Coaching calls from a hammock?
Sure, why not!

I’d always had dreams of traveling and being able to work at the same time. I envisioned myself lying on a beach with my laptop, money rolling in, laughing at all the chumps sitting in cubicles.

After years of trying to find the perfect career that would let me do this, I decided to take matters into my own hands and create one myself. I started my coaching business and decided to finally make my dream life happen.

After just four months of being in business, I bought a van and took off on a seven-month rock-climbing road trip (I figured it was better to live the dream sooner rather than later).

I learned a lot on the road about what it’s like to start a new business while traveling full-time. It is extremely rewarding, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.

Here are the biggest things to keep in mind if you’re planning on growing a new business while you travel.

1. Be clear about your expectations for yourself.

I figured I’d have all the time in the world to work on my business while I was on the road. Turns out my expectations were a little… ambitious.

I neglected to think about the fact that I might be more inspired to explore and play and climb than I was to work. Which is exactly what happened. I got stressed out by not meeting my very high expectations, and it got in the way of actually enjoying my trip—which is the whole point, right?

Decide on the minimum work that must be done each day/week while you’re away, and don’t get too ambitious. You must accept the fact that if you’re just starting out, your business needs your full-time attention, and if you can’t give it that, it’s going to grow more slowly. And there is nothing wrong with that!

After all, the whole point is to enjoy your travels, not spend hours in front of your computer.

Some good questions to get clear on:

• What amount of work MUST get done to keep things moving forward?
• How much time do you want to spend working vs. not-working?
• How much money do you NEED to be making from your new business while traveling?
• What is the bare minimum that you must do to meet this need?

Then decide how much work you will do, and be OK with it. Once things are up and running you will be able to back off the work a little. At the beginning, it’s hustle time. But if you’re traveling, you can’t really hustle, so lower your expectations and go for the slow and steady method.

2. Plan ahead.

Because your business is just a brand-new baby, you may not have all your systems in place yet. Get them sorted out before you leave! Automation tools like Hootsuite will be your best friend.

When you’re growing a new business, your priority should be to stay consistent. You need to get that momentum going, so you can’t disappear off the face of the planet for weeks at a time (yet—that is possible later, when your business is booming!).

Decide on a blogging and social media schedule ahead of time, and work your butt off before you leave to implement it. Try writing four blog posts and scheduling them for the next month. Then create shortlinks for them, and schedule your Facebook posts and tweets accordingly.

The goal is to have it look like you never left your computer. You want to stay engaged and active with your people, and posting even on days when you aren’t working will help them remember that you actually exist.

When you’re just getting started, consistent presence is crucial, and having all systems go will make it so much easier for you.

3.  Take days off.

Be sure to schedule in days where you will do NO work, and let yourself be OK with that. Sometimes these might be travel days, where you’ll be in buses/boats/cars/planes all day. But sometimes they should be FUN days. Relax and let yourself fully enjoy a day off without worrying about what still has to be done.

It’s WAY too easy to want to work every day, 60 hours a week, on your new business, because you’re excited about it! And because let’s face it—the work never ends. But you will crash and burn, and ruin your trip altogether.

These mental vacation days will help recharge your creativity, clear your mind, and reenergize you once you do get back to work. Schedule non-work days into your calendar, and make it a part of your long-term business plan to take days off. Your business will thank you in the end.

4. Put client systems in place before you go.

This requires a lot of work, but will pay off. When you first start a business, there are all kinds of little things to think about. Do you need to send your new clients an intake form before they start? How will they book their sessions with you? What about invoicing? Any exercises or worksheets you will be giving them during their time with you?

If you can have all that stuff ready to go before you leave, you’ll save oodles of time.

The best way to do this is to walk yourself through the client process. Pretend you are a client and go to your website with the intention of hiring you. Follow the steps through until you actually finish with the client, and take notes of any documents or systems you will need to put in place.

I spent way too many hours on my trip going back and forth with clients to schedule them in, getting their prep work ready and sent off, creating homework exercises for them—and it was just a lot of busy work. Get that stuff in place before you go. It’s a pain in the ass and a lot of work, yes, but it’s worth it!

