Nomadic Narrative: The Remote Creative Lifestyle with Han Talbot

Have you ever dreamt of being paid to travel, to create, to explore, and to share? It's a dream which can become a reality, if you have the talent and the drive. Discover how Han Talbot turned her passion for travel and content creation into a thriving location-independent lifestyle business, as she joins us from the enchanting city of Vlora, Albania.

In this vibrant episode, Han shares her story, detailing the transition from a study abroad blogger to a leading voice among remote 'influencers' (even while we both cringe at that term!) We uncover the essentials of a productive morning routine wherever life takes you, the strategies behind updating an evolving portfolio, and the excitement of her latest venture, Remote Creatives.

Digital communications is constantly shifting, and with it, the lines between journalism and content creation are increasingly blurred. We delve into this hybrid space with Han, addressing the changing face of influence and the growth of thought leadership in the realm of social media. The conversation turns to the ethical tightrope walked by influencers and journalists alike, emphasizing the need for transparency and personal accountability. For those navigating the shifting sands of content sponsorship and credibility, our discussion digs deep into how to maintain integrity while embracing the business side of creativity.

Finally, we celebrate all the leaps forward in the remote work and digital nomad community, while exploring the resources that make this lifestyle more accessible and fulfilling than ever. Han and I discuss the promise of Remote Work Europe and the support systems in place for remote workers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.

Whether you're just dipping your toes into remote work or you're a seasoned traveller seeking new horizons, our episode teases the future of this dynamic movement. Join us as we toast to the adventures and opportunities that await in the ever-expanding universe of remote work.

Learn more and connect with Han to follow her adventures:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanmeetsworld/
Website: https://www.hanmeetsworld.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

You're listening to the Remote Work Europe podcast, the show formerly branded as the Future is freelance. The name has changed, but our values have not. We're still the podcast for solopreneurs, digital nomads and slowmads, consultants, remote workers, e-residents and everyone living a life without traditional boundaries. We're here for people who defy categorization, those who make a living and a life their own way in Europe and beyond. Fortnightly, on Fridays, we're serving up expert tips, inspired insights and stories from the frontiers of freelancing and the remote work revolution To help you achieve success with your borderless business and liberated lifestyle, whatever success means to you, as you live life on your own terms. Welcome, remote work Europe listeners.

Speaker 1: 0:54

I know you're going to love today's interview with Hand Torbert because we so often get questions from people about whether it's really possible to live the dream, to travel the world, creating content, creating photos, videos to actually reflect the areas that you're visiting and showcase them and make a good living and a great life from it. I know you're going to love what Hand has to share about the work that she does, how she evolved that career and what that actually looks like on a day-to-day basis. Now, before we dive into the interview, one of the things that Hand and I are going to be talking about is, of course, your online profile and your presence, because these are the things that really matter when you're building this kind of remote, creative career. I just wanted to let you know that our famous LinkedIn challenge is running again in April. I will drop the links to register and find out more about that into your show notes, along with all the links to connect with Hand and find out what she's doing around the world. But if you dream of aspiring to her lifestyle in the future, you could do a lot worse than jump on our level up your LinkedIn challenge this spring time. So I would love to see some of our regular listeners there and in the meantime, let's talk to Hand.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Hand Meets World. Hand Meets Remote Work Europe. So welcome, hand. It's lovely to have you with us at the Remote Work Europe podcast at last.

Speaker 2: 2:18

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here, it seems like, yeah, this one's been a while coming.

Speaker 1: 2:24

We've known each other for a few years now and I don't know why we haven't sat down behind the mic before. Well, I've been on your podcast, but it's high time we had you back here. So I'd love it if you could start off by telling us a little bit about you and your remote work journey, about remote creatives, and give our listeners a bit of context about Hand.

Speaker 2: 2:42

Yeah, what a big question, so no. So what do you need to know about me? I've been on off remote for about 10 years. My journey I guess it's funny when people say like, oh, where's your first realize you want to be additional, no matter, I always say like no, it's definitely been like an accumulation of, like several things across like you know, 20 odd years.

