122: A Creative Digital Nomad Lifestyle & Building Self-Trust with Han

In this episode, we have an insightful conversation with a very good friend and returning guest, Han. She shares her nomadic journey and how she intentionally designs her life. Han and Nienke Nina explore the importance of reflecting on one's needs, creating space for new experiences, and designing a lifestyle that aligns with personal preferences. 

In this episode, you will learn about the value of community, both virtual and in-person, and the transformative power of nomadic living. From the importance of balance between focus time and relaxation, to demystifying common digital nomad misconceptions, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways for both aspiring and current nomads! Tune in to learn more about the intricacies of the nomadic lifestyle beyond the glamour and through a personal journey of self-discovery and growth.

🔥Virtual and real life communities

🔥Intentional year planning

🔥The value of creativity in your nomadic life

🔥Energy-based life planning

Transcript

0:01

Hello everyone, welcome to a new episode of the Digital Nobits daily podcast. And today I have the first guest of 2024. You guys have already heard her on the podcast, especially if you have been a long time listener, welcome, Hans. Hey, so happy to be back. I'm so happy you're the first guest of this year. Just before we started recording, we had a little bit of a laugh. Um, that's always good. So the vibes are amazing. So, uh, for everyone who's new to this podcast, welcome, welcome. I interviewed digital nomads, experienced digital nomads to talk about everything that's so sexy about the digital nomads lifestyle, which also means entrepreneurship, how do you plan your life, how do you make friends, everything that's happening. Now, of course, we are not going to cover everything today in this episode, but we have some really good conversation topics ready for you. Before we go into that, Hen, I have a few quick questions for you. My first question is, how long have you been nomading? Oof. I never quite know how to answer that. I suppose I've been on off remote technically for about 10 years. God, yeah. Must be 10, 10 and a half years. But I've been full-time travel and working for about two years now. Yeah. Sweet, sweet. And where are you talking from right now? I am in Istanbul in Türkiye. Nice, nice. Are there a lot of nomads around there? So I think there are quite a few nomads. I don't know if there's necessarily a Digital Nomad specific community just yet. I know there's a big favorite for Digital Nomads. For me, I have met up with a lot of content creators and bloggers who are passing through town. So it really is a super creative city for sure. Quite a few communities here, so yeah. Amazing! All right, so let's talk about one of the favorite questions because people always want to know this. How do you make your monies? So I have a couple income streams. So I have my podcast, the remote life podcast, which I do content creation with and that's one stream. Then I also am a freelance marketer and influencer marketer. Oh sorry. Love it. The, sorry, the mosque is playing. Can you hear that? Okay, sorry. Okay, go. it. If our listeners hear this, this is like bulletproof. Like you are in Istanbul right now. Like this is it. But you know, like when I was in Brazil and I was still traveling with the Nomad cat, King Chai, like he would always be like on the background. Meow, meow. I was like, yeah. All right, like this is just live. And this is also, it's a travel, it's a digital Nomad podcast. So there's a lot of traveling. involved. So yeah, so that means that we also sometimes don't have perfect audio and all of that stuff. But I like the rawness of it. It's like it's not a studio podcast. yeah. Yeah, we're really out here living that authentic Nomad life, guys. Yeah, exactly. Actually, I'm just looking out of my window right now and it's snowing. It's like, oh my god, I'm turning him from like, I traded my coconuts for snow. And yeah, it's pretty cool here. Yeah, that looks so cute. I love seeing your like little your Christmasy content was so cute. So It was amazing. All right. So, 2024, wow. I, before we go into that, I would love to know from you, like, what is an unexpected lesson from 2023, like something that, you know, like looking back, you're like, wow, I really, really did not expect to either dive into that or to learn that, and now you have that golden nugget and you're so grateful for it. I'm not gonna lie, at first I was kind of panicking in my head going, oh my god, where do I start? So I think that one of the biggest takeaways for me though, absolutely, was just trusting my own voice and trusting I know what I'm doing. And I think just knowing that when you've got an idea or if you've got something you want to bring to life, to just do it. Because nine times out of ten when you do it, you're so happy you've done it and people are so grateful that you created it. that has probably been one of the biggest things of 2023. What I'm bringing into this year for sure is trust your gut and what your gut is telling you to bring to life, definitely. Love that. I relate to that so much. It's like, even though like we're both in marketing, right? It's, it's a lot of strategy and it's a lot of future thinking and all of that. And while I love that, I also really tried to create space to experiment. Like I call it always like my little experiments. So one of the experiments that I had last year was in May. And you were also part of that was the ladies growth meetup for like. Yeah. that entrepreneurs, I'm not sure if you check your email actually, because as for recording this, like half an hour