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111) How to Become a Digital Nomad in 2026 · Digital Nomad Life Podcast

3:37
SPEAKER_00: Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Krista, also known as Kristabella Travels, on social media.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: You can always feel free to DM me on Instagram at any time.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Let me know that you are a listener.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: And if you have any questions about the content of this episode, or if you just want to bounce some ideas off me about how you and your life could ultimately transition into the digital nomad life, then I am super here for you.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I love, love, love hearing from the listeners.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: It's just actually the best because otherwise, I'm just here standing in my bedroom in Bali, shouting into the void about how this is literally the best lifestyle choice you can ever make.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And that is a hill that I will die on every single time.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know me, I have been living abroad since 2013.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And I just honestly couldn't be happier with my lifestyle.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just my lifestyle that I'm happy with.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I also love what I do.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: And I don't just love what I do, where I get to coach people on their careers and on their businesses, but I get to do that all on my own schedule as well.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: I get to wake up when I want, I get to work the hours that I want, I get to work out when I want, I get to eat when I want, I get to sleep when I want.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: I just get to live my life exactly the way that I want to live my life.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: So when some people tell me, like, oh, I'm not sure if the digital nomad lifestyle is for me, I'm like, do you even understand what it is?
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Like what being a digital nomad is just literally means that you get to live life where you want, when you want, how you want.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: So before we get into the content of this episode, which is all about how you can become a digital nomad in the year 2026.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I will be covering all of the factors that make 2026 a unique year, like specifically with this big AI movement.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely going to be touching upon that too.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, just for the record, this is not a show about how to travel the world.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: That would be a travel podcast.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: This is about a digital nomad life podcast.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: And you know, sometimes I do talk about the lifestyle that you get to afford when you can work from wherever.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: But the key is that you can work from wherever.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: So this whole podcast is all about how to do that.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Because once you can work from wherever, then the lifestyle is open for you to interpret it however you want.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be living out of your suitcase full time while making an income, then hell yeah, power to you.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: I did that as well.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: I did that for four years.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: I traveled to 60 countries during that time and honestly was just living my absolute best life.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: And then I decided that my best life looked a little bit different.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Then I decided that my best life looked a little bit more grounded, a little bit more stable.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: And now I have a three-bedroom home in Bali, Indonesia, where I get to go to the beach every single day.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: I wake up with the sun shining.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And I also am a landlord.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I have some responsibilities.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Like I gotta make sure that the other rooms in my house are filled up so that the investment that I made on this home isn't a total waste.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: But I still can go wherever I want, whenever I want.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's what still makes me a digital nomad, even though I'm way more grounded and stable now.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So this episode, not just this episode, this whole podcast, it's not about teaching you the lifestyle because that's the fun part that you get to figure out yourself.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of the earlier episodes of this show you can hear about like how to stay productive while working, but anyway, I digress.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: This intro is getting long.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: This episode is about how to make money from anywhere doing work that you actually enjoy.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And that is also a key of my philosophy and the way that I teach about business, marketing, career, money, et cetera.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm someone who wants to be high on life, and our career is such a big part of our life.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like the majority of our waking hours, in fact.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really, really important to be doing work that you like.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to clarify that before we even go into anything, because what I'm not here to do is tell you that you quote, should go into e-commerce or you should go into affiliate marketing or creating digital products or selling a course or something like that.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think actually what separates me from the other digital nomad work online, work from anywhere coaches, is that those people are teaching you their one trick pony method.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: They're like, this is how I did it and that's how you should do it.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: For me, I'm like, let's explore the landscape of all the possibilities.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Help you choose the one that's most aligned with you as a person with your own unique skills.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And from there, if you actually like what it is that you're doing, it's gonna be way easier to make money with it.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: So just so you know, that is the underlying philosophy in the way that I will be uh sharing with you how you can become a digital nomad in 2026 in this episode.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, I think we should just get straight into the mini training.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we are breaching a pretty big topic today, and I like to be really comprehensive in how I'm explaining things.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: So just FYI, if you're someone who likes to skip around, you might miss some important contextual details.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: And um, I promise you, if you listen to this episode through the entire way without jumping around, you will walk away from this episode feeling so empowered and so ready to actually take action on changing your life and your career and your financial situation.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's talk about the very first thing that you need to do if you are to become a digital nomad.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And that is to decide the way that you will be making money from anywhere.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, this part I have found in my six plus years of being a coach is that this is the hardest part for most people.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Most people they can see their ideal lifestyle, they can see where they want to live, they can see how much money they want to make, but they don't necessarily see the way to go from where they are now to that place.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: So this episode is not about how to choose the best remote career for you.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: I'll touch upon it, but um, I have other episodes about that.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you are in that situation, I recommend that you listen to episode 56, which is called Can't Decide on a Remote Career, how to finally make a decision and get started as a digital nomad.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know what business you want to create, you can go listen to that episode.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: But just some info for you to mull over.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: I have a process that I take people through that works really, really well.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: It's called my career assessment process.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: I know I could have a better, better, cooler name for it, but basically it is I take a huge inventory of who you are as a person, like your soft skills, like are you a people person or are you more introverted?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Are you highly creative or are you more analytical?