Speaker 2: 3:01

But I suppose you could say I've been on off remote officially for about 10 years, since I did a study abroad and I realized I got paid to write a blog while I was studying. I was like, oh, people can create money like while away and like from their homes and they don't have to go in office. So, yeah, been testing and trialling that on off, like in London, went full time remote thanks to a little push from a little pandemic that we just had. And yeah, I do marketing on one side, and then I also have the remote life on the other, which is a content creation business mostly focused on digital and my tourism, which also now is beginning to encompass the remote creatives. But that's a new project that I'm more than happy to talk about as we chat.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Well, I think this is like an awful lot of the people we meet in this space. You're a portfolio person who's constantly involved in what you do, looking at things just on the edge of that, being open to opportunities and things that come up in your life and putting your portfolio of skills together to respond to opportunities. What does it look like your typical day or week or project?

Speaker 2: 4:06

To add to that. Also, it's the demand as well, because, like the remote life, because six episodes of a podcast and then, over the course of two and a half years, it's become a content creation business in its own right, with a separate thing called creative now. So, and it's been in response to the demand that I have had from my audience, from people in the industry. So there's that bit too. I think we could definitely talk more about the answer question. So, typical day of the life? Oh, I guess I don't necessarily have much of a what you might call a routine, but I have no Negotiate. So I will start the day very much relaxing. Into the day I will have my sit and have my first cup of coffee and I won't do anything official. You know that'll be my little meditation time, if you will, and that's not negotiable for me. I have to sit and just be with. Like here's where I am today, today being I'm in Vlora in Albania, very beautiful for those who are curious about the Albanian river.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Then I will get to the laptop after a breakfast, got ready and then, honestly, I try to start the day doing things like emails and anything that requires a bit more brainpower, anything from emails to content creation to strategy. You know the things that my brain can do best in the morning. Then by the afternoon I will. It's funny at the amount of people who I talked about on my podcast who are like, yeah, my brain's kind of dead in the afternoon. So I'll normally like go for a walk, or I'll like do something a bit more chill, or I'll go to the gym, and that's literally what I do the by the middle of the afternoon.

Speaker 2: 5:43

If I haven't kind of got some tasks that I can do, my brain's feeling a little bit more kind of in a little place. I will normally take myself off for a walk for half an hour or go explore, or like that's my time, that I'll go out and take some more content of like a city or whatever it is that I want to see that day. That's a really good time to really get into like that creative side of things, things that don't need strategize as much, and then come back to the laptop, either in a cafe or a co workspace, whatever it happens to be, or like now, my apartment, and then, yeah, that could be anything from calls to more emails to documents, whatever's needed at the time. It's a very big mixture.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Yeah, but you have that sort of overall shape to the day, which is interesting because you're you could be making that happen in so many different contexts and locations. But you still know, I think a lot of the people who were most successful at managing these kind of remote lives, these very self directed lifestyles, are people who have a very clear knowledge of themselves and how and when they work best, how, what sort of zone they're in. I'm similar in a way the morning is for writing, creating, editing and the kind of door closed head down stuff, whereas in the afternoon I'm more likely to be having this conversation, interviewing a source or doing something. That's more. I need the door open in the afternoon because I won't focus on the head down stuff, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 2: 7:10

People will look at like what I'm doing online and go, oh, you're living the dream. I'm like, yes, but in order to create the dream, you've got to have a lot of discipline and self awareness to make it work, and it's things like knowing how your brain works. So, some people at night hours, you won't get anything productive out of me by, like you know, eight, nine o'clock in the evening. My brain is not, my brain is dead, I just, for some reason, from one to four. You aren't going to get anything of particular use out of me, and I know that other people have said the same. They're like no, I might as well go take that siesta and come back strong again and like so, yeah, I think it's an interesting lifestyle, but it definitely takes like a couple years just to kind of get to know yourself and work for sure, yeah, it's very interesting, especially going on from last week's episode with Pilar Odi and her book on time management for remote.

Speaker 1: 7:58

It's so much about that self knowledge and self management. Nobody else is setting the time and the agenda for you, and we love the flexibility that that brings us, I guess, and we have to think very flexibly when, like you, we're doing a blend of client work, our own creativity, our own publications and projects. Can you talk a little bit about that mix and how that looks right now? What, what sort of specific activities are you working on and how does that break down?

