Female Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Make Money Online

Sneak Peek:

Ashley:    00:00:00    The number one thing you can do when you're starting a business. Don't tell anybody. And honestly, I used to think like the worst thing was failing. The worst thing is not trying it. 

Rosie:    00:00:07    Just feeling like you have agency over your life is such a gift. Every single ingredient in my life is something that I choose and there's just nothing more freeing than that.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:    00:00:39    Hey there, Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 248 of Badass Digital Nomads. Today I'm so excited to share with you some interviews that I did with fellow female entrepreneurs and online business owners on the Nomad Cruise from Spain to Brazil. But first, you may have seen my video on YouTube a couple weeks ago about a secret hack that experienced expats use to bank overseas. And that hack is Wise and if you don't have a Wise account yet, then I highly recommend it. I'll link to that video in the show notes. 

Wise

Kristin:  But just very quickly, Wise is an online account that lets you transfer money almost anywhere in the world. It lets you open different accounts in multiple currencies all within the same app. And it can also come with a debit card that you can use to take out cash at ATMs or spend money at retail stores around the world.  

Kristin:    00:01:43    Wise is a great way to send and receive money from anywhere. And I haven't been more reminded of that than this week in Mexico. I mentioned in that video that since opening a Wise account, I've been able to close many of my bank accounts in different countries. I used to have to open a bank account in every country I went to just to be able to do business there and also to be able to transact locally and send money back and forth overseas. But fortunately with Wise, I don't have to do that anymore. And this week in Mexico, I went to the bank to close my account that I opened back in 2013 and it was a huge headache. Not only would they not allow me to close my account, but they wouldn't even allow me to withdraw the money that was in there almost $1,500.  

Kristin:    00:02:38    I was finally able to get a new debit card today and start withdrawing some of that cash that's just been sitting there locked in a Mexican bank account. I won't bore you with all the details, but if you could just imagine the difference between banking with a traditional bank in Mexico versus opening an account in Mexican pesos through your Wise app in a matter of seconds, it's just a completely different universes of living and working and accessing your money. So if you haven't been able to open a Wise account yet, then I will leave my referral link down in the show notes. And you can also go to TravelingwithKristin.com/Wise, that's TravelingwithKristin with a K - .com/Wise and you can get your first transfer for free up to 500 British pounds. How to manage your finances internationally and how to open bank accounts overseas is also an entire section in my relocation program Ready to Relocate.  

Kristin:    00:03:47    So if you're thinking of moving abroad in the next year or so and you want some guidance on how to do it and how to navigate things such as banking for example, then you can apply for my help at TravelingwithKristin.com/relocation. So TravelingwithKristin.com/relocation for help with your move abroad and TravelingwithKristin.com/Wise, W-I-S-E to get that free transfer when you open a new Wise account. Other than making a few trips to Mexican banks over the past few days, I've really been enjoying my time in Mexico. The internet has been touch and go, but there are definitely a lot of coworking spaces around. So if you're thinking of coming down to Tulum, you have plenty of options to choose from. I'll be doing an episode here soon with some of my first impressions of Tulum, kind of a little travel and living abroad Tulum overview for you. So stay tuned for that. But today I'm so happy to share with you these interviews with female entrepreneurs from Nomad Cruise 12 who explain how they were able to start online businesses and start making money online with absolutely no prior online business experience. So inspiring. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversations.  

Podcast Interview: 

Jenny:    00:05:14    I just always have been longing for that freedom of seeing more places, experiencing the cultures, and not being bound to one place forever.  

Kristin:    00:05:24    I'm on a cruise ship with 400 digital nomads, online entrepreneurs and remote workers and half of us are women. So I've invited a few of them to sit down with me and share with you what they do to earn an online income that lets them live and work from anywhere in the world.   