11:08
SPEAKER_00: And I ask you so many questions.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: It probably ends up taking you like an average of five hours to fill out this worksheet.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: But then once you fill out the worksheet, and I also hear all about your career history and everything, you and I get on a phone call, and then I get to look over your answers because you've just spent so much time thinking about who you are and what you've done and what you like and don't like.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: When you and I get on that call, you have all the answers right at the surface if I need to clarify anything.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: And like 90% of the time, whenever we conclude that call, I'm able to suggest to you a remote business idea that you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, I I didn't know that existed.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: I would love to do that.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Or, oh my gosh, I can't believe I didn't think about that myself.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: That feels so obvious based on who I am.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, or sometimes I suggest something to someone and they're like, I don't know if I see that for me.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: And then a few months go by and then they message me later and they're like, Krista, remember that career assessment that we did and you you called it, like you told me that I was gonna do this and now I'm doing it.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: So that's the career assessment process.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And if you are interested in that, you can just DM me on Instagram again at Christabella Travels and message me the words career assessment, and then we can talk about it.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Back to this episode.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: You gotta decide what it is that you wanna do.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: I have this analogy where if you want to go from where you are now to where you want to be, you're gonna get there so much faster if there's a straight, clear line.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: A problem that a lot of people have that prevents them from ever making progress on their digital nomad life is they keep switching directions.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: They, you know, buy a course and then they start taking this course and learning this one skill, but then they change their mind halfway through and then they pivot to something else, or they get scared and don't actually end up making any money from the thing that they just invested so much time and energy into.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Because, again, they didn't choose their career path from a truly aligned place.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: And again, that's why my career assessment process is so focused on your personality and who you are inherently as a person, like what your values are, who you are, what feels exciting to you, et cetera.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to become a digital nomad, summary of this pointer is choose wisely what path you want to pursue.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't, you're gonna end up wasting a whole bunch of time and you're never gonna end up getting to the next step.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the next step basically, once you've said, okay, I know how to do this thing, this is my skill, this is this, this is a thing that I think I can offer to people.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: This is the way that I can provide value to others.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna go to the drawing board and figure out how you can offer that remotely.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: This is another thing that people get super stuck on.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's because if, especially if you're coming from a corporate background, you've probably been led to believe that a lot of things cannot be offered remotely.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: But what you have to remember when you are becoming a digital nomad is that you're probably not going to be working with corporations.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: You're probably gonna be working with people on a more individual basis.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Or you're just not gonna be working with people in general.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: You might do something more behind the scenes.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe you do want to do some kind of affiliate marketing or e-commerce or whatever.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: Like in that, if in that case, if you're doing a not service-based business, you'll probably be mostly behind the scenes.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: And then in that case, you can do everything completely remotely.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: But if you are someone that's following my philosophy, something you'll hear all throughout this podcast is that what I genuinely believe is the best way to get started as a digital nomad and started as a remote entrepreneur is to pursue a service provider business model.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, what that means is essentially you are offering a service and you are charging for the outcome of the service you are providing.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not the same as being a freelancer, although they are very similar, and I want to make sure that you understand the difference.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: So when you are a freelancer, you will say, Hey, I have the skill of being a graphic designer, or I have the skill of 3D modeling, or I have the skill of reviewing your Google Analytics.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a lot of things that you can just do for someone where you can bring your expertise in.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: And you could just leave it at that as a freelancer.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And essentially, when you're a freelancer, you're just saying, hey everyone, this is what I do.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Who could use my help?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And you're almost leaving the business arrangement in the hands of the client.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You're kind of giving all your power away when you're a freelancer because you're saying, Hey, I do this.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: You tell me how you can use me.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: And um, that is fine.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people do start off their remote journeys like that.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: But you know, you're here listening to this podcast where you're getting advice and you don't have to take that route.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: So, what I would highly, highly, highly recommend, and this is what I take all my clients through in the Digital Nomad Life Academy, which by the way is my one-year program where you join at any point whenever you are ready to get started on your business.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: And then I have a whole program that you follow basically, where I'll I'll kind of walk you through it here on this podcast.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, essentially it's not just teaching you how to build a business, you also get access to the community and coaching with me.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'll tell you more about the Digital Med Life Academy or the DNLA later.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: So when you are following my philosophy and you're not gonna be a freelancer, but you're gonna take a little bit more ownership of your own situation and of your income.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: You're not just gonna say, Hey, I have this skill, who needs it?
