See this, Paris? WE GOT HUNDREDS OF THESE.

1: People have been keeping a secret from you

We probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but Madrid is beautiful. So why does no one ever mention it? Why do Paris, London and Rome get all the attention?

Basically, Paris is a Beyonce album (a couple of huge standouts with a lot of “meh”), whereas Madrid is Girls Aloud’s greatest hits (not a single duff moment). If you walked around taking photos of every amazing building, you’d never fit in a siesta. It’s just flat-out gorgeous.

2: Dogs in Madrid have more personality than anywhere else in the world

If you’re not persuaded by the beauty of the city, what about the revelation that Madrid has the best dogs too?

Admittedly I pay more attention to dogs than most people would, but I had to keep checking with Mish that they really were as unique, personalityful and happy as I thought they were. Which I think she got a bit sick of. But they were.

3: Going out for lunch beats the hell out of going out for dinner

Almost every restaurant in Madrid has a “menu del dia” at lunchtime, which is insanely good value. We’re talking three courses with bread and wine for 10-13 Euros, here.

In the evening, you wouldn’t be able to get out of the same restaurant for anything less than 30 Euros per person, so our tip is to stock up on lunch then grab a bocadillo or kebab for dinner.

(Paella is supposed to be a “lunch only” thing too, so as a rule of thumb you should steer clear of anywhere that offers it for dinner.)

4: El Retiro park is incredible

We consider ourselves connoisseurs of green spaces (ranking-the-London-parks is a favourite dinner conversation), so trust us here: El Retiro is a good’un.

There’s a huge boating lake, loads of non-ripoff cafes, actually good buskers (and sometimes full-on free concerts), and you can’t walk more than a few metres without tripping over a beautiful statue.

Yup.

5: There’s a really weird system for putting the bins out

We spent our first day scouring our apartment building trying to find where the bins were kept. Eventually we asked our host, and it turned out that every building in Madrid has a communal bin that gets put out overnight.

Yup, your only window for throwing stuff away is from around 6pm to 6am…at which point someone drags it very loudly across cobblestones to put it away, while whistling.

Which ties in to…

6: Holy crap it’s noisy at night

Madrid wasn’t the first city where we went out for our morning run and had to dodge people still out from the night before…but the difference was that in Madrid, they seemed to just be getting started.

Which is great and everything, but we wish they’d keep the shouting, laughing, and general carrying-out-a-simple-conversation-at-a-far-higher-volume-than-necessary down to a dull roar while the more boring residents (i.e. us and a few grannies) are trying to sleep.

7: Not many people speak English

The level of English in Madrid is lower than most other European cities we’ve been to. And it’s actually quite refreshing – especially if you want to practise your Spanish – but people normally switch to English as soon as they work out you’re a foreigner.

Cafes and restaurants were very patient with us while we sat Google Translating the menu for hours then proceeded to totally mangle their not-at-all-difficult language, so it wasn’t a problem at all.

8. For a capital city, it really doesn’t feel like one

Madrid doesn’t feel anywhere near hurried, cynical or self-consciously cool enough to be a capital city. I mean, at one point we saw a crowd of young people gathered in a square, cheering and going wild for…tap dancing.

In a minute, someone’s going to bust out a puppet show and these guys will FREAK OUT.

Those same young people were probably bellowing outside our window a few hours later, but still.

9: The public transport is awesome, but it’s kind of a waste…

…because you can easily walk the main sights in no time. In fact, we set off for the Palacio Real and accidentally ticked off half of the main tourist attractions on our way.

If you do get sick of walking though, the metro system is cheap, clean, and makes sense. Or you can get a taxi without the high probability of being ripped off that you get in most cities.

Transport: Madrid, you’ve nailed it.

10: Madrid also has the best taxi booking system ever

Forget hailing a taxi, or trying to call up to book in Spanish: Madrid has Taksee, an online booking service that’s also available as an app for iPhone and Android.

The amazing thing about Taksee is that it actually works and doesn’t make you want to kill yourself. There’s no registration or messing around…you just put in your time and destination, it estimates the fare, then a taxi turns up when it’s meant to. Shouldn’t be amazing, but is.

Josh & Jill, Leanne & Leah. We’re not the only couple who can do a mean silly photo then…

Last month we attended our first ever “digital nomad” conference in Berlin, held by the Dynamite Circle. We’ve gone on about this event before because it felt so goose-pimply great to be in a room full of “our own” kind of people –  people who don’t want to follow the “9-to-5-employee-dying-for-the-weekend-Sunday-night-blues-huge-telly-huger-mortgage-fast-car-equals-success” script. People who are all supportive and friendly and helpful and fun.

Funnily enough though, while we felt totally at home there, we probably stuck out like two very sore thumbs: we were the only digital nomad couple in an event of 80 people. And while that isn’t actually an accurate representation of the DC – where there are quite a few couple-members – it does seem to be the case that we’re a bit more under-the-radar than all the (usually) male single digital nomads who’re making a bit more noise.

To redress the balance and prove that it’s totally possible and totally wonderful to live, work and travel with your partner/spouse, we’ve decided to interview some of our digital nomad couple friends. They all have very different ways of living their digital nomad lives – proving that there’s no “one script fits all” to this sort of lifestyle either.

Here’s the first in our series – featuring Jill and Josh from Screw the Nine to Five, and Leah and Leanne from Start Somewhere. (And now Rob’s going to change his name to Mark – just so we can have the whole alliteration thing going on too.)

Jill and Josh from Screw the Nine to Five

We have a love/hate relationship with Jill and Josh. Love because they’re utterly wonderful, they’re super-hard workers, they’re making their dreams come true, they’re hilarious, they’re building a business to be proud of, and because they’re obsessed with The Bachelor too. Hate because they’re currently living in the place we’re pining for: Chiang Mai. If we were in Chiang Mai too, it’d be love all the way.

In the interview, Jill’s doing the talking:

Where are you both from, how did you meet, and how long have you been together?

Back in 2009 Josh was living in Beijing and I was living in Toronto. He had booked a trip to visit a couple of mutual friends in Toronto, and they were incredibly keen on introducing us one evening.

Josh wasn’t exactly thrilled by the apparent set up, but by the end of the night things were going a lot better – and we ended up hanging out a few more times while he was in the city before he returned to Beijing.

We kept in touch via Skype and eventually decided to meet up in Vegas (my suggestion for somewhere “in the middle”) to see if there was something there. There was. We decided to make a go of it and see if we could make it work. Fortunately I was already moving to Australia with a girlfriend of mine, so there was hope that we could see each other again.

Fast forward a month into my travels through Australia and I opened up my front door to find Josh standing there. From that moment on, we were joined at the hip.

Why did you decide to make the leap and become digital nomads? Did one of you have to push the other one into it? 

Josh has been working online for nearly 6 years now so when we met, he was already knee-deep in the online world.

I got my start in web TV, hosting a show called TwentySomething and then another show called Jill and Stacey Do the Roo (a travel web show and the reason I moved to Australia) before starting up a social media management business.

Both of us liked the freedom that came with working online but it wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that we decided to pair up, combine our strengths and build an online business together.

What work do you do? Do you work on the same business together, or do you have totally different careers? 

We run an affiliate marketing business where we focus on building authority affiliate sites together.

Currently we have sites in skin care, beauty and weight loss, and have recently launched our site Screw the Nine to Five, where we blog about the ups and downs, ins and outs of this lifestyle as well as give others actionable tips and advice on how they can create a profitable lifestyle business.

We are fortunate in our business because each of us have different strengths that the other doesn’t. For instance, Josh does the tech side of things as well as finding the affiliate offers, keyword research and SEO.

I do most of our branding which consists of writing the content for the websites, writing the guest posts, writing the newsletters and shooting and editing our videos.

As you work on the same business, how do you separate work from life? Or are the two completely intertwined?

Ugh this is a challenge for us. Because we freakin’ love what we do so much, both our work and non-work life is meshed together.