Emily Cooper - @emilyeatsandexplores

Kristin:     00:05:43    I'm sitting here with my new friend Emily Cooper from Emily Eats and Explores. Yep, okay. Follow her on Instagram. And Emily, where are you from originally? So I grew up in Massachusetts, so everybody knows  

Emily:    00:05:56    Massachusetts from Boston, but I actually grew up on the other side of the state, so closer to upstate New York and Vermont. So in the little corner, nobody knows the name of it, <laugh>, but yeah, so western Massachusetts.  

Kristin:   00:06:09    And how do you make money online from where you're living at home and then how does that allow you to travel?  

Emily:    00:06:16    Yeah, so I wasn't always like this. I did the traditional route, went to college, went to graduate school and got a degree in epidemiology. Then I decided I want to quit my job and travel the world. And I had no idea people actually made money doing it. I thought that's what people did. They like save money and quit their jobs and travel the world. But I found the realm of content creation in social media. So I started on Instagram, I got a blog, I have a podcast now, and I just found more and more ways to monetize online through brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, um, different products, services, even group tours that I'm doing now, speaking events. So you just keep adding more and more to your plate as a content creator because you just have the freedom and flexibility to be able to do that.  

Kristin:    00:07:05    When you started out, did you have another job or did you go straight from college or university into social media and content?  

Emily:    00:07:13    So I quit um, the job that I had before. So I went right from university, my graduate program into working as an epidemiologist for four years. So I worked as an epidemiologist in a veteran's hospital in the US which is like a great job because you work for the government and benefits you can work forever.

Kristin:  Those benefits.

Emily:    Yes, those benefits, those juicy benefits but you know, it's very set in like their pay scale and their, you know, there's no really room for growth in that kind of situation. So I left after four years I thought I saved about $40,000 to be able to travel, which I thought was going to be for one year. Then I was going to get a job where my fiancé lives, which is on the other side of the state. But I started learning more and more ways that you can actually make money through a social media platform and here I am now <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:08:10    So you quit your job as an epidemiologist to be a travel blogger essentially?

Emily:      Yeah.

Kristin:     What was your very first revenue stream that you came up with? Because you can't just go with a hundred Instagram followers and start making money through social media?  

Emily:    00:08:24    Yeah. So I started on Instagram and then I did start my travel blog and I was able to monetize that. But my first income stream did come from Instagram. I started with affiliate marketing. So I found this women's own travel company. She created travel clothing that was reversible and I was like, I love this product, this is great. I reached out to see if she partnered with content creators. I had about 700 Instagram followers at this time and I had just started my travel blog and she said she would love to partner with me so she sent me some of her product and I did a live on that and that's how I made my first $3 through affiliate marketing was through a live on Instagram. Someone made a purchase on one of the clothing and that was the first way I made money.  

Kristin:    00:09:11    You have to start somewhere.  

Emily:    00:09:12    You do. You do.  

Kristin:    00:09:13    And now you've built that into a full-time annual income.  

Emily:    00:09:17    Yes.  Yes.

Kristin:    00:09:17   And how many years did it take you before you ran out of your savings and you could actually start living off of this year? 

Emily:     00:09:25    Yeah, when I quit my job, which was April of 2022, I was making about $300 to $500 a month from content creation, so social media blog. And then by July of that year, so July of 2022, I had my first 10K month from content creation. I just started growing my account, I started learning more about partnering with brands, how to negotiate, I learned about group trips. So all of those things combined allowed me to make my first 10K month in July of 2022. And then it hasn't really slowed down since then. So I didn't even really go through my entire savings, honestly, which has been amazing.  

Kristin:    00:10:12    I need some tips from you <laugh>. And how big is your Instagram following now a few years later?  

Emily:    00:10:18    Yeah, so I hit a thousand followers of January of 2022. And right now, which is December of 2023, I'm at a little over a hundred thousand Instagram followers and I call it my community. I don't really like calling it followers. <laugh>. Yeah, it's my community. Um, I was also on every other social media platform, but then I decided no, I'm really gonna hone in on Instagram especially 'cause I got banned from TikTok for no reason, <laugh>. So I'm mostly just on Instagram. That's where my people are now.

Kristin:   00:10:51    Who would ban this beautiful person. 

