.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: So much sense, you know, because it's like we're in this world to enjoy it, to see it.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of very smart people that all they care about is like saving, and therefore they're like, oh no, like we, you know, we we have this house and we have this plan and we're saving it, we're saving it, but you're saving for what?
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Are you saving for when you retire?
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you can see the world, but you're not gonna be as mobile, like you're not gonna be as healthy because we age and that's a reality.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, why not enjoy it right now?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I always think about this moment when I was in Sintra, Portugal, and um, my friends and I had just gone, like in Portugal, when I was still working for an American company, I had to open my laptop at 2 p.m.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: And that was like 9 a.m.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: Eastern time.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we had the whole morning and afternoon free to just do whatever.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: And Sintra is this really beautiful place where there's like castles on the hill and whatever.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many castles to explore.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: We went on this epic hike to a castle in that that morning.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: And we were, we got to the castle and we were like, the hike was so much more interesting than the castle.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this was amazing.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: And we were feeling so like just alive from the physical activity.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then we got to the bottom of the mountain, and there's this huge tour bus with all of these retired age people.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: And we all, I think all three of us had the same thought where we were like, oh, like they're just gonna take a bus to the castle.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: And like, that's cool that they get to see the castle, but the hike was literally the best part.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I just remember always thinking, I'm so glad that I'm doing this and I'm seeing the world while I'm young and able-bodied and have a lot of energy and just am excited, and my interests are more varied now for sure than they will be, I think, when I'm older.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's uh yeah, you're you're gonna be the smartest person in the room if you take control over your life.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when you're and design it however it is.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we're here preaching about our lifestyles that we chose.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean it's the same for everybody, but hopefully, because if you're listening to this podcast, it's because you are interested in becoming a digital nomad, which ultimately a digital nomad is a lifestyle.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are able to make that move, then you are playing life in a very intelligent way.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, absolutely.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, okay, so early early on in your nomad journey, you were a little bit like uh needing to be in different places, and I'm sure that was magical and amazing and really cool.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then you got your freedom, like total location independence.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um how fast were you moving?
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of places did you go to?
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: How did you choose where you were going?
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: How did you meet people?
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like just yeah, give us a little taste of what that was like.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: So after Selena, I actually ended up also doing property hunting for Selena.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: So wherever I went, if I saw a hotel that could be a Selena, I would actually pitch it and try to get it.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was so much fun.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I was very I was somewhat strategic.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, where does Selena not have locations that make sense?
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that of course it was usually either like super remote, amazing locations.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like I bought, I I I found uh one of the Greek locations, uh, which was outside of Thessaloniki in a mountain where you can go skiing in Greece, by the way.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, or uh go down the hill and then is the Mamma Mia Beach.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Selena had a location there.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so places like that or digital nomad hubs.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I spent a lot of time in Lisbon, in Medellin, in Porto, in um in Toulouse, in all the digital nomad hubs pretty much.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then so I would move also around community with the dig uh with nomad cruise as well.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, where is my community at?
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're in Brazil.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll go to Brazil, and I spend time in Florianapolis, in Rio, in uh Jerico Aquara.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like I would make or I would plan my moves based on what I thought would be strategic to find locations for Selena.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: But then also, because I did that on the side.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but also of like, where's my community?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the people I want to spend time with?
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, Bali was one of the main ones.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I eventually make Bali my home base in 2019 for a year.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_02: I did the same thing when I when I was traveling.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I always was, you know, wanting to cross new countries off my list, but at the same time, I also wanted to prioritize what mattered to me, which was connection and people.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: So ended up, yeah, like going with the nomad cruise a lot and ending up in different places where there's nomad hubs.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's interesting that there are places in the world that are nomad hubs.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like if anybody is new to the digital nomad culture, there are certain, it's like not just cities, it's like neighborhoods in specific cities where people that work remotely and love to travel tend to hang out and have meetups and stuff.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, you might be able to do it.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: Babali's Chango.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember Dojo times?
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: Dojo was a big co-working here in Chango, and everybody would go gather there and like you could just show up and make friends that had similar lifestyles to you.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: In Medellin is al Poblado, you know, it's like, yeah, there's like pockets, and usually it's a mix of things, right?
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like usually a safe neighborhood, it's easy to get around, great cafes, great internet.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um affordable destinations, too, I think is a big, big part of it.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: The country as well is affordable.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thailand is a big one, like Chiang Mai and Colanta.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: And Copanyang now.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Copenyang too.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so many cool places to go.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_02: So you're now in Bali, and uh, I know you're looking for a home to commit to for at least the year, right?
