How to become digital nomad?

From thatcher to digital nomad…

In 2014, I told myself that I had to create a job that would allow me to travel, I didn’t know exactly where to go but I was willing to take the risk so I wouldn’t regret my life.

At the time, I was into the westcoast rap scene, I was following every move of the new rappers from Los Angeles, among them Nipsey Hussle and YG who I discovered on the mixtape site datpiff.com

I’ve always been a big fan of hip-hop videos, so I loved California videos, I came across the “Hussle in the house” video and Nipsey had jumped out at me! I had also invested in turntables, that’s what had also pushed me in my search for good California sounds.

On a trip down south with my mom, and in Barcelona, I got to thinking, just before that trip, I remember coming across a video on yotuube of Marc Ostrofsky who was one of the first people to make millions on the internet, he said he had written everything you need to know in his book “Get Rich Click!”

The guy had completely inspired me, The book was only 20€ so I ordered it and took the opportunity to read it during my trip to the south and Barcelona.
While I was thinking about it during this trip, I thought that the thing I could see myself doing the most was starting a hip-hop clothing brand website.
I was already passionate about the community and I couldn’t find the clothes I needed in France, plus the clothes were expensive. So I said to myself that I had to propose a streetwear brand and that’s how I started my adventure.
A few months later, I had well started my project which was transformed into a streetwear brand. I had to promote it. Then the idea came to me to go and promote the brand in Los Angeles.
So I went to the USA and the adventure began.

How to become a digital nomad?

There are 2 types of digital nomads:

those who work for themselves
those who work for a company remotely

Working remotely for a company will be remote work, a subject I will only cover briefly in this article, as I want to talk more specifically about the case of a digital nomad working for himself.

The advantages and disadvantages

The advantages

One of the main advantages of the digital nomad is his schedule. You work when you want. We also take our vacations when we want.
The second one is the free location. We work from where we want.
We can arrange our schedules in order to be more productive and therefore save time, while enjoying more.

To conclude, it gives us a huge autonomy and on paper it seems to be the ideal solution but the reality is unfortunately very different…

The disadvantages

Finding contracts

As a freelancer, it is not easy to find contracts, especially if you do not have an existing network. Moreover, companies do not trust a person who is far away and not close.

For a company, this represents constraints because the freelancer is not necessarily going to share the company culture and risks being disconnected from the company’s reality.

You are under pressure because you have to constantly make sure you get contracts or else you won’t have any money coming in.

Stability

As much as being able to travel is really cool, it also impacts the stability of your life. You don’t have a fixed group of friends. You don’t have time to develop real relationships in the place where you are, you don’t build anything.

Organization

Not being in a regular environment can impact your organization. On the one hand you have to be extremely well organized, on the other hand you have to plan a lot of things that may impact your tranquility.

Productivity

When you are in a dream destination, you don’t necessarily want to work too hard, you want to enjoy where you are, and this can become a problem if you don’t do a great job and spend more time tanning than anything else.

Discipline

You have to be disciplined and work on time, finish your work even when you want to enjoy yourself.

Loneliness

Sometimes you can feel lonely, traveling regularly has its advantages, but when you find yourself on the other side of the world alone in a culture that is not your own, you can tend to feel lonely.

One idea to overcome this problem is to join a community of digital nomads…

Join a community of digital nomads

There are several communities of digital nomads, and it may be relevant to surround yourself with similar people to not feel too isolated in this path.

The digital nomad communities will also allow you to find freelance contracts, here are some of them:

Co-working spaces are also very interesting to meet other digital nomads.

However, as mentioned before, to be successful in your transition to digital nomadism, you’ll need to master some skills…

Skills to have to become an efficient digital nomad

Disciplined
Organized
Mastery of written and verbal communication
Know how to sell
Knowledge of marketing
Have a good command of finances
Know digital

If you have mastered these skills or if their mastery seems possible, you can move on to the next step which is to identify which type of freelance best suits you…

Types of freelancers or companies

Writer or copywriter
Web or application developer
Graphic designer
Community manager
Social Media Marketing
Coach
Trader
E-merchant
Content creator

These are the ones I’m thinking about right now, but there are many more possible ones…

Job boards

Freelance platforms

If you are a freelancer you can also offer your services on platforms such as :

In which countries can I get a digital nomad visa?

Recently many countries have started to offer digital nomad visas, and the list is growing every year, here is a list of countries that offer it: (non exhaustive list)

Andorra*
Dominica
Mexico
Anguilla
Dubai
Montenegro
Antigua and Barbuda
Ecuador
Aruba
Argentina
Estonia
Northern Macedonia
Bermuda
Georgia
Norway
Bahamas
Germany
Panama
Barbados
Greece
Romania
Belize
Hungary
Saint Lucia
Cayman Islands
Iceland
Seychelles
Cape Verde
Indonesia
South Africa
Curaçao
Italy
Spain
Latvia
Sri Lanka
Czech Republic
Malta
Taiwan
Cyprus
Mauritius

For more info you can read this article from nomadgirl

Some interesting websites on the subject:

List from the blog Crossing the border:

Travelplugin.com : A reference site about digital nomadism, blogging and business creation
Carohardy.com : Tips to become a nomadic freelancer
No-mad-life.com : Sonia and Lucas, nomads on a sailing boat
Locationrebel.com
Becomenomad.com
Suitcaseentrepreneur.com
Makingitanywhere.com
Theremotenomad.com
Webworktravel.com
Digitalnomadsoul.com
Hobowithalaptop.com

Conclusion

To conclude, becoming a digital nomad has its advantages and disadvantages, like everything else, for my part, the best choice is to have a hybrid version, that is to say to have a foot on the ground (ideally to buy an apartment or a house) and to travel several months in the year, to come back home when you feel the need.