Emily:     00:10:53    I feel so sad.  

Kristin:    00:10:54    So thank you so much Emily for sharing your tips and everyone join her community on Instagram. 

Emily:     00:10:59    Yes. Come follow me, Emily Eat and Explores. I also have a membership for aspiring travel content creators or current travel content creators. And you can definitely come join my membership when I launch it.  

Ashley Peterson - @ashleygetsaround

Kristin:    00:11:10    Well I'm here with one of my new heroes who I've known for a couple of days and she is a business class guru. But I'll let you introduce yourself. Ashley, who are you? What do you, where do you live?  

Ashley:    00:11:21    So I'm Ashley. Most people know me from Instagram as Ashley gets around. And my main thing is I help people fly in business class for the cost of economy. And I, I'm like, I'm like part nomadic and part not nomadic. So I have an apartment in Asheville, North Carolina. It's very rare that I spend more than like a week or two there at a time. But I found like being fully nomadic and running my business was a little complicated. So I, I do actually have a place but I'm mostly on the road.  

Kristin:    00:11:51    How many years have you been doing this?  

Ashley:    00:11:53    So I have been doing it as a business for like 14 months, but I've been hacking flights for like eight years.  

Kristin:    00:12:00    And what was your full-time job before having this travel program?  

Ashley:    00:12:06    Yeah, so uh, my master's is in developmental psych. Um, and I actually worked for high net worth individuals as a newborn care specialist. So I did like infant, like worked when people mostly with twins. Um, and so basically they would have somebody come in after the baby was born and like we would get the, help the babies get on a schedule, help them new mom, like recover, but basically just worked with infants. I mean it was kind of like a nanny job. And then I also um, would do a lot of travel nannying. So a lot of people you know, would go to Europe for the summer and maybe their nanny like never been to Europe and they were like, we just wanna take somebody who's like been to Europe and I like travel everywhere. So I would do like, you know, two weeks here. I would do like short-term contracts in the Hamptons in the summer. And so it was really great because I would work a bunch, make money and then I would be like, oh cool, I'm gonna take eight weeks off and go to Southeast Asia. Um, and so now I'm to, it's a total different, total different thing.  

Kristin:    00:12:57    See I didn't even know that that was a job. That's an amazing job for people as well. I've heard of being an au pair where you move to another country to live there. But travel nannying, people take notes.  

Ashley:    00:13:07    Yeah. And the pay is really like, the pay is incredibly high too because usually it's like people that are famous or sport athletes or stuff. And so if you're able to get in with any of those agencies, like you can make $5,000 in a week just by going, I mean you'll work, I mean you're definitely like, you're gonna be working like some of the people on the ship like 12 hour days. But for me I was like, oh, I can make the same amount of money that I would make in an entire month in like 10 days or maybe more. And then also get like a trip somewhere and then I would use that money to go travel. So it was, it was kind of nice like kind of short like contract jobs. Yeah. So it was nice.  

Kristin:    00:13:43    And at what point did you decide that you wanted to quit doing these contract jobs and having geographically based jobs and do something completely online?  

Ashley:    00:13:51    Yeah, so actually like my Insta, my Instagram and my website actually gets around, started off as a blog 10 years ago. Um, turns out I'm like, I don't like blogging <laugh>. Like even though I like writing, I just blogging for SEO was like not my vibe. I'm, I don't do top 10 things to do in Spain. Like I wanted to be like, here's this crazy story of what happened in Spain and like nobody cared at that point. Like nobody's googling that. Um, and so the blog just like never really took off, but I still had the website and I would post, I would post like how to get um, how to hack airline status and like these cheap flights that I would be finding on Instagram to like people that I like went to high school and college with who literally could not care any less.  