17:12
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna say, Hey, I have this skill that I offer to a very specific kind of person.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: This is about choosing your niche or your niche.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Fun fact, you can say this word in both ways, and in both ways, it's correct.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I like to say niche.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, so you can say, hey, I am a graphic designer and I specifically help people who have brick and mortar health and wellness type businesses.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, what that will do, it will eliminate most people.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Like I might need a graphic designer once in a while.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And if I hear that, I'm like, oh, okay, this person doesn't have a specialty in what it is that I do.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm probably gonna go find a different graphic designer if I hear someone say that's their specialty.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: And that's fine because when someone who does have a brick and mortar business in the health and wellness space, when they hear that you are a graphic designer and that is your specialty, they will feel this synergy, this instant, immediate connection and recognition that they'll say, Oh, perfect.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: You're literally exactly who I've been looking for.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: And they will not go look at the competition.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: They will not go look at this quote, saturated marketplace because it's not saturated in your specialty.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope that makes sense.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: It's really important to say, like to choose your niche if you want higher conversions.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know what that word means, basically that means that someone hears about you and then they say yes to you.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Whereas someone could hear about you and they could say no to you, and that would be a non-conversion.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: A conversion is when they say yes.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a graphic designer, lots and lots and lots of people could hear about you, they could learn about you, but they might not say yes to you.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: But they're more likely to say yes if you are offering something that's very specific to them.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: So I teach you how to choose a niche that's also aligned with your personality and your interests and everything as well in the DNLA and on the career assessment call.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna choose what your niche is going to be.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And then you're gonna think about that niche and you're gonna say, All right, I am specifically looking to help.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Let's do a new example.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I just did a career assessment call with one of my clients the other day, and um, he has been in cabinetry making, like pretty random, very hands-on for the past, I don't know, I think like 30 years or something.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: He's just dying to get out, and so we were reviewing all of his skills, and he was like, Well, I can do CAD design.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, But I don't think I can do another CAD design for another cabinet.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm so over it.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that's okay.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to, like, we could choose a different niche.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And through just throughout our conversation, we explored other experiences in his life that he had had that he enjoyed, and we came up with the niche of for trade show booths because he was able to do some cool projects for bigger companies, and they all go to trade shows, and when they go to trade shows, they have a big budget.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: So now what he's gonna do is he's going to be doing CAD design specifically for trade show booths.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, that means that sure, like the other kind of businesses that need CAD design will might see his website or his social media presence say, oh, that's not for me.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: But we what we have to remember is that trade shows have hundreds and hundreds of customers and and clients at them that are paying big money to present at these shows because they know that they're gonna get a return on their investment.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: And even though he might not be able to appeal to the entire world or the whole population that needs CAD design, he's gonna be hyper appealing to this very specific niche, which is still pretty big.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't need that many clients in order to be making an amazing income.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: And that leads me to the next step, the next thing that I want to tell you about, and if you want to become a digital nomad this year, and that is to choose a high-ticket offer.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: So, or to create a high-ticket offer for your specific niche.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: So, in this example, he's a CAD designer, specifically helping businesses that are going to be presenting at trade shows.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: He will design the trade show booth, okay?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: So, depending on how niche the trade show is and how lucrative that business thinks that trade show will be for them, they will be willing to put in more money into making sure that their booth looks freaking fire.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: They want a really cool booth so that all the relevant people walking by will stop at their booth.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: So they're willing to invest good money into making sure that their booth is designed well.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: That means that if my client comes along and he's like, oh, this is my specialty, they're gonna be like, amazing, you're hired.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say, What's your budget?
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Or, and then they might say, Oh, our budget is between 1,000 and 5,000, or 5,000 and 10,000, or 10,000 and 50,000.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: So if they have a$50,000 budget, guess how many clients my client needs per year in order to be making six figures?
