The 8 Steps I Took To Become A Digital Nomad And Pave My Way To Financial Independence
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Do you know what is a digital nomad?
I am sure you’ve heard of this community of online travelers. A digital nomad is a person working remotely from anywhere thanks to online digital tools that help running their business.
In this article I’d like to share with you why I became a digital nomad and the 8 steps I took to build this lifestyle and how you could do it too.
The Reason I Decided To Become A Digital Nomad
My passion is traveling. But my problem was that to pay my bills I needed a job, therefore I was stuck to my 9 to 5 job but still was enjoying my hobbies: Traveling, fitness, photography while my time off.
I was lucky enough to work in a very flexible environment, and in a global company with offices all around the world. That was my first step towards living the laptop lifestyle.
If I wanted to travel to another country, I just needed an internet connection to do my job. I was also able to visit different offices of my company in couple cities I visited and felt like being in my home country office. The office layout throughout all the offices worldwide was exactly the same which made it easier.
The only issue was when I wanted to travel to a country where I would not be able to work in the same time zone. That would mean that I needed to take days off from my holiday allowance to be able to travel.
And obviously the more you travel the more you want to see and experience. And my 7 day holidays transformed into 18 days holidays. I needed to experience the country I visited more in depth, learn about the culture, taste the food, socialise with the locals, etc…
I wanted to discover the country with a local eye and not only as a tourist.
Unfortunately, my work would not allow me to take paid holidays outside of my allowance, which is fair.
But that would mean losing money for doing something that I love to do.
That was my wake up call.
The Beginning Of My Blogging Journey
So, I started working on my blog since 2015. It was an interesting journey to learn how to setup a website, write articles, document them with photos and videos, promote the articles on social media, learn about digital advertising and how to market your brand to attract visitors.
In terms of self development it was very interesting. I’ve learned so much since I started. I just wanted to share my knowledge with my friends and family first but then with a wider audience, because if I can do it, everybody can, as long as you have the mindset for it.
By doing what you love and being exposed online, people start being more engaged with your content and story. And that’s how you build a tribe, that’s how you make new friends that are like-minded and that’s how you start developing your business online by working in collaboration with them.
Haven’t you ever imagined working side by side your best friends?
I did, and let me tell you that it is the best thing that could ever happened in your life.
I set-up my online business, at that time a travel blog using affiliate marketing to monetise it, and worked only couple hours per week to earn a living from it, even when I sleep! And since, I have been able to travel and live in countries whenever I want to.
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”
That quote from Invictus has been my motto for years now. I am the one in control of my life and no one else can tell me what I can’t do.
But you may wonder the journey I went through to become a digital nomad, right?
Here is the part you have been waiting for.
How did I manage to setup my business online and earn a living from it. Well, there are 8 steps that needed to be completed and if I did it anyone can do it.
Make sure to write them down.
8 Steps I Took To Become A Digital Nomad
Shift my mindset from an employee to an entrepreneur
This was done by reading a lot of personal development and business books written by entrepreneurs. But also by practicing what I learned. I made a ton of mistakes and this has been my best learning experience. There was a quote in the company I used to work for that says “ Fail harder, Fail Faster”. The more failures you face the more lessons you take and the better you can adjust your strategy to reach your ultimate goal.
Perfection is the enemy when it comes to entrepreneurship. And this is something we are not taught at school. Depending on your personality and life experience, this step may take you longer to overcome.
2. Think about how much I wanted or needed to earn..
…in order to live the life that I want. It is different for everyone and in the end we do not need to earn much to live a financially independent lifestyle. Just figure out the amount you need to live comfortably. Then break this number by the amount of products you’d need to sell to reach it per month. Once done, you just need to either find an affiliate product related to your niche or create your own product.
3. Learn from the best
Read books of self-made entrepreneurs, find a mentor, learn learn and learn all the time. The day you stop learning you are out of the game. Successful people keep on learning new things every day. It is not only a degree that defines who you are and what you know.
4. Define my skills and what am I great at?
This is an exercise I encourage everyone to do when they feel lost. We are all great at something, it is just a matter of naming those skills and sharing it the right way with an audience. Two great books that helped me become a better content creator are “Show Your Work” and “Steal Like An Artist”. These books really simplified the process of creating content but also to realise that my experience was worth sharing despite the online competition.
5. Build my business plan
“Without a goal you cannot score” this is one of my favourite quotes I heard from Casey Neistat. Knowing the steps you will need to take to reach your goal will help you get there faster and stay focused. Or you may become victim of S.O.S (Shiny Object Syndrome). Your goal is to stay F.O.C.U.S (Focus on one course until successful). It may take you couple months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, even 10 years to reach your goal!
But know that every action you take every day builds up. What matters is to remain constant to build up the compound effect. Entrepreneurship success is not a steady growth but rather like a hockey stick growth. So keep up the momentum and keep your eyes on the prize.
6. Networking
Surround myself with people striving for the same goal or who already reached that goal. Do not neglect that step. This is the moment you will be able to meet with talented people that will be part of your online entrepreneurship journey and eventually become your best friends. The best way to do so is to find Facebook groups or join mastermind groups. Most online courses offer access to a dedicated facebook groups where you can be part of a community sharing the same goals in life. They might even organise retreats once a year for you to network face to face.
7. Scale my business
Now that I earned an income to run my business, I needed to make sure this would not stop from one day to another. Hence the reason to scale up using the power of advertising. I have learned about every social media ads platform. But I sticked with only two of them. Pinterest to bring traffic to my blog and Instagram for retargeting. The reason is because these two platforms gather my target audience and are the ones I use the most on daily basis.
8. Automate my business
This took me a long time to automate my business. And today I’d say that 80% of my business is automated. The rest of the work still needs to be done manually but it takes me only a couple hours per day to work on it. That is the beauty of knowing how to leverage the right online tools. I use these tools to automate my business that you can find in this blog article I wrote if that’s something you want to learn more about.
The last 4 steps are important but not as important as the first 4.
If you don’t have the mindset of a winner and don’t know what you want, you will never be successful.
When it comes to the last 4 steps, this is what I’d call leverage. Leverage is what will allow you to scale up your business to the next level and allow you to earn money 24/7 if you apply a business model that works. And that I can teach you also.
Become A Digital Nomad Step By Step Guide
If you would like to learn more about how to become a digital nomad, I’d encourage you to grab my step by step guide, where I break down more in depth the steps you need to take to transition from your 9to5 and become financially and location independent.
In this ebook, you will learn:
👉 What is a digital nomad
👉 The ups of this lifestyle
👉The downs of this lifestyle
👉What to do before you start
👉7 most profitable ways to make money online nowadays
👉How to choose the right online career
👉How to get ready for your new lifestyle
👉Where to find like-minded people to network with
Just click here to get your copy.
If you enjoyed reading this article, make sure to like it, it actually makes a difference and if you’d like to learn more about how to become a digital nomad and the most lucrative way to make an income online nowadays, just click here to get yourself a free copy of my guide 16 Ways To Make Money Online As A Digital Nomad.
To your success.