Ashley:    00:14:33    Um, and a little over a year ago I went to Travel Con and I realized, oh, like I'm doing Instagram totally wrong. This is what I should be doing on Instagram. And after that I had hit, I think it was like 700, 800 followers and within a couple months I'd hit 3000 and then I went, went viral and hit 30,000. So it was very like from the outside looking in, you would think it was like very quick, but like it actually had taken me years. Um, and then funny enough, 2020 I had planned to quit my job and travel for a year and just like work remotely. Um, 'cause I had kind of been teaching English occasionally online, um, and it's, you know, not a ton of money but it's enough that if you're in Southeast Asia or South America, like you could support yourself living just by teaching English.  

Ashley:    00:15:17    And so I was like okay, I'm done. Like I have savings. I had saved like 40 grand and I'm like, I'm gonna go in 2020 and we know what happened. Yeah. Um, and so yeah. Whoa. Whoa. So I ended up waiting until 2022. Um, and actually my, I ended up staying with the same fa--family all during Covid because of Covid. And then they decided in the summer of last year to put the, almost at that point he had just turned three in preschool. And so my job kind of ended and so I literally was like, cool, I'm leaving. And that's what I did. It was like really, it was kind of like, it kind of just like happened very quickly and I went viral like the week after. So it kind of felt like very serendipitous. Yeah. That it like all happened at the same time and I've never looked back. So I meant to leave on like a year long trip and I literally was out of the US for less than three weeks, started my business and then never got to do the year long term

Kristin:   Off to the race off.

Ashley:   Literally off to the races.  

Kristin:    00:16:12    But I love those examples that you gave. Yeah. 'cause I think people can really discount what their passions are and what their curiosities are. So I like that you went to a conference like let me find a conference of other like-minded people who like traveling Travel Con meeting other professionals in the travel industry, content creators who gave you advice--

Ashley:    00:16:33    So much expertise. 

Kristin:    00:16:33    And that took your Instagram from 700 to ultimately 30,000 Yeah. Followers and beyond. And then even though you started your travel blog 10 years ago and it was a failure. Yeah. It still led you to where you are today. Yeah. And I also like that you saved money while you were working and you didn't just, you know, quit your job overnight.  And say okay, I'm gonna be a travel blogger and make money this way. So what was the first way that you monetized your social media or started making income online?  

Ashley:    00:17:05    Yeah, so basically I kind of had had a viral video that took me from a couple thousand followers to like 10 and then 20 and then eventually ended up getting me to 30,000. And I was still posting like, hey this is the cheap business class flight deal that I found today. Like, and people were like, you should start an email list. And I should back up and say that in 2018 I wanted to do an email list for cheap flights because I actually at that time was finding economy flights and I was fi finding that the deals I found were better than the ones I paid for. So like I was finding better deals in some of the paid services, <laugh> and I at that point, like I feel like a lot of it's like a wall almost. Like I didn't feel, feel like I could do it.  

Ashley:    00:17:49    And I feel like I had surrounded myself with like other people who were like, oh, like there are all these lists already. Like why should you do that versus like my experience at Travel Con where everybody was a content creator and everybody was like no, like there's space for everybody. So I definitely think like one, like make sure you're not surrounded by people who are just like Negative Nancy's and like if you feel like there's something you wanna do, like you should do it. I first monetize the email list and that still is my main revenue. So I actually don't work with brands. I don't really do affiliate links. Um, I just have an E-course and my email subscription service.  

Kristin:    00:18:25    I think that's great advice because everyone who's creating content or if you have any sort of business, you should start an email list. Because unless you're like Emily who got kicked off of TikTok. Or things can happen, algorithms change. So it's always really good to have a list. I have an email list but also I like that you only have this one revenue stream. Like you start with building one revenue stream and then once you have that going, it's only been barely a year. 

Ashley:    00:18:51    Add more. 

Kristin:   00:18:52   You can start to add in more. And also that you monetize something that you were interested in and curious about, which was finding cheap flights. Something that you were, you mentioned in your talk that you were doing at home in bed for eight hours a day. <laugh>. And now you're sharing that.  