22:43
SPEAKER_00: He literally only needs to secure two clients at 50k, if that is what he's offering.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's gonna be up to him to come up with an offer that is valued at$50,000.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: But this is just kind of an extreme example to help you understand that when you choose a high-ticket offer and you've niched yourself effectively, you don't need to have this kind of big marketing machine.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you could probably do really well with literally just word of mouth marketing, which makes your life so much easier as a new business owner.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: But let's say that you don't have something that's a$50,000 offer.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that you just have something that is a$2,000 offer.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, if you want to be making$5,000 to$6,000 a month, that still means that you only need three new clients per month in order for you to be making that$6K salary.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: $2 per month salary.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And three people per month, again, you don't need a big marketing machine in order to do that.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Now you might be wondering, oh my gosh, but I don't know what I can offer that somebody would pay me$2,000 a month for.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: So this is a conversation about pricing.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: And actually, my last episode is all about pricing and how to choose a price for your offer.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend that you listen to that if these big numbers feel intimidating to you.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: But like these numbers probably only feel intimidating to you right now because you might not know what it is that you want to offer in the first place.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: This podcast episode, I'm really going super high level.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the full, like, these are the main steps that you have to take.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Inside of each step, though, there's quite a bit of unwinding to do.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: There's quite a bit of problem solving, of figuring it out, of um of also like regulating your nervous system and keeping an eye on your relationship to money, for example.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Because to me,$2,000 a month, I spend$2,000 a month on several services.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Like I have a I have a VA and a community manager, and I pay her$2,200 a month.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And then I also have a podcast editor and I pay her every month.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And then I also have all just all these different things that I pay uh on a monthly basis, right?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And um my housekeeper for oh, that is such a good example.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, my housekeeper.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: This is a service where she acquired me as a client, and now the service that she's offering to me is something that's just ongoing.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: So what's amazing about a housekeeper business is that you almost don't have to do any marketing.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Once you get your first handful of clients, you have a repeating high-ticket offer that you never have to go look for another client about and you just get to show up and do the work.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: But you're not going to be doing housekeeping because you're gonna be doing something digital.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: But um, this is hopefully something that feels a little bit more reassuring to you that, you know, like if you if you niche yourself effectively and you also can come up with some kind of offer for, yeah, for a niche that they need the same thing from you month over month over month, then you might not even need three new clients per month.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: You just might need three new clients for the year, and then you offer them the same thing over and over and over and over and over again.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And now you don't have to do any marketing.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: So, um, what I'm really trying to articulate here is that it's really not that complicated.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: It's and it's not even that hard.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: The hard part about doing what I'm suggesting here is actually just getting through all the mental and emotional hurdles that come with putting yourself out there, with trying to master a new skill, with going against the societal expectations, with going against the societal rules, if you will.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Like society tells you that if you want to build a business, if you want to offer some kind of service or whatever, you either need to go to college or grad school or something, or you need to have tons of experience in this thing, or you need to go get some kind of certificate or whatever.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Like, society tells you that you need to have some kind of quote credibility in order to offer something.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And if you know that society says that, and you have any bit of insecurity around how credible you really are, when it comes time for you to be promoting yourself on social media, for example, or wherever else, that could be highly triggering for you and you could end up procrastinating and not doing it.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: It's procrastination, it's fear, it's um anxiety.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: That is what makes building a business like this quote hard because people don't have support going through the mental and emotional hurdles, right?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Like for for me in my business, I have, I don't know, there's like 120 hours of video content inside of the Digital Nomad Life Academy, like literal trainings of me going super deep, talking about every kind of um business pointer under the sun.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: It's basically the basically the DNL is a marketing MBA if you watched all the content.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: But I don't actually like selling the content on its own because I know that it's not really the content that's gonna move the needle for people.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: It's not really the like me sharing how to do things because that's not what people need.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Information nowadays is like anybody can access information.