We have a hard time shutting off the business side of things because we are just so damn keen to  learn, create and grow that sometimes we just keep talking about it until we can no longer keep our eyes open.

We just can’t seem to get enough of it!

Even on date nights our conversations usually end up centering around dreaming up future business ideas, products, promotional tactics, new locations we can travel to or people above us who we can learn from.

It probably sounds boring to some but we’re hooked on it.

How structured is your work together? E.g. do you have set times for “business meetings”, and are you aware what each other’s aims are for the day/week?

At the beginning of the week we usually discuss what tasks need to get done in order to keep our sites functioning properly and the content rolling out.

From there we talk about our dream list of tasks which contains anything extra that we could get done if we have any free time at the end of the day or week.

However, on a daily basis we typically give the other a rundown for what we plan on accomplishing during our work hours, but we don’t have set times for specific tasks…at least not yet.

What’s your daily routine like? Are you together for most of each day?

We typically wake up at 7:30, have breakfast, work out separately (Josh is part of an outdoor fitness group here while I prefer classes like spinning and pilates), come home and start work together for around 10.

We’ll always have a bit of a break for lunch or coffee but usually we work right up until 8pm – or wine time as I like to call it.

We have tried the whole working apart thing but find we like working side by side (or couch by couch) best as it allows us to bounce ideas off the other, talk about potential strategies, dissect what others in our niches are doing, rant if something is annoying us or just act silly for a few minutes.

Of course there are days where one of us wants to *cough* mute *cough* the other, but luckily those days are few and far between.

What are the pros and cons of being a digital nomad couple (compared to living in one place)?

The biggest advantage we find is being able to traipse the world with your best friend and challenge yourselves – ultimately helping you to become a stronger team because of these challenges.

We also love the fact that we are able to take advantage of cheap destinations around the world where we can bootstrap our business and meet other like-minded people living the same kind of lifestyle – easily one of our most favourite aspects of this life.

As for cons………I can’t think of any.

Do you try to seek out other digital nomad couples, or are you unfussed by who you meet? How easy is it to meet other digital nomad couples?

Oh my gosh I am ALWAYS on the lookout for other couples we can meet! We have found quite a few in Chiang Mai and have formed great friendships with them so far.

I think it can be a little difficult finding couples when you’re constantly moving around but thankfully this lifestyle is becoming more popular with couples so it is slowly getting easier.

However, with that being said, we are totally open to meeting single travellers and have actually met a ton of fantastic solo travellers just by being a part of digital nomad groups and forums.

Do you make sure you have “time apart” to stay sane, or is that not really a problem?

For us it’s not that big of an issue. Ever since we met we have spent nearly all of our time together, so we are quite used to it.

If for some reason we do need time out separately, we will just get together with a few of our individual friends here and plan a night out with just them.

Do you have any tips for maintaining a happy relationship when you spend so much time together?

You have to pick your battles. When you spend this much time together and are around each other most days, you have to know what issues are important and which are not.

We find it is incredibly important to laugh and get a little silly since you can spend a lot of your day being serious. We tend to have 10-minute breaks here and there, where we will bust out into the most ridiculous dance parties, wrestle matches or just have non-work-related chats.

I think it’s incredibly important to respect your partner above all else and speak to them in a way that is kind and loving, no matter how fired up you get.

Finally, always apologise and own up to any mistakes you may have made. Pride and the desire to “win” will get you nowhere in your relationship.

Remember, that is your best friend. Treat them accordingly.

Do you plan to be digital nomads for the long-term, or do you think you’ll end up settling down somewhere?

This is something we talk about a lot and yet we still don’t have an answer.

In my heart of hearts I think we will probably keep travelling for the rest of our lives but maybe do so with a home base of sorts.

Although whenever we seem to decide on a plan, we change our minds.

So who knows! This world just seems far too beautiful to only stay in one spot.

What do your families think of your lifestyle choice?

I would be lying if I said they absolutely love our lifestyle but they have learned to accept it and are happy as long as we are happy and safe. Besides, it gives them a chance to travel and come visit us.

Although, I’m sure they would rather we just move home and have babies.

Parents are funny.

—

To get in touch with Jill and Josh, visit ScrewTheNineToFive.com or shoot them an email: screwtheninetofive@gmail.com. You can also find them on Facebook (Facebook.com/SayNoToNineToFive) and Twitter (Twitter.com/Screwthe9tofive).

Leah and Leanne from Start Somewhere

We first met Leah, Leanne and their two miniature dachsunds in Chiang Mai back in January. They helped us overcome our immense fear of mopeds, and we advised on their family-related issues with totally inappropriate, one-sided and not-clinically-backed recommendations. Some of our best memories of Chiang Mai are with those two, and we’re SOSOSO excited about seeing them in Berlin this July.

Here, Leanne provides the answers.

Where are you both from, how did you meet, and how long have you been together?

I’m from San Diego, CA and Leah’s from Nashville, TN.

We’ve been together for over 3 years now and we’re getting married next year, so she’s stuck with me! We had only been together 6 months when we quit our jobs and travelled the world together. We met through mutual friends in Chicago many years before we started dating. Leah thought I liked her for years

Why did you decide to make the leap and become digital nomads? Did one of you have to push the other one into it? 

I was ready to make the leap, but Leah was a hard sell. She loved to travel, but originally saw the digital nomad lifestyle as a risk and wasn’t comfortable leaving her job. I had to move to Chicago and suffer through a winter to really push her over the edge. What really changed her mind was when my brother passed away suddenly. It was very early on in our relationship, but it’s one of those moments that puts life into serious perspective. She had the money saved and her corporate job would always be waiting, but when my brother died it made her feel like she just couldn’t wait any longer to make the leap.

Originally, we left to travel for a year of backpacking. But a few months in, we realised we didn’t LOVE backpacking. What we really loved was moving slowly, spending more time in each place, and really experiencing life there. We also found that we LOVED work. Not work in the traditional 9-to-5 sense, but coming up with business ideas or executing other people’s businesses. Going on a tour every day just wasn’t satisfying and although we did read more, we missed the satisfaction that comes from working on something you love.

So two months into our trip, we decided to refocus: instead of backpacking for a year and then coming back to a desk job, we decided to create a business and a lifestyle that would allow us to live anywhere, spending an extended time in places where we wanted to live.

Around the same time, our friend started a business and needed to get up and running with a logo, website and messaging. She became our first client, and our business was born.

As the business grew, we made the decision to cut the trip from 18 months to 8, go back to San Francisco, focus on growing the business, and then travel 3 to 5 months every year. San Francisco would be home base, but we’d still get to live in other places, the way we wanted: for a few months at a time, and really experiencing life there.

The new added fun was bringing our two dachshund pups Sauce and Magoo on the adventure.

What work do you do? Do you work on the same business together, or do you have totally different careers?

We work together on our business. We run a company called Start Somewhere, which uses design and technology to make you look good. We do everything from branding to database implementations. We work with social good organisations and some startups.

Start Somewhere is also funding a project called Lean Impact.

Lean Impact is using Lean Startup principles as a foundation, but creating a new framework, a new process of innovation, that meets the unique challenges and opportunities of nonprofits, social enterprises, and organisations working for the social good.

As you work on the same business, how do you separate work from life? Or are the two completely intertwined?

We really try to separate work from life, but it’s a struggle for a few reasons. First, because we’re a service business, our business really is ourselves, and we’re working on ways to productise our services so we can scale ourselves. Second, in addition to Start Somewhere and Lean Impact, we have a few passion projects that are taking a lot of our time. We miss the days when we had one client, but that’s not financially sustainable, so we’re working on finding a better balance.

Because our work and life are so intertwined, we try to do things like make time for ourselves (work out and have alone time) and our relationship, but we’re struggling to make time for everything.

How structured is your work together? E.g. do you have set times for “business meetings”, and are you aware what each other’s aims are for the day/week?

We check in several times a week, but our schedule is different every week. We use Wunderlist to keep track of everything we’re working on, so we don’t have to constantly check-in. It’s more time efficient. Plus it saves at least one fight a week if we’re not always asking, “Did you do that thing yet?”