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or yeah, let's see.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going through a life transition.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I did uh establish myself in the US.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was married, but unfortunately that's that ended.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and now I'm embracing the digital nomad life again.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to find a home base.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I came to Bali because it's like the closest, it's where I feel like home.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have my community here.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_00: The local people are incredible.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love the culture, I love everything about this island.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm giving it a try.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: See if this is gonna be my permanent home base, if I can potentially meet another partner here.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and we'll see.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think um actually it's I think it's an interesting little point for maybe some people listening, maybe not everybody, but um, that your life has kind of ebbed and flowed with the lifestyle versus maybe more traditional, like a relationship grounded, you had a house in the States as well, right?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um now you've come back and are embarking again on more of a nomadic or like location-independent lifestyle.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think if there is someone listening who feels like they don't want to let go of a grip of maybe their stability or their freedom.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know, I just think it's it, I just want to point out the fact that you've kind of gone back and forth between being like totally free and traveling all around to then having a more stable life, and now you're kind of back here, and it's okay to have both, and just because you've chosen one doesn't mean you're gonna be in that forever either.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a choice, right?
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is like what you're saying.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: I do think like humans, we we crave um community and we crave somewhat of a structure.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I I've learned that I I will definitely continue to be location independent.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: I will always choose where I want to be.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I do feel like right now, especially because I'm going through so many changes in my life, I do I am craving a little bit of a home base where I know I can go to the same place, the same room, the same bed at night, not have to pack a bag every two weeks or every month.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, where I know I have my friends and we go to the same cafe every Thursday for brunch.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, so I am craving a little bit of that, but without completely building roots here, meaning, like, if I meet someone, for example, and I'm like in love, and this person wants to spend time, I don't know, in Portugal, I would be like, okay, let's go.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: I feel the same way.
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've it's crazy.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've been now living in Bali for six years.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_02: Which is like half of my whole time abroad, um, which is just insane and amazing.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: There was definitely a point in my life where I was like, I guess I'll be living out of a suitcase forever.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I really kind of thought that I would.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then yeah, I also got to a point where I was like, you know what?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: Some stability would feel so good, some groundedness would feel so good.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would love a routine, I want to have a gym membership, I want to have a closet, I want to have more than three pairs of shoes because you can't travel with that many shoes.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, I remember like a couple of years in, and it was a pandemic, so I hadn't really left Bali.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, do I still count as a digital nomad?
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, can I can I rightfully have this brand in integrity and talk about the digital nomad life?
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't so sure, actually.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then some people were like, Well, you already did it, so like nobody can take away your past.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, but what about now, today, as my living embodiment of this?
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what you said, where it's like you kind of you just get to choose when you work remotely, when you are location independent, if you want to have a grounded, stable life, no one's stopping you.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: You can.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if you want to make your two-week vacation a five-week vacation, you also can.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: And just having that flexibility and that ability um to say yes to love, to say yes to opportunities, to say yes to experiences, um, just to be able to say yes.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: My last episode was all about saying yes to life, actually.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it's aligned with that.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am definitely a say yes person and and and see.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure it kind of goes back to where we all started this episode, which is saying yes to opportunities that might seem too big.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_02: Saying yes, just saying yes, just trying.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like it's okay if you're underprepared.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't corporate anymore.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody's gonna fire you or you know, get mad at you or and in life, it's like life is one, like we might have multiple lives, we don't know.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's another conversation.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but let's say in this life, nobody should tell you how to live it but yourself.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say yes to life and you say yes every day to new experiences, then I like I I don't know how that could be a bad way to live.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm sure that whoever is listening to this podcast would also agree.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_02: I bet if you are listening to this episode, I just love the magic of the internet, right?
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like someone can, someone, someone, whoever you are listening, you had a thought in your head.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: That thought in your head was probably like, huh, I think there's more to life than this.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or, hmm, I would love to travel more, or damn, I'm feeling frustrated by my lack of freedom, or by someone telling me what to do.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_02: So you had an idea, somehow you became aware of the term digital nomad and you typed that in, and now you're here connecting to two people from and probably you're probably in another country, unless you're in Bali.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, what's up if you are?
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, like the internet can connect people from all over the world that are like-minded.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I just really want to call that out.
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: That the fact that you're here listening to us talk after over an hour, I think says something about you.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_02: And whoever you are, I just want to transmit this message to you that you can change your life and you can have all the freedom in the world, whatever that looks like to you.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to have 10 pairs of shoes and a closet and a dog like I do now, um, and a house and whatever, you can.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to live out of your suitcase, you can.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to have, if you don't want to be in a long distance relationship because you just want to go be with the person that you fell in love with on vacation, you can.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many different ways to work online.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: Whether you are, whether you currently are like so deep in the corporate world, or you're fresh out of college, or you're an entrepreneur, or you're a freelancer, or like literally whatever your background is.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_02: I really hope that today's episode shows you that you can flow with life.
• 1:06:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can say yes to life, say yes to opportunities, and um just really encourage you to do that because you have no idea what life could turn into.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's my little motivational message.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: Anything you want to stand on with that?
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think in Bali, like we we kind of joke about this, and it's like Bali is a great place to manifest.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is because it's energy, it's very immediate, right?