Speaker 2: 8:24

Yeah, so I suppose I didn't really clarify too much in the intro about what it is I specifically do, I guess. But I have my two, my two businesses. So one is marketing and one is content creation. So I guess they kind of go hand in hand in a way in that, like one side is obviously me helping other people build their brands and campaigns and the other side is me being the face of the content itself. So it can be anything from consultation calls with their clients or say, like their personal brand that they're trying to build.

Speaker 2: 8:55

Other days it could be, for example, me sourcing some influences for a campaign or for speaking engagements. Sometimes it's creating strategy for, like, a particular product launch for somebody, and then on the other side, it can be editing and putting together photos and videos for, or posts for, a particular campaign that I've just been on with a destination, for example. So it honestly varies. Or like, for example, I'm currently potentially looking to put together a course on remote life. So it's very much like varies, and then all while building on also the remote life, so, again, sourcing potential guests, as you know, like it could be at the moment I'm trying to build up a new website. So it really varies on so many levels. But yeah, it varies from those taking contents and things and going out and about to being on the laptop on Excel and having the best day ever, you know, with the formulas. So it's.

Speaker 1: 9:57

I'll take your word for that. That's your best day ever. But it's really interesting actually, because it sounds a lot like what I do with words, you do with multimedia content and that same kind of blend between the client work and the primary creation. Do you ever find any tension or conflict between the two, such as sometimes comes up between the realms of, say, journalism and content marketing? Are you an impartial observer? Or at what point do you put your participant, your influencer, hat on if you're comfortable with that word, and we can find another one if you don't like it. But do you ever? Do you think you're crossing a line? What do you reckon?

Speaker 2: 10:34

Hopefully I'm answering the question right. But first of all, it's funny because people was like, oh, I roll my eyes at the term influencer now because, having worked in marketing before the term influencer became the word of the day, I used to get asked, as a marketer, to go find influencers right, but that could be anybody from, like the head teacher in a village to the mum that runs the school newsletter. And now this was pretty like 2018, when the term influencer really took off as something who, like, has a TikTok or Instagram following. So I'm always like I roll my eyes because on the one hand, it feels cringe to playing that I'm also an influencer in that way, but then that's the most palatable term. So you call yourself an influencer even though you don't yeah, so that's what I find that word is very contradictory for I don't yeah. It's a conflict for me to say that I am an influencer, but I know that a lot of people the most palatable term, I guess, if I'm understanding your question correctly, I guess it journalism versus content creation is a conversation that has been coming up for years, but what people forget is a lot of journalists are also content creators.

Speaker 2: 11:37

So many people who I come across, have a journalism degree, have a background in journalism, and then have decided that actually content creation. They can get sponsorships to make more money as well, though, and within the same trip, so a lot of them will actually have take both and put them hand in hand. A lot of people, and their destinations, for example, are looking for content creators because they are able to do photos, videos, be the face, do the journalistic research Like they are a package and they have the following, which I know frustrates a lot of traditional journalists, if you will, and it still does, funnily enough, I'm sure. So it's not that I think either one is like better or worse, because, at the end of the day, you know journalism, like you know actually.

Speaker 1: 12:21

No, I think you're making a lot of sense to me that there is, there shouldn't be, a divide anymore perhaps perhaps we've evolved beyond that in the same way as we have between employment and entrepreneurialism. You know that there are. We live in a more blended way today and we can balance the kind of thought, leadership activities that come from knowing something really well to have your own expression and ideas about it as well as those you're writing about other people.

Speaker 2: 12:44

I think where a lot of the tension comes, I guess, is the fact that obviously the mainstream view, unfortunately, of content creators and influencers is still the entitlement is still the taking. Unfortunately, that is still a very big stereotype and, don't get me wrong, it comes from somewhere. But I can understand where the tension comes from when that's the main focus. But at the end of the day, like you can't stop content creation from coming, it is not just the fact that it's a you know look at me kind of activity or pastime. You know people are making money from it. Yeah, Gen Z and like all the younger generations, they are making money from it and building really great, solid businesses from this thing which, in this current climate, why would you not want to encourage?

Speaker 1: 13:27

I wouldn't encourage them to go do a journalism degree honestly right now because you know, in snow, start a blog. Whilst I would never dispute the benefits of working with an editor and learning that discipline of working with a publication, and the way to actually build your experience now is you just go out and do it anyway. So why not? I think.

