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102) Europe Working 6 Hours a Week: Recap of my Digital Nomad Summer · Digital Nomad Life Podcast

• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, krista, also known as KristaBellaTravels on social media, and if you've been following along on my Instagram over the past five weeks, you know that I just got back from a big grand digital nomad adventure and while I did my best to update my stories, admittedly there was so much that happened behind the scenes that I wasn't able to post on my my stories.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Admittedly, there was so much that happened behind the scenes that I wasn't able to post on my Instagram stories.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: So I thought you know what?
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I just took a whole month off of posting on my podcast and why not use this opportunity to catch you up on what was going on in my personal life as a digital nomad during the past month that I've been ghosting this platform?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So I actually have a lot of really cool stories from the trip, a lot of really interesting takeaways and I think, with me sharing about what my month was like, you're actually going to get a really cool behind the scenes tour or experience of what it's really like to be working remotely, to be running your own business, to be traveling while doing that and to be just existing and operating outside of the matrix, outside of societal expectations.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Honestly, the way that I live my life and the way that I've been living my life for the past oh God, I think it's been almost 13 years at this point the way that I've been living my life for over a decade has been very much outside of societal norms and I think that it's sometimes I get a bit like I don't know, used to my lifestyle or it's normal to me at this point that I live the way that I do, but I know it's not normal for my listener base, and if you are someone who's listening and you're on your commute to work right now, or you're at your job or you're, you know, listening to this podcast while applying for jobs or whatever, I just I, I want you to know that my lifestyle as a digital nomad, it's real and it functions well.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It doesn't function in the same way that 99.9% of other people function, but it can work and I just I really hope that by me sharing about my lifestyle and what my life is like, that it helps you open up your mind to the different possibilities of how you could live your life.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: All right, cool, so let me catch you up on my trip.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So I, like I said, it's been a whole journey and I think actually, if you're new here, maybe I need to give you a little bit of background information about how my life currently is and that'll sort of put the whole trip into context.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm currently recording this episode from my bedroom in my three bedroom villa in Bali, indonesia.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: This is my house that I have a five-year lease on.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I have a little dog named Honey and a routine and everything and, yeah, you could say that I'm very grounded here in Bali.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I spend about nine months a year here.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: To me that is grounded, I don't know, and I think to an average digital nomad, that is pretty grounded too.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: As a digital nomad, you don't have to be living out of your suitcase full time, although I did do that for the four years before I moved to Bali, which was now five years ago.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Anyway, like I said, my intention of this podcast episode is for you to open up your mind to the different possibilities of nomad life.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So what I used to do as a digital nomad was I literally lived out of my suitcase.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I had a big suitcase, a carry-on suitcase and a backpack that technically, was my personal item.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It was a little bit bigger.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: What are you going to do?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I was living out of it.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: My personal item is a little bit bigger.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: What are you going to do?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I was living out of it and that's how I would travel around and living out of a suitcase.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: It's kind of exhausting.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: It's also super cool, but if you want to be getting any work done while you are living out of your suitcase, you want to travel really slowly.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I always say that for people that are going to be doing the live out of your suitcase and be a nomad thing, you probably want to spend at least like at least minimum, absolute minimum two weeks in each destination, but ideally longer.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So when I was living out of my suitcase, I was spending anywhere between two weeks and two months in each place.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: On this trip I didn't do that.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: This trip was a very different kind of nomad experience and, if I'm honest, I actually couldn't wait for the trip to end and for me to get back to Bali.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I just I had a great time and also I was like I just want to get back and work on my business.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I just want to get back and work on my fitness.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I just want to get back and give my dog a cuddle.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I just want to get back and see my friends and have my routine, and I share that with you, because I do think that there's this misconception that if you call yourself a digital nomad, that means that your life looks one specific way, which is that way that you live out of a suitcase, right.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: And I just want to reassure you that you can still be a nomad without having that like totally live by the seat of your pants lifestyle, which, again, if you want to do that, I totally respect you.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's cool.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Again, I did that, but I'm so over it right now.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So, on this trip, I had a few intentions of this trip and why I made it as long as I did and why I went to so many destinations.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: So the first thing is that I really wanted to go on the Nomad Cruise.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Now, I've talked about the Nomad Cruise in many podcast episodes.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I actually even did an entire episode where I interviewed the founder of the Nomad Cruise.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: His name is Johannes and it is episode 91.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: And it's called how Johannes Created Multiple Income Streams as a Digital Nomad.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: But yeah, johannes is not just someone who makes multiple income streams, he's actually created this epic community of thousands of other digital nomads and remote workers, freedom seekers, etc.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And about two times per year, anywhere between like 200 and 400 people from the Nomad Cruise community go get on a cruise, a cruise ship, right, a real cruise ship.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: This time, the cruise ship went from Marseille, france, to Palermo, sicily, up to Valletta, malta, and then ending in Athens, greece.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: So it was a one week trip.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I think the next one that's coming up is a whole month long FYI, it's happening in October 2025.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And it's going from Seattle Washington, usa, and finishes in Sydney, australia.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: So you're going to end up hitting up Hawaii and you're going to end up hitting up Hawaii and you're going to hit up Vanuatu and so many other South Pacific islands and Fiji, and it's going to be awesome.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I'm not able to go on that one, but I am going on the one after that, which is going from Singapore to Hong Kong, with a stop in Brunei and the Philippines.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So, anyway, obviously I'm really excited about the Nomad Cruise.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I've been on seven at this point and for me it's like, if I can make it, I'm going to make it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going on this trip and that's why I planned an entire month around.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: This journey can work from literally anywhere in the world.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Why would I go from Bali all the way to Europe for an event that's one week and then come right back to Bali, like I'm in Europe?