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're you you put something out to the world, you're like, I want this, and then the next day it arrives.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that for you to be able to jump on that opportunity, kind of how I jumped on the Selena opportunity in the jungle in a conference, yeah, is by putting that energy out of saying, I want this, I want this lifestyle.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to receive guidance on how to make this lifestyle.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_00: It could be this podcast, it could be other things, but you need to be put the put the magic out and then see the signal the signs and take action.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks for bringing up that this this podcast for sure.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm over a hundred episodes deep now, and I've talked about every topic you can imagine, and I've interviewed so many interesting people that have different stories.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not just here being like, follow me and like do what I did.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's so many other people out there that have chosen this kind of freedom-focused lifestyle.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you can hear about so many of them on the podcast.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_02: There is one episode specifically that I do really like to point to.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you are someone who, you know, maybe you're inspired at this point in the episode where you're like, wow, cool.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_02: I actually maybe, maybe you have a little bit more of a belief now that you could change your life than you had.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_02: And if that's the case, if the only thing that's holding you back from taking action is you're just confused on what path to take remotely because maybe you don't know how your corporate experience or your degree or your lack of degree could translate into online work.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_02: It is my actual specialty.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_02: It is the gift that I have received to do this for people, is a process that I call my career assessment process.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_02: I should really give it a more interesting name, but that it just is what it is.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: I um have the ability to review your whole personality, your interests, likes, dislikes, experiences, curiosities, quirks.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like I really take a full, full inventory of who you are as a person and I have a whole process about that, the career assessment process, which I detail in episode 33.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_02: I also mention it a lot in other episodes too.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the career assessment process is my gift to the world.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_02: And if you are someone who wants to work online for whatever reason, my invitation to you is at least to just explore how you could be supported in making that transition, even if it's just to get the idea.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: Of how you're going to make money remotely.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's the first step.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_02: But of course, I can take you from zero to a hundred, zero to three hundred, zero to a thousand.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_02: Cause yeah, a lot of my clients, a lot of the people that listen to this podcast are actually my successful clients, people that have come to me having no idea what it is that they're going to do to work online.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then I help them with the idea, show them the steps of building a simple business, a non-risky business, the service provider model that we discussed today.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we'll set you free.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, and help you make an income where that you can garner from anywhere in the world and give yourself that freedom to be where you want, live life how you want, live life by your values, and meet cool, awesome people like Virginia.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's so cool that like we're here now when we would have met, I don't know, like when year years, 2018, I think, is when I did the Nomad Cruise.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's just been a long time.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's so cool that people, like-minded people, kind of end up finding each other and sticking together.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_02: I just think it's so beautiful.
• 1:10:44
  SPEAKER_02: And again, if you're listening to this podcast, you're one of us.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_02: You are one of us.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Make yourself known.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, either listen to that podcast or you can slide into my DMs at Christabella Travels on Instagram, and you can send me the keyword apply if you want to actually just start working with me.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Or you can send the keyword career assessment, and I'll tell you a little bit more about how I can help you with that.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Or you can send me the keyword five steps and I will just send you a free 90-minute training where I break down my whole process.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's actually probably the most like easy way to um just learn a little bit more and go deeper into how possible this really is for you.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, Christabella Travels on Instagram.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_02: I hope that I hear from you, or if you can actually just send me a message and tell me your story, and I'm also super happy to just chat um if that's what you need.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I invite you to message me.
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Virginia, is there if anybody wants to reach out to you after this podcast episode, um, what would be the best way for them to get in touch?
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, probably Instagram.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my Instagram is Virgicampo12.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And on LinkedIn, of course, if you want to connect professionally, is just my name, Virginia Campo.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, super excited.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in Bali, like hit us up for real.
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We love meeting people.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in general, like if you want to talk also about work and career and HR, then uh definitely let's connect.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_00: She's your girl.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, love it.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_02: Any final words for our listener?
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I feel like I like to channel messages for people that are listening.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, as I mentioned, it's people that have typed in the keyword into Spotify, they're looking for something, and you have so much wisdom and you can support people and motivate them.
• 1:12:44
  SPEAKER_02: So if there was one message that you could share with someone who's curious, interested, trying to make the digital number life happen, what would you say?
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think if I was to summarize everything we've been talking about, is that you have the power.
• 1:13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's ultimate what it goes down to is like you have you make the decision, you take the action, you have the power to change your life.
• 1:13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_02: You do, you do.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta start taking ownership over what we want.
• 1:13:17
  SPEAKER_02: And oh, I meant to say this before, like claiming it.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think I think people can be so scared to admit that they want something different or that they want something more.
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like by saying, Oh, I I want to be a digital nomad, you don't, it doesn't mean that you hate your current life.
• 1:13:35
  SPEAKER_02: It just means that you're a passionate person who's interested in exploring more.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_02: So if that's what you want, I hope that you unapologetically just claim that and again take action.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, take action on it.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you can message either one of us on one of the channels that we mentioned, listen to more episodes of the Digital Nomad Life podcast and make your dreams happen.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Virginia, for the episode.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is such a pleasure.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise, this was amazing.
• 1:14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_02: So good.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for being here, and thanks for listening.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll see you in the next episode.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.