ago, you must have gotten an email. But anyways, it was like a little experiment and I am so grateful that I did it because I, um, established new connections. Um, there was also new like ideas for my business and it really also helped me to keep myself accountable. And if I would have. been thinking about doing this, but not actually doing this. Man, I would have been missing out on so much. So yeah, so definitely relate. I love that you also, you reached out to me like, hey, I'm thinking of trying this thing. And I was like, yeah, like, come in, cool. And I could relate to like how you were feeling with it. Cause I was thinking like, you know, when you're speaking to the people who didn't realise that they wanted it and like you're creating that space for people to come in too. Obviously people are gonna come to it. Like a hundred percent had to happen and who better to do it but you as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And this is also something that I really love about like the nomadic entrepreneur scene and for this year as well, I was also thinking like, what, like, what do I really want with this podcast? Because so far it's been like a lot of amazing episodes, but being more intentional is definitely something that is, um, it's, it's a concept I'm playing around with right now. But also with the podcast, I was really thinking about this. Like I want to be more intentional about it and entrepreneurship is such a big thing in our space, whether it's like you have a remote job and you have a passion project or you have you're like a multi-passionate entrepreneur and you have all sorts of income strains or you're a freelancer. Like there's so much entrepreneurial spirit in the space, something I'm really enjoying. Also something I want to bring more into this podcast. If we look at your entrepreneur life, looking more into 2024, like knowing this lesson of like, you know, you want to like listen to your voice and just act on it. What are things that you have planned out for yourself, like maybe for those first few months of the year? But sure, yeah, because normally I think, well, you would say intentional, they think we're not gonna plan things down to like the minute detail, which great. But I think the thing that I've learned from doing that is that life happens. You can never fully plan for the life happening, good and not so good. So I think that after, I think it was actually after we chatted just before Christmas, I think, so I then mapped out what my travels would look like for this year and that honestly. helped so much just to kind of create a bit of wider structure for what I'm going to do. And I think especially one of the biggest things I have in terms of feedback last year was people wanted to see more content about like creative digital nomads and like where are good destinations for creative digital nomads. So that also gave me a lot more intention coming into this year because I wasn't kind of following sort of what might be good. project last minute or events last minute or just sort of saying, oh, maybe I should go here. You know, I'm creating kind of more intentionality that is more in alignment with who I am as a person, what my business is. And so, yeah, I think from the get-go, it was planning out my travels first, helped me to then be able to structure my projects coming down to, because obviously, if life is sorted out, as it were, then work kind of fits in so much easier from there. And it's been amazing. I've been here less than a week and I've already met up with other creators and I've got plans to meet up with more people. So again, it's not a lonely journey either. This is really exciting having more intentionality somehow of course is then bringing all these amazing people into my life at the same time as well. So I think also, yeah, I think the biggest thing is that you just can't. plan for everything. Like you can do what you can, but like I told you before we started this podcast, like I have slept more than I used to for some reason. And again, like sometimes you just gotta give yourself some grace and you can't like be super structured and super rigid with your life. Like that's kind of the point and also beauty of living a nomadic like freelance lifestyle, I think. Absolutely, absolutely. I think what I find very interesting is that when we think about approaching a new year or a new quarter, or just, just something new, right? When we think about planning, it's a lot about like filling in those blanks. And something that I have been doing, which we have in common is that also I was looking at where do I want to be this year? Like what are sort of like, so I see, I have mapped out all the opportunities and then I started to. Um. filter that or organize that into more commitments. And some were like really, really solid commitments and others were like a maybe commitment. And then based on that, I started seeing that I completely overplant myself for my energy levels of what I have right now. And I was like, okay, so I don't really need to commit to all of this stuff. So I started to uncommit to things for myself. And I've been like toying around with this and it's, um, it's been really helpful because now I, I also know more or less where I'm going to be. Like I always say like when Nomad season is coming up, especially for my partner now, because he's not a digital Nomad. So I'm trying to explain to him like this bulk of months of events. I was like, yeah, it's Nomad season. But even then I'm like, okay, do I want to go to Bansko? Do I want to go to running remote? Like, you know, like where do I want to be and just really be intentional? And then I started looking at, okay, I have all these launches in