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Of course I'm going to stay, I'm going to go somewhere else.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So after the cruise I also went to, I spent a couple of days in Athens.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I spent, I think, four days in Mykonos, two days on the island of Naxos.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: So this is all traveling around Greece.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And then one of my best friends, my community manager inside of my business, the Digital Nomad Life Academy, and one of the coaches inside of the Digital Nomad Life Academy, julia, her and I traveled together to our bucket list destination of Georgia, not the state in the United States, but the country of Georgia, as well as the country of Armenia.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: These countries are I don't know if they're technically the Middle East, it's called the Caucasus countries.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: They're like kind of in this narrow little land mass that's between the Middle East.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: It's like right above Iran.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It's to the west of Poland, ukraine and to the east of Turkey and Greece and all the Western countries.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So anyway, that's where we went and for me it was like a totally uncharted region of the world and one that I had heard a lot about, and I was just really excited to go there.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, this was like an epic trip and it was exhausting at the same time and I did get work done not as much as I would have hoped, but I set up my business in a way that it was okay this time around.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, again, my intention of this episode it's to be transparent with you about like what my day to day life actually looks like when I'm traveling, and also my words of wisdom, where, if you're just starting out, maybe you wouldn't approach your digital nomad journey in the same way that I am as a very experienced veteran.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, I'll just start back with the Nomad Cruise, which obviously I give a 10 out of 10 recommendation for anybody who's already a digital nomad absolutely.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: But even if you are just an aspiring nomad, even if you just kind of wanna check it out, like, understand the lifestyle, meet some other people who are doing it, make the lifestyle feel real to you.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I think that's a super valid and important reason to go on a trip like this.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: You probably, if you have a full time job, you probably can't do the month long one, but you probably could do the one in February that goes from.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: That goes from Singapore to Hong Kong, so maybe see you on that one.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: What is the Nomad Cruise?
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It is a conference on a cruise ship.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: So the cruise ship it does have regular passengers on it, so it's like a big boat that could have 2000 passengers.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: The Nomad Cruise community, we're just like 300 on average people and there's a whole program with lots of speakers.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: I was one of the speakers.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I was actually a keynote speaker, which was so cool and, for sure, a highlight of my entire trip, and I'll tell you why it was actually so meaningful for me to be on that keynote stage.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: But I did that on the first day of the conference and yeah, so basically I was on stage and there was hundreds of people in the audience listening to me talk, which was so cool.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And then you know, there's a gym that you can go to, there's a buffet that's all the time there's ecstatic dances, there's workshops, there are meetups, there are skill shares and then, of course, there are days when everybody gets off the boat and they go explore the destinations.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Like I said, we went to Palermo and we went to Valletta, so yeah, that's the Nomad Cruise and I've been reflecting on the Nomad Cruise a lot.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I've been reflecting on the Nomad Cruise a lot, obviously because I just went on it, but basically all of my closest friends and not just my closest friends have come from the Nomad Cruise, but almost all of my personal network, like people like I'm going to say, 70% of the people that I keep in touch with regularly are people that I met on the Nomad Cruise.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Again, I've been on seven of them, so that's a lot, a lot of people that I've had access to, that I've been able to meet.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: But I do think that that's just a really important thing for you to know about why I love it so much, because obviously I've met my people on this cruise.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Who are my people?
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: They are people who are entrepreneurial.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: They are people who see the world as full of possibilities.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: They are people with incredibly high standards for their life.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: They are people that do not subscribe to the societal expectations of the Matrix, like what the Matrix preaches right, that you need to go to school by a certain age, get married by a certain age, have a certain kind of job that looks a specific way, like all the people that are on the Nomad Cruise just really reject that as being the only way to live life.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And while people on the cruise they're all living their life in slightly different ways, everybody has the same mindset and I think that's why I've just met my friends for life, like four of the people.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: If I ever get married, four of the people girls that will be my bridesmaids I all met on the Nomad Cruise.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So it's like that, okay.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, the keynote speech that I did it was a 25 minute long speech and I was in the very second slot of the entire cruise.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: So that was such an honor for me.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: But what was really cool about it was it was a huge full circle moment for me.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: But what was really cool about it was it was a huge full circle moment for me and I did actually speak about this, which is so meta on in the in the presentation itself.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: But basically, back in 2018, that was the very first Nomad Cruise that I went on and at the time, I had a full time job.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It was a really cool full-time job, to be fair, like I had so much flexibility with my location, like my boss did not care at all where I was.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Our Zoom meetings literally never used video.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: So if there was ever anybody in the company who like didn't or shouldn't know where I was, or it like didn't matter to them that I was in Ecuador or Croatia or whatever, nobody ever had to know.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Like my location just literally didn't affect anybody at the company and my boss was totally cool with it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: But the one condition that my boss had was be online when you need to be online, which was nine to five Eastern Standard Time, new York time zone.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: So that very first nomad cruise that I did, strangely, was a Mediterranean-based cruise and it ended in Greece.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: So I went on that cruise and I was so inspired, I was so mind blown by all these different people that were living in this way, this way, that I had managed to figure out a nomad life.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But I didn't really know many other people that were doing it and, if I'm honest, the first year or so that I, for a few years that I was a digital nomad, I did definitely experience some sensations of loneliness and a little bit of isolation and really a black sheep energy Like, okay, I'm living my best life, but I'm the only one like this and I just wish I could share this with other people.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I wish more people understood why I live this way, what my mentality is, because, frankly, I can't understand why people live the way that they live.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I can't understand why people choose to be sitting in a cubicle under fluorescent lighting for 40 hours a week, like to me, that's insane.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: But people choose it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know and it's literally a choice.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Like everything in life is a choice, right?
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: So I believe that people that are living in the matrix, in doing the corporate thing, they're choosing that lifestyle.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe they don't know that there is a better option and that's why I make this podcast.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: But I digress.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I went on the first Nomad Cruise and I was like whoa, like all hundreds of other people that think, just like me, this is so special and amazing.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So the cruise ends in Athens and then usually what happens after oh, always what happens after a nomad cruise is Johannes the founder.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: He'll say okay, guys, let's anybody.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Guys, anybody who's able to stick around, which is most people, because they're digital nomads and they don't ever have to go home.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe they don't even have a home.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: He'll be like okay, guys, anybody who's sticking around, let's all go too.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: And then he'll suggest a destination.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So this time we all were in Santorini.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: It was like me and probably I don't know almost 100 other people from that Nomad Cruise that were all hanging out in Santorini together and I went on that cruise knowing just one other person and by the end, like when we all went to Santorini, I ended up in an Airbnb with eight new friends.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it was so magical and cool Again, just a mind-blowing experience.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So one of the guys that was on the Nomad Cruise his name is Edu.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: He's actually still a very good friend today.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I just saw him the other day.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: He also lives in Bali, but Edu is a very talented DJ and just an event planner and truly an awesome guy, and he suggested to everybody that everyone go on a sunset sailing cruise one day in Santorini after the official Nomad Cruise had ended.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: So everybody's like, yeah, let's do it, let's do it, let's do it, I want to go, I want to go, I want to go.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: So the catamaran that Eddie was renting is getting bigger and bigger and uh, and I was sharing an Airbnb with him at the time.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: He was one of the eight people and all the people in my Airbnb were like Crystal, let's go, let's go Like, um, make sure you got your ticket.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm like wait, but the cruise like this, this, uh, sunset sailing cruise, which was going to be an epic party with Edu DJing and everything.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: It was happening on a Wednesday afternoon.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Now, remember, I had a full-time job at the time and my one condition was I needed to be online 9 to 5 Eastern time, and when it's 3 pm in Greece, it's 9 am in New York.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: In Greece, it's 9 am in New York.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: That meant that this sunset sailing catamaran that was happening on a Wednesday afternoon was right smack in the middle of my workday.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: And so when everybody was like let's go, let's go, I was like, oh, guys, I have to work.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Like does anybody want to co-work with me instead?