What’s your daily routine like? Are you together for most of each day?

Many people ask us, “How do you spend all day together?” but we tend to be home together very little. Usually one of us is at meeting when the other person is home. We work out separately, and we do get alone time to unplug.

What are the pros and cons of being a digital nomad couple (compared to living in one place)?

Pros: You never get bored. I learn through my environment, so it keeps me happy and energised. I love meeting new people and exploring our surroundings.

When you travel, you don’t have to fit everything in during a vacation. You get to stumble upon the magic in a place instead of trying to jam it all in. The same goes for other trips. When we visit family or go to New York, we don’t have to squeeze it into a weekend; we can stay for a few weeks.

Your overall lifestyle happiness is much higher. We get to work every day with our dogs by our side. We get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. We go to the grocery store and the gym when it’s not super busy, and avoid the post-work rush. We eat healthier. We get out and experience the sunshine every day.

Cons: Our friends in San Francisco never know when we’re in town, and sometimes we miss important events.

Do you try to seek out other digital nomad couples, or are you unfussed by who you meet? How easy is it to meet other digital nomad couples?

Yes! All the time. It’s how we found you two – through Twitter. Then we got to hang out in Thailand. I love how easy Twitter makes it to find couples working and travelling together. It was tough finding people when we first started travelling, then someone invited us to a travel blogger Facebook group. After that it was easy, and once you find the community, the circle becomes smaller and smaller.

Do you make sure you have “time apart” to stay sane, or is that not really a problem?

Yes! If anyone says No they’re lying.

Do you have any tips for maintaining a happy relationship when you spend so much time together?

Be sure to work out, and when one of you is cranky, feed them immediately. Hunger leads to hanger (hunger + anger), and hanger leads to hage (hunger + rage). Hage makes for very bad days on the road.

Do you plan to be digital nomads for the long-term, or do you think you’ll end up settling down somewhere?

Right now San Francisco is home base, but we’re strongly considering spending more time in NYC since we’ve spent little time here. Regardless of where we spend more time, I think we’ll always travel. Last year we lived in Berlin, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Thailand and Vietnam. This year might be a little more domestic in terms of travel, but hopefully we can keep this going! We’d love to raise our kids in different countries and give them the opportunity to experience new cultures.

What do your families think of your lifestyle choice?

My family thinks I am “finding myself.” Leah’s family grew up travelling internationally on family trips, and is supportive of our travel, but worries about the ‘running our own business’ aspect. 

—

To get in touch with Leanne and Leah, you’ve got plenty of options!

Twitter: @lepitts (Leanne); @leahtn (Leah); @startwithus; @leanimpact; @lesbiantech

Websites: www.startsomewhere.com; www.leanimpact.org

Spoiler alert

We got haircuts last week. And next week, we’re going to tell you how we had a cup of tea.

But we’re mentioning the haircut for a good reason, because we got it done by a woman called Sally who has a website called englishhairdressermadrid.com. Clearly she’s not the type to faff around with naming stuff.

We went with Sally because although Mish doesn’t really give a fig about hairstyles, Rob does. And the thought of explaining our trimming – “but not too much” – needs to a leather-trousered, designer-stubbled Madrileno in a language we don’t know… it was all a bit scary.

So we did a tiny bit of Googling without even knowing what we were looking for, and found Sally. We booked her on the spot. She’s more expensive than we’d normally pay for a hairdresser (especially as she came to our apartment – which meant we didn’t get a head massage in a fun chair that tilts back). But for us, it was a no-brainer to book her: her services aligned exactly with what we wanted, so price wasn’t even an issue.

Sally’s business is all about serving the relatively small number of English-speaking expats (and now digital nomads) living in Madrid. It’s a much tinier market than “anyone in Madrid who needs a haircut”, but that’s perfect: she can target her marketing efforts much more easily, and when the right people find her, they’ll book her without a second thought. And then of course, they’ll tell all their expat/digital nomad friends about her.

And that’s why we tell all our clients to NICHE IT THE HELL DOWN. By focusing on such a tight niche, everything’s easier: you can speak directly to a particular audience and address their specific needs (which means you can dispense with all that infuriatingly vague and jargontastic “Whether you’re a large, small or medium-sized business, we can provide all the the logistical solutions you need to maximise your synergies”). You don’t need to compete on price, because you’ll be the obvious choice for those people. Marketing becomes easier, because there’s less guesswork about where your dream customers will find you. And you’ll become so knowledgeable about your niche that these people will trust you and refer you more and more.

If you’re thinking of starting a new business, start here: focus on a tight niche market. Get to understand their needs, then speak to them directly through your website text, flyer copy, forum posts, podcasts, or any other way you plan to market to them.

And now we’re done with lecturing, we’re off to get help for being introverted entrepreneurs, after which we want to find out if “curvy” people can do yoga too - as we half haven’t got rounder after all this tapas and paella.

On the blog this week

• So, we spent a lot of time being unsure how we felt about Sofia. First, the airport has free wifi but no food whatsoever – we should approve of their priorities but that’s a bit weird, no? Then there were the clothes, the fury when required to give change, the bathroom fixation…yup, there are 10 things we now know about Sofia, but plenty more that we don’t.

• We’re laying down a challenge: if you’ve spent a long time vaguely thinking about a business idea, make June the month where you really grasp the nettle. Or take the bull by the horns. Or put your feet to the fire. Or put your nose to the grindstone. See – there are so many idioms for getting the hell on with it, so doesn’t that show you something?

What we’ve been reading

• Rob only exercises for seven minutes a day, but as he preens and flexes endlessly in the mirror each night he’s convinced he’ll soon be “totally ripped” – because he’s got science on his side.

• One of our favourite talks of all time was given by David Foster Wallace to the graduating class of Kenyon College in 2005. And now someone has made a short film to go with it, so you’ve got no excuse not to check it out.

• Amy Hoy has a course that teaches people how to create recurring revenue products. It’s been massively successful, but she’s still totally redesigning it from the ground up. Her explanation of what worked and what didn’t gives a great insight into how people learn, and what the sticking points with product creation are.

(You can now view our entire week’s reading list – including a load of extra links we can’t be bothered to write up – at Readlists.com - where you can easily send the entire collection of posts to your Kindle. Only about 20 posts to get through this week!)

Shiny objects: captivating, but can end up burning you (and not just if you admire them too soon after taking them off the stove)

It’s nearly summer. Offices will be emptying out as employees go off to enjoy their two weeks’ annual vacation (if they’re lucky). Graduates will be emerging and half-heartedly looking for jobs that don’t exist anymore.

And you? You’ll be working hard on starting something brilliant that will open up a whole world of freedom and opportunities.

Or at least, you will if you embrace Just Freakin’ Do It June.

Yup, like Teen Dating Violence, Haitian Heritage and Celery (honestly, I’m not making these up), “just freakin’ doing it” needs its own month.

Because if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably buy into the life-changing potential of building a business you can run from anywhere. But have you done it yet?

Know your enemy: Shiny Object Syndrome

If not, I don’t think it’s because of a lack of motivation, or time. I think it’s because you suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome – a tendency to leap from one “great idea” to the next, never sticking at it for long enough to get anywhere.

The symptoms of Shiny Object Syndrome present to some extent in 80% of beginner entrepreneurs, and are exacerbated by excessive exposure to blogs and podcasts. They include:

• Near-daily epiphanies about a life-changing business you could start
• Manic episodes of research and industry, followed by a disconsolate lull
• A text file full of ideas, many of which have been touted as “the answer” by other people but aren’t at all suited to you
• No discernible progress at all

So if in the past month you’ve considered starting an ecommerce store, writing a Kindle book, putting together an affiliate marketing site, starting a consulting business and becoming a life coach…you’ve got Shiny Object Syndrome. And you need help.

Introducing…Just Freakin’ Do It June

Shiny Object Syndrome is so prevalent because exploring new ideas is fun – but committing to one, having no idea whether it’ll be successful, is terrifying.