5. Have fun and be nice to yourself.

OK, this one may seem a little redundant—isn’t fun the whole point of this lifestyle!?

Remember not to take things too seriously. If you miss a few days of work, it’s no big deal. If you miss a few weeks of work, still no big deal. The main objective is to create your new business YOUR way. If that means taking it slow and growing in baby steps while you’re away, then let it happen.

The more you stress about trying to do it all at once, the worse you will feel. It’s enough pressure to start a business when you’re working on it full time, let alone while you’re trying to enjoy your newfound freedom of traveling at the same time.

Go easy on yourself, and let yourself be where you are. This requires you to constantly check in with yourself and ask yourself what you REALLY want to be doing right now. If the answer is “I just want to lie in this hammock and do nothing,” then do it. In the long run, it’ll be better for your business.

And when the time comes to hustle your business, trust that you will.

It’s all about consistency and small steps that lead to big results when you’re just getting started. Traveling definitely has its perks (e.g., working from that hammock on the beach), but as a new business owner, it will take an adjustment period before your business is running smoothly enough to really enjoy your travels. Be realistic in your expectations, schedule your work ahead of time, get all your systems in place before you go, take days off, and be kind to yourself along the way, and your new business will grow smoothly and steadily while you’re away.

Share your experience in the comments below!

If you started a business while on the road, what were your biggest challenges, and how did you manage them?

What questions do you have about starting a business while traveling?

As a Life-Switch Coach + Professional Adventure Instigator, and creator of The Uncaged Life, Rebecca Tracey works with people who want to do something big with their lives, like travel, quit their job, or start their own business (or all three), but who need help creating a plan, staying on track, and beating out nagging resistance and fear. She also loves working with new entrepreneurs to help them design businesses THEIR way. Rebecca is an avid traveller and rock climber, and is always on the lookout for her next big adventure.

Ko Chang, Thailand
Photo by Amy Scott, all rights reserved

One of the most challenging parts of Nomadtopia (but also a wonderful problem to have, I know!) is deciding where to go, when, and why, when you can essentially go anywhere, anytime. I’ve written before about how to decide where to go, but now I want to share what this looks like in real time, in my own Nomadtopia.

For the last several months, Roberto and I have been struggling with figuring out where we want to spend the rest of the year (and beyond). We’ve been looking at maps, climate charts, airfares, and calendars, trying to create some sort of logic, some sort of plan, out of virtually nothing.

Well, it feels like nothing, but we do have some ideas to guide us.

Here’s all we know:

• We want to leave Argentina (and South America) for a while
• We’re ready for a break from big cities
• We want to go to less-expensive places
• We are committed to being in the U.S. the first weekend of July and the first weekend of August
• There are other events we’re invited to in the U.S. later in the year
• I want to minimize my time in the U.S. to minimize my tax liability

So that’s a start, but now what? How do we start to cobble together an itinerary from such a vague list of ideas?

We played around with lots of random itineraries, but the truth is, we don’t know exactly where we want to be in six months, and we don’t want to decide right now.

And even if we knew exactly where we wanted to go, we also don’t know when we’ll want to return to Argentina!

Trying to shoehorn a completely open-ended itinerary into a set of round-trip plane tickets isn’t the ideal scenario. The cost of one-way tickets was feeling prohibitive, though, so we were feeling rather stuck—until we realized we could use frequent-flyer miles to get those one-way tickets.

Ah, yes, this feels good: keeping things flexible without spending an arm and a leg.

It’s going to involve some fancy footwork to use miles for one-way tickets to the States that fit with our timing and put us somewhere near where we need to be, but we’ll make it work. We’ve gotten waylaid waiting for Roberto’s new passport to show up, but we’re hoping it’ll be here today.

After the U.S., we want to go somewhere new and different. We’re ready to get out of the Americas!

We’ve been focusing our attention on Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, because we know they are cheaper destinations, and the website Price of Travel has been super-helpful for getting a sense of which countries and cities are less expensive.