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: And everybody was like no, we're going on the catamaran.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And I had this moment where I was like, what?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Like guys, don't you have to work?
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Like we just took an entire week off for the Nomad Cruise Because, by the way, the Nomad Cruise is a digital detox.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: You should not.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I recommend, if you ever go on the Nomad Cruise, do not expect to get work done.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: You are networking all the time, you are making friends, you are having fun.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It is a vacation.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So I had just taken vacation for the Nomad Cruise and then when everybody was going on this catamaran, I was like what gives?
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Like how come nobody else has to work but I do?
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And everyone was like you have a job.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, I have a job.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: What do you guys do?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And turns out, 90% of all people who are digital nomads have their own business.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I was the weird one with my full-time job and I think I just really want you to know that, because I think a lot of people when I share about my journey of being a digital nomad, they're like, oh yeah, but Krista, you started off with a remote job.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: You have to understand.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: My job was like a unicorn situation Right, unicorn meaning it's rare and unusual and I had a ton of marketing experience at that point and a really good resume and anyway, I just I don't think that it's actually realistic to expect to get the kind of super flexible remote job that I had.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: To be honest, what is realistic is having your own business, and that's what I teach now inside of my business the Digital Nomad Life Academy and at that time, at the Nomad Cruise, that's also what I realized that like everybody had their own business and so, anyway, at that time I was like I'm so bummed that I can't go in the catamaran, but I'm going to practice JOMO the joy of missing out which was my philosophy at the time, because when I did have that full-time job, there were a lot of things when I was traveling that I couldn't do because I was required to be online.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: So I practiced JOMO, which really was just being grateful for the fact that I got to stay in Greece and after Greece, I was going to get to go to Bali and yeah.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So, jomo, great little tip, if you ever feel restricted in what you can do, just focus on what you actually can do and why you're grateful for what you do have.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: So I was like okay, jomo, jomo, it's fine.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: The catamaran trip, there will be another one.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Like it, it's fine, or, like you know, it's okay.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: If I don't miss it, I've seen the sunset from a boat before.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Anyway, people come back from that trip and I kid you not, literally everybody was like it was the most amazing day.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Krista, I can't believe you missed it.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I'm so sad that you missed it.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: You should have been there.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: It was so good.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: You should have called out from work and to this day, years and years later, people still are like that was the best day ever.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Remember that day in the catamaran sunset sailing trip in Santorini?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm always like, yeah, I remember, I remember that I worked that day and it was bullshit.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: So, anyway, now flash forward to 2025.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I'm on the Nomad cruise to Greece, and not only am I talking about that trip that had happened on my first Nomad Cruise but I'm here as a keynote speaker teaching people how to create a remote business.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Like the amount of growth and the super clear benchmarking from that moment back in 2018, when I was like I want to have my own business so that I can go on the sunset catamaran.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: To me now teaching about it in the same exact environment, on the same route, with the same group of people, but like my position is so much more elevated.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: It just was so.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: I just it was so cool, it was so I have goosebumps talking about it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It was one of the coolest moments ever.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Talking about it, it was one of the coolest moments ever and I just feel really proud of myself and so grateful for that younger version of myself who took that moment of frustration and used it to catapult her, to catapult me, into a life that's just even better than that really cool life that I already had, because I'm not saying that my life as a remote employee wasn't cool, it was rad, it was fucking amazing.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Actually, I got to go again to so many places, but the level of freedom that I have now is just so much higher.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: It's so much higher that I was able to actually work, like I don't know, maybe like three, four hours a week max on this trip, maybe a little bit more than that.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I took calls and stuff for my program which I just forget.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: That that's work, because I really love it.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I love taking coaching calls.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm going to.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Actually let me calculate how much work I actually did on the cruise.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Give me a sec, I'm going to look at my calendar.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, that first week on the Nomad Cruise I held five hours of coaching calls and then I did have to make a presentation for anybody who was interested in working with me, which probably took another three hours.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: So let's say I worked like eight hours on that Nomad Cruise.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I know earlier I told you, if you go on the Nomad Cruise, don't work.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: The thing is now that, like everybody that goes on, the Nomad Cruise is a super relevant potential client for me too, so I end up having to work, but I do not recommend it.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it was eight hours that first week.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: The second week, I've got one, three, four, four hours of calls and I think that was all I did.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: This third week one, four, five hours of calls and then this, yeah, okay.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: So basically I worked about like five to six hours per week while I was on my month-long adventure and, to be fair, now that I'm back in Bali, I have a full calendar.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Like I'm definitely working about I don't know 30 hours this week, which for me is more than full time, because when you run your own business, nobody cares if you're sitting at your desk playing Candy Crush.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Nobody cares if you're sitting at your desk doom scrolling If you're doom scrolling, you're not getting paid.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, you can trust that.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Like, when I say I'm working 30 hours a week, those are like 30 hours of productivity, and when I was on my trip it was about five hours a week.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Those are like 30 hours of productivity, and when I was on my trip it was about five hours a week, and I'm so grateful now that I've set up my business in a way that I can run it only doing five hours a week.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I just think that that's so cool of me and my life, if I'm honest, and I hope that you get to have a life like that, too, someday, and I hope that you get to have a life like that, too, someday.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, anyway, that was my Nomad Cruise experience, and then after that, I went to Mykonos.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to tell you about this cool story and why Mykonos was a really special experience for me as well.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I have told the story in another episode, so bear with me if I'm repeating myself, but Mykonos was a destination on my radar for a long time.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I had been there previously, in 2013.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: In 2013, I was oh, no, maybe it was 2012.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I was still working my corporate job in New York City and I was actually between, like, I left one job, I got hired for a new job and I just asked for my start date to be like two weeks after I left.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So, basically, I gave myself a two week vacation, which I thought I was being so sneaky, taking two whole weeks off.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Crazy to look back, but that was really.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: I thought that I was doing the most.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: So 2012, I am dating this guy Super nice guy, love him, think he's an amazing person still, of course and we were not really a match.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I would say we weren't really a match in terms of our life philosophies a match in terms of our life philosophies but the thing is, back then I wasn't really aware, or I wasn't being real with myself, about what my life philosophies were.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: When I think back to who I was in the 2010s, like the earlier part of that decade, I think that I was masking a lot.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I was trying to fit in with what I was expected to do and who I was expected to be.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I felt like I was expected to have a big girl job.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I was expected to be, yeah, like working a nine to five and wearing certain clothing and dating a certain kind of person and aspiring towards a certain kind of lifestyle, and so I was doing all of those things and trying to convince myself that it's really what I wanted, that it was authentic to what I actually wanted.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: So I was dating this guy and we decided that we should go on a trip.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: I always had loved traveling and he wanted to travel with me and to experience that together.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: So we decided to go to Greece and we went to Santorini and we went to Mykonos.