my business coming up and then I have these clients. Okay. What, like, how does it kind of fit? And then I was like, okay, but I know I need some downtime to just ride and be and soak up some sun and vitamin D. So I've been really like, you know, it's a bit, it's kind of a big puzzle, but it's It's more like, you know, it's more like trying to see like where your rooms are going to be rather than like fully decorating it. So there's still a lot of space in there. It's not like this needs to be like this. It's, it's still a lot of space, but it's just giving some, some sort of direction to them, what can happen. Mm-hmm, for sure, for sure, for sure. And also one thing that I am trying to do more of this year is that it's just, it goes back to again, trusting your instincts. Like if you think, right, okay, because some people were saying to me, oh, you're gonna come to like this country, or you're gonna come to this country. And I was thinking, I would love to, I'm sure I will at some point, but in my mind, something's not sitting right. And sometimes it just doesn't have to make sense to anybody but you as well. you'll get there eventually. And also of course, part of the downside, if you will, of digital nomad life is you don't see people in real life as much as possible, but you will eventually. And then that time is just obviously so much more amazing and so much more fun because obviously you've been then doing what fulfills you first, and then you come and you meet up with everybody. And it's, like you said, in event season, everyone comes together and shares, and it's just the most fantastic time ever. So. Yeah, I think the biggest thing I think I take from this is also that you've got to do, you've got to own some of this life yourself too. Like I love being around a community, but some of this has also got to be, you've got to make sure you're doing this lifestyle for you too. Absolutely. It also makes me think of this other thing that I'm looking at like energy levels and being more intentional about where you are. One of the experiences that I had last year was because I unintentionally went, you know, went and stayed in Europe because of this whole like breakup situation, I went into fast travel. And I was like every two, three weeks I was somewhere else and this was not intentional. I just let everything happen and flow and it was great for the time being. Then I started to get really, really tired. I tried to slow down and slow down and slow down. Then at one point I had an event in Spain and I also had, well, actually this already started in Morocco. I had there, I was with Minoma and I had a client launch. And it was so hard to shift from like this energy of like being mindful and doing breath work and being in a desert and all this amazing stuff to going back to my office life, my virtual office life and doing the launches for my clients. So this was really, really challenging times. And then the same thing happened when I was in Spain. I, again, I had like some clients stuff that I had to deal with, but I was there with the nomads and one of the lessons that I had here was that If I'm going to a location and I know I'm going to meet a ton of nomads, let's say we're going to Bansko, right? And we're going there. The one thing I don't want to do that week is deal with client stuff. So one of the gifts I'm giving myself this year is to be so freaking intentional about if I'm there in a space with a lot of nomads, I will have less meetings, no podcast recordings and just be there. with the people so I can actually soak up all that energy but also give a lot of energy and not be in a negative stressful space because people feel it and it's not nice for yourself and for others. But then also if I'm going to a place where I know there are no mess because I want to write or I want to do planning or whatever that is then I can do that because I have the space and I will not feel lonely because I had set the intention to not be surrounded by people. Have you thought about it? this way also when you were looking at your locations, like what are some of the, so that's one question. And then the other question I have for you is like, what are some of the intentions or on expectations almost that you have from a certain location? Is it people? Is it creativity? Is it downtime? I was literally gonna add on to your point. That is one of the things that I like to do when I go away. And I know when I first started doing it, people were like, oh, that's again, a bit structured. I was like, no, you don't understand. Actually having just two to three goals when you go there, i.e. I'm going here for two network. I'm going to meet more creative people. I'm going here so I can get more content. I'm going here so I can, like you said, rest or take more time to be outside. very European in that way, love being outside. But it actually creates so much more intention to what you're doing as well, because then you can have a day where you're sat there going, oh my God, I don't know what to do, but I know I've got this thing later on, or like, ah, and then actually going, no, wait, hang on, how could I then sit and do more content? Where can I go today? Like, it just creates that kind of like, slight structure to the day in that respect. So absolutely, I would definitely have some individual location goals. But I think the biggest thing for me that I've decided this year is that I want to, I do actually want to create more content around like creative digital nomos, like what destinations are like great for creative people, because I know that as much as I love like being like in beachy destinations, for example, that is very different. When I'm craving like wanting to go into