But weather is a concern, too. We don’t want to spend the coldest months of the year in cold places, and it’s also much easier to pack for just one climate/season. We wouldn’t have much time in Europe before it started to get cold, so we’re going to start in Asia. I’ve always wanted to go to Indonesia and Malaysia, and I loved Thailand, so those countries are definitely on the itinerary, and we’ll see where else we end up.

For now, we just have to decide where in Asia we want to land!

We’ll be looking further into visa rules and how long we can stay in each place, combined with some festivals/holidays we’re interested in, and connecting with others we know in the area, to figure out where to go when. I’ve been to the region, but not to all of the countries we want to visit, so although it feels new and different, I still feel like I have some sense of what it will be like to travel there.

From there, anything’s possible. There may be another trip back to the States, or not. I have some retreat ideas up my sleeve, and we’re talking to some family and friends about meeting up in different places, so it’ll be fun to see how things unfold.

Of course, figuring out where you’re headed is just one piece of the puzzle. We have a lot to sort out on the home front, too, especially concerning the rental and management of our apartment. I’ll be writing more about that soon, so stay tuned.

How will you decide where to go and when? Share your ideas in the comments! 

Lima, Peru

Last year, not long after I first started thinking I’d like to lead retreats in different locations around the world, my friend and colleague Heather Thorkelson invited me to be guest faculty for her Adventure Reboot in Peru.

I didn’t hesitate for a second. “Hell YES,” I told her. “I’m in.”

Not only was this a chance to get some retreat experience under my belt, I knew it’d be lots of fun to work with Heather (and her other amazing guest, Leela Codron from South Africa), and to support a group of women entrepreneurs during a unique and powerful experience.

Plus, I’d finally get back to Peru, where I kicked off my round-the-world trip, and my own Nomadtopia, in 2004.

I just got back from a two-week trip to Peru for the Adventure Reboot, and it was all that I expected it to be—and more.

When I went to Peru the first time, I didn’t have much to compare it to, having yet to do much travel beyond the U.S. and Europe. And Lima, now considered a booming Latin American capital and a gastronomic hot-spot, wasn’t known to be worth most travelers’ time back then, so I skipped it.

This time, I spent a few days in Lima at the beginning of my trip (and another day at the end). I think it was my first time traveling alone in a new place since I met my husband, and it took me back to those early days of solo travel.

I did just fine navigating the streets on foot and using taxis and public transportation, and I got my fill of ceviche and other Peruvian favorites. Lima’s seaside location gives it a much different feel than Buenos Aires, and I spent a lot of time soaking up the views and sea breeze in the parks and walkways on the bluffs above the beach.

I walked a ton those first days, and discovered that Lima is surprisingly less pedestrian-friendly than Buenos Aires! But it also feels more relaxed, and I started to appreciate the Peruvians’ laid-back nature, which I think I took for granted the last time I was in Peru.

Cusco, the main tourist center near Machu Picchu and the town I called home for nearly six weeks in 2004, hasn’t changed much. I was saddened to hear about some of the chain restaurants that have opened on the main square, but thankfully they were required to blend in with the traditional architecture, and I might not have even realized they were there if they hadn’t been pointed out to me.

The sounds, smells, and tastes of Peru are so familiar to me, and all my memories and experiences there came flooding back.

L: 2004, R: 2013

And yet I was aware that I’m a different person than I was when I first visited Peru, and I’m at a different place in my life. I’m older, of course, and wiser, I’d like to think. I speak better Spanish, which gives me better insights into the local culture (though not the more traditional Andean culture, where they still speak Quechua). I’m better traveled, which may help me from getting ripped off as easily, but sometimes also means I’m less patient and less interested in talking to every person who tries to sell me something (for better or worse!).

I spent a lot of time by myself at the beginning and end of this trip, which balanced well with all the together time in the middle.

Me and Heather, pre-retreat pow-wow in Cusco

Thankfully, Heather, Leela, and I traveled really well together, and we had a great time while wandering around Cusco and preparing everything for the retreat. The participants on the retreat were wonderful, and the group gelled really well.