Speaker 2: 13:48

I did PR officially for a year and I don't have a PR degree. I and apparently like I was, I did beat out a couple of candidates who did a PR degree, but because I had a social media following back when that was still very much an alien thing, that's what they wanted and that's what they were going into. So it's yeah, it's not. I'm not now not saying don't do a PR degree either, but at times are changing and at the end of the day, like we have so much more available to us and so many more resources that enable us to build these presences, but they're used for good or bad is obviously up to the individual, but at the end of the day, I would never quite understand why one would pick a fight with the other.

Speaker 1: 14:30

To be honest, I think you know there are sometimes I look at cases where I think that looks there's an ethical line being crossed or someone's not being transparent about, say, how they get paid Is it by this publication to create this content or is it the person that they're praising? And then so I think there can be. There can definitely be a lack of transparency around the boundaries between being an analyst or being a journalist or being a content creator, but provided people are transparent about it and it's very easy to be transparent, right? I mean, with that's the world we live in you can just declare referral links or sponsorships and things, and you know, we all recognise that's how the world goes around and this is what people do for a living a lot of us anyway.

Speaker 2: 15:12

I think that's it. It's absolutely down to the individual, because, you know, influencers, for example, say in the UK, are held to the standard that they should be declaring their ads right, whereas journalists don't mind. You know, they might go on the same, like press trip, for example, and they're right for, say, the Guardian, but then they don't necessarily have to declare anything on their Instagram. So it's just. So.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Could that could be argued that you know where's the line there as well, because they're getting paid by the Guardian but they're getting freebies from the brand and so, yeah, that's just sort of a bit of a double bit potentially going on there. And, yeah, there is a risk of a lack of transparency, even though you still hear people, particularly on the journalism side, being very purist about it. And I could never do content, you know that's that would be selling my soul to do. Well, really okay, but if maybe you have to sell yourself to keep the lights on if you don't work for a tier one publication, because it's very hard now to get started, I think.

Speaker 2: 16:07

I think there's a mixture of things to consider as well as the, like I said before, there are a lot of people who have a journalism background but who then make. You know you can make quite a bit of money sometimes, like from tech sponsorships, from tourism sponsor well, not from tourism, not so much, but unfortunately but you know you can find ways of making money outside of your main focus, like journalism. But then also it comes down to what I think is why they both come hand in hand is because I've seen them work with different desks. We're talking with focus just on travel. For example, I've seen destinations who, like, are very interested and heavily focused on like wanting to bring in the Guardian. We've talked about the Guardians, like the Guardian writers. They want them to come in and review the destination and write a, however many pages spread. That's for them their focus for that quarter, for that month, for that campaign. So they will then want just journalists.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Other times people you know. For example, I've worked on digital nomads programs where they'll go right. We want content because we want to find the digital nomads for a digital nomads. They are on social media. They're not going to be necessarily picking up a hard copy of the Guardian, especially if they're not from the service. So if one of those things again, people forget that different destinations, different companies, different campaigns, different times, no matter what scope, different scopes, are always looking for different things. So yeah, I don't think it's necessarily a battle of journalists versus content creators. It's all about what the client wants at the end of the day. I think you can best fit into that too.

Speaker 1: 17:36

Definitely so. If you were advising somebody now then who maybe wanted to go into a creative career like yours, maybe they want to be a digital nomad, or at least they want to be remote. They would don't want to be dependent on a single job or showing up place, and they've got those kind of creative skills. They like telling a story visually or in words or a mixture. What would you suggest to them now? What would be the best route to get started if it's not go to school, or what kind of tactics might you suggest they try?

Speaker 2: 18:05

I would do exactly. Well, first of all I'd have to say right, you've got to be slightly a bit insane to want to do this.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Oh, obviously yes, that goes without saying.

Speaker 2: 18:15

The second thing would be why do you want to do it? Why do you want to go into this career? Because it's. The third thing is that it's going to take a long time, like this is a process, that's. It's a marathon, not a story, and I'm not saying that. It took me years and years and years, but at the end of the day, I had to start building from somewhere and I did a language disagree, so it was again very like nothing to do with marketing, whatever.

Speaker 2: 18:39

I literally said on my study abroad that I'd what, after watching a few youtubers that we didn't call youtubers back then. We're just weirdos who created videos online. I said. I said to my friend I'm going to create a career from social media, and she was like, how do you mean? Like, what does that mean? Which? Now it's like duh.