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: And I just remember being in Mykonos and we were staying at some destination that was kind of like on a quieter side of the island and we did spend a couple of evenings in the town center and I remember being in the town center and being like, wow, this is so cool, like there's so much music, everybody's dressed so fashionably, people are partying, they're having fun, they're lively, and I just was so like excited about being in a really fun, lively, young, youthful party destination.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this about me, but I love a party, I love to get dressed up, I love to be covered in glitter, I love amazing music, I love to have fun and that's why I live my life the way that I do.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: But at the time, remember, I was masking and the guy that I was dating did not have fun as a major value of his.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: It just wasn't one of his.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: One of the things that was most important to him, like it's most important to me, was most important to him, like it's most important to me.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: So that trip was more relaxing and romantic than it was fun, and the frustration in my body when I was witnessing this amazing party scene and he wanted to go home at 10 pm, I was like, oh my God, like we're all the way in Greece.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: This is such a missed opportunity.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: And I just honestly felt like, yeah, again so frustrated and maybe a little bit resentful.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: And it was when I was on that trip that I was like I cannot be with this person any longer.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And we broke up shortly after the Greece trip, which is too bad.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: It was too bad for him, but it was, for me for sure, the right decision.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Anyway, long story short, all these years like this was over 12 years ago that I went to Mykonos.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: All these years, I've had this memory of me in Mykonos just feeling like when I went there, I wasn't myself, I wasn't living authentically, I wasn't living the way that I wanted to live, I wasn't doing what was true to me, I wasn't being who I truly was.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Actually, this other thing happened in Mykonos too, and it was a really big light bulb moment that did end up inspiring my now lifestyle.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: So I remember my boyfriend and I we were sitting at this cafe and there were these two Australian guys that were sitting next to us and they just started you know, we just started chatting.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: They're like oh, where are you guys from?
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, you, you're from the United States.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Like what part?
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: We say, oh, new York.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: And where are you from?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: They say Australia.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, the obvious next question is how long are you traveling for?
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: So we both proudly say two weeks and I'm like so excited that I took two weeks off.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Remember this was like me feeling like I was doing the most as a traveler, like how could you ever take off more than two weeks?
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: The amount of vacation time that I was used to in the corporate world was 10 days of vacation per year.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: So for me to be on a two week trip was like very luxurious and long.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: And I remember being so proud of saying two weeks.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: But then the response that these Australian guys gave us, they were like shocked and horrified.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I remember watching their faces be like confused and then be like two weeks, you guys came all the way from America to travel to Greece for just two weeks and then you're going to go back.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: And we were like how long are you traveling for?
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: And they're like two months.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Like why would you go less than that?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: And, to be fair, like that is kind of the Australian way, it's the Australian culture.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Side note, if you're ever looking to get a job abroad, just go to Australia.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: They take really good care of their employees.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Like I feel like maybe if I were born and raised in Australia I wouldn't feel so angry about the corporate system as I do as an American.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I think Australian people get a lot of vacation time.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: They have high wages like how high hourly wages.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: They have good benefits like health, healthcare, all the things, and in the US we just don't have that.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: But we're expected to work so hard and we're expected to be so grateful for our employers and the jobs that they're so graciously allowing us to do and be paid for.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Anyway, still the fact that they were like ew two weeks, ew, only two weeks.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: In my head I was like, is there another way?
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Like is it possible that I could travel for longer?
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: And I just truly, at that point, had never even considered it a possibility.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Genuinely, I believed that if I wanted to travel the world in the way that I did, I would have to do it in two weeks or less stints until I was 65.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: And then I could travel when I was retired, and that was just what I thought and I didn't even question that that was the truth.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't even question it because because everybody was believing that that was the truth, so it was actually, even even though I was, um, irritated about these guys like acting like that to me and judging us in that way.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Um, obviously I still remember it many years later because it really really made an impact on me and it made me think, maybe think outside the box.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: So, if you know my story, I ended up leaving the corporate world about six months after that experience in Greece and again broke up with my boyfriend and moved to Thailand like eight months later, and the rest is history.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: So this time now flash forward to 2025, I was just on a mission to go to Mykonos and have the best time, like I planned all these amazing outfits and I went to the coolest beach clubs and I saw the sunset and music and I stayed out late on a weeknight and I just let myself have so much fun and it was.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: It was so, it was so good.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: It was so, so, so good and I was there with one of my best friends.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Lila If you listen to the podcast.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Um, actually Lila is someone who I've known for about five years.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: I met her in Bali and she started off as my personal trainer.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: I literally manifested her as a human in my life.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: This is crazy.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: It was 2020, early 2020, and I was sharing a big villa in Bali with a bunch of Nomad Cruise friends and my friend, tarek.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: I've interviewed him on the podcast too.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: But anyway, tarek one day is like hey guys, I hired a personal trainer.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: She's coming to the house later.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: If you want to meet her, like, come down and say hi.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: So I go down just to meet this, this stranger, and met Lila and she seemed really cool.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: And then I was like you know what I think, I want a personal trainer too.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I feel like I want to get started on my fitness journey.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: So I hired her from my living room and, anyway, then we became really really good friends and she obviously, over the years, has heard me speak so much about the Nomad Cruise and heard me speak so highly about it that she decided to come on the Nomad Cruise herself and it was just so awesome seeing her experience it as a first timer.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Like you know, when you I don't know if you, if you listener live in a destination where tourists come to, then you probably operate in your life like just really taking for granted all the special things about the place that you live.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: But then when you have a visitor come, then you're showing them around and you get to see your own city through the visitor's eyes and then to me it always helped me appreciate the place that I lived in even more.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Like I love playing tour guide, I love being a concierge when people come to visit me in Bali.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I loved it so much when I lived in New York City when people came like I would take them to Times Square, even though I would never be caught dead there on a normal day.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, anyway, I kind of got to experience that with Lila.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: So for me, now that I've been on the Nomad Cruise seven times, it's kind of like a bit of a routine for me and I'm not as excited about it anymore.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: I go because I get to see old friends, I get to network.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: It's really good for my business.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: It's just a good, nourishing community experience.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: But the first time that you go, the first Nomad Cruise that you do, is always going to be the best, because it is mind blowing.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: You're like, wait a minute, all of these people, like everyone thinks this way, like everyone, everyone, everyone.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: No one is going to judge me, no one is going to criticize me, everyone is going to celebrate my wins Really.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: And then there's parties and there's events, and it's just like people are so kind.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I like to think that the Nomad Cruise is like high school, without any of the bullies.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: It's a fucking vibe Like dinner time.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: You go and there's all these tables and you just take an empty seat and everyone is going to be like, yeah, sit down, this seat is free.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Like, who are you?