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could go onto ChatGPT, and ChatGPT might tell you exactly what I'm telling you in this episode that the high-ticket service provider model is the best, easiest, fastest way to launch your own business.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: That yes, of course, you want to choose something that's aligned.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, sure, if you prompt it well enough, you could probably get AI to share with you all the things that I'm sharing now.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: But what AI can't do for you is untangle your emotional experience.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: And that is why coaching is so, so, so valuable when you are building a business because this shit is triggering AF, to be honest.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, anyway, I don't know if you've ever considered hiring a coach, but for me, it was absolutely life-changing hiring a coach when I first started my now business.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say when I started my first business because I probably tried to start like seven different businesses before I actually had a successful one.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's because I was leaning on information to carry me through.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: I was leaning for like step-by-step directions in order to get me from where I was, which was so miserable in my job, to ultimately having a business that I really love and could run on my own from anywhere.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: It was all these emotional factors, these psychological factors that I'm talking about that was preventing me from having success.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid to say, hey guys, I am now of a marketing consultant.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, because even though I had lots of experience in marketing with my corporate professional job, my colleagues saw me as an account executive.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: Like they saw me as someone who was a bit more entry-level.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: And so, in that case, if I showed up on LinkedIn and I was like, I'm the founder of my business, I was worried that my colleagues would be like, Crystal Romano, like, okay.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: And that fear kept me from promoting myself in the way that I knew that I needed to.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: This is actually such an interesting thing that comes up on my coaching calls in the Digital Numb of Life Academy all the time, is that um, like I really hold the philosophy as a coach that the client almost always knows what they actually need to do, but there's a resistance that's preventing them from taking action on the thing.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: So on these calls, I'm able to help them see through the resistance and come up with a solution on their own.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And what that does is it helps my clients create new neural pathways on how to be an entrepreneur rather than just following some kind of paint by numbers business in a box step-by-step strategy, which like I do give you, but ultimately I want my people, I want my clients to liberate themselves and really understand business.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I want them to really understand marketing.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: I want them to have the fundamentals so that if they create a business within the scope of their year in the DNLA, they can go on and create tons as many other businesses as they want, as they want.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: They could go on to become a serial entrepreneur if they want.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of training that you get in the DNLA.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: And it honestly, all the magic happens on the actual coaching calls.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, if you are not familiar with coaching, I highly, highly, highly recommend that you get some form of mentorship if you actually want to become a digital nomad this year.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: You clicked on this episode because it said in 2026, right?
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm making this episode in January, and we have a whole beautiful year ahead of us.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Anything could happen for you, but like you don't want this year to go by, and then you have to listen to another episode called How to Become a Digital Nomad in 2027.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't want to spend this whole year just trying, throwing spaghetti at a wall, trying to follow step-by-step directions and not actually being able to follow through because you've got some kind of emotional resistance.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, I just touched upon some things that people do tend to have resistance around, and that is that um, yeah, society tells them that they need to be a certain way, like they need to have a certain amount of credibility, or that they need to have a certain kind of skill set, or they might be hearing messages like, this is not the right time to get started because everything's changing with AI.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I told you that I was gonna talk about AI, and I feel really um so intrigued and fascinated by this topic.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: And full disclosure, like I was a little bit worried about my own business um, maybe like six months ago before I really started deeply understanding the landscape of career and how AI affects it.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Because at first I was like, oh shit, is AI gonna come and literally take over the entire service provider industry?
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Because if it does, now I'm out of a job and now I need to create a new business.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: I could, right?
34:03
SPEAKER_00: Like I could create, I could create a million businesses if I want to.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I just really love what I do.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So I would be so sad if I couldn't be a career coach anymore.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: And there was a moment when I was questioning if my career coaching had a future or if the way that I teach business would still be relevant in a couple of years.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: But what I have come to understand about AI is that yes, it is changing literally everything.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: It's changing shit like a tidal wave, like a tsunami.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: It's coming in hot, it's big, it's um, it's it's a little bit scary, to be honest.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: But do you know what?