Ashley:    00:19:07    I mean you should just honestly like if there's something that you're doing that you're just doing, like you could probably turn that into a business because like I'm very passionate about and now we have a whole team looking for flights, but I still live for flights. Like I still will be like, oh I wonder if there are any like good deals. And I'll like every day I'm still searching for flights and sometimes I find stuff that the team doesn't or sometimes I'm like, oh I found all the deals that my team found <laugh>. Yeah. Um, but it is kind of that thing of like you have to like listen to your gut. I'm like a huge believer now and like you need to listen to the 'cause Didn't you say that with DJing?

Kristin:    Yeah.

Ashley:    Yeah. And like Kristin's like such a good dj. I was like oh my God, it's so cool. So I feel like if there's something that your gut's telling you to do, like don't listen to other people. I think Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx had said that was like the number one thing you can do when you're starting a business. Don't tell anybody.

Kristin:    00:19:55   Yes, I agree.  

Ashley:    00:19:55   Like, because people are, I feel like some, and I don't think people do it intentionally, but I think people wanna give you that reality check. And I think sometimes reality check just derails you. 

Kristin:    00:20:05    Yeah. Don't tell anyone your plan.  

Ashley:    00:20:06    Don't tell your plan, just do your plan. And honestly I used to think like the worst thing was failing. No. Like the worst thing is not trying it right? 'cause like you don't wanna get to your deathbed and be like, oh I wish that I had you know, done X, Y or Z. Like just try it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work but at least you try it. 'cause I think that's honestly the difference in like 95% of people and the 5% that succeed is they just tried it. Like they just attempted it.  

Kristin:    00:20:31    Well thank you so much Ashley. I know a lot about frequent flyer miles employees and travel and I've learned so much from sitting, sitting here talking to you. 

Ashley:    00:20:38     Oh my gosh I love it.  

Travel with Kristin to Costa Rica

Kristin:    00:20:40    There are only two early bird spots left for our group trip to Costa Rica in August. So if you're thinking about going then make sure to reserve your spot. Now you can save your place with a 25% deposit, which comes out to around 450 US dollars. And you can save $150 on your trip now by getting one of the last two early birds spots remaining. You can book now and get all the info and see the itinerary at the link at the top of the show notes. And I look forward to seeing you in Costa Rica.  

Rosie Bell - @TheBeachBell

Kristin:    00:21:16    I am here on Nomad Cruise 12 with Rosie who has been a long time listener of my podcast. So Rosie, where are you from? Tell us a little bit about your story about how you became a remote worker.  

Rosie:    00:21:31    Um, thank you so much for having me first of all. Um, I'm Rosie Bell, I'm a travel journalist and my, I've been in nomadic since 2017. Um, I found myself in Panama and just absolutely fell in love with it and I said, okay, I'm going to, I'm gonna move here. So I lived there for three and a half years. Uh, now I kind of dart between Panama and Mexico, um, and Spain. Um, ultimately just avoiding the winter entirely <laugh> and I started writing, uh, when I moved to Panama and just being there, all these wonderful opportunities came my way. Um, and that's kind of where I started my career as a travel journalist.  

Kristin:    00:22:05    And what were you doing before that? Where did you grow up? What did you study in school? What did you want to be when you grew up?  

Rosie:    00:22:12    I wanted to be a writer, but I was told that writing wasn't a real job. So I thought, okay, what's the next best thing? So I went into advertising 'cause I wanted something that was creative and I knew I wouldn't thrive in a very stuffy corporate environment. And advertising was kind of close 'cause it straddled creative, but it was still, you know, there were like guidelines and you can, you know, can get a promotion and you can do all the all the cool stuff. But advertising was not for me at all. So I went back, did my masters, um, and then I thought, okay, I'm gonna work for myself, what can I do? So I started a fashion brand designing swimwear and I did that for four years. And then I guess I got a bit disillusioned with fashion and then I took a sabbatical in Panama and that's when this amazing opportunity came my way. And I'm Nigerian and British, but I grew up in the Netherlands so no one really knows what my accent is.  

Kristin:    00:22:57    Okay. Yes. I did not think that your accent was British at all. It's actually sounds American, I would say.  

Rosie:    00:23:04    I hear that a lot.  