Speaker 2: 18:55

But back then no one could see the route, and so for me it was really funny then sitting with her a couple years later and her going oh, that made sense. And so basically, I would say the same to this, to the whoever wants to start it now. It'd be like right, okay, you want to come into this creative career, you want to have a remote career, you want to live this what looks like best beach life, like with coconuts cool, but you've got to have a strong why. Why are you doing it? For example, like to me, like I just want to be, like I love the freedom, I want to be the owner, in control of my own time, and I know that. Yeah, yeah, there's just several reasons for me that keep me going, even like in the dark, the dark times if you will say, you've got to have reason, in my opinion, to want to go remote.

Speaker 2: 19:37

That above anything else. If you think like I want to go work on the beach I joke about as in keynotes when I did it done if you just want to go sit on the beach and pretend you're working on your laptop, you need a holiday. You don't need a remote, it's a holiday. Then come back. So that is first and foremost. Why do you want to do it? The second thing is yeah, you're in this for the long haul. You're. This is not an overnight thing. So if you think you're gonna make like a quick buck, yes, you hear a lot of people who make successes of posting something on tip talk and they get like a million dollars in sales, but that's not guaranteed. So the next thing is, again, how many followers that they have to build up first, like how many, like years they've been posting on tip talk, like just this all these things to consider as well. So once you understand that you are in this for the long haul, you've got your.

Speaker 2: 20:22

Why I would then, honestly, I would do exactly the same now as I did 10 years, 11 years ago. Now I would open the blog, because blogs last forever. They might seem old school, they might be the same me all, blogs, all, but why just a personal blog? They're the ones who survived the meta outages. They've survived the tip talk ban. Yeah, so I would open a blog and I would start writing, I would start putting videos and putting them up on my blog, putting my on YouTube and my on tip talk, instagram, whatever, and I would start holding my voice and I would start like creating that presence online. Yeah, just, and developing your voice and what I, what I did back and back in the day if you will probably have to say back in the day, but it would I would start learning how to create good look post.

Speaker 2: 21:09

So I would start this is what this is why did I use my log to then create a marketing portfolio? Because everyone was saying to me all the kind of content creator, you get it, and I was like I don't know what that means. So I then use that to then build a portfolio, then take to companies and say, hey, I can help build a social media following. Hey, I can help do a website, but this is pre all the crazy Google updates and SEO updates, so we have to keep up. But I then was able to, as a graduate, go. I might be like one or two years into my career, but I've got a solid portfolio that I can start like actually showcasing you and it got me into these jobs. Other people who had but yeah, I would.

Speaker 2: 21:48

Then I would start building this online presence myself. I would start honing my voice. I would start commenting on different things. I would start interacting with people who are in similar fields, like as you and I do on LinkedIn. Now I would start building my network and Really building that voice so that I can go to employers. But it depends on what you want to do. You want a full time marketing job? Cool, great. Do you want to be a contractor? Do you want to be a fractional CMO like what. Do you want to watch your ultimate goal there? And I would start honing my voice and honing my skills into that what that looks like from there, using that portfolio. So again, yeah, I'm sure social media is going to be around for another, however many long years, but I would always have my blog. My blog is my.

Speaker 1: 22:34

I think that's so interesting and this is absolutely solid gold, for anybody listening to this is thinking, yeah, I really like the sound, not just the beach and the coconuts, but the independence and the self directed this Of this lifestyle. You have got to start putting yourself out there. You need to claim your, your bit of the internet. You don't need anybody's permission, you literally need. You know, $20 worth of domain wasn't state name on your little corner of the internet. Only. You don't have to have it all figured out. You can evolve as you go.

Speaker 1: 23:09

I'm sure both you and I had. If we look back at the earliest things we published a decade ago or whatever, we wouldn't. You know that was completely on brand and aligned in my very best work, but the fact is we were putting it out there, we were starting conversation, we were starting to build that reputation, that authority, and even if we pivoted, even if we shifted, we had that track record. And, as you said, when you were a new graduate, you were going up against people who just spent their time Acquiring that degree and good for them and whatever else you did on campus, but you had a portfolio of real work and a presence and it's kind of a self evidential thing that people look at it. So actually, this goes back years and this is, this is.