34:44
SPEAKER_00: The people that are most susceptible to losing their income because of AI are people that are in corporate jobs.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're in a corporate job, you are unfortunately a number.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Like you represent a profit-loss calculation.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: You are a big expense for your company.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you're the biggest expense of your company.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Employees are always the number one expense.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: If a company can go lean and have fewer employees, they're naturally going to be more profitable.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: So currently, your company, wherever you work, probably quote, needs you, but I can almost guarantee you they are looking for ways to replace you with AI.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to get ahead of the curve, if you want to protect yourself from this AI tidal wave, what you need to do is follow the steps that I shared with you today, which is again like choosing a career path that's aligned with you and then learning how to do that skill, but learning how to do that skill through the lens of artificial intelligence.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: I need you to understand that whatever business you're going to create, you need to be an AI-powered blank, an AI-powered CAD designer, an AI-powered graphic designer, an AI-powered community manager, or an AI-powered coach, like AI-powered consultant.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you're going into, you really need to educate yourself on what tools are available in the vertical that you are pursuing as a remote business.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Because AI is going to be incorporated into everything.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: And that is something that all clients are going to be looking for.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to be paying for your time anymore.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: They want to be paying for your outcomes.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: This is so important.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: Please remember this.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Nobody will be paying you for your time.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: They will be paying you for your outcome.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you have your own business, this is actually a really, really good thing.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, for employees, this is not a good thing because if an employee can create the same outcome as AI, or AI can create the same outcome as an employee, that company is going to choose AI.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to choose the employee because the employee needs to be paid by the hour.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: If the employee doesn't need to be paid by the hour, the employee then becomes a contractor.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And contract work is on the rise.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: Contract work is more aligned with you being able to say, Hey, I offer this thing.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: This is the result that I can get you.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And I get you this result in a very specific way because I am niche specifically.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: And then, therefore, you are a digital nomad business owner when you ultimately can shift into being a contractor who gets paid on your results, not based on your time.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Another really good thing about this is that when you are paid on results and not your time, you can start figuring out ways that you can get more people results in the same amount of time.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you end up scaling your income.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: So we already talked about a couple of examples previously, but let's just use a new example.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Let's use the example of a web designer.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know why I'm so focused on designer right now, but whatever.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: That's just the vibe I'm in today.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um, web design used to take a lot of time.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's because a lot of things needed to be custom coded and um yeah, just like the softwares that front-end designers would use in order to create what the client was looking for were a bit more complicated to learn, etc.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: But now you can do something called vibe coding.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: And vibe coding, essentially what that is, is you're prompting a web design AI to make a website.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are, of course, like the like this platform enables anybody who's not a designer to actually create a website, right?
39:15
SPEAKER_00: So, in a way, we could say, oh no, like there's gonna be no need for web designers anymore.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is that a lot of people who need websites, they don't want to go learn the AI thing.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And they don't want to spend all their time tinkering with the prompt.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because they might not even know what they want on that website, which is key.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: I kind of said this at the beginning of the episode too, like knowing what you want, knowing where you're gonna go is honestly the hardest part to getting any kind of project initiated and off the ground.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: So if you are an AI-powered web designer, that means that you don't have to spend all this time tinkering with things, but your client will need you to help them figure out what their vision actually is.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: And then you get to go use AI to bring that vision to life.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, will you be charging as much as you could have charged before AI existed?
40:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, I don't know.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: I think it really depends on the kind of clients that you are working with and how close to their result you are actually getting them with your vibe coding.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: So now, the service that you're offering them, it's not just web design, but you're offering them clarity.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: You're offering them a sounding board, you're offering them your focus and attention and coaching and consulting on how they can take the idea in their head and bring it to life.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: And not just bring it to life in a way that it exists, but bring it to life in a way that it exists and it converts.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Like when people come to the website, okay, maybe a million people come to the website, but how many of them are gonna click purchase?
41:01
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean about you getting paid for the outcome, not based off of the work that you are doing.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: And in older time, like in 2025, 2024, and earlier, as a web designer, you might say, Oh, okay, here's the project that you want to get done.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: And um that's probably gonna take me this many hours because it has this many customized things on it, you would you would charge differently then.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: You'd probably be charging based off of yes, the outcome, but also based off of how complicated and custom the project was.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: With AI now, because it's easier to do that custom stuff and you don't necessarily need to have so much specific design skills, you're gonna charge based off of your effectivity.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Like how much are you actually listening to the client?
41:56
SPEAKER_00: How fast can you get it done in a way that actually matches their vision?
42:00
SPEAKER_00: And once that thing is implemented, will it work properly?
42:04
SPEAKER_00: If it works properly and it's exactly what they wanted, they will still pay you for it, even if it took you three hours versus 15 hours.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: And if the project's only taking you three hours, that means you have way more time to take on more clients and also to do more marketing work.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: So this is something that I share with my clients all the time.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's just really important for you to understand if you are really about to step onto that track of being an entrepreneur.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: So, this episode in it, you heard me speak a lot about how if you follow the high-ticket service provider model, you don't actually need to have that many clients, and therefore you don't need a big marketing machine.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: That being said, that's just how you get started.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: So, like if you have a high-ticket offer and you can get it in front of the right people that you have niche yourself towards, you can start making a pretty decent income right away.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: But sustainability matters as well.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to just rely on word of mouth marketing if you want to become a digital nomad for life, right?
43:23
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't want to become a digital nomad for life, if you wanted to just take like a short trip or something for a couple of months, you're probably better off just saving up and then going on a trip and then going back home and getting a job.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: But you want freedom, right?