Kristin:    00:23:05    Yes. So where did you go to college?  

Rosie:    00:23:09    In London.

Kristin:   Oh, okay.

Rosie:     Yes.  

Kristin:    00:23:11    Your grad school as well.

Rosie:      Yes.

Kristin:     And then did you start your fashion brand in London as well?  

Rosie:    00:23:16    Yes, it was all London based. Um, it was a Hawaiian branded brand 'cause I was obsessed with Hawaii. I just, I went there and I fell in love. All the tropical places. That's what you're probably noticing is all the tropical places. I don't do winter, just categorically you won't find me anywhere there.   

Kristin:    00:23:31    Coming from countries like the Netherlands and England, which are not known for their tropical weather.

Rosie:     Definitely not.

Kristin:   That, that could be the reason.  

Rosie:    00:23:39    Definitely Not. Um, and I'm Nigerian as well, so, and I lived there as a child, so I think I'm also used to that I, I couldn't do 50 degrees, like it would get to 50 degrees in some part

Kristin:   Too high.

Rosie:     That. Yeah. Yeah, it's very hot. Your face <laugh>  

Kristin:    00:23:51    That, I mean, I don't think I do beyond 37 Celsius. 

Rosie:    00:23:56    We're  talking about Celsius. Yes, indeed. Yes. Celsius. Um, so yeah, I, I worked the winter and honestly being able to design my life this way is just the, the greatest gift. Um, just feeling like you have agency over your life, living when you are a remote worker and you can choose to go wherever you want and only go to the places that feed your soul is such a gift.  

Kristin:    00:24:18    How did you find out that you could even do this? Did you see other people and wanted to model after it or did you just decide, I want to work for myself and if I do that then I can just move around?  

Rosie:    00:24:32    I followed a girl called, um, Andrea Valeria. Her handle is,@itsatravelod and she's Penn- Panamanian as well. I say as well, I'm not Panamanian, but in my heart I feel so close to it. Um, and I followed her for years and I was just so inspired and I was like, what is this? Like what is this digital nomad thing? And she was in Panama and she was traveling around and she was staying in nice hotels and she was just like, she's a You-a, YouTuber, she was a YouTuber. Anyway, now she does remote work coaching and I just thought like, I wanna be like her. I wanna do what she does. I didn't know it was possible. I didn't know about border jumps. Um, all this information that we're very lucky to have now, um, you know, YouTubers, um, and podcasts hosts like yourself who are really, really, really doing the work to educate people on this lifestyle. Um, I didn't really have that. I couldn't find that information. She was one of the first people I met who did this. And I got to meet her in Panama and it was so lovely and she was so welcoming and yeah, it was through her ultimately she really inspired me.  

Kristin:    00:25:31    So what year about was it when you found out about this lifestyle?  

Rosie:    00:25:34    2015.  

Kristin:    00:25:35    Okay.

Rosie:      2015.

Kristin:     And you've been doing it pretty much full-time since then?  

Rosie:    00:25:40    Since 2017. That was when I moved to Panama and I really feel like that's when my life began in a way. Um, I lived in London for 11 years. It's the longest I've lived anywhere. I had a very, um, paraic uh, upbringing is, my father was a diplomat, so we kind of moved around a lot. Hence the Namibia, Nigeria, the Netherlands, all of that.

Kristin:   Okay.

Rosie:     Um, but London was the longest period of time, but it just wasn't where I thrived. But I didn't really know how to get out of it. I didn't know, you know, there was no digital nomad visas there, there was nothing like that. No. Um, so I knew I wanted out. I just didn't know how.  

Kristin:    00:26:15    How different is this lifestyle when you're choosing where you want to go? And are you solo traveling or traveling with someone?  

Rosie:    00:26:24    I travel solo. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:26:25    So you're solo traveling, choosing where you want to go compared to growing up in a family that moved around a lot and kind of being told, okay gang, now we're going here. Now we're going there. Do you find it easier to adjust to the places that you're going to because you're going on your own volition?  