Most of the retreat took place in the Sacred Valley, near Cusco and Machu Picchu. There’s something truly magical about the Sacred Valley, and a lot of healers, both foreigners and locals, now call the area home, including Diane Dunn, who runs Paz y Luz, the retreat center where we stayed.

The mountains stand tall and silent all around, and their energy made me feel immensely powerful yet inconsequential.

We shared magical moments, silly moments, powerful moments, happy moments, sad moments, loud moments, quiet moments, and much more. Being there during a full moon, and having Leela lead us in a Sanskrit fire ceremony called a havan under the nearly full moon, made it even more special.

I was traveling with just my smartphone, and during the retreat I decided to completely disconnect. Being offline for almost five days gave me space in my brain I haven’t had in ages. I wasn’t thinking about work, or anything else in my life. I was very present, instead of having my mind rattling all over the place like it usually does. I fell asleep easily and slept soundly.

Of course, I was taking it all in so I’d be able to share it with others who couldn’t be there, but I wasn’t worried about what to do next in my business, what tweaks to make to my website, or how to figure anything out.

I only cared about showing up fully for the people on the retreat, and fully enjoying the experience myself.

When I came back online, it took a few days to get adjusted and reconnect with “real” life. I found that nothing very important had happened while I was gone, and the time away gave me a new perspective on what really matters and how much time I really need to spend online.

This trip reintroduced me to a country I’d grown to love during my time there years ago, and I’m eager to go back yet again. It also reminded me of the importance of unplugging now and then as a way to truly reconnect to myself and others.

Being part of the retreat was a great opportunity to work with people in person, and it confirmed that I’m ready to run my own retreats in the not-too-distant future (so stay tuned!).

If you missed it, check out my Peru video here, and you can see more photos from my trip here and on the Nomadtopia Facebook page.

Have you been to Peru? Do you take time to disconnect sometimes? Share your experience in the comments below! Do you have any questions I didn’t answer?

To tide you over until I have the energy and wherewithal to write a proper post about my trip, here’s a little video of Cusco and the Sacred Valley.

Enjoy!

Cusco view
Photo by Amy Scott, all rights reserved

Hello from Peru!

(Actually, in the Inside Nomadtopia spirit of full disclosure: I’m writing this in Buenos Aires, before I leave for Peru! I wanted to spread out my posts and give you something to read while I’m on the road. So when you read this, imagine me adventuring in Peru, OK?)

This is the first time in quite a while that I’ve taken a pretty “normal” trip: round-trip from one country (Argentina) to another (Peru), for two weeks.

It’s interesting to see how my perspective has changed and how much less planning I do than I used to.

This time, I waited until pretty much the last minute to pack, although I’d been gradually creating a mental packing list and pulling random things into piles for days.

A few days before I left, I decided to take my small carry-on suitcase instead of my backpack, which my aching neck and shoulders can’t really handle right now. Less than 15 hours before I left for the airport, I decided what bag/purse-type item to take.

The main reason for this trip is to co-lead a retreat for women entrepreneurs, so a lot of my itinerary was shaped by that.

I’ll be spending a few days in Lima before traveling to Cusco with my co-leaders for the retreat, then we’ll have the retreat, then I have a couple days in Cusco and one in Lima before I fly back to Buenos Aires.

I do have my accommodations booked for all but the last night, but I haven’t done much planning or research beyond that. I think there are a number of reasons for this:

• I haven’t had a lot of time
• I didn’t have easy access to a Peru guidebook
• I’m going some places I’ve been before
• I have local connections to lead me in the right direction
• I’m confident I’ll visit Peru again someday
• I’m in the mood for some good ol’ exploring

It’s my first time traveling this way with a smartphone, and that’s exciting. In fact, the smartphone is enabling me to actually leave my laptop behind, for the first time since I’ve owned a laptop!

The phone will allow just the right amount of connectedness for me and my business right now, without my getting sucked in to surfing the web or doing any actual work, like I might with the laptop. Of course it has its limitations, such as not allowing me to do much writing (that’s what the real paper notebook is for!) or edit videos (that’ll have to wait until I get back).