So we need a group intervention to get over the fear. For the month of June, I encourage you to just put everything else aside, forget about all possibilities but one, and start something.

That gives you a couple of weeks to prepare. When 1st June rolls around, here’s what I suggest you do:

Consider your options one last time

Revisit all the business ideas you’ve had over the last year, and evaluate them honestly against your goals, skills and personality.

If your goal is to quit your job in three months, for example, that pretty much eliminates anything based on royalties or affiliate marketing which will take much longer to see results from. If you want to travel, avoid local SEO consulting. If you want to be totally self-reliant, forget anything with large start-up costs that will involve outside funding.

Think about what motivates you too. Is it important that you’re deeply passionate about the product or service you’re selling? If so, forget creating a niche Adsense site around blue ski boots.

If you’re motivated by the process rather than the product it doesn’t matter, but think about the “on stage test”: when you’re mega-successful, will you feel embarrassed to stand on stage talking about what you’ve done?

FOCUS

Once you’ve honestly looked at your ideas and yourself, pick the one that looks best and throw the others away. No cheating by starting three at once and seeing what takes off – just one.

Testing whether your idea is any good is beyond the scope of the article, but do validate it with real customers before you start. Just Google “customer development” to get a sense of why validation is so necessary, and some ideas for how to do it.

Write a plan

An inability to see ideas through often comes from a failure to plan: you knock out all the fun, easy tasks, get to a sticking point and don’t know what to do next, then end up doing something else to resolve the pain of being stuck.

The solution is to remove the need to make decisions by making an exact plan of action at the start. List everything that you need to do, in order, then work through the list. At every point you’ll know exactly what you need to be doing next – and even if the next thing looks hard and painful, you’ll see that it’s something you have to get through to keep moving forwards.

When making your plan, remember to 80/20 it: focus on what’s going to give you the maximum results with the least effort. Designing a fancy Twitter background, for example, isn’t going to make or break your business (unless your business involves making fancy Twitter backgrounds for people).

No more reading!

Or rather, don’t read or listen to anything that might tempt you with further ideas or convince you that there’s a better approach. You’ve taken enough inputs – now it’s time to convert them into outputs.

The exception is anything tactical that relates specifically to the idea you’re working on. That’s fine.

Buddy up

I’m a big fan of starting projects with someone else, because being accountable to someone else will make it way harder to flake out or get off track.

If that’s not for you, get accountability by buddying up with someone else who’s at the same stage you are – even if your businesses are totally different, the process is the same and you can support each other through the tough parts.

(Or if you can’t find anyone else, be accountable to us!)

Find happiness in the hardness

Nothing worth doing is easy. If you’re finding it difficult, reframe it as a positive thing: you’re improving yourself, and putting distance between you and people who aren’t willing to put the work in.

And at the end of the month?

How far can you get in a month? Further than you think. But you’ll still be firmly in “jeez this is tough” territory (and will be for the first year at least), which leaves you vulnerable to giving up and doing something else.

Hopefully though you’ll have made some progress and had a couple of small wins (however tiny) which will motivate you to keep going. And if you’ve written down your plan and got some accountability by buddying up, that’ll make it a whole lot easier.

What if you’ve backed the wrong horse and for some reason your business will never get to where you need it to be? It doesn’t really matter – just by doing something, a whole load of new opportunities will open up to you. You’ll develop new skills, become aware of new markets and problems that need solving, and be included in the crowd of people who’re doing, not dreaming.

So what do you think?

Are you up for the JFDIJune challenge? Are you experiencing the symptoms of Shiny Object Syndrome? What’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting your own business or project?

Let us know in the comments!

Spot the Mafia dude (we excitedly assume) ducking behind the spring onions

1: The alphabet is Cyrillic

And while that’s apparently no secret, we had no idea until the day before we travelled there (we were a bit behind on implementing our SOPs). And here’s the problem with Cyrillic: you can’t type it into Google Translate and see what the words mean.

When you combine that with the fact that no one speaks a word of English, you’ve got two options for the duration of your visit: stay in your apartment, or wing it. We chose to wing it. Which resulted in unintentional tram rides to areas we didn’t really care for, eating things that definitely weren’t chicken, pork, beef, lamb or fish, and still not being entirely sure we walked up part of Vitosha Mountain or just a cocking steep hill.

2: People come alive on the tram 

The default demeanour of a Bulgarian person would never be described as “jovial”. And when you get served in a restaurant or cafe, you’ll be inclined to assume that their demeanour is an accurate reflection of their personality (we’ve never seen so many grunts or had so many menus slammed in front of us).

But before you start to hate them all, get on a tram and see what they’re really like.

The respect shown to older people is incredible: kids, teenagers and even pregnant women leap up from their seats when someone looking slightly more mature gets on.

And everyone’s so tactile and friendly: old men will ruffle the hair of young kids who’re standing in the aisles, and men and women will touch the arms of strangers they’ve only just met when chatting to them.

3: Their clothing choices are… interesting

I’ve never felt so goddamn fashionable in my whole entire life. We figured they must have gone wild on personalityful clothing after communism, because they’re all wearing crazy bright items that I don’t know the names for (they’re not t-shirts, or dresses, or trousers… they often just seem like newly invented clothing items that don’t exist anywhere else in the world).

There’s lots of orange, pink, leopard print, fur and gold dangly things… mainly on the women, but also on the men.

I tried to take photos but I think my camera was blinded by the sight.

4: The very centre of Sofia is beautiful 

In central Sofia you’ll find a stunning park, gorgeous government buildings, and lovely wide brick roads. There are outdoor cafes (with English menus, because this is the touristy bit), water fountains and outdoor art fairs.

We never visited Lozenets, a suburb that’s meant to be pretty. But from everywhere else we saw (and we saw A LOT, because we kept getting the wrong buses/trams), there aren’t any “hidden gem” areas. We could see signs of post-communism infrastructure, but it’s still very early stages and the buildings are run down, the sidewalks are a nightmare, and there isn’t much to do or see.

5: They really like their yoghurt

Bulgaria is apparently the birthplace of yoghurt, and the stuff is everywhere. Not only are there about 300 varieties in supermarkets (all really cheap), but there’s also yoghurt in loads of Bulgaria’s signature dishes.

Bulgarian yoghurt tastes a bit like Greek yoghurt, but it’s less thick and slightly more sour.

6: The food is surprisingly healthy and delicious

When we first arrived and went to our local supermarket, we were a bit scared: 

And then when we went to a really touristy restaurant (to ease ourselves into the idea of going to a restaurant with no English), we ate two plates of food that we could practically feel clogging up our arteries. 

It went on like this for a couple of days, throughout which Rob would spend insufferable amounts of time staring at himself sideways in the mirror. 

And then we got braver and decided to try some more off-the-beaten-track restaurants – where we had grilled meat kebabs (kebapche / кебапчета), traditional Bulgarian meatballs (kufteta / Кюфтета), and lots of amazing fresh and exciting salads. 

7: The Mafia runs the city

We think. Well, that’s what everyone told us before we rocked up. And lots of people moved out the way when we got our camera out, so based on that, it’s true. 

8: Vitosha Mountain (if we went up it) is steeeeeep

We read online about trekking up Vitosha Mountain, and everyone made it out to be an ambient upward stroll to reach a beautiful waterfall. But oh. my. god. it’s steep. Very pretty and nature-y, but steep. In fact, before you even reach the start of the bloomin’ thing, you’ve got to walk up a road so vertical you can’t believe you’re not sliding back down it. 

9: The coins are ridiculous

So the official currency is the “lev” (plural “leva”), and one lev is made up of 100 “stotinki”. The coins – 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 stotinki, and 1 lev – are teeny tiny and practically indistinguishable from each another. And we think this is why everyone wanted the exact money for whatever we were buying – it’s just too much hassle to find the right coins to give us in change. 

In most places, if we didn’t have the exact money, we’d get a vague approximation of the correct change. And in one place, the waitress spent about five minutes filtering through her purse before dumping some random coins on the table and strutting off. 