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: What's your name?
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: And it's just so great.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: And it was cool and interesting hearing Lila reflect on her experience on the Nomad Cruise, because she lives in a really cool destination.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: She lives, you know what.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to keep her identity somewhat, somewhat concealed, um, but yeah, she lives in a really cool destination.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: She's lived there her whole life and uh, so, even though she is a nomad and she works for herself, she chooses to spend the majority of her year in the place that she's from, and what she was telling me is that she's like I don't think that I can stay here much longer if I want my business to really take off, because no one around me really understands.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: No one around me is an entrepreneur.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Most of my friends, they work in hospitality and so when there's a Monday when none of them have to work, they all want to go to the beach all day and they all want to go party and like the parties are good and the beaches are beautiful, so I get tempted to go spend time with my friends and then when I say no, I have to work, when there's no boss telling me that I have to work, they are confused and they don't get it.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: And then they peer pressure me or they make fun of me.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: And I just think that her experience as an entrepreneur in an environment where there are not other entrepreneurs this is just a really, really, really common experience.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: And if you are someone listening to this and you're trying to create a business, you're trying to change your life.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I just want to know that I see you and I hear you that actually it is an uphill battle literally just relating to the people around you.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: The people around you, by the way, this is like a little psychology thing and if you're a listener a frequent listener you know that I'm big into psychology and whatever social dynamics.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: So when you pursue your dreams, especially when you have big audacious dreams, that creates a mirror for the people around you.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: When I say that, I mean by you saying, oh, I have this big audacious dream, what immediately happens in their brain is they think about their dreams, they think about how they compare to your dreams.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: We're always comparing ourselves to other people.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I mean we can try to be conscious and not do it and not let it get to us, but like this is part of human nature, it is what we do.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So when you say, I have this big audacious dream to someone who doesn't have a big audacious dream, dream to someone who doesn't have a big audacious dream, that doesn't feel good for them to be reminded that they don't have big dreams.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: People want to believe that they are doing their best.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: People want to believe that they are aspiring to live their best life.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: But then when they see someone who's aspiring more or bigger than them, it can be triggering.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: And so instead, for most people who are not super self-aware or conscious because if they were they wouldn't do this Most people when they are triggered like that, when they're like, oh no, this person is confronting me about my ability to dream big, what they do is they try to diminish your dreams by saying, oh, but you can do it later.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, but it's no one's making you do it, why don't you just do it tomorrow?
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: And they encourage you to play small.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: And look, this is going to happen with people who love you.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: This is going to happen with people who do technically support you.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: They support you by saying, oh, I think it's so cool that you want to do that, but what you have to watch is not what they say, but how they act.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Are they encouraging you to sit at home and work on your business?
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Because if they're not, they're not actually literally supporting you.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: They're just telling you that they support you without fully understanding what you need.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: They're not telling you that they support you without fully understanding what you need.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: They're not trying to support you in your needs.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: So, just FYI, I have seen that so much in my coaching.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: If you are new here and you don't know what it is that I do, I'm a coach, I'm a.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: You can say I'm a digital nomad coach, but I'm a business coach, I'm a lifestyle coach, I'm a career coach and I'm a mindset coach all in one.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: What coaching really is is it's helping people figure out what's really going on in their mental systems so that they can come up with their own answers and have a breakthrough and make a transformation.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, if I was just telling people what to do, I would be a consultant, and that's not a great way to give people a transformation.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: A transformation needs to start within.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, anyway, this is why I'm so passionate about psychology, because in order for me to be a good coach, I need to understand why people are the way that they are, why we think the way that we think and I've just seen this over and over and over again that a lot of my clients struggle with not being supported by their environment.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: But they think that they are supported because their mom says no, I think it's great sweetie.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Or because their friends are like I think that's so cool of you.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Their mom says, no, I think it's great sweetie.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Or because their friends are like I think that's so cool of you.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: But again, remember, if people aren't actually literally encouraging you to stay at home and work on your business, they're not being supportive.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: If they're not liking all of your social media posts and commenting on it because they want you to go viral.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: They're probably not actually literally supporting you, they just are saying that they are because they love you, but, yeah, you're triggering them.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: So that's what Lila was experiencing, and when she came on the Nomad Cruise, she was like these are the people that I need to be around.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: I can see how being in this community, being in this environment, would be so supportive for my growth, would be so conducive to me growing and building my business.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: And that is the truth, and that is why I am again so passionate about telling people about the Nomad Cruise.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I just feel like it's literally game changing.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, it changed my life and I'm confident it can help change yours too.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, that is, I think, the end of what I wanted to say about the Nomad Cruise, and now let's talk about the second half of my trip, which is when I went to Greece, armenia and Georgia.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: So why did I go to these places?
