Career Coaching Secrets

The Ikigai Journey: Finding Your Purpose and Remote Career with Markos Korvesis

• Davis Nguyen

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In this Career Coaching Secrets episode, host Rexhen interviews Markos Korvesis, a global career coach and digital nomad mentor. After feeling professionally lost, Markos discovered his calling and now helps senior professionals find remote jobs they love.

He guides clients through his Ikigai Journey Program to align their career with their ideal lifestyle. Markos primarily finds clients through LinkedIn, networking, and the Digital Nomad Festivals he co-founded.

To scale his business, he plans to launch group coaching and online courses, and advises other coaches to hire a virtual assistant to automate processes. Markos is currently rebranding his business to be more international.

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Markos Korvesis:

My target audience are mostly 9 to 5 senior professionals. Okay, professionals with a lot of experience that they are currently working in a 9 to 5 job or they maybe take a break from a 9 to 5 job to figure out what to do next. And they would like to find an ideal job for them that they actually feel joy and fulfillment and do it remotely from anywhere. So which means that there are people that they want to work remotely from their country, from their place, from their home, or even...

Davis Nguyen:

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching business myself, and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over a hundred million dollars each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business. Hey

Rexhen Doda:

everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Regan, and today's guest is Marcos Corbesis. He is a global career coach, digital nomad mentor, the founder of Nomad Career and co-founder of Digital Nomad Festival in Vietnam and in Greece. With over 3000 clients across 50 countries and a mission to help people design location independent lives that they love, start online freelancing businesses, Marcos blends strategy mindset and his signature Ikigai journey to guide professionals into meaningful remote careers. He's helped clients land jobs at companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple, all while working from the beach cafes and mountain towns in 37 countries. So he is a digital nomad himself. So it's a pleasure for me to have him on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Marcos.

Markos Korvesis:

Thank you, Nedrin. Thanks for the invitation.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you for coming. And so I wanted to ask you How you got involved into this? What's the story? It seems like you've been traveling in many countries. Now you are in Vietnam and you come from Greece, which is also an amazing place to do a digital nomad career. How did it all get started? What inspired you to become a coach for the nomads? Yeah,

Markos Korvesis:

actually, I was, let's say, a bit lost professionally back in 2016. And I was searching about my next steps. I didn't know. what is a good job for me, something that I like. I was doing random things. I studied finance. I worked in B2B sales, in the technology sector, in telecommunications and some other stuff. I even tried my hobbies, dancing, to do it as a job for one year. In 2017, in January, I joined one of the conferences and meetups and workshops that I was attending. One of them had one career coach and that was the first time that i learned about career coaching and i was very excited about this job since then i started learning about it educating myself doing certifications online courses reading finding mentors finding coaches to guide me and everything and in i think the same year i think it was the same year a bit later maybe, or the next year, that I met the first digital nomads in person. And that was an event in Athens, in Greece. And I met some foreigners, digital nomads, that they were traveling the world and working remotely. And that was my inspiration to not only become a career coach, but also become a digital nomad. So I am a career coach and digital nomad since 2018.

Rexhen Doda:

When

Markos Korvesis:

it comes to COVID,

Rexhen Doda:

where did that find you?

Markos Korvesis:

So actually, yeah, when COVID happened, That was very funny and scary, I would say. I was in Marseille, in France. I was nomadic in France, from the very north part of France to the south. So during COVID, I was in Marseille, south France. And actually, my plan was to go to north Italy during, I think it was March, right? Middle of March. So during this time, I was planning to go to north Italy, like in one week. In one week, I was planning to go to Italy. Then COVID hit North Italy. I was planning to go to Verona and Milano and Torino and Venice and Trieste and all these North Italian, let's say, cities and had the whole plan ready. And then COVID happened in Italy. I firstly started saying to my friends, guys, I heard about COVID in Italy. How are the things there? And you know, Italians are also like Greeks. They say nothing's happening. Everything is fine. And then the Venice Carnival was canceled. Museums were closed. in many

Rexhen Doda:

other countries and travel further as well. So what What is it that you find most rewarding? What do you find the most rewarding from your career coaching journey?

Markos Korvesis:

So there are many things from the career coaching journey. My biggest, let's say, the thing that I like the most is the social impact because I'm helping people find a better job, transitioning careers, change profession, quit their nine to five job and start an online services business that they actually like or find a remote job. with even five times higher income than what they were having before. So there are all these things because it's transformational. So people that can literally transform their lives by finding a better job, by working remotely from their country, but for a company in another country with way higher. For example, you live in, let's say, in Albania and you have a salary from Switzerland. You understand, right? It's way higher, I guess, from companies in Albania, let's say, or in Greece. And so that's the most rewarding part that I see all these changes. And it's not only individuals, it's also families with kids that they even change place. They move to a different city, a different country, a different continent that completely changed their life. I had couples, I had singles, I had a couple that the lady was pregnant and they moved to a new place and changed career. during the fourth month of pregnancy. So it was like all this kind of, you know, transformational experiences. That's the most rewarding for me. And for my nomadic journey is freedom. I can work from anywhere, anytime.