10: We probably missed out on an awful lot of awesomeness

The language barrier really was a problem. We tried to learn a few key words and phrases, but they had so little in common with other languages that it was hard to remember them. As a result, we probably didn’t get to see enough of what Sofia has to offer. We did the best we could, but we struggled.

We’re having bouts of confusion where we spend too much time wondering where we are. Which is understandable when you’re on country #7 for the year, but we’re experiencing other mental problems too.

Rob keeps zoning out when Mish is talking, and not just when she’s going on about newspaper style guides again. Mish is so irritable that she unleashes military-grade swearing if a YouTube video is buffering too much for her liking. We’re having long, circuitous conversations about the simplest of things because we can’t seem to hold more than two facts in our head at one time.

This is all because we haven’t had a proper night’s sleep since 8 March, when we left Chiang Mai, and it’s an occupational hazard of being on the move all the time.

The trouble is, neither of us can sleep on soft mattresses. And while being compatible with each other would be great if we lived in once place, scoping out the firmness of the mattress in advance is one enquiry too far on an Airbnb checklist that already includes proximity to transport, presence of kettle and microwave, number of flights of stairs, levels of natural light, size of table for working, humour of photo captions, and overall-vibe-we-get-from-host-photo.

As a result we’ve been sleepless in Stepney and Sofia, bloody exhausted in Berlin, and now we might as well be joining the Madrilenos in partying all night for all the shut-eye we’re getting. Or just have kids.

There are other drawbacks to this lifestyle too: constantly feeling a bit clueless, for one. In Spain we’re able to have a fair crack at the language, but we’re about to be plunged back into idiotic gawping tourist mode in Budapest in a couple of days. In Sofia we eventually figured out that being asked “Olyaschlepskodambiaprolozskalov?” in the supermarket just required us to say “Ne” (as we did not have a discount card), but we had to get through a week of appearing to be mute or clinically stupid first.

And there are myriad other tiny things that really add up, especially when you’re exhausted. Like never being totally sure what kitchen equipment you’ve got, or how to get anywhere, or being able to join a gym, or knowing which button on the washing machine means “On”.

This is far from an appeal for pity – we’ve chosen this lifestyle, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. But sometimes it feels that all the “make money while sitting on the beach” bloggers forget or omit the drawbacks and annoyances. Realistically, travel is great but it’s not going to make your life constantly perfect forever: you’re going to have bad days even if you’re permanently living on the beach in Bali.

What we love, though, is being able to choose which drawbacks we expose ourselves to – and having the flexibility to switch almost instantly if it starts to become too much. If we can’t hack the language barrier, we can go to another English-speaking country next week. If never being able to find the cheese grater suddenly becomes a big deal, we can decide to stay in the same place for a few months – or even go home, knowing there’s nothing to stop us from taking off again whenever we want.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb would call it “optionality” – paying a small price to have a knowable downside and a much bigger upside – but let’s not get into that or you’ll never shut Rob up. And besides, it’s time for a siesta – or a restless attempt at one, anyway.

On the blog this week

• Rob’s not much of a talker… unless you get him on the subject of property, podcasts or puppies. Two of those feature in his post about the insanely massive success he’s had with his new property podcast – and why you need a podcast for your business too. Just be grateful you don’t have to hear an audio extended version twice a day, every day, for months.
• Got a mortgage, a family, a love of shopping or a date of birth that’s earlier than ’83? If these are some of the things holding you back from becoming a digital nomad, fear not! We’ve tackled them and more, because we’re determined to get you all doing work you love on your own terms, and having a freaking amazing experience doing it.
• Don’t forget about our huuuge list of digital nomad resources – podcasts, videos, blog posts, etc. – all there to help you quit your job and start up a business from wherever you happen to be in the world. We’re updating it weekly, so please do return to it every so often!

What we’ve been reading

• Turning street charity into a religious competition – that’s got to be the most enterprising idea yet from a homeless person.

• We’ve got a bit of a couple-crush on Jill and Josh (jeez, even their names sound cool together) – a pair of digital nomads currently living and working their arses off in Chiang Mai. Their round-up of the business benefits of living in SE Asia is so bang on, we’re annoyed we didn’t write this ourselves.

• We’ve written a lot about creativity and how to come up with new ideas, but here’s a new one and it’s got to be one of the funnest. It’s called the McDonald’s Theory; we tried it and it would have worked if we hadn’t spent all our creative time analysing the hell out of it.

• We’re onboarding our thought leadership by aligning our pain points… and let’s not get started on client-facing deliverables. Yep, it’s Forbes’ annual jargon tournament. Cast your votes now!

(You can now view our entire week’s reading list – including a load of extra links we can’t be bothered to write up – at Readlists.com – where you can easily send the entire collection of posts to your Kindle.)

In your face taxpayer-funded, TV-promoted podcast losers!

Last month, I started co-presenting a podcast. Within a couple of weeks it was the #1 business podcast in the UK, and had put me directly into the ears of 6,000 potential customers.

As a result, I’m being totally insufferable about haranguing every business owner I know to start a podcast. To save me losing all my friends, I’m going to make the argument in full here then shut up about it once and for all. Maybe.

The case for podcasting

If you’re trying to get a new product or service off the ground, you’ve almost certainly thought about blogging as a way of getting yourself in front of people.

In my experience, podcasting will get you a bigger audience, develop a deeper relationship with that audience, and make them far more likely to buy from you.

In practice you should be doing both (and driving podcast listeners back to your blog), but I’m going to directly compare the two to show why I think podcasting is something every new business should be doing.

So let’s look at four big benefits of podcasting:

Finding an audience

As a podcaster, iTunes – not Google – is the search engine through which you’re most likely to be found. This gives you two big advantages when it comes to finding an audience:

1. You’re more likely to be found because there’s less competition: there are far fewer podcasts on each topic than there are blogs. There might only be one or two other podcasts in your niche, compared to thousands of blogs.
2. People browsing iTunes are looking for a show to subscribe to, based on one of their interests. That’s very different from Google searches, which are often just about looking for an immediate answer to a specific question – meaning you have to work hard to convince them to stay longer than they intended.

Because people browsing iTunes are looking for content based on their interests, that’s what your podcast should give them: content, rather than a sales pitch. Once you’ve built up an audience you can mention your product or service, and a percentage of your listeners will check it out.

Example: Agency Talk, by Dan Norris

Dan wanted to reach web development agencies so that he could tell them about his new analytics product which might be useful for them.

He knew that the agencies were unlikely to be searching Google for a product like his (he solves a problem they probably don’t know they have), so he started a podcast full of useful advice for agency owners. During each episode he casually mentions how his product might be useful, and some of his listeners will go and sign up.

Building relationships

Instead of spending a minute (if you’re lucky) scanning the subheadings of your blog post, a podcast listener might spend an hour with you each week.

The amount of time they spend, combined with the fact that you can get your personality across more easily than in writing, means that your audience will really feel like they know you. And if they know you and like you, they’ll trust you – which means that when you sell to them, it’ll come across naturally.

Example: Meaningful Money, by Pete Matthew

Pete is a financial advisor – a profession where relationships and trust are essential, because his clients need to share every detail of their financial lives with him.

Pete could have spent years writing a blog about financial advice, but it’s a topic that’s both well-covered and pretty dry, so it would have been hard to stand out. Instead, he recorded a series of YouTube videos of him talking to camera, and started a podcast.

As a result, you feel like you really know him as a person – and it’s obvious that he can be trusted. When his listeners are ready to get personal financial advice, it’s hard to imagine them going to anyone else.

Developing rapid authority

Authority is intertwined with the relationship you build with your audience. For some reason, you’re perceived as more of an authority when your audience can hear you than you would even if you wrote the very best weekly blog.

Example: The Smart Passive Income Podcast, by Pat Flynn

Even though Pat had a pretty gigantic blog before he started podcasting, the audio has done wonders for his authority. As a result of it, he’s been asked to do a lot more public speaking, and he recently brought out his first book.