like a gallery or to go meet up with like other creative people you're actually more likely to find them in cities or towns or think places like that. So sometimes I crave a day where I want to go to an art gallery and sit and have a cup of tea and just indulge in this process and just get lost in something artsy. I can't have that from certain destinations so hey then I want to be outdoors, I want to be more mindful in a nature. That sounds a lot more kind of hippie than I intended but... it's yeah I think it I definitely have like my overall like kind of intentions but then I'll definitely have individual intentions for different destinations too and I think it definitely helps with like mental health wise too. What was your second question? Did I miss a question? No I didn't miss a question did I? No, I don't think so. And also I think this is like why I wanted to touch on this today as well in a digital nomad lifestyle is one of the observations I had also last year. And I have mentioned this so often on the podcast already, like it's so productized. It's like, Oh, I buy this thing, this lifestyle online. I just sell all my stuff and then I'm going in and I'm going to live this lifestyle. And I mean, I've been nomading for over five years now. I've been a bra for over 10 years now. Like. And I've been really seeing like how I'm in this lifestyle for just for my own. Like it's changing all the time. Your needs are changing. So it's really, really important to have this sense of self-awareness of what you really want. And what I, what I saw last year as well is that because it's so productized, a lot of people, they, they go in so deep and so hard that sounds so sexual. Sorry, guys. I didn't mean that. I was like... I'm so bad. I'm sorry. It's a free flow podcast. It's fine. It's fine. But like, you know, it's so intense and then people are like, it's not sustainable because it's that lack of self awareness. So also, and this happened to me last year as well, right? Because I was like traveling and going and going and going. It's like meeting you in London like so randomly. Oh my god. Hey, I was it was so random that was it was a very random day. I'm But so also knowing that exhausting myself really to the bone. I was like no dish here It's got to be like I feel like structure does really creative creates a lot of freedom So it's again guys is not to say like oh you need to plan a map everything out But I have like in my in my on travel schedule or location schedule. I have I'm say I okay this is gonna be like vitamin D time I don't know where I'm going I'm checking like maybe I go to Malaga maybe I go to Greece like but I don't have the location yet but I know that after doing winter for so long I know I need some vitamin D I want to have a coconut or just something like I think to add onto that also is that I think it's about encouraging people also to do travel that works for them again. In the, cause one of the conversation that I hope that we'll start getting rid of is that going places that are cheap, like I quote cheap, conversation needs to go in the bin quite frankly, because like it, again, going somewhere just because it's cheaper for somebody say from like UK, the States, whatever, doesn't mean one it's like cheap for everyone else there and it gets quite muddy waters I would say when in that respect it has a conversation, but also it doesn't mean you're going to enjoy a destination. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's also like, it's, it's one of like these like misconceptions that we're just like traveling to places for, for that. No, it's like, actually, like, it's a good question. Like, why are you traveling to a place? Like, is it the community? Yeah, is it there because there's an event, maybe there's work opportunity, maybe you need some downtime, but it's no, and actually the Nomad lifestyle isn't so cheap. Like I've been based in one place right now for a little while because like I said, I needed some downtime and I started to see also with like, you know, planning 2024, I was like, man, the flights, the Airbnb is like everything. It kind of adds up. I am like, wow, it's, you know, it might be I think just it goes for me it goes back to why are you in a country because I know that there'll be people going like trying to pick places based on a visa or based on what they think that they'll get from like their groceries their rent whatever and actually they'll get there and go oh but I don't like being around the community and you're like well then why are you there like you're just going and being miserable but for like what works for your budget that makes no sense to me so it's if you're not if you're not happy. And if you're not content with where you're at, then I think there needs to be some rethinking around like what you're doing there. Yeah. And I guess also this all goes back to this, to this thing that it's because it's so, um, Productized. This lack of awareness is creating the unsettled feeling of like, Hey, this, this nomad lifestyle isn't for me or online entrepreneurship isn't for me. Or it's like, but actually if you go to the root of it, it's like, have you practice enough mindfulness and self-awareness, do you know really what you want in that given moment? And I think that if you don't do that, you cannot do this for a really long time because your batteries just go low. You don't understand where it's coming from. And I think also a part of this lifestyle is because we design it, you know, like you, you have all these ideas and then you design your life and then you need to build it and then you need to consistently manage it. You always need to self-check. You're really like, okay, wait, am I doing