Rosie:    00:26:41    Of course. Absolutely. If the thing that this, this lifestyle has taught me the most is how important it is to feel like I have agency over my, my life and my life experiences. It's just honestly the most delicious feeling. Not that I ever had any problems with, you know, okay, family, we're moving to the Netherlands and you're gonna have this lovely experience the next five years. I had no problems with that. But this is just really the life I choose. Everything, every single ingredient in my life is something that I choose down to the people, the weather, the food, the language that I hear on a daily basis. And there's, there's just nothing more freeing than that. I mean, and I'm sure you know the same.  

Kristin:    00:27:19    It is, it is, it is quite amazing. <laugh>. And where do you usually work? Do you work from the properties that you're renting? Do you go out to a cafe? Where do you feel most productive?  

Rosie:    00:27:29    I actually love working at home. I, I love just being in my space. Especially when you have somewhere that you feel very comfortable, cafes, you know, you're exposing yourself to the elements. Ultimately there could be music, no sockets, um,

Kristin:    Crying babies.

Rosie:      Crying, baby people coughing, whatever it is. Yeah. And I might get a call. Um, I also have a side hustle that I do, I do online travel trivia, so I do need to be at home to do that. 'cause it's, it's, it's on Zoom, it's an hour.

Kristin:      Oh fun.

Rosie:        So I can't do that from a cafe. And I will tend to go to a co-working space when I'm new in a city. But just more actually to blend into the social element of that place. 'cause a lot of co of co-working spaces will have like a Friday, uh, dinner or something like that, or event Friday or Thursday. So I will go then to a co-working space. But in general, I actually do love working at home. You know, you put your own music on your own temperature, whatever you want, wear what you want your own home office. So yeah, that's where I actually tend to work the best. Um, so the places that I'm madly in love with right now are Mexico and Spain and I will continue to, um, go to those two places as long as the love affair continues.  

Kristin:    00:28:32    I love that. I also think partly it's with yourself, right? You know, really taking care of yourself in the places that you go and being a good travel partner for yourself and you know, accompanying yourself wherever you're going in the world. At least that's kind of how I feel about it. But definitely there's certain destinations that you feel more at home and as, it's almost like when you meet somebody and you feel like you already know them. Exactly. So very relatable. Well thank you so much Rosie for sharing your experience with us. And where can people reach out to you if they wanna follow your travels?  

Rosie:    00:29:07    Um, everybody is welcome to follow me on Instagram. I am @thebeachbell, Bell with no e on the end, like the beach is calling me. Bell, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring <laugh> the beach bell. Um, they can also visit my location, independence blog, discoverysessions.io.  

Jennifer Logan - @jenzjourneys &  Jenny Song Schmidt - @jennysongschmidt

Kristin:    00:29:31    I found two more digital nomads slash female entrepreneurs in the wild here on the deck of the second to last day of the Nomad cruise. So let's find out what they do to make money online. What is your name, where are you from and what do you do to work remotely?  

Jennifer:    00:29:49    So I am a digital creator from the Toronto area. I'm aspiring full-time, digital nomad, not yet. So I do content creation, um, specializing in short video format. I do UGC content as well as, um, on my own platforms, which is a variety of them, <laugh>. And um, I also have, uh, like a part-time job as well. So.  

Kristin:    00:30:12    And you're also a mom?  

Jennifer:     00:30:13    Yes, I am a mom, yes. I am a mom of um, three.  

Kristin:    00:30:18    Can you tell people what UGC is? User generated content?  

Jennifer:     00:30:23    Yeah. So that's, um, that's products that con companies can contract me for to create, uh, ads for their platforms. So it's not necessarily something that will go on my own page if it doesn't align with my brand. That's something separate that they can apply for. But it, let's say there was a Christmas tree market and they wanted to advertise their Christmas trees or they wanted short video formats for their platforms or still photos that they could then have me come in, create the content, and then I give them the content and that's it.  

Kristin:    00:30:54    Now you weren't always a content creator. What did you do before getting into TikTok and Instagram?  