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Well, basically, if you know about my journey, you know that I've traveled all around the world and I was always in pursuit of the best digital nomad destination.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Before I discovered my home in Bali, I was traveling to all of the well-known digital nomad hubs and there are a bunch of hubs.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: By the way, if you are not in the nomad scene yet, I'll say that probably the most popular digital nomad hubs would be Bali, indonesia, where I now live.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: There's also a city in Northern Thailand called Chiang Mai.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: There's a really beautiful valley city in Colombia called Medellin or Medellin, spelled like Medellin for anybody who's never heard of it, but yeah, medellin is a really popular place and Lisbon, portugal.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and say those are probably like the top four tier A destinations for digital nomads, but there are also a bunch of tier B and then tier C destinations that are well-known.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: So I've pretty much been to like all of the tier B destinations, which might include the Canary Islands in Spain, buenos Aires, argentina, mexico City, playa del Carmen, mexico, antelume, santa Teresa, costa Rica I think belongs on that list, although I actually haven't been there Bansko, bulgaria, and maybe that's actually all that I can think of right now.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that there are others, but anyway, tbilisi, georgia, is a destination that I think is like a, b, c tier digital nomad destination, like a place that's on the rise or it's kind of like a if you know, you know, sort of place.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Anyway, for years, people have been telling me that Tbilisi, georgia, is one of the most beautiful destinations, that the food is amazing, that there's so much interesting history and touristy things to do and it's got good wi-fi and it's low cost and high value and good infrastructure.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: And also, I think something about georgia.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I think they have a very favorable tax or like residency situation.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Don't quote me on that, but the point is, for years and years, I've been feeling drawn to go check out Georgia, because I hate calling myself a digital nomad influencer and then not knowing about some prominent and up and coming digital nomad destinations.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: So I thought, all right, I gotta get myself over to Georgia, and what better opportunity than when I happen to be in Europe anyway for the Nomad Cruise.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, and it was a cool opportunity for Julia and I to spend time together.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: For me, this is one of the cool and interesting things about having a digital nomad community, right?
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Because when you are a digital nomad like I am and like Julia is nomad like I am and like Julia is, you might think that you don't get to have long-term, long-standing relationships, but that's actually not the case.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: It's just that the relationships look a little bit different and they develop a little bit differently, at a different pace than your relationships normally would develop if you were living in one place.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: So a little bit of background on how Julia and I met and became friends.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Julia is one of the original co-founders of a company called Wi-Fi Tribe.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: And what Wi-Fi Tribe does?
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: They're another community, a digital nomad community, and they basically you have to apply to be part of the tribe.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: But once you apply, once you're in, then you are able to go to any of the chapters, which is when the Wi-Fi tribe organizes a few houses in a city and then they invite people from the community and they'll usually get like I don't know anywhere between, let's say, like 12 and 25 people to go live in a city somewhere in the world for a month.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: So I was on the very, very first chapter of Wi-Fi Tribe in Nicaragua and that's where I met Julia and we just immediately hit it off and became friends.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh, the Wi-Fi Tribe is so cool, like I want to travel with you guys again.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: So I ended up traveling with the wifi tribe that year, also to.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I went to um Florinopolis, brazil.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: I went to Cape town, south Africa.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I went to Buenos Aires, argentina, medellin, colombia.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I also met up with them in Budapest.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, budapest is another pretty cool, like kind of lower tier nomad destination.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: Anyway, the point is that Julia and I have, over the years that we've been friends which is since 2016 is literally we've been friends for nine years countries together or something crazy like that and the thing is that when we see each other, we are spending a lot of time together because we're traveling, and you know that when you travel with somebody, you just get to know them so much more and so much deeper.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: There's just so many things that come up and challenges that you face together and you get to go through bonding experiences because you're having fun and you're outside of your normal routine.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: And, anyway, the point is that please don't be afraid that if you become a digital nomad, you're not going to have longstanding relationships.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Honestly, you may have deeper and more nourishing and fulfilling relationships when you are a nomad.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: It's just that these are not friends out of convenience.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: They're friends because you genuinely have a lot in common and you really need to make an effort to prioritize each other.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: So the last time that I saw Julia was maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago, when she spent a month or so in Bali.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we just got to spend an uninterrupted 12 days together where the two of us traveled and just got so, so, so much quality time in, and it was so special and awesome and I absolutely loved it.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: It was so great.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, julia and I met up in Athens and then we flew together to Armenia.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: So our main destination was Georgia.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: But you know, when you like, go to a new at least for me, when I go to a new destination, I it's like I see Georgia on the map and then I'm like, oh, but what's around it?
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, interesting Armenia is right there.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: Oh interesting, azerbaijan is right there too.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I wonder if I, I wonder what's there, I wonder what's in those other countries and destinations.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: So I always find that whenever I go to a new region, whatever my target country is, researching that also unlocks curiosity of surrounding countries.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: And what I realized in my research was Armenia is the first ever in the world Christian nation.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Not that I identify as a Christian.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: I actually am like, not religious at all.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I'm very spiritual.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: You probably know that, but I'm not religious Anyway, but I do think that ancient history is so fascinating.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I think it really ties into my interest in psychology and human nature.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: I just think, you know, we learn so much from the past.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, we should totally go check out Armenia.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's going to be fascinating history there.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: And then we also were curious about Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan, I think, has kind of like Dubai themes, where it's a Muslim country but it's like very modern and, yeah, just like a completely different vibe than an ancient Christian nation.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: And then Georgia is in the middle.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: Was we were going to fly into Armenia, then drive across the border and do like a land border crossing, spend time in Georgia and then travel over by land to Azerbaijan and then fly out of Azerbaijan to.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Julia was going to Germany and I was going back to Bali, so that was the plan.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: So we flew to Armenia and then we woke up the next morning and we opened our eyes to a post-Soviet Union city called Yerevan and, to be honest, I did not have high expectations for Yerevan.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to go to Armenia again for the history.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: I also saw that the landscape looked super beautiful, so I was excited about that.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yerevan was such a pleasant surprise Like I wasn't really expecting anything at all, but what I saw was a beautiful, modern, very well-maintained, very clean city with a lot of art and just interesting things like really cute little cafes and restaurants, people that just seemed at peace, like people walking around European vibes not necessarily as like adorable European as, say, a place in France or Italy or whatever, but still like nice, european.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: And the food oh my gosh.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: We had some really amazing, unique food like this really really thin flatbread that was covered in a spiced minced meat and it was kind of like a pizza, but like thin and crispy.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, just oh my God, god, it was so good.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Um, the most epic salad ever, with grilled chicken and pesto and really really fresh veggies.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: One thing I always love about being in europe is the quality of the food.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Like you can eat really really simple food and it's just, it's just better.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: It's just better than the U?
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: S right, where all of our tomatoes are like not even pink inside and everything's too big and full of GMOs and just.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I'm not here to hate on the U?