okay? I'm not feeling great. What is this? I think for. female no-message is maybe even a little bit more challenging with like hormonal things. It's like, yeah, it sounds so easy, but it's really not. I'll never forget, because what's funny is a lot of the digital, a lot of stories you hear about digital nomadism, we've already heard in the context of content creation. So for example, the BBC wrote an article that was circulating around and I even had clients like talking about it, going, oh, this is a really interesting article. And it was, they said, oh, well, like people who tried digital nomadism essentially got burned out and went back to the office. And they had like one, I think, source that actually had a tiny bit of evidence in it. But the thing is they've really been doing that with content creation. Like, oh, people are trying to make money from content creation and all that, and they're burning out. Well, that's the same with anything. And it's just really funny how the mainstream also keeps going through these different cycles about the conversation around digital nomadism too, in that, yeah, the point about being a digital nomad, being a remote worker, being a content creator, being freelance, is that, and I know that I went through it just as a freelancer, like in the first month, I was like, oh my God, all of a sudden you're in charge of... so much that you're not used to necessarily having that freedom. And it takes a little while to adjust. And yeah, you have to be so much more mindful. Like it looks and it is, don't get me wrong, a very flexible, free lifestyle, like free as in freedom, like, yeah, lifestyle. But at the end of the day, with that freedom comes so much more that you have to be disciplined around that people don't get. And that includes. looking after your mental health, looking after your physical health, looking after like planning more than you did before. It's a lot, there's a lot to think about which is both exciting and maybe a bit daunting. Yeah, it is a bit daunting. And I think one of the things that, to sort of take away this daunting feeling is being part of the community actively, because, you know, it's like a lot of the challenges that we have, everyone is having those challenges. Like you're not alone. And I think when you're not, so yeah, when you travel to a country or to a place because it's sort of say cheaper, but you don't have like a lot of connection with community or digital nomads. It's going to be really hard to get through stuff. And one of the learnings that I have in the Nomad lifestyle, and this is what I find the Nomad community so amazing, is the people, because we're all here to help each other. I feel like there's a lot of like, everyone is, everybody is winning mentality. And this is something I really apply in my business as well. And I feel like it's very supportive. So, this is what I really love about it. And it kind of comes down to the people. I think. Let your laptop and travel and all of these things are kind of like vehicles to get you somewhere But the actual like, you know satisfaction is like feeling like you landed like you're like rooted like yeah, you're part of something that is more closer to what you want to be or how you want to feel rather than You know this thing that you grew up with Or the society that you grew up in because you know, it's so and yeah, I can go on that one forever but I have I have a question for you hand so Looking into this year, can you share with the listeners, especially as an inspiration, like how do you practice this more conscious, mindfulness way of living? Are there things that you do in your day-to-day life as takeaways for the listeners that they can apply as well or play with? I like that play with. Well, to be honest, to add to your point about community, like there is nothing more amazing than being in a room. It's electric, honestly, when you're in certain digital nomad rooms, because again, like, so it's just such an entrepreneurial energy in that room that is just, yeah, you can't help but not be inspired or motivated. So that, for me, I know that I'd kind of got to the end of Pro 2023 and thought to myself, okay, what... do I need more of? That was a real big conversation. Like, what do I need more of in my life? What kind of was missing a bit for me from this year? What were some of the highlights? And of course, and I will say that one of the big things I was like, I need more of in 2024 was community and just being around. Like, again, for me, obviously I love being around like the general digital nomad community, but then for myself as someone who's a bit more creative, I love being around like creative people where we can talk about like obviously very specific things that we love to talk out about. Like... drones or like, you know, different SEO or like just something that is a little bit more kind of niche. So for me, definitely it was thinking about, okay, what do I want more of? But then also, how do I then apply that? Because, you know, do I then need to go look for WhatsApp groups? Do I need to look at like Facebook groups? Do I need to reach out to people? And also just talking about like where I am more. So like that's where I said, right, I'm going to create Instagram posts where I actually share where I'm going to be this year. So then people know where I'm at and I can like... expect to meet up with certain people and different bits and pieces like that. I think that's probably if I was going to give your listeners one takeaway and that the takeaway it would be think about but it's again it's down to the digital nomad lifestyle right you know what you want from the digital nomad lifestyle it's the same thing like what do you