Getting access to influencers

Podcasting gives you access to influencers in your industry, who’ll be more willing to be a guest on your show than they would be to write a blog post. It’s more exciting for them, takes less time, and many people just don’t like writing.

Getting influencers on your show is beneficial for two reasons:

1. They’re likely to promote their appearance to their own audience, introducing your podcast to more people.
2. It’s a way of starting a conversation around something that’s perceived as beneficial for them (a media appearance) rather than just pitching them on your product.

Example: Entrepreneur on Fire, by John Dumas

John podcasts every bloomin’ day, and interviews a different entrepreneur every time. Everyone he interviews then promotes the show to their own audience, so John is constantly being discovered by new people. He now gets over 150,000 monthly downloads.

My case study: The Property Podcast

My friend Rob Bence wanted to start a property podcast, and asked me if I’d co-present because I blog about property too. (We actually met because I interviewed him for another podcast, but that’s another story.)

After one month…

• Our episodes had been downloaded over 10,000 times.
• We had 41 five-star ratings in the UK iTunes store.
• We were often #1 in the “Business” category on iTunes, ahead of BBC and Financial Times podcasts that get heavily promoted on other platforms.
• iTunes manually featured us with a big banner on the podcasts homepage.

So, let’s see what the podcast did for us in terms of the four areas I’ve just been talking about:

Audience: We reached at least 6,000 individual people in our first month, which is a lot more than both of our own blogs combined. From reviews and emails, we know that many of them found us while browsing iTunes and had never heard of us before.

Relationships: Our listeners are spending 30 minutes with us each week, compared to the 3.5 minutes the average reader spends on my blog.

The other Rob sells packaged property investments – an industry where there are a lot of dodgy dealers and scepticism as a result. Because listeners buy into the worldview he expresses in the podcast, he’s had calls from people who’re already convinced that he’s the man to invest with.

Authority: We’ve been approached by a television researcher about a pilot for a new property TV show, and we’re being interviewed by another very high-profile podcast.

Access: Our podcast doesn’t feature guest interviewees, so we don’t get access in that way. But having a platform and the bragging rights of being the UK’s biggest business podcast makes it very easy for us to approach anyone who we want to talk to.

Sales?: Podcasting isn’t about generating sales in a direct, short-term way, but we’ve both increased our business already. Rob has more leads from people calling him up, and I’m selling more copies of my book (which I know are from the podcast because I give them a special discount code).

So for us, podcasting has ticked every box. (And the other Rob deserves all the credit, by the way.)

Want to get started in podcasting?

Setting up a podcast and getting it on iTunes isn’t difficult, and you don’t need any more equipment than a headset microphone and a free piece of editing software.

These are the exact resources that we used to learn how to do it:

• Dan Norris’ tutorial takes you through the exact technical process of recording, hosting and publishing to iTunes.
• Dan Andrews talks more about audio quality, and what makes a great show.
• Chris Ducker talks about the importance of getting into the “New & Noteworthy” section of iTunes, and how to do it.
• We didn’t watch this one, but Pat Flynn’s podcasting tutorial is meant to be very comprehensive.

Some podcasting tips from me

From recording my own podcasts and listening to them every day, I’ve picked up a few tips which I think will help you get the best return for your efforts:

1. Keep it brief. Plenty of very successful podcasts are over an hour long, but I think 20-30 minutes is the sweet spot. It’s not so much of a commitment for either you or the listener, and you can always increase the length over time.
2. Stick to a structure. Having a format (like introduction, reviews, news, main topic, tips, sign-off) makes it easier to plan out your show, and stops you from rambling. It also gives you changes of pace and direction to grab back listeners’ wandering attention – much better than some guy just droning on about a topic for half an hour.
3. Don’t sell. Make your podcast an invaluable source of information about your industry, and don’t bang on about your product or service all the time. Instead, concentrate on driving listeners back to your website and getting them to sign up for your mailing list, where they can find out more.
4. Outsource the editing. You can edit it yourself for free, but it’ll probably take 2-3 hours for a 30-minute show if you’re learning as you go along. Outsource it on Elance or oDesk (using our hiring process), and get back to building your business.
5. Record and publish at the same time every week. Listeners should know for sure that your latest episode will be uploaded every – say – Thursday morning for their drive to work. Recording at the same time every weeks gets you into a non-negotiable routine, and makes it less likely that you’ll slip and become inconsistent.
6. Ask for reviews. Reviews are an important part of the algorithm that determines what gets shown when someone searches on iTunes, and your listeners will supply them if you ask – they just won’t think of doing it if you don’t mention it. We even recorded a video showing them how to do it.
7. If there are no podcasts in your niche, it doesn’t mean there’s no demand. We saw that there were only a few property podcasts and they’d mostly given up a couple of years ago, and worried that it meant they weren’t able to attract listeners. In fact, we found lots of listeners who were desperate for more coverage of a topic they were really interested in.

Convinced yet?

Have you been convinced to make podcasting a part of your business? If not, what’s holding you back?

If you’ve got any questions about the podcasting process, ask in the comments!

Alone, out of place, and with a mortgage back home. We’ve been there.

Nearly every day we get emails from people who say they’d love to become a digital nomad, but there are so many things standing in their way and they’re just too scared to make a go of it in case it all goes tits up.

And we totally get what they mean - if we hadn’t fallen into this digital nomad thing by accident, we’d have also thought there were just too many logistical and financial challenges to make it work.

But we’ve actually done it, so we know that it’s so much easier than you’d think for anyone to become a digital nomad.

And because we’re on a bit of a mission to get everyone doing work they love on their own terms while travelling around and experiencing the world as much as possible, we’ve decided we’ve just GOT to tackle these fears. Maybe not once and for all, but for a few weeks at least.

So… here are your fears, in the order in which they most frequently get mentioned in emails to us:

You have a mortgage

Easy – don’t know what you’re worried about! OK, bit of an exaggeration, but you’ve probably got more options that you think.

1) Nuclear option: sell the darn place

If you really want to leap into this digital nomad thing, you won’t need the house. And even if you plan on returning to your home country a lot, just Airbnb it, or stay in a hotel, or do house-sitting, or see if your some of your less-insane relatives will let you stay in return for scintillating tales of your travels and endless slideshows.

If you haven’t bought your plane ticket yet and aren’t in the market for a new home of your own, you’re in the perfect position to sell: you’re not stuck in a chain, and you’ve got all the time you need to wait for the perfect buyer.

2) Rent it out

We currently rent out our old home (a one-bedroom apartment in King’s Cross, London) to a couple of university students. The living room is pretty big and has a little alcove in it, and that’s where one of the students lives for a reduced price. The other one has the main bedroom.

We’re making a decent profit every month, which helps with flights and accommodation in other countries.

The apartment isn’t managed by a lettings agent (i.e. we don’t pay a fee for them to sort out any plumbing problems or issues with the tenants), but that’s not to say you shouldn’t either. In the UK you’ll lose about 15% to a lettings agent if you go for the “fully managed” option (instead of about 9% if you just get them to rent out the place, or 0% if you don’t take on a lettings agent at all). But if you’re travelling around the world and don’t have a willing family member or friend on hand to help out, it might be a good option.

When something does go wrong with our apartment, we call on mybuilder.com to find someone nearby who can help with the blocked drain/dodgy light switch/non-working radiators. And actually, we’ve found so many fantastic workmen through mybuilder.com that we just use the same ones over and over again.

2a) Rent it out through Airbnb 

You’re bound to make a bigger profit if you do it this way, but it’s definitely way more hassle and there’s more potential for vacant periods.

However, it’s a great option if you’re just thinking of giving digital nomadism a try for a few months – although you’ll need to have a friend/family member on hand to help out with new tenants and getting the place cleaned after each guest.

3) Do house swaps

You get to live in your house when you’re in the country, and swap it with other people when you’re not. Check out this Telegraph article on some of the best house-swapping sites available.