I have an app on my phone for the exchange rate, and I did actually download a Lima guide, but it was sending so many spam messages to my phone that I uninstalled it. I’ve got WhatsApp installed to connect with my friend (and co-retreat leader) Heather once I get to Lima. I’m trusting Wi-Fi will be enough to keep me connected, so I won’t be getting a local SIM card.

For the first few days I stayed at a place I booked through Airbnb.com, and they arranged for a taxi to pick me up from the airport, and I could use dollars to pay him so I wouldn’t have to get cash out of an ATM until later.

I’ll be able to access hotel reservations and the like on my phone, so no need to print those out, but I did write down the most important details in a little notebook in case I don’t want to pull out my phone in a sketchy area (or, even worse, it gets lost or stolen).

I know there’s lots of cool stuff to see in Lima, but I’m going to totally wing it. If something catches my eye or someone recommends something, I’ll check it out. I’m sure I’ll do lots of walking. Maybe one afternoon I’ll just hang out at a sidewalk café and soak up the atmosphere. (By the time you read this, I’ll have already done most of my wandering, and I bet it was awesome.)

Anything’s possible, and isn’t that one of the best things about travel?

So that’s about it! When I’m heading out on a new adventure, I always remind myself: as long as I have my passport and my credit card, I don’t really need anything else.

With each new travel experience, I learn things that work and things that don’t, and find ways to do things differently next time. This trip is no exception!

(Don’t forget, you can follow my trip via Facebook and Twitter.)

What about you? Do you tend to be more of a planner when you travel? Has this changed over time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

with some of my home-stay family in Cusco, 2004

In September 2004, I boarded a plane to Peru.

I had just quit my job, and had enough money in the bank to not have to worry about finding another one for a while.

My relationship situation was a confusing mess.

I had absolutely no plan beyond “travel for the next eight or nine months.”

I certainly couldn’t have predicted all the adventures I’d have before I’d next visit this magical and beautiful country.

And now?

Flying from Lima to Cusco, 2004
Photo by Amy Scott, all rights reserved

This Wednesday, I’ll be boarding a plane to Peru.

I don’t have to worry about finding another job because I’ve created my dream job.

I’m married to the love of my life.

This year’s vague plans include “travel for eight or nine months” (or longer).

Going back to Peru, the place where my Nomadtopia began, feels like a homecoming, a closing of the circle, a concrete statement of how far I’ve come in creating my ideal life—and how many more adventures await.

I had been thinking of traveling with my backpack again, so it could also go full circle, but a persistent pain in my neck (literally) convinced me that wasn’t the best move. I’m certainly not as young as I was in 2004!

When I visited Peru the first time, I didn’t take any tech gadgets except for my very first digital camera. I had just a simple blog and email for keeping in touch.

Now, I’m taking a digital camera, mp3 player, and smartphone (which didn’t even exist back then!).

I’ve decided not to take my laptop, which was an easy decision in 2004 (I didn’t even have a laptop yet), but in 2013 is a really big deal for me. I think this is the first time since I bought my first laptop in 2005 that I’ve gone somewhere for more than a few days and not taken my computer with me.

This will be a trip back to my travel roots in many ways, but there will be plenty of new experiences, too, as I explore Lima for the first time and co-lead a retreat for the first time.

I’ll be spending a lot less time online than I normally do—it’ll be a welcome break and a chance to be present wherever I am.

But I want to share the journey with you, so I’ll be checking in occasionally and sharing photos and updates when I can. (Facebook and Twitter are the best ways to follow along.)

See you on the road!

Córdoba, Argentina
Photo by Amy Scott, all rights reserved

There’s a message I’ve heard bandied about by a lot of women in online business, freelance, and entrepreneurial circles:

It’s harder for me, because I’m on my own
(aka I don’t have a man to support me while this business takes off).

I’ve heard from friends that they never would have made it as a freelancer if their husband hadn’t been paying the bills. I know women who have plenty of time to grow their business because someone else is supporting them.

That’s great, and lucky them.