want because I could easily have gone and I've nearly a couple of times gone oh is it that I need to go back to an office like do I need to like move back to one place and just stay there again? No. And what's funny is, every time I've thought that, the universe has somehow like plunked a different opportunity. Like that's kind of maybe go, okay, no, remote life is still happening for Han. But it's deciding what it is, I think, that you really need from the lifestyle and then working with it from there. So whether that is that you need flexibility to look after your cat, flexibility to be around your family more, that you want to be traveling, or if you want to be around more creatives in different cities and... doing that kind of thing. It's just, again, it kind of comes back to what we were talking about before, it's about understanding what you need and going from there, making plans from there. Cool. Love it. So you have a question that you ask yourself, like, what is it that you need more of? More of, um, are there other questions that you ask yourself when you're in this sort of reflective moment? I wish it could be like, yeah, I have these intentional like prompts, but no, it literally was sort of, again, I think this is, you probably get this from... Not quite, no. Hey Siri. No, I think also I was going to say, because I feel like you probably think this too being in marketing, but I feel like a lot of my year ends up being like six months before everybody else. So like, I'll start asking myself these like questions that people normally start putting into... practice in January, I'll put them in September. So I'm already in September thinking, okay, what do I want to finish this year off with? What do I want to bring into 2024? Like, okay, what do I really wanna do for the next couple months? So it's just sort of, I guess, when it comes to, especially like that really strange week between Christmas and New Year, it's a good time to just sort of sit and just be reflective, like I journal for me personally, and I will go, okay, right, so 2023. this is how it was and I'll just sort of judge, judge that. And then I'll probably get to like, okay, this didn't work for me, I fast travel was great, glad I got it out of my system, but it isn't gonna work for me for moving forward. What do I want more of? I want more slow travel because I love to experience places and yeah, like I'm that person that doesn't need to see all the tourist sites, but take me to a place where I can have a coffee and sit for two, three hours. I'm good, that's me, I'm happy. So where can I like go that is gonna give me more of that? I love being around creative people, I love being around the community, digital name in my community, so how can I bring more of that in? Okay, it's just sort of working through like that kind of process for myself. Okay, what do I need less of? What do I want to, and obviously less was, well, I say let's stick with more because I don't want to take it too negatively, but I think for me it was more just again doing travel, how I would do my life, how I want to do my life and not doing it because... it looks like everybody else is doing it that way because I know for myself I don't feel right when I'm just following how other people are doing things. Yeah, love that. You know what? This morning, I, I don't know why this came so strongly to my mind, but I'm, I was thinking the coconuts do not make me more nomad. And I don't know why, like, I think it's because I'm in Vienna right now. It's not really like a nomadic city or anything like that. Um, and I love meeting with digital nomads. Like I'm. And I felt a little bit more disconnected from the community, but it was also because I just really needed more downtime with myself to reflect and yeah. Also ask myself like, Whoa, like what actually happened last year? Like it was such a, it was actually kind of a crazy year, very disruptive and like, you know, like all of that. And then I was really thinking about it this morning. I was like, yeah, like all the downtime that I'm having right now, all the focus time is like. is giving me space to recharge my battery. And when Nomad season is starting, like when I'm going to these places, I can just be fully be there. And I think this is also kind of like, what is really nice about living the life that works for you in that moment is really, really listening to yourself. And sometimes you don't have the answers to it. So then you will need to create space to just, you know, experiment, try things out. So for let's say the more newbie nomads or if you're kind of nomading right now and you're stuck and you don't know what's next, like go try to find an experience maybe that is a little bit more new. So you can, you know, like learn new things because it's really, it's a bit of, I think we have it in the book as well. It's like, yeah, it's a self-development journey on steroids and that's just really what it is. It's ongoing, it never freaking stops. So yeah, it's super exhausting, but it's fun as well. And And like in the end of the day, you will really learn a lot about yourself. So I also encourage people, if you don't know, just get out there and just try it out. And if your body or your mind or anything is telling you like, well, I need to slow down. It's OK. Like you can allow yourself to do that. sure and what's interesting is that I think one thing that I'm having spoken to more people about this because also I get asked quite a bit like oh where should the first time remote that digital name app person go and I think the biggest thing that's also come out of that is don't think about necessarily obviously yes think about destinations because I end up contradicting