You have a family 

So do all these people, and they’re having a ball as digital nomads:

• Escape Artistes: Theodora travels around the world with her ridiculously intelligent 12-year-old son, Zac.
• A King’s Life: Two parents and two toddlers travel the world and aim to “live like a king”: richly, broadly and without the baggage of too much stuff.
• Pearce on Earth: Brandon Pearce needs to work just a few hours a week so that he and his family can travel the world together.
• Laptops, Nappies and Paradise: Carrie and Dave gave up their corporate lives in London, moved to Argentina, had a baby, and set up their own location independent business.

We’ve come across and read about so many amazing digital nomad families, and it really seems like having kids in this sort of environment gives them a better education, and can make them more stable, happy and sociable.

Here’s a fab podcast interview with Carrie and Dave from Greenback Tax Services (they provide tax services for US expats abroad and write the blog “Laptops, Nappies and Paradise” mentioned above). Carrie and Dave travel around the world with their two boys, and the interview actually made us want to have kids and take them around the world with us.

You have lots of stuff – and you like accumulating new stuff

I’m guessing most of you haven’t been to my parents’ house, but they have so much stuff it’s like they were bred in a capitalism lab. And yet later this year, they’re becoming digital nomads.

Admittedly they’re not renting out their place and they’re not getting rid of any of their things (just yet), but they definitely can’t take everything they own with them.

And just like us, they’ll fully realise just how much experiences trump “stuff”. If you’re considering becoming a digital nomad, you’re probably aware of this fact already – even if you haven’t fully had a chance to see how much it’s true.

Some reading for you:

• Here’s some scientifically backed proof from Rob about how experiences trump “stuff”.
• And here’s a blog post on why owning/buying stuff won’t make you happy.
• But if you’re going to read ANYTHING, read this article from a self-made millionaire about living with less.

If you love the idea of digital nomadism but hate the idea of removing “shopping” from your list of hobbies, or can’t bear the thought of selling everything you own, how about trying out the lifestyle for a few months or so, and see how you feel afterwards?

You could rent out your place furnished (through a lettings agent or Airbnb), or you could put everything into storage for a few months.

You like routine

Good – so do we.

In fact, we’d probably argue that an element of routine is essential if you want to make money running a business while travelling.

Unless we have a routine, each day would be a) daunting, because there’d just be too many options for what to do, and b) unproductive, because we wouldn’t have set aside specific times to actually get on with work.

Our days take on a similar structure wherever we are in the world, with set times for work. We’re super lucky because we absolutely love our work, but even so… when we’ve just come back from a mid-afternoon Thai massage, it’s all too easy – in that period of post-pounding drowsiness – to sack off the usability review and escape to the rooftop pool for a quick swim ‘n’ sunbathe.

So yes, routine is essential. But the difference between us and the people in jobs back home is that we can arrange our lives around the routine that suits us. And if we suddenly get an idea for a new project, we can switch to working on that for a day or two. As long as we’re not up against any particular client deadlines, and as long as we’re still being productive and pushing ourselves, it’s fine.

Of course, no one likes routine the whole time. And that’s why being a digital nomad is so cool: you can disrupt things if you want to occasionally – you can go on a midweek island excursion, or take a few days off to see the sights if you’re only going to be there for a short while.

You’re a bit scared of the unknown/being in a new country

We decided to become digital nomads while taking a six-month career break in New York. In New York, we stayed in 11 different Airbnb apartments – to experience new parts of the city and keep things fresh.

New York is no place for newbie digital nomads who are looking to save a buck or two (a shoebox studio apartment in Manhattan costs about £1,600 a month if you’re lucky; compare that to £180 a month in Chiang Mai), but here’s why it was such a great entry point to digital nomadism for us:

• We’d been to NYC tons of times. It’s my favourite place in the world, and I know it back-to-front and inside-out. 
• We’re used to city life: we’re from London. 
• Everyone there speaks the same language as us, and all the signs, etc. are in English. 
• We knew a few people out there. 
• We moved around every few weeks, which meant we got used to living in an assortment of homes, in different neighbourhoods. And because we didn’t want to schlep loads of crap around with us everywhere, we quickly learnt what our “essential” items were, and what we could easily live without. 

So essentially, we eased ourselves in gently. We pretty much changed just one thing compared to our lives back in London – moving around a lot.

And that’s what I think you should do if you’re a bit scared of the unknown: ease yourself in gently. Just change one or two things compared to your regular life. Start out in a place where you already know you’ll feel comfortable, or where you already know people. Get used to it, and then (only if you want to) try out “tougher” places or experiences. Starting out in Thailand or Vietnam is by no means a must.

Also remember that you can travel as slowly as you like. Our preferred method is to have a “base” in a country for three or four months, and then take a few mini-trips from there.

You’re “the wrong side of 30 (or 40, or 50, or even 60)”

Excellent – your life experiences will mean you’re no longer fazed by hair-damaging humidity, and you probably won’t get so daunted by the thought of gesturing for your fruit salad to contain no pineapple that you end up digging out the majority of your bowl and dumping it on your husband’s.

Being older has other benefits too. You’re more likely to have more money, which means you’ll have a larger selection of travel places and accommodation. And you’ll be past the whole thing of needing to do the same as all your friends.

Being older is a benefit, not a set-back, when it comes to being a digital nomad. And what’s more, there are heaps of people doing it already:

• Betsy and Pete from Passingthru.com
• Larissa and Michael from Changesinlongitude.com
• Craig and John from Flashpackatforty.com
• David from Nomadicretiree.com

You’ve got elderly relatives who need you around

This is a slightly trickier one, and I guess it depends on just how much they need you around (and also if you want to be around more than they actually need you around).

If you feel guilty about not seeing those relatives often – or if you’re worried about being too far away in case something happens to them – you could consider taking a series of mini-breaks, or basing yourself in a country/region that’s close by. For example, we have a relative who’s a bit poorly at the moment, but because we’re in Europe it’s pretty easy to pop back for frequent visits.

That wouldn’t suddenly turn you into a “frequent vacationer” as opposed to a digital nomad: you’d still be travelling and working at the same time, after all.

You’re worried about missing your friends

We actually enjoy missing our friends – it means we get to have the most amazing, tear-inducing (for me anyway) cuddles with them when we get back. And while we keep in touch with them through email and Skype, there’s always so much more to tell each other and update each other on when we’re back.

If you really love seeing your friends frequently though, get them out to visit you too! If you move to a region that’s really cheap (like Thailand), you could rent somewhere with a spare room and get people to come see you the whole time – all they’d have to pay for is their plane ticket. (Tell them you’ll cover meals too… if you move to South East Asia, you’ll realise that isn’t the overly generous gesture it seems like.)

You hate the idea of being in a foreign place with no friends or like-minded people

We were worried about this too, but then we realised a few things:

• There are lots of digital nomads in the world.
• They really do live all over the world.
• By definition, they’re online and therefore easy to start up a conversation with.

Since we started, we’ve met people from all over the world – in countries where none of us is originally from. We’ll keep up with each other’s lives through Skype and email, and then we’ll catch up properly when we’re next in the same country – which happens more often than you’d think.

We now have a network of buddies around the world, and it’s such a great feeling to know we’ve got an automatic bond with them.

The general, unidentifiable logistics of getting started freak you out 

To this, I’ll just repeat what Rob said in an earlier post:

It’s not that there’s anything hard about travel – it’s just that breaking your status quo, whatever it is, isn’t easy. 

—

Okayyy… over to you please! Does this help, and what have I missed out? Are there any other things that freak you out about becoming a digital nomad, and what other advice is there? Is any of my advice totally misplaced?

Tell me stuff! (Please.)

If your fears are more about setting up a business or running one from around the world, check out all our posts on building a business as a digital nomad.

If you saw how much time and effort Mish puts into English grammar, you’d wonder how she has any brain space left for other thoughts or creativity. This is a girl who knows the newspaper style guides of every British newspaper off by heart, and who has an inner scream every time she receives an email containing a comma splice.

As for Rob… he devotes so much mental energy to property yield spreadsheets and imagining what life would be like with a puppy, you’d imagine he’d have no time left for thinking about anything else.