Rexhen Doda:

When it comes to your ideal client, how would you describe that? Who is your ideal client, your target audience?

Markos Korvesis:

My target audience are mostly nine to five senior professionals. Okay, professionals with a lot of experience that they are currently working in a nine to five job, or they maybe take a break from a nine to five job to figure out what to do next. And they would like to find an ideal job for them that they actually feel joy and fulfillment and do it remotely from anywhere. So which means that there are people that they want to work remotely from their country, from their place, from their home, or even better from anywhere. They would like to become digital nomads and travel the world like me so they can have their own freelancing businesses and work from anywhere, anytime and have all this flexibility.

Rexhen Doda:

And for anyone listening that wants to consider this, how does it work to be in your coaching program or basically to work with you? How does that work?

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah, so at the moment, I only offer one-to-one coaching services. I also plan to offer group services and recorded sessions like courses. But at the moment I offer one-to-one coaching services. So if someone knows what kind of job we want to do, for example, social media manager, like a very specific job, then we are going directly to practical things like customized CV tips, LinkedIn tips, job search strategies for remote work, and this kind of stuff to go directly to practical things. Or how to start and grow an online service business with this kind of services. If people don't know what they want to do, they will do the Ikigai Journey Program, which is currently seven coaching sessions, one-to-one, with 10 exercises. And we have it holistically. We explore many things. We start with their personal goals and their ideal lifestyle. And then we go to the professional part and what kind of jobs they are matching their personal goals and their ideal lifestyle. Because maybe, for example, you say, I would love to do snowboard every week. So we need to take into consideration hobbies, families, daily routine, relationships, a lot of things to figure out what kind of job is better for them and in which way.

Rexhen Doda:

And where do you find them right now? Where do you find your clients? What marketing channel works best?

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah. most of them find me through linkedin so i do posts on linkedin and a lot of comments and they find me through linkedin most of them from facebook or instagram and also some of them from networking because i joined a lot of a lot of conferences and meetups and workshops and i also organize the two festivals in vietnam and greece for digital nomads and also weekly events online offline So from networking, word of mouth, references, and also from talks and videos, I have offered more than 100 talks and podcast episodes and TV interviews and all this kind of stuff. So they also randomly find a video and they contact me.

Rexhen Doda:

And I wanted to ask you also earlier when we were talking, but wanted to save this for the podcast. So for anyone who doesn't know yet, what is the Digital Nomad Festival?

Markos Korvesis:

So there are many digital nomad festivals, but most of them, they have some common, let's say, activities. So one of them is that they usually have a registration and opening ceremony, like an opening party or event. Then what follows is a conference with talks so there are international speakers from the nomad community or professionals and businesses that they are relevant to the nomad community they have services for digital nomads, for example. So the offer talks about different topics like AI, artificial intelligence, global tax optimization, marketing, sales, lead generation, lifestyle, nomad challenges, so a lot of things. And we also have side events, which are, we also call them conferences sometimes. These are meetups and workshops and other activities organized by speakers, volunteers, attendees, sponsors, business partners, And we usually have a lot of them. Like in Moscow, in Bulgaria, they have hundreds of them. In Vietnam, we had around 55. We had 30 talks, 20 wellness sessions and 55 workshops and meetups. So there are a lot of things that are happening. Sometimes there are cultural activities. For example, in Greece, we will do an optional visit to Acropolis. An optional visit to Acropolis Museum can be a walking tour, a food tour. It can be a theater show like we did in Vietnam, a trip to the islands, you know, so some extra activities. And of course, a lot of networking. So you meet a lot of like-minded people that you can make new friends. You can find a partner, possibly. They even do speed dating events sometimes. And you can find business partners to work with. So it's super valuable. A lot of information and a lot of experiences and new connections.

Rexhen Doda:

And for the ones that you're basically involved in in Vietnam and in Greece. How many times a year do they happen? It's one time per year.

Markos Korvesis:

Most of the nomad events are one time per year and some of them are two times per year.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And they are similar to a conference, but it's focused on digital nomads and also could also be a lifestyle, not just business specifically. Interesting.

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah, for example, some of them, they focus on health awareness. Some others, they focus on building new projects or freelancing. Yeah, they have different themes, let's say.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And when it comes to your coaching business right now, how do you see that in the future, in the next one to three years? Do you have any goals right now, specific goals that you're working towards with your coaching business?