what I said earlier think about destinations that you've always wanted to go to and whether they could you can make those work I think also a big thing though is that the when you start becoming a digital nomad, is a good thing to do is to gravitate towards the community. So find like ways you can be involved in the community because even if you don't necessarily, you know, you're two weeks in, one month in, a couple months in, being around that kind of community, you can then bounce off ideas. Pretty much everyone's been in that place at some point. You can then start figuring out whether a digital nomad life is for you, if it's something that you want to pursue. And there are so many more. programs available now that you can go try it. I know quite a few people who have done like remote year or Wi-Fi tribe and then gone on to like build these amazing communities and then gone on to really live their best workation lives. It really again comes back to like try it out, see what feels right. And even if you don't have like, there's like that saying, isn't there? Like you don't have to see the whole staircase. You just have to see the first two steps. So whatever feels right. in the next five minutes, go for that. You don't have to see the next five minutes. steps are the people. So I 100% agree with this. And this is also an advice that I usually give. Just follow where the nomads go. Whether that is on a cruise ship or if it's in Bali. I do think that Bali is still a great place as a new nomad. Because there are a lot of nomads there. There's a lot of community. It doesn't have to be there, but it's like... just go to where the nomads are because that's where you get the inspiration. That's where you can see how people do it. The other thing that I always tell people is don't, please don't sell everything and just think that this is it. Like it's okay to have a storage. It's okay to just try it out. You don't need to do that. There are so many nomads that are kind of part-time nomading. Like, you know, like I was thinking about it as well. Like how much of a no, like a hashtag identity crisis. It's like, how much of a nomad am I? Like, am I, like, because I'm still a nomad. I'm still super nomadic. The only thing is, is that I need downtime. I need slow nomading, super slow with a bit of snow. Nomading, that's why I'm doing it right now. And that's okay. Yeah, and people also just because like, you know, some people have the big thing also that I think people think about is, but I don't wanna quit my job. You don't have to quit your job to then go be a nomad. You can have a conversation. The thing about being in 2024 now is that a lot more employers are open to conversations about remote work. So whether you like... go for a vacation for a month or a couple days or like you don't have to quit like a whole cold turkey, sell all your stuff, quit your job, move out the country. Like it's not that at all. Again, and I think because I think that's a common misconception is that we are like nine to five office worker haters and while that's not entirely untrue, it's not. it's, but it's a sexy marketing story. Like we are in storytelling. We are in marketing. It's like, it's, it's the hero stories is the origin story of like, I sold all my stuff. I mean, I don't have that, sir. I didn't sell all my stuff on left. It just kind of slowly happened. And I don't think that you're more nomadic, more sexy, more anything. If you have a story like that, like it's so totally fine to just do it a few months out of the year. Um, and that's a start and maybe that's enough for you. I think the whole purpose goes back to it's your life. You can take ownership of it. You can design it, you can build it, you can manage it, but you got to do it. And you're responsible for that. Like you can't just like follow blind lead the cloud, the crowd, and then expect happiness is going to fall in your lap. And it's like, yeah, it's happening. And don't trust also what you always see on Instagram as well. But again, take it from two marketers. This is also why I love the podcast and the conversations because it's like, it's not to say not even to down talk the lifestyle, but it's just like it and it's with everything. It's like, you know, even with entrepreneurship, there was, it was actually a while ago already. Someone asked me like, yeah, I want to become a nomad. I really like my job, but I don't want to become an entrepreneur or freelancer. It's just not my thing. And I was like, can you do your work remotely? Yes. I was like, are you allowed to do it remotely? Yeah. I was like, okay, you can nomad. You can buy a ticket right now and start tomorrow. You don't have to become a freelancer or an entrepreneur. There's so many remote workers that are nomadic, part-time, full-time. Doesn't really matter. It's like, it's all possible. I'm yeah. Yeah, I was just reminded of it over Christmas as well because again people think like oh you go sit but you know I would like to I've designed my life so that I can go have a coffee in a really cute cafe in the morning because that's how I like to start my morning and like you were saying oh sometimes you want beach time so yeah okay at 6pm I shut my laptop and you'll probably see on Instagram that like I went to the beach this evening because it's close by. but it's because I designed my life that way. I was heavily reminded of like the fact that I don't ever wanna commute again over Christmas. I was talking to my sister and she was saying, oh, do you miss having your car? And I was like, yeah, I miss having my car, but like I miss the idea of my car. What I don't miss is then having to like, you know, I bought my car so that I could do commutes to like client's