And yet we get called “creative” the whole time. In last week’s newsletter for instance, we asked you to send us any questions you liked. And heaps of you asked things along these lines:

• How did you get to be creative (were you always like this, or did you learn it)?
• How do you come up with ideas for blog posts?
• How do you come up with creative ideas for the clients you work with?
• How do you come up with ideas on how to structure your business and treat your clients?

(Slight aside: you guys are AWESOME. We have, like, the best readers ever. You have the best questions and the best thoughts and the best, well, everything. We’re a bit in love with you.)

And our answer to all of you was as follows:

• The questions/comments we get from readers inspire new blog posts and give us ideas for how to work with clients in future.
• Ditto travel.
• Ditto clients.
• Most importantly: WE STEAL LIKE CRAZY. In an entirely legal way.

Here’s how we steal: we listen to podcasts, watch talks/documentaries/how-to videos, read blog posts and slowly work our way through books EVERY SINGLE DAY.

And even if those podcasts, videos, blog posts and books have very little to do with our own blog and our own business, they give us ideas. Ideas for blog posts, ideas for clients’ businesses (we do lots of brand consultancy), ideas for ways to structure our own business, and ideas for other businesses we’re in the middle of creating.

How do we fit everything in? Easy.

• We both go for jogs/walks every morning. That’s easily two podcasts. If you have a job, you can do the same while driving or walking or getting the bus/train to work.
• We watch TED talks and documentaries with our lunch. You can do the same.
• We read our books before bed. And you can too.
• Whenever we have a spare moment, we read blog posts on our Kindles using a neat little trick involving Google Reader, Instapaper and IFTTT.com. (We’ll show you how to set it up if you tell us which RSS aggregator we should use when Google Reader shuts down in July.)

A plea: if you’re in a job you hate and you want to quit and do your own thing, get ideas from successful people. Don’t spend all afternoon reading about friends’ babies on Facebook or looking at expensive holiday destinations on Pinterest. Do something useful and worthwhile with your time.

Don’t know what to read/watch/listen to? We can help! We’ve just updated our shittingly long collection of digital nomad resources, and we’re going to keep updating it until Google Analytics tell us no one’s reading it.

You can read it here. It’s long. If you like it, hate it, or think we should add something to it, let us know.

In the meantime, Mish will spend the next few hours worrying if some of the sentences in this newsletter didn’t flow quite as well as they could have.

On the blog this week

• We’re aware that not everyone’s as addicted to podcasts as we are, so there’s a genuine danger that you missed out on ten awesome travel tips that were featured on the Lifestyle Business Podcast. While we probably will attempt to jam our (slightly waxy) headphones into your ears if you spend any amount of time with us, this time we’ve cut you a break and converted them into written form – as well as adding our own.
• Every so often, someone asks, “Can anyone become a digital nomad?” To which we reply, “No.” And after a bit of uncomfortable silence, we expand with, “You need a really good reason to want to do it – and most people don’t have enough of a good reason.” Location independence isn’t the easy option, so something’s got to push you away from your old life or pull you towards a new one. Here, we share our own pushes and pulls.

What we’ve been reading

• Graham Hill (not the racing driver) sold his startup, made a metric crapload of money, hired a personal shopper called Seven (!) to furnish his two houses, and was unhappier than ever. What happened next makes us a bit teary.
• We don’t know about you, but nothing casts a shadow over our day like getting camembert on our HTC screen or putting too much water in with our quinoa. These 27 middle-class problem tweets CAN’T POSSIBLY BE TRUE, but we SO hope they are.

• Our friend Olly just launched the MVP of his new startup, and wrote a phenomenal post about the seven lessons he’s learnt from getting his product out of his mind and in front of real customers. Essential reading.

• Noah Kagan made $2,000 in a single sentence - and any of us can do the same. Kind of.

Our “pull”: the freedom to work from a New York rooftop while wearing totally inappropriate clothes for 38-degree heat (laundry day)

We’ve done a couple of interviews recently where we were asked the same question: can anyone become a digital nomad?

Our typically upbeat, feel good, puppies-and-rainbows answer?

Hell no.

Or rather, of course anyone can, but only if they have a damn good reason for doing it.

Because becoming a digital nomad is hard – much harder than just carrying on as you are, or permanently relocating for work, or taking a career break.

We’ve written before about how it’s easy once you’re in the swing of it, and logistically it’s actually harder to stop than it is to start, but there’s no doubt that getting started involves getting through a lot of mental, practical and social barriers.

(In one of next week’s posts, we’ll be going into detail about how to get over some of those barriers.)

So you’ve got to have a good reason to go to all that effort. And when we started reflecting on our own reasons, we realised that we both had different motivations that “pushed” us away from our old life and “pulled” us towards a new one.

Push factors, AKA “work sucks”

Mish and I both had our own “push” factors – which I’m defining as something uncomfortable or dissatisfying about your life that motivates you to make changes.

For Mish, she’d been in the same job for a few years and didn’t feel like she was going anywhere. She was the archetypal high-achieving loser, caring more about the company than it cared about her, and having all her ideas knocked back. At the same time, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do instead. She knew what work she loved doing and what she was good at, but wasn’t sure if she could actually make any money from it.

I was already running my own business, but the “push” was the desire to get into a new line of work. The music industry was shrinking, but that wasn’t my problem: the company was growing, and we had the best employees anyone could wish for. The industry just had no interest in innovating, and I wasn’t getting to use new ideas or try anything different – I felt like I was just repeating the same cycle every few months.

The “push” factors of most other digital nomads we’ve talked to have been very similar. They’re almost exclusively work-related: either being bored in a job, or not having enough autonomy, or not earning enough for a decent standard of living in their city.

Pull factors: beyond the 4-Hour Workweek

Our “pushes” may have been similar to most other nomads (and to each other), but our “pull” factors were very different.

For the majority of people we’ve spoken to, the “pull” was the typical 4-Hour Workweek lure of an easier, more autonomous life in an exotic location, and the chance to see new parts of the world.

Now that we’ve been doing this for over a year, those are the reasons that would make this lifestyle very difficult to give up. But they didn’t play into our decision at all at the start.

For Mish, the “pull” was the lure of seeing one part of the world a lot more: New York. She’d lived there for six months to do an internship after university, and loved it to the extent of tearing up every time it was shown on TV. All she wanted to do was spend more time there – as an employee if she could find a job, or freelancing if she couldn’t.

It wasn’t about a leisurely lifestyle or exotic locations for me either. I’d never had any interest in travel, and was perfectly happy living in London. It also wasn’t about working for a couple of hours in the morning then going surfing – I enjoy work more than most other activities, and freak out slightly if I get water up my nose while I’m washing my hair.

The “pull” for me was having the freedom to choose when to work and what to work on. I’ve always dabbled in lots of different projects, and wanted to be able to follow those projects wherever they took me – without letting anyone else down by not being in the office or having my focus split.

You need a pull and a push

Because breaking away from the default life scripts is such an effort, I reckon you need to be both pushed and pulled.

The dream of seeing the world and running your own business (a “pull”) is very common, but there needs to be something missing in your own life (a “push”) for you to really work towards making it a reality.

And conversely, being unhappy or unfulfilled with your present lifestyle isn’t necessarily enough either. You need to believe in an alternative – to be “pulled” by the idea of something else you could realistically do instead.

A vague feeling of dissatisfaction isn’t going to be enough. Most people are unhappy with something in their work or personal lives from time to time, but at heart they’re either pretty content as they are, or don’t have enough of a pull to get them off their backsides. Quitting to travel the world is a nice fleeting fantasy, but there needs to be something seriously nagging you for a prolonged period of time if you’re going to be prompted to make it a reality.

Those are our reasons – tell us yours

If you’re already living the digital nomad lifestyle, what was your motivation to get started? Did you have a push and a pull?

And if you want to but haven’t started yet, what’s stopping you? Do you feel like you need more of a reason, or is it just practicalities holding you back?

Let us know in the comments!