Markos Korvesis:

Yes, I think that I'm procrastinating, to be honest, many times, is to develop group coaching services and some online courses. So I have some webinars. I do a lot of webinars, but I don't have any online courses. So my focus is to have a group coaching service and some online courses relevant to my audience so i can reach more people i can be more accessible to more people because this service will be more affordable compared to one-to-one coaching, right? And also it will be also more flexible for me because in one-to-one coaching, we also need to exchange our time, right? But if we have group coaching services and online courses are more flexible and they can also generate passive income. So it is higher impact, bigger audience. That's my goal for the next. And also my plan is to implement as many AI tools and automations as possible in a way not in a spammy way because i also want to help other people do the same like okay i can help you let's say start your own freelancing business and i also know a few tools that can give you some ideas and you can give them a try.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. So you're thinking of AI to be incorporated kind of on what program you help people with to offer that to your clients eventually. Use it for yourself and then offer to your clients. Makes a lot of sense. Has there been any investments in the coaching business that you feel like that was a very good investment? That could be anything like a coaching program, maybe a mastermind or a community? or a team or whatever it is that you feel like that was a very good investment. So for my research, I'm thinking of like, what are the best investments? Of course. And that you have done, basically.

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah, I have done over 300 programs offline in 20 countries and a lot online. So my favorite ones were NLP certifications. So I did NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming certifications, NLP practitioner and master NLP practitioner. I had a lot of insights for NLP coaching tools and mindset. It was amazing for me. It completely changed my mind. And that was kind of hybrid online and offline program. And I also enjoyed a lot some programs in Europe, actually, and mostly in the Netherlands. I did eight trainings in the Netherlands in Olde Werthe Foundation. It's an educational organization in Omen, North Africa. east of the netherlands and they have coaching programs offline coaching programs and i really enjoyed them i i did eight trainings there uh it's also super useful for me completely a lot of practice it was not only theory but also a lot of practice like with each other the trainers and the participants. I joined one in Italy, which was also mind-blowing for me. It was about personal development and limiting beliefs and overcoming fear, getting out of your comfort zone. That was called Basic Synergy. It's the name of the training. It's in different countries. There is in Hungary, in the Netherlands and some other parts. What else? And also the Mindvalley community, the big company that they have a lot of online courses and offline events, like this August is an event in Amsterdam, for example. I made a lot of new friends from this community also some clients and I learned a lot of new things.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool and what would you say right now with your coaching business what would you say is a challenge for you that you're trying to solve for let's say in the short term maybe this quarter or the next quarter?

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah right now I'm doing rebranding I had the coaching business in Greece Since 2018 and since the beginning of this year, I decided to start a new company with more specific needs and services and fully international because the previous one was focused on the Greek audience and mostly job seekers and mostly writing services than coaching. Like right now, I do rebranding. One of my challenges is to start a new social media, a new website, and start doing new marketing stuff, content on social media platforms, a website, and so on. ads so to generate more leads with my new business. I still have leads because they find me on LinkedIn and all these other ways without even having a website at the moment. But yeah, like I want to do this and generate more leads, let's say.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much for sharing, Marcos. And for anyone like coaches mostly listening, what advice would you give to them when they're looking to scale their impact?

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah, something that helped me a lot in the past was hiring a virtual assistant. So When I started, I was working alone. I was doing everything alone, all the administrative things, CRM for data for the clients and the offers, information, calls, everything I was doing by myself. And then I hired a virtual assistant that saved my life. And then she automated a lot of processes, let's say. So I didn't have to invest time in informing people about services and pricing and processes and qualifying leads and all these things. So she was doing this for me. And so yeah, virtual assistant hiring freelancers. Like I had a freelancer virtual assistant in the beginning part time, then full time. Other freelancers for other things that I would like to help me, like to create content and market picker stuff like that. So I believe this one. It's a very good idea to hire a virtual assistant, ideally with knowledge in AI and automation. So if they find a virtual assistant with AI knowledge, I think that's one of the best ways to scale up, let's say.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you so much, Marcos. For anyone that wants to find you or connect with you, they can go into LinkedIn and look up Marcos Korvos and they'll be able to find your profile and they'll be able to find more information on your profile, such as your email and other links that they could find additional information on. Is there any other way that people could find you and connect with you?

Markos Korvesis:

Yeah, so I use many things. LinkedIn is one of them. They can also find me on Facebook, same name. On Instagram, I also share a lot of content from my nomading travels on Instagram. So they can see a lot of travel stories and stuff. Yeah, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, so different platforms.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you so much, Marcos. And thank you for coming to the podcast today. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.

Davis Nguyen:

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit joinpurplecircle.com.