Speaker 1: 23:49

I can see this. This following is authentic because it's been built Steadily. It's not one of these. Suddenly somebody hangs out there shingle is a social media consultant and they've suspiciously got 4000 followers in one day, but no engagement. You know, you built that from scratch and that's a really powerful thing and you didn't need anybody's permission to do that. You couldn't have bought that and you didn't have to go and to us a special university, of course, or anything else to do that. So it should be within everybody's power right to do this absolutely, and there is so much free information.

Speaker 2: 24:24

I got to add two points, add on to what you and what you just said, and one is that the internet is free. The school of internet is vast, like the amount of time you can sit on, especially now, like I got oh my gosh, I wish I had how much information is on the internet at my fingertips 11 years ago. Oh my gosh, how much further would I be. And it was, honestly, it's everything from like okay, how do I write a blog post? Okay, how do I like survive the next Google update? Like how do I like tweak this widget on my blog? Or like, how do I get the best, where I find the best mics in 2024?

Speaker 2: 24:59

Like it's crazy, every single piece of your content creation journey you can learn from the internet and all you've got to really hone and find yourself is your own voice in that. And that goes on to my second point, which is the internet is not saturated. I know I just said there's a load of information, but there, the internet is not saturated yet. Yeah again, like you want to, you want to be like the same as your favorite I don't know Tik Toka, who does, I don't know dances, maybe. Yes, that's saturated, but if you, what's not saturated is your voice, because only you can bring your voice to the internet. You can only bring your experience, your expertise, like you know, your life, yeah, whatever to the internet. So again, don't tell me the internet is saturated, post that thing.

Speaker 1: 25:43

No, nobody's done that before. Nobody's done you before. So if you just hold to that authenticity rather than trying to replicate something that's already out there, because you're right, that has been done and that already exists, so the person who most influences you when you think I want their life. If you try and copy them direct, yes, it's already too crowded because that space is taken, whereas if you bring you to the situation, nobody's ever done that before and it is all out there. And I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about the wealth of information and what you can teach yourself. I mean, I'm older than you had.

Speaker 1: 26:14

I remember my traditional learning was took place using things like libraries and books. I wanted to learn something. I had to go and buy a book about it. I had to go. You know, I couldn't just go on the internet and get a book, never mind a YouTube walkthrough of it or a Udemy course or LinkedIn learning or something. It's all out there and I do have to kind of remind myself and other people sometimes that you can learn anything. It's out there. You might need to pay to filter the quality of that information, because the first Google will bring you a whole load of paid for prioritized stuff. You might have to drill down, but it's all out there and it's all a tap away and it really is quite mind blowing to think about that sometimes. And maybe that's too scary, I don't know. Is it easier for people to think well, I'll just go and be a whatever traditional career I can put in a box because I can't cope with all of that. That's out there.

Speaker 2: 27:04

If you, if that's how you feel, then fair enough Again, I'm never going to be here to be like, no, like you must take a leap and like you know what you want. You want to have a what we might call a traditional career. You go for it. You can still learn, the end of the day, to get to do better, like with your job, fine. But even things like you know, tiktok is becoming the highest place, the highest search engine, almost sorry, most use search engine for Gen Z because, again, like TikTok is bite sized information. Yes, okay, maybe check your facts.

Speaker 1: 27:35

However, like, yeah, check your facts everywhere. Let's face it.

Speaker 2: 27:40

Of course, the beauty of the internet now is that not only do you have it in written form, not only do you have it in long form video on YouTube, but you've also got it in shorthand video as well. On TikTok I've learned so much from TikTok, like my mom uses TikTok to learn so much. Like again it's it's. We have a different app or a different platform for all learning needs. To now, like you want to get on a course, there's probably a course. Like you want to find a tutor, there is probably a tutor, though you can chat to virtually. Now you don't even have to travel to the. So I think that there is. If you're with, if you want our wanting to learn, if you are willing to learn, there is a way for you to learn.

Speaker 1: 28:26

And you're part of that. You're helping people learn to take up the lifestyle and the kinds of activities that you do, so tell us about some of the stuff that you're creating to help other people. I'm not so funny. I had my heart just went.