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: S, but I am here to celebrate Armenia.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: I just adored it and um, yeah, there were just some really cool places in the city that I really enjoyed.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: If you ever go to Armenia, make sure you check out the Cascades, which is this really cool huge, huge staircase that basically you can like walk the stairs up the mountain and there's just like hundreds and hundreds of people having picnics and having like bottles of wine and sitting there with their children and there's flowers everywhere and you get a beautiful view of the city.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: And then there's all this cool art on the Cascades that's like kind of whimsical, like Alice in Wonderland vibes, and it's just it, just it was magnificent.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: I, I love going to a city where I have no expectations and then being really pleasantly surprised.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: It basically Armenia, it was wonderful and um, so we left Yerevan and then we went to another place called Lake Savan and, um, one thing that I love about traveling is the people that I meet and the stories that I hear.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: So I want to share with you an interesting story about a guy that I met at Lake Savan and, yeah, why it's relevant to Armenia and modern day politics and religion and history and everything.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: It's just a really cool story.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Short story, but basically, basically, actually some background that I think is super important to know is that Armenia experienced a horrible, brutal genocide in the early 1900s, around 1915 to 1918, I think Basically the story is that Armenia used to be a lot bigger and it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: So, remember, armenia is an ancient Christian nation and the Ottoman Empire was Muslim, predominantly like Turkish.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: So at first when the Ottoman Empire took over Armenia, they were like, okay, you guys are Christian and you're not really part of our culture, but like, whatever, you're allowed to exist here, but we're going to build this to be a Muslim nation.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: So most of what was Armenia is now Turkey and it has become Muslim, but still there is this piece of Armenia that's left that is still Christian.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: So basically, the Ottoman Empire started declining late 1800s, early 1900s, basically having an egoic moment where he didn't want to face the fact that his empire, and the empire that he was leading, was crumbling.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: So, you know, someone who is an unconscious, not heart centered leader that can't take accountability, is going to find a scapegoat.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: And what they did?
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: Basically the government started looking for people to blame for their declining economy and their crumbling empire.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: So who do you blame?
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: You probably blame the minority.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: And how do you get the society to be on board with blaming them?
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: You start making up a whole bunch of rumors and looking for evidence that they are to blame.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: So, basically, from what I understand, is that the Armenian population they were still very much connected to their European roots and ancestors and they still preserved their ancient culture where they had their own schools and their own artwork and they, you know, were good business people, or maybe the Ottoman Empire had not trained their culture to be like that.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: So what this created was a separation of the groups of people where the Ottomans were like, hey, we're suffering here.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, we don't have a good economy.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, what the hell, everything is crumbling around us, but those people, they're doing good.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: And they got jealous and they started blaming the Christian Armenians.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: And so what the government did was they created a whole bunch of propaganda to get the regular civilians of Armenia to blame anybody who's Christian for the decline of their society, rewarded civilians for murdering Armenian Christians in the most brutal way, like they literally got bigger rewards for the more brutal the murder.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: And millions of Armenians died during these few years, being murdered by their neighbors in the streets, just like yeah, in the city, being murdered by their neighbors in the streets, just like yeah, in the city.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: And obviously a lot of them fled and I think that's why now there's only like 4 million Armenians that are left even in Armenia, but there's a big population of them outside.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: Did you know that the Kardashians are Armenian?
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: Anyway, so that is what happened in Armenia and actually, actually, before I carry on with just like about my trip, I I kind of want to explain a perspective that I have about the world and how my travels have really shaped my political perspectives and my um, frank distrust of the government.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: I have been to so many different places where horrific things like this have happened.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: I've been to really a lot of genocide museums this one in Armenia, I went to one in Rwanda, in Berlin, in Cambodia.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: I haven't been able to travel to different destinations that I wanted to go to, like Myanmar, for example, because there was a genocide happening.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I would have loved to check out Palestine when I visited Israel several years ago and just you know, just with political tensions and stuff, it's just I wasn't able to go to these places and the fact that I've been to so many genocide museums, oh my god and the one in Bosnia as well, like there was a horrible genocide in Bosnia too, with all the Baltic countries.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: I just feel like the government governments not the government governments in general are clearly capable of brainwashing people to do absolutely horrible things, and they have agendas and they are racist, like I mean I would say that slavery in the US was a form of genocide as well.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: This is why I'm out here being like guys, follow your heart, do what's right for you, live a life that's authentic to you, tune into what is right for you, not what society says, because society could be brainwashed by the government.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Just always make your own decisions.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: That is what I preach and I practice it, and I'm reminded to think and be this way all the time when I travel and I see and learn about history.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: A lot of this history, by the way, never gets taught in school.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: I bet you didn't know about the Cambodian genocide.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: I bet you didn't know about the Bosnian genocide, and both of those and the Armenian ones have happened within the last 100 years, just outright Armenia, a little bit more than a hundred.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Anyway, anyways, anyways, anyways.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: We learned about this genocide when I was in Armenia and, uh, it was very tragic and sad and emotional.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: And, um, what's so interesting is, yeah, like wasn't that long ago.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: So the community, there's still some very apparent remnants or like leftover cultural aspects from that genocide.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: So, and you know, there are other.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh, I should not be a history teacher, okay.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: So another crazy thing that's been going on over the past not even a hundred years, 20 years um, was the war in Syria, right, and so a lot of people fled Syria and went to different countries in Europe.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: And, uh, so this guy that we met at Lake Savan, an Armenian guy, I asked him about this tattoo that he had on his neck.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: It was a big cross, like a Christian cross tattooed on his neck, very prominent, and he was dressed very refinedly, if that's a word, like he had on a really nice three-piece suit, really nice shoes on.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: He was clearly dressed to impress.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Three-piece suit, really nice shoes on.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: He was clearly dressed to impress.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: And I thought, oh, what an interesting choice to put a tattoo on your neck when clearly you're trying to present yourself in this incredibly polished way.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: So I asked him about it and he told me that when he was younger he moved to Sweden with his family and because he looks Middle Eastern.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Armenian people have very fair skin or it's like light skin, but they have dark hair and dark eyes and I guess you could say slightly Middle Eastern features.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: And so when he went to Sweden when he was a teenager, people assumed that he was a refugee from Syria, when actually his family was well off, they were a well-to-do family that moved to Sweden and he didn't want to be treated like a second-class immigrant or a refugee from Syria, who are mostly Muslim people.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: So we got a big Christian cross tattooed on his neck just so that he wouldn't be socially oppressed by this new society that he was living in in Sweden.