offices and like to do commutes to airports, which is still very fancy and very privileged, don't get me wrong, but. I don't miss sitting in traffic for an hour after a long day, trying to navigate myself out of like South London. So it's all about like how you want to design your lifestyle too. Absolutely. So one of the. How can I ask this question? If there's one thing that you very intentionally designed for this year, just to kind of wrap up the design, your own life, like what is one of the things that you have designed for yourself this year? One of the things I'm designing for myself this year. in your Nomad lifestyle. Oh, um. Again, it comes back to being in creative cities or creative destinations and being around creative people. Being around more people. I knew more people in my life. I've had quite a couple of years now where I've been more by myself and that's been good just to sort of reset and really take time to be mindful. And now I'm like, bring the people. I miss people. Love it, love it, love it. All right, amazing. Okay, so we're almost at the end of the episode. I always ask my guests if they have one question for me. So, Miss Han, do you got question? Oh, I'm going to turn your question back on you. What have you created, designed for your life this year? But what are you designing for your life this year? Ooh, love that. Yeah. I think I, uh, it's, it's the planning. It's just really intentionally understanding if I go into focus mode, then after I need some chill time at the beach. So I'm like, I just created that I created a wire frame based on my energy levels and what I'm doing and what I'm organizing and based on that, I will travel, take on new clients, launch a program. You know, like stuff like that. Um, and that's, that's how I do it. So it's a framework. It's, um, it's that it's, but it's not completely decorated yet. The bells and whistles on there. The locations aren't decided yet, but I know that this is going to be sun time. This is going to be coconut time. This is going to be city life because yeah, any cafes and inspiration, there's going to be like more nomad community, you know, so that that's really what I created for myself and, um. Yeah, it's the first time I'm doing it this way, but I'm really excited about it. Like it's also a new era in my digital nomad life. So yeah, let's go. I'm excited. I hope we see each other more on the road this year again to have some random adventures. That would be so much fun, but I'm sure we will because we have been chatting also, you know, about like, about these things. And this is also what I just to top it off guys, like what I really love again, it's community. Yes, it's amazing to go to places, but online communities, virtual connections are as powerful. Like it's been so, because we have only seen each other two times in real life. Like, well, during running the mode. So one time and then in London, right? But I feel like I, it almost feels like I saw you last week or something. You know, it's like... But the thing, obviously, we're actually very good at obviously chatting to each other and kind of spitballing and free flowing, but there's just something also about being in other people's company, really, where you have then an afternoon where you can just sort of do a bit of work, chat, hang out, again, it's just, and you just never know what comes out of those conversations, too. The amount of times I've been at events, that was one thing from last year, that was the amount of times I was at events and these amazing ideas came out of it just from talking to people. Just that kind of, it will never really fully be replaced. These virtual communities are incredible, but being in person, there's just something so special about it too. Absolutely. And also for me, like that's why for me, the ladies, uh, growth meetup is so important to also maintain those connections. And then, you know, when I'm doing the mindful marketing retreat, like that's when we go even deeper into marketing and that's when we can do it like in real life, because a hundred percent agree with you, those connections in, in real life connections are important and that's why it's so helpful when you plan a little bit your year so you know what's going on when and whenever you go to an event, you can be fully present. You don't have to deal with other stuff. Absolutely. I'm so excited for your, I'm excited for your 2024, girl. I'm excited. I was very excited for yours too. It's like, I'm so cheering for you. This is amazing. And before we go ahead, where can people find you online? And also where can people find more about the creative digital nomad community that you're building? Yay, I'm so glad you asked and also terrified. So you can find me Handmeets World on all the things now, but also I am building Remote Creatives Hub on Instagram and also newsletter, which is on LinkedIn. And you can sign up on the website, my website, handmeetsworld.com. We love it. So if you go to digi for slash podcast, you can find this episode here. We also have the show notes. If you wanna like go back to the episode, just have, you know, like the biggest highlights of this episode, you can read it there. If you really love this episode and you love me and you love Han and you love all the Nomads, please share it with other people. There must be a friend that can, you know, that can really, really learn from this episode that feel inspired. And if you wanna say hi and connect with us, Find us on Instagram. For me, it's at Digital Nomads Daily. And thanks so much for listening to first interview of the year. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much for being here, like I always say, happy nomading! Woo woo! Hahaha!