Speaker 2: 28:38

That's really funny. So, yeah, obviously I've got my podcast that you can go check out. The podcast that was really started to help people who are looking to really get into the integrity of what it means to have a remote life, to become additional nomad, to have a remote job because, again, like you don't have to be traveling the world with Just your backpack and a job to yeah, be cool yourself for a remote worker, you can be based somewhere and work remotely. So we've got all different things for different people. So the podcast you want to go learn from Mediavine and how to monetize your blog on Mediavine? We've got that. You want to learn how to scale your blog into a full-scale business when they're mad at me? We've got that as well. Says that side of things.

Speaker 2: 29:19

Then now I currently have a new goal of building up the remote creatives which began newsletter which, as I said before, like earlier on, like honestly came about from people asking me loads of questions about how to Create a personal brand, how to do affiliate marketing, how to build a community, um, and is now turning into, like slowly, more and more different pieces in own right. So I now have a WhatsApp channel so people who want to connect with fellow content creators around the world. You can join that. I've got a new website that I am determined to sit and fully Build out that is going to have destination guides for create additional nomads. So so far We'll have Istanbul, tbilisi Hopefully Laura will see, I'll keep you posted and then also definitely gonna have to go back and revisit places like Mexico City.

Speaker 2: 30:12

Yeah, so there'll be a few destinations to keep up with. There. There'll be kind of your guides for specifically a little bit more tailored towards create additional nomads. So like where the artsy places go hang out, like where the good places take photos, where where the groups to come and meet people, the WhatsApp group, but yeah, so it's just that that's kind of my focus for 2024. But you can still find a lot of general topics on the podcast, hand-meets world as well. I've also got some of the more like the weather, remote, where to remote work, articles to, and then LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 30:42

I'm always down for a little chat and analyzing different destinations to, so we've got everybody listening to this, where, if you're driving or walking or something at the moment, you'll have to come back to your app because we're gonna put all of hands links into the show notes for you. It's because there's a lot of different places to connect with her, depending on what's resonating with you right now. Is it the creative side of things? Is it the? Is it the podcast? Is it the remote life and I love that hands podcast is the remote life because that comes before the work or anything else. It's about that completely integrated lifestyle. So what? It was the one place that you would suggest people go first hand if they just want to get into your world.

Speaker 2: 31:20

I was gonna say the easiest way to think about it is you can find me on all the things at hand. Meets world. Come find me there. That's the word of hand.

Speaker 1: 31:33

You can't say any clear in that. So I think that this has been a really interesting conversation. Just to wrap it up, tell us about what you're excited about now for the year ahead and where you see your remote life, your, your creative life going. Any changes, any concerns? What does the rest of 20, 24? Inspire in you?

Speaker 2: 31:53

Well, my first thought, maya, was I'm really excited to hopefully see you in person again at some point. Yeah, somewhere, somewhere that would be lovely. Forward to that. Oh, we keep catching up, catching each other in different destinations, which I love.

Speaker 2: 32:07

Well, what's changing? Everything's changing my honestly, it's what? Early March, and already I've had to change my plans, like a couple times. So, yeah, and I think I mean, yeah, the website wasn't, didn't exist about a month ago. So lots of changes is a thing like you've got to be slightly insane to want to take on this lifestyle, because, yeah, but in a good, most excited is to get this website off the ground Properly. I'm really, I'm honestly just loving the response that the remote creatives has had so far. Then, also, I've got few destinations coming up and projects coming up that create additional nomads and aspiring creative digital nomads will hopefully be Super interested in as well. So stay tuned. Yeah, I think, honestly, the biggest thing for me is just I'm excited with where the projects that I've been developing. You know, like the remote creatives, they're just taking on a life of their own and that is both terrifying and Super exciting, and I think that's that's what I'm excited for to see where that goes fantastic.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Well, thank you very much for inspiring us with all of those years and projects and destinations. Hand meets world. Thank you for meeting remote work Europe. Thank you so much. You've been listening to the remote work Europe podcast brought to you by remote work Europe EU. We bring you community information, training, coaching and more to help you achieve your location, independent lifestyle in Europe and beyond, as an employee, entrepreneur, freelancer or whatever you want to be. If you enjoyed the show, please like, rate and comment and subscribe to our feed. Wherever you get your podcast. If you really liked it, we'd appreciate a review as well. Here's to your remote work success in Europe and around the world.