Jennifer:     00:31:00    Okay, so, um, before I started content creation, I had a variety of part-time jobs. Um, my daughter had an arduous mental health journey and uh, I did it to pass time at her mental health appointment. So when she passed away, I actually decided I wanted to inspire people to live life fully. So the time I dedicated to her, I changed into content creation and then voila, here we are.  

Kristin:    00:31:20    That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. I'm sure a lot of people can relate. And next to us we have Jenny, Jenny from Germany. Correct? Correct. Can you tell us a little bit about what your background is and how you got into working remotely and what brought you to this cruise in the middle of the ocean?  

Jenny:   00:31:40    Sure. So I work in influencer marketing on the other side actually. So it's really interesting that the three of us are sitting here right now because I generally work for brands, um, or as a middleman, so to say. So I consult brands in influencer marketing on how they can successfully work with creators and influencers together. And I also act as an agency. So when there's, for example, Nomad Cruise approaching me and saying, Hey, um, Jen, we wanna work with, uh, creators that actually fit Nomad Cruise that can, um, that we can work with long term sustainably and also of course, uh, generate new people that wanna come and join Nomad Cruise in the future. That's when they, that that's when they would hire me, basically. So that's what I do.  

Kristin:    00:32:23    How did you get into that? Is this something that you did on your own accord or did somebody train you how to do this? What were you doing before getting into this line of work? 

Jenny:    00:32:33    I actually worked at a startup in Berlin for four years, um, building up the influencer marketing channels before I went on my own journey. So I already had a lot of experience with testing influencer marketing, um, from like a small scale to a very big scale. Um, and ran a team of 11 people just on influencer marketing for that startup in Berlin before I, um, decided to quit because they wanted to everyone eventually to come back into the office post Covid. So that's why I was like, no, I'm not about that. So quit my job and became self-employed to do the same thing, but for myself and my own agenda being my own boss. 

Kristin:    00:33:11    And why not just stay in Berlin? Why did you start traveling and are you fully nomadic or do you go back and forth?  

Jenny:     00:33:19    I mean, look around <laugh>. I think this is, this is answer enough. I I wanted to see the world more and um, I just always have been longing for that freedom of seeing more places, experiencing the cultures and not being bound to one place forever. So eventually, maybe I'll settle down, but right now it doesn't feel right to me. I do wanna travel, I do wanna meet new people. That's how I met you guys.  

Kristin:    00:33:47    Well, thank you ladies for sharing. Thank you. Your stories with me. And you know, I've talked to a lot of female entrepreneurs on this boat this week. I've talked to people that are creating content, people working in digital marketing, affiliate marketing, a mother daughter duo who are working together now as coaches. And what I've learned from this is that really you can invent any job that you want, anything that you think that you can do or that you've already done in the past for companies, you can do it for yourself. And I've met female solo travelers, freelance writers, you name it. And all of us have basically created our own jobs. No one said we could or couldn't do it. We just followed our passions, followed our interests, and followed our skills. And that has led all of us here on this ship from Spain to Brazil with 400 other people, and each and every person is doing something unique and different. So it's been such an honor and pleasure to be here in the presence of so many amazing people. And I hope that all of you listening and watching are feeling very inspired and take action from these stories that we've shared today. So comment below what you're going to do next where you want to travel, and click on these videos here for more about the digital nomad lifestyle and living abroad.  

Kristin:    00:35:13    Thank you for spending time with me today. I hope that you got a lot of ideas and inspiration from my conversations with Emily, Ashley, Rosie, Jen and Jenny. You can watch the video version of this podcast linked in the show notes. And also if you travel or live abroad or you're thinking about moving overseas or if you do business across borders, then I highly recommend opening a Wise account so you can avoid some of the headaches that I went through with my Mexican bank account this week. You can send, spend and receive money almost anywhere in the world. You can earn interest depending on which account you have. You can order a debit card and you can open accounts in multiple currencies right within the app. Use my link in the show notes for your first transfer, free up to 500 British pounds or your currencies equivalent. And I'll see you here again next week.