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: And I just thought that was such an interesting anecdotal story about how it is for people that are born in countries where you know they he's like I don't necessarily go to church every week, like he doesn't even feel, like he's Christian in his heart.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: He just wanted people to know what side of the fence he was on culturally and politically and like you know, yeah, culturally, I can't even say religiously because he's not religious.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah, culturally, I can't even say religiously because he's not religious.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I just thought that was a really interesting, um, little story that I wanted to share with you.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, lake savann, uh, where we met him, was so freaking beautiful this crystal clear, beautiful blue lake, uh, surrounded by mountains, and, um, it was just wonderful.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of really ancient monasteries, like dating back to the, I think, sixth century, which is when Christianity was established there, and, yeah, it was just so cool and just beautiful.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: And I think, personally, it feels so I don't know what it feels like to be in a place where there's just ancient, ancient history, but I just feel this energetic connection to humanity at large and I just love, love, love, love that feeling.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: It's so cool to reflect on how far humanity has come over thousands of years, and I'm just so grateful that I have so many stories like this and so many examples from my own personal life that I get to remember and think about and reflect on.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: And it's all possible because I have my digital nomad business.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: So I'll just wrap up by telling you about Georgia.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, we hired a taxi.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: I think we paid him like $120 to drive us six hours from Lake Savan across the border, where you know the yeah, we had to go through immigration and everything, walk, literally walk across the border into Georgia, and then the taxi driver also took his car across the border patrol and then took us to Tbilisi, which was our final destination.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: And I would say that Tbilisi was what I expected it was like again another really nice, beautiful city, surrounded by mountains.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: There were vineyards just outside, snow-capped mountains even beyond and a lot of cafes and nice places to work from.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: And, yeah, I would say when I was there that I by then I was already like three and a half weeks into the trip and I was with Julia, who, again, we work together like I, because in my own business I like to hire my friends so I hired Julia, one of my best friends, to be the community manager inside of my business and she also helps me a lot.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: We actually have a call in like 20 minutes right after I finish this podcast.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: She helps me a lot with the back end, like organization and management of my business too, and I just think that's so cool that when I'm quote working, I'm also like hanging out with one of my besties, you know.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: And when we went to Georgia together, we had some conversations about the future of the Digital Nomad Life Academy and what direction we want to take it in and what our goals are for this year.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: And we got to do that from a rooftop cafe at the top of our beautiful hotel, overlooking the mountains.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: Sun on our face, laptops with our little office of the day stickers, and yeah, that's just what it was like to be a digital nomad in Georgia.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: I think the accommodation there it wasn't quite as affordable as I had expected.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: I mean not that it's not affordable, not cheap, you know I hate using that word, but you know it's high value, but it's not like Asian prices.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: It's still.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: It's still European.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: So, just so that you expect, that food was great.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: I did find it to be a little heavier than what I normally like, but anyway, the city is very walkable, there is a lot of like art and culture everywhere and, yeah, just great place.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: Anyway, loved it.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: It doesn't.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: For me, georgia didn't stand out as like a top destination, but I think if you're someone who has traveled very extensively, as I have, then you start running out of places that like get really, really exciting and you have to just start seeing the rest, just to see what's out there, because you're curious.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that was my trip to Georgia and again.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: Like I just want to echo that this trip that I went on right.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: We started in Marseille, france, where I went on the Nomad Cruise and I met hundreds of other digital nomads, new people that I'd never met before, old friends.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: I got to party and live my best life in Mykonos.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: I got to travel with one of my closest friends to a new destination that I found really exciting.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: I got to get some work done and I maintained my business with five hours of work per week.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Now, if you are nomading full time, then the way that I just traveled this past month is not sustainable at all.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Like, if you're trying to build a business, you need to be putting in minimum 30 hours a week.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: Like you need to be working for real.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: But my business it's like five years old at this point I would call it a mature, adult business and, yeah, I can afford to take a month where I'm just having fun and mostly focused on enjoying myself and kind of having the business run with minimal involvement.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, what I do, the way that I have set up my business and the way that I've built it and everything is what I teach inside of the Digital Nomad Life Academy.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: So if you've been listening to this podcast and you're like, wow, I wish that I could live like that, I wish I could, you know, choose where I want to go, go somewhere on a whim, hire my best friends, do work that feels inspiring to me, take time off when I want to, when I need to, because I desire it, you can have this life Like you can make your life and refine your life to be however you want it to be.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: You heard that over the years, my life has had different forms and shapes and for me now, like I'm just so in love with my life.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: I was so happy to come home after my epic trip, like I couldn't wait to sleep in my own bed.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: I couldn't wait to see my dog.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, if you're curious of how I managed my dog, I just rent out the other bedrooms in my house and I gave one of the girls that's in one of the rooms a discount on the room in exchange for just managing the house and taking care of my dog.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: So my dog's routine was completely uninterrupted.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: She is still living her best life.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: I got to give a great deal and opportunity to someone else to live in a beautiful home and, yeah, I had my house waiting for me when I came back, with my closet and my shoes and all the things that I love.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: And I'm right back into my routine now of going to the gym and getting shit done.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: So that is my digital nomad life, a little recap of the past month or so.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: And yeah, just wanna say that if you're curious about the Digital Nomad Life Academy, just shoot me a message on Instagram.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: You can send the message Georgia102 for the episode about Georgia and it's number 102.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: So send me the keyword at Christabella travels Georgia 102.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: And I will send you an automated message because you know my time zones always changing.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: Who knows if I'll be online when you do send me that message, so I'll send you an automated response.
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: That's like hey, thanks for listening to the podcast.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like what did you get out of it and what are your questions?
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: And I'll ask you a few questions just so that I can learn a little bit about you and, yeah, just what your goals and dreams are, and then I will be able to send you a very thoughtful response.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I even respond with a voice message and I just want you to know that I really am super here for you if you want to chat about the possibility of you having a nomad life, this nomad life, I hope that me sharing all the itty bitty details with you has demystified it in some way and helps you feel like it's closer to you.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: Now you really know someone who lives this way and has, and yeah, and is living this way, so you need to know what the options are and what's even possible in order for you to dream it, and that's why I have just been sharing about my life.
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: So send me that keyword again sharing about my life.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: So send me that keyword again Georgia 102.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: And I can't wait to chat with you in the DMs and I will see you in the next episode.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: Bye.