How I Accidentally Became a Digital Nomad – And Why I Wouldn’t Change a Thing!

I never set out to become a digital nomad - I sort of fell into it. My plan had always been early retirement and travelling. More recently, that dream evolved into seeing the world by boat after my husband and I fell in love with sailing! ⛵🌍

The Dream Begins

Our first six months of retirement were absolutely incredible, blissful, exciting, relaxing - daily swims in warm waters, travelling as much or as little as we wanted, getting to grips with our new boat, and fully embracing boat life. It was everything we’d hoped for. Pure freedom! ☀️🌊

But then summer gave way to autumn. October arrived, and we settled into our six-month winter berth in Montenegro (stunning country, by the way - a hidden gem for nomads! More on that in a future post 😉). As the colder months set in, I realised something unexpected…I missed work!

The Unexpected Challenge ❄️

I missed using my brain for more than just passage planning and provisioning. The winter stretch seemed too long. This was during the global pandemic, and suddenly, travel restrictions were in place again. My engineer husband was due to go back to his old place of work for the annual maintenance shutdown to earn us some money. Suddenly, that wasn’t possible, and we had a gaping hole in our finances. If he couldn’t do it that year, there was every chance he wouldn’t be able to return in subsequent years due to skills fade.

Taking Matters Into My Own Hands 💻

I started looking for online jobs but quickly realised how difficult it was to find someone willing to employ me while I was living overseas. So, I took matters into my own hands - I started my own business and registered with an agency of fellow nomads. The owner had been working nomadically for years, had a geographically dispersed team, and understood that variations in location and time zone were no barrier to business.

The agency owner was an incredible mentor who spotted my natural aptitude for tech. I soon specialised as a Tech VA, and after a year of gaining experience, I felt brave enough to branch out and start landing my own private clients too. 🚀

Living the Dream 💡

These days, I work exclusively with private clients and now I also offer 1:1 mentoring for aspiring nomads, I've never had job satisfaction like it, I absolutely love what I do! Helping my clients learn and grow never really feels like ‘work’. Plus, I only work part-time, because that’s all I need to earn enough to support myself (and my husband) while travelling full-time. 🏝️

However, I’ve learned so much and navigated many pitfalls along the way that I realised I want to share some of that knowledge to help others achieve their goals.

I truly am living the dream - and I REALLY want to help you do the same! 💫

Have any questions about becoming a digital nomad? Drop me a message! Let’s chat! 😊