But it’s not the only way. You don’t need a man (or a woman) to survive in business.

And I hate seeing people use this an excuse to not do what they really want.

Since I quit my job in 2004, I have paid my own way. I have been responsible for making enough money to cover all of my expenses, and I’ve made it work.

Sure, lots of things are easier when you’re in a dual-income household and someone can pick up the slack while the other person goes to school, starts a business, or takes time off.

But if you’re not in that position right now, you can still start a business, quit your job, move abroad, or anything else you dream of.

I feel like a broken record on this point, but the best way to start a business—and be able to sustain it—is to keep your expenses low. Not just your business expenses, but all of your bills. Reduce your housing costs. Get a second job. Sell the car. Move somewhere with a lower cost of living. (Yes, these are all things I’ve done to stay afloat.)

You’ll have to work hard, and it might take longer to reach the next stage, but it’ll be worth it. In fact, you might become successful even faster because your life depends on it!

Are you trying to create Nomadtopia on your own? Share your experience in the comments below.

More videos to come, I promise.

Nomadtopia is not black-and-white.

It’s not like one day you’re not living it and the next day you are.

There will be times when big shifts are made, like when you quit your job or change locations.

But as long as you focus on what makes your nomadic soul happy, and take some consistent action to make it so, you’re already living your Nomadtopia, each and every day.

(Thanks to my Create Your Nomadtopia program participants for the fabulous conversation we had about this recently!)

Today I wanted to write a bit about money and what’s going on Inside Nomadtopia in terms of taxes and such, since it’s that time of year for Americans!

Taxes

I’m waiting to hear back from my tax preparer about my final numbers. It sounds like she’s found a way to keep my taxes way lower than she had originally estimated, so that’s fabulous news!

She’s also helped me navigate all the tricky rules about foreign income, as well as the added confusion that comes from being newly married to a “non-resident alien.”

I did my taxes myself for many years, but then started to get inklings of how much I was overpaying by not learning more about all the foreign stuff. So I started working with an agency that specializes in expat taxes for Americans (I think they have a UK expert too), and I’m so glad I did.

They’ve saved me a ton of money, and even helped me amend old tax returns to get more money back. One of the things I learned, which I’d never paid attention to before, was that a significant portion of my income is exempt from income tax (but not self-employment tax) if I spend at least 335 days outside the U.S. in a calendar year.

I’m trying to stick to that rule this year, but it’s making our U.S. travel plans awfully complicated!

Banking

Other than the tax stuff, my money situation is pretty much the same as it was in the U.S. I have two U.S. bank accounts, one for business and one personal. One of those accounts is with a small local bank near my parents; they reimburse all ATM fees, which has probably saved me thousands of dollars over the years.

Most of my clients these days pay me via PayPal or wire transfer, so that keeps things simple. Sometimes a client wants to pay by check, which I have sent to my parents and they deposit it for me. Having someone at home to take care of stuff is huge!

I used to have an account with Citibank because I thought it would be useful to bank with an international bank. It did allow me to use their ATMs free of charge anywhere in the world, but that was about the only benefit. In several different countries, I tried to get service from a local Citi branch and was told they operate as a totally separate bank so couldn’t help me with anything. Now I can use any ATM I want and get reimbursed, so that’s way easier.

Now that I’m an Argentine resident, I could have a bank account in Argentina, but for lots of complicated reasons, I prefer to keep my money far away from Argentina. The upside is that there is a significant demand for dollars here, so I’m able to get a pretty kick-ass exchange rate (more on that soon).

Credit Cards

Randomly, it seems all of my credit cards expire soon, so I need to be sure I get new ones while I’m in the States this summer. Usually, I’ve been able to call and request they send a new card sooner than the expiration date by explaining that Ill be traveling at that time. (Also be sure to double-check when your driver’s license, passport, and other important documents expire!)

I’ve been interested in getting one or two new credit cards, but most of the ones recommended for great mileage bonuses have significant minimum spends within the first couple months (like thousands of dollars), and I just don’t see myself using it enough (not to mention I wouldn’t have the card in my hands for another three months).