43:38
SPEAKER_00: You want actual freedom.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: And once you have that taste of freedom where you can live your life exactly how you want, it's really, really, really hard to go backwards.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's so much more important, all the more important for you to one, build a business that you actually like.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: And two, for you to eventually learn about marketing.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Marketing, this is this is a thing that I was gonna say that I say to all my clients once you get your business up and established and running, from then on, about 80% of the work that you do, maybe not 80%, but maybe like 50%, 50 to 80% of the work that you're gonna do to run your business is actually gonna be learning how to market your business.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: So just FYI, if you're over there saying, I don't know anything about marketing, like I'm not good at marketing, I don't know marketing, I can't learn marketing, um, you're wrong.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: You can learn marketing.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: It's really like, again, they're just like marketing principles that you need to understand.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: And I actually have a whole podcast episode all about marketing.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: It's episode 82, The Secret to Online Marketing and Creating a Thriving Digital Nomad Business.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's episode 82.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: So if you're already someone who is a freelancer, I highly recommend that you go listen to that episode because that is gonna help you go from freelancer status to actual entrepreneur status, where you actually have a business with systems and you know, a cohesive brand and yeah, just like continuity, consistency, incoming clients, inbound leads.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: You want all of that, especially when you are living a free life because you didn't build your business or you're not building your business so that you can be behind your desk all the time.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: You're building your business so that you can have a beautiful work-life balance.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: So um, just FYI, if you go down this road, you will need to eventually learn marketing, but that is totally okay.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: I also teach that inside of the DNLA, by the way, marketing principles and fundamentals.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: So that again, you can go on to be a serial entrepreneur, not just a one-trick business in a box pony.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: So, to recap this episode so far, the way that you're going to become a digital nomad in 2026 is to get really clear on exactly what it is that you can offer.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know what it is that you can offer, if you don't know what business you want to create, I got you.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Come send me the keyword career assessment on Instagram at Christabella Travels and we can talk about it.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: Or you can actually listen to episode 33 of this podcast.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Episode 33 goes deep into what the career assessment process is actually like.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, so you can also listen to that first.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: So either send me the keyword on Instagram or listen to that episode and um get clear on what it is that you actually want to do.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is the hardest part.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: So, not to minimize that, like the clarity is literally everything.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: But once you know, if you're like, okay, this is what I want to do, I feel good about this, I'm ready to put all of my effort and energy into it, you're gonna make sure that you find a niche that needs what it is that you offer and are also that you are also excited to serve.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: We do not want you building a business helping people that you don't care about.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: We want you to build a business that you feel really aligned with so that you can naturally have the discipline that you need to do the work.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: We do not want you resenting your business.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: It's super important that you love your business, or at least that you enjoy the elements of it, that you enjoy the kind of customers that you are supporting.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Once you niche yourself, you're gonna come up with a high-ticket offer.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: You're going to come up with some kind of service that you can offer that's valued at a minimum of$1,000, but all the way up to$50,000 if you have a skill that could command that.
47:45
SPEAKER_00: Ideally, also something that has a recurring subscription model so that you don't need to do a ton of marketing.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get your first few clients probably through word of mouth.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna smash it on your sales call because you'll have thought about your niche so well.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: You'll have, you will have drawn in somebody from the niche who's like, oh my God, this is exactly like what I was looking for.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to go look at the competition.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: You are it.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: And then you're gonna serve that client and you're gonna do such a good job.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't do a good job, you're gonna learn from your mistakes and then you're gonna do better next time, and you're gonna keep getting better and faster, and you're gonna incorporate AI into what it is that you're doing so that you can do it even better and even faster and even more efficiently with even less time.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna give you more time to go bring in more clients, and you're gonna get more clients because you're gonna learn all about marketing, which actually is not that complicated, but the internet makes it feel like this big, scary, dark cloud that you need to have some kind of master's MBA in order to understand.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: You don't, okay.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I feel like people that go study marketing in college are like throwing their money down into a fiery volcano pit.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why would you do that?
49:08
SPEAKER_00: The way that you learn marketing is by doing it.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: You can read some marketing books.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend Russell Brunson's Expert Secrets or Russell Brunson's dot com secrets or Alex Hermosy's$100 million leads.
49:25
SPEAKER_00: Those are excellent business and marketing books that will support you as you move forward in your entrepreneur journey, which again, we want to be sustainable.
49:36
SPEAKER_00: We want you to like it.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: We want you to feel aligned with what it is that you're doing.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: Because when you are, I don't know, like spending a month at home in December with your family and you're gonna be all cozy on the couch, like your societally conditioned brain is gonna say, I'm on vacation, I'm here with my family, spending quality time.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: But, and you will be, you will be spending quality time with your family, but sometimes you will need to pull yourself away to go work.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's better than having to go leave your family home and go clock into a job.
50:13
SPEAKER_00: But like there's this association that happens with a lot of people when they um first go remote, is like they still have the vacation mentality when they're a business owner.
50:27
SPEAKER_00: And when you're a business owner, vacations look a little bit different.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: They need to be structured a little bit differently.
50:32
SPEAKER_00: That's for another that's a topic for another episode.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, the point is when you like what it is that you're doing, you will naturally be able to be more disciplined to get shit done, uh, even when it's a beautiful day outside and you technically could go to the beach.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: Is that everything that I wanted to say?
50:52
SPEAKER_00: I hope that this episode didn't overwhelm you.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you feel actually like empowered to pursue the lifestyle that you really are dreaming of.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, whether you want to be like a tag-along girlfriend, like let's say you met some guy who's a multimillionaire and you don't want to be completely financially dependent on him, but you do want to travel around with him, when you have your own online business, you get to do that.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: Like you get to be that girl where you can stay empowered, stay financially independent while also indulging in your round-the-world romance.
51:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, wouldn't that be amazing?
51:37
SPEAKER_00: Or you have a family member who is not feeling well or is growing old and you really value that quality time with them.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: You get to have as much quality time as you want when you can work for yourself.
51:50
SPEAKER_00: Or let's say that you've been working at some job that's kept you tethered to some desk with fluorescent lighting or taking a terrible commute where people are honking or just look really grumpy every day, and you've been feeling that energy for like years on end, and now you finally just want to spread your wings and go see the world.
52:09
SPEAKER_00: You get to do that.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: You get to be that person when you have your own online business.
52:15
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you want to be like me and move to Bali or Argentina or wherever, Mexico, Paris, Northern Italy.
52:24
SPEAKER_00: Like, where do you want to go?
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Where do you want to be?
52:27
SPEAKER_00: You get to have whatever life you want.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: You want to start waking up at 10 a.m.
52:33
SPEAKER_00: and being able to have a leisurely long morning and only opening your laptop at two because you're more of a night owl.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you actually are someone who wakes up at three and you're so freaking efficient in the morning, you could be completely done with everything that you need to do by 9 a.m.
52:50
SPEAKER_00: when everybody else is just clocking into work and need to spend their full daylight hours sitting behind a desk.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you want to live your life?
53:00
SPEAKER_00: It's still January and there is still so much energy collectively that is inviting you to envision the life that you want.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: So envision that life that you want.
53:13
SPEAKER_00: Really feel what it would be like if you really could have it.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: Because I am telling you, an online business that you actually like is the way.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: It is the way.
53:27
SPEAKER_00: It is the way.
53:28
SPEAKER_00: But the reason why you're not doing it yet is probably because you have all these mental resistances, psychological roadblocks, and whatever that are in your way.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: And that's why coaching is the game-changing thing that's gonna take you from stuck where you are now into the life of your dreams.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: Mic drop.
53:45
SPEAKER_00: You can do it, my friend.
53:47
SPEAKER_00: There is a reason why you are listening to this episode right now.
53:51
SPEAKER_00: The internet is a big, vast, and limitless place.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: And somehow you magically ended up here.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to honor and recognize how special that is.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: Like you're supposed to be here.
54:08
SPEAKER_00: So if you are on board and if you have any feeling that maybe it is possible, that maybe you could have the life that you want that you're imagining right now, send me that DM on Instagram at Christabella Travels.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: You can send the word career assessment if you don't know what business you want to create, or if you just want to straight up apply for the DNLA, the Digital Nomad Life Academy, send me the keyword apply, and you and I can have a little conversation about who you are, how far along you are in the journey.
54:38
SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, I can let you know if you are a good fit and if I can help you.
54:44
SPEAKER_00: And I promise, if I don't think that I can help you, then I will send you on your merry way with as many book recommendations and other mentors that I that could support you better.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm here to just support the people that I can help the best.
54:59
SPEAKER_00: And I know that those are people who have been working in corporate for anywhere between two and 20 years, who have some kind of experience, who have good work ethic, and who have a big vision, who have a destination that they want to go, like a destination of their life.
55:18
SPEAKER_00: So if you're that person, I am so here for you.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: Send me a DM on Instagram at Christabella Travels and let's talk about it.
55:27
SPEAKER_00: And you in the meantime, just keep dreaming.
55:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I can't wait to see you in the DMs.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening to this episode, and we'll see you in the next one.
55:37
SPEAKER_00: Have a great day, year, and life.
55:41
SPEAKER_00: Bye.