One thing I do need to find eventually is a card that participates in the Verified by Visa program. I recently discovered that none of my cards are eligible, and I wasn’t able to make online purchases for bus tickets in Argentina and plane tickets in Peru without it. It can be a real hassle trying to navigate foreign payment systems if they don’t recognize your foreign credit card! (I ended up having to go buy my bus tickets in person, and have a friend buy my Peru plane tickets for me.)

More Coming Soon!

Of course there’s a lot more money-related stuff that comes up, but this is just some of what’s on my mind right now. Much more from Inside Nomadtopia coming soon!

What questions do you have about the inner workings of a nomadic life? Let me know in the comments!

(Did you miss the explanation of this whole Inside Nomadtopia thing? Click here to read more.)

What do their days look like? How’d they get from here to there?

In particular, if your nomadic soul is crying out for something different (and I bet it is, if you’re reading this post), then you probably also wonder, How do they decide where to go? How do they book tickets and rent apartments and plan road trips and research visas and run their businesses and have lots of adventures?

Yep, me too.

Lots of people write lots of inspirational stuff about how to create your ideal life, but they don’t really show you how to do it.

In my own Nomadtopia, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes as my husband and I hit the road, stay put for a while, or explore a new destination.

And while I certainly talk about it on this blog, cover it thoroughly in my group program, and allude to it on Facebook and Twitter, it just hit me last night how much I’m not showing you.

I’ve decided it’s time to get real.

Introducing… Inside Nomadtopia!

It’s a no-holds-barred look at the inner workings of a nomadic life.

I’m pushing back the curtain to show you what’s really going on and how we’re making this lifestyle a reality. It’s not just a bunch of smoke and mirrors and a wave of the magic wand.

OK, a little magic certainly helps, but sometimes, it’s simply putting one foot in front of the other: deciding what we want, figuring out how to get it, doing the research, and taking action.

Sharing all the nitty-gritty inner workings isn’t meant to deter or overwhelm you—quite the opposite!

I hope that as you follow along it will inspire you and get your creativity flowing. I want to show you how we do it so you can see that it really is possible, if you put your mind to it.

You can pick and choose what appeals to you and start creating your own Nomadtopia. And because I’ll also reveal a lot of my secret tricks and resources along the way, it’ll be even easier for you. Score!

In Nomadtopia (just like in any life, I suppose), there are fun days, boring days, average days, inspiring days, grueling days, and over-the-top-holy-shit-I-can’t-believe-this-is-my-life days. You’ll get to see them all.

Right now, our life feels kind of boring and normal. Which may be part of why I don’t write about it too much. But this is also a real part of Nomadtopia for us, and it’s no less valid (although perhaps a little less sexy).

After spending nearly six months roaming the United States last year, we’ve been in Buenos Aires for almost four months now, and we’re planning to stay for three more. It’s a city we know well, so we’re doing a little less exploring and a lot more working. That way, we’ll have more time for gallivanting later this year.

The exciting part of life right now is that as we regroup, we’re creating our plans for the rest of the year (and beyond) from a nearly blank slate. It’s not only exciting, but often daunting! I know it can be done—I’ve done it before, many times—but there’s a lot to figure out, and it won’t happen overnight.

For those of you who are thinking that technically, we could just hop on a plane and magically arrive in some fabulous destination overnight: you’re right, and that sounds fabulous!

But I know from experience that to make this sustainable for us, and to avoid (as much as possible) some of the possibly expensive and complicated mistakes we could make if we don’t do our research, we need to take the next three months to set things up. And I’ll be honest, it’s nice to stay in one place for a while now and then!

This inside look at our planning, scheming, and adventuring is meant to give you ideas and inspiration for your own Nomadtopia, whatever that looks like.

Updates from Inside Nomadtopia will appear right here on this blog, frequently interspersed with other kinds of posts, plus I’ll share random updates via Facebook and Twitter (search the hashtag #InsideNomadtopia).

I hope you’ll come along for the ride, and I’ll see you on the road somewhere, someday!