After my first series interviewing Digital Nomads in Bali, getting to know several ways of how to make money online
and receiving thousands of comments with questions about this community,
I decided to start a new season of interviews to ask them all
we want to know. a new season of interviews to ask them all
we want to know. But in different hubs across the world. This time I'm on a remote island
in the south of Brazil and it's called Florianópolis. This island is becoming
the new digital Nomads hub because of its tropical,
beautiful beaches. The super clear water. And you can also find people
from all over the world here. And you can also find people
from all over the world here. The place that I chose today for the
interviews is this hostel called Selina. The place that I chose today for the
interviews is this hostel called Selina. It's a co-working hostel
right in front of that beach that I was. It's a co-working hostel
right in front of that beach that I was. There are many digital nomads here. This is the swimming pool. This is the area that they stay. And they also have a co-working space
right there that is full of digital nomads. And I'm super excited
to ask them all the questions. So let's go and get into it. What's your name? Ori. Ori, yes. And where are you from? I'm from Tel Aviv. Israel. Are you living here in Brazil
or just working? Are you living here in Brazil
or just working? Do you work remotely? Yeah, I work remotely, I travel in South America
for around like four months. I’m out here in Florianópolis, Having a great time. Sun just came out, so. Yeah. No, no complaints. And what kind of job do you do that
lets you work remotely? And what kind of job do you do that
lets you work remotely? I work for a company called Charge Flow. There's an e-commerce app that helps
e-commerce merchants automate chargebacks. Yes. So, do you know what chargebacks are? No, not really. It’s when let's say I’m a business and you're
a client and you bought something from me. It’s when let's say I’m a business and you're
a client and you bought something from me. And then a month later
you would come to me. You would say to the bank,
hey, like I haven't done this order or they fraud me, or this. So you would go to the bank and file
a chargeback against me. Like you would sue me. Yes. So you would go to the bank and file
a chargeback against me. Like you would sue me. Yes. And I would have to handle this. And it became like a very headache for a lot of businesses,
you know, especially in e-commerce. And that hurts their revenue. So we help them automate that. I'm getting paid as a freelancer, kind of,
you know, to that company, I only work for them now. You know,
I was thinking of opening an agency because what I do,
I do like marketing with social media and especially Twitter,
LinkedIn and influencer marketing. I work with influencers,
help them promote the company. I was thinking of opening an agency last year. But I decided to just stick to one company
and then maybe in the future, open your own thing. because I found now, like, you know,
the balance between working and traveling. My goal is to continue progress
with my work while enjoying life. You know, I don't want to be in Florianópolis and everyone's outside. Which is happening right now. It's like major FOMO, I believe. I used to believe that
I should make it early I used to believe that
I should make it early and then like, I will retire and, like,
go to Brazil and but then I realized and then like, I will retire and, like,
go to Brazil and realized we're going to be too old
to enjoy the place. Exactly. So we need to enjoy
when we are still young. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
So then I decided to switch it. Okay, maybe I could like, maybe
these ambitious projects could wait for me. In the meantime, I could just, like find a sustainable income. Yeah. Travel a bit. Because who knows
what's going to happen tomorrow? The world is crazy. A lot of hectic shit going on,
especially where I'm from. Yeah, I’m sorry. No, that’s cool, it’s like It is what It is, you know? Free the hostages
and then ceasefire now. That that made me come to realization
to enjoy the moment. Enjoy the moment, Yes. Just to have fun. Were you always doing something related to e-commerce and social media
or did you change something? To do what you are doing now. To do what you are doing now. I changed rapidly
working as a PPC manager. I changed rapidly
working as a PPC manager. I changed rapidly
working as a PPC manager. What is that? It's like pay per click, like paid
campaigns on Facebook and stuff like that. And I learned this. And I learned Through a digital course.
I never went to university or something like that. I had my own startup. I built a website
that celebrities can like can register and people can buy birthday videos
from them, like videos in general What kind of videos, sorry. Like them saying
happy birthday? Yeah, say like Neymar have your young sister say Happy Birthday. Yeah, say like Neymar have your young sister say Happy Birthday. Oh, that's so interesting. Yeah, They have a version like
this is very popular in America. It's called Cameo. My first job that I got remotely it started off as a Upwork
gig that. I know I use. I use Upwork as well. Yeah. I started working for them. Then I became like head of social media, but then ended up switching to another
company, the company I work for now. but then ended up switching to another
company, the company I work for now. So yeah, it's definitely like So yeah, it's definitely like So yeah, it's definitely like kind of making something out of nothing. kind of making something out of nothing. Yeah, in a very informal way. One last question,
if you want to share with us. How much money do you make per month?
Usually? Oh, I wouldn’t like feel so comfortable saying this... Like I don’t want the tax authorities to come to me... And be like, you know? Just kidding. Just kidding, I pay taxes. But I would say, enough enough to make a living to like have the freedom to live the way
I want to live, you know, eat outside And if I want to like sometime
I want a private room instead of dorms, I could do this.
You know, it's a comfortable life. You’d say. It’s comfortable. Nice. Thank you so much.
It was lovely talking to you. And I hope you enjoy Floripa. Thank you Rafa. Thank you. I will. Thank you. I will. So, what's your name? My name is Aisling. Where are you from? I'm from Dublin. From Ireland. Yes. Yeah. What do you do that lets you work remotely? What kind of job is that? So I am a graphic designer,
and I'm freelance, so it's perfect
because it's totally my own schedule. Yeah, Total freedom. And I can pick
how many days I want to work for a client, and that means I can use, like, extra days
during the week to travel. Were you always a graphic designer? Did you change something
to become a digital nomad? What's your story?
actually being a graphic designer full time in London
then for like six or seven years. Yeah, very much
just commuting, working, just sort of rat race London life
and then once the pandemic started, I decided to make a change and
I went to do some volunteering in Greece That’s what brought me to Greece, where
it started, where it started, and then yes, and then the volunteering ended. And then I said, right,
this is the time to go freelance. so. But also I didn't even study
graphic design in university. I did marketing and sociology. So it's been a big journey from there
to becoming a freelance designer. And how did you how did you learn to be
a graphic designer? Did you do any courses? Yes I did amazing courses. Which I really recommend for anyone who wants to become a designer
who doesn't have a degree. It's a three month portfolio course
and it's called Shillington Education and there's one in London,
one in New York, one in a few in Australia, and it's a three month
intensive portfolio course that you've got all the skills
you need to build a portfolio ready to start looking for your first graphic
design job as a junior. And then you build from there.
All jewelry clients. Jewelry brands that I work for, yes mostly jewelry What do you do? Do you create the jewelry itself? Do you create the social media
graphics? Yeah. So basically think of anything
that a brand might need for selling their product. So they might need like website banners
to be updated. Like look books,
they'll need product line sheets. They might need to rebrand. Yeah, they'll need their newsletters
designed and sent out. So I do a lot of this.
Let's say you're doing a competition. You need text on an image
and make it look really cool. I'm lucky that I have mostly
the same clients for the past three years. That we work together in a really nice way and we have like a nice relationship. So I sometimes I find new clients
just through word of mouth, from recommendations from friends. But mostly it is from the very first year that I got
my clients and I just kept them. So I charge a day rate for my clients
and then I build just at the end of the month or hours, it just depends on the project. I'm really, really flexible.
I'm like whatever suits my clients
or I'm cool with anything, Where did it come your idea
to become a digital nomads. From working in Greece for that
first year. I saw it was really possible
to live this life to work remotely. Yeah. Like I've never even met my clients in real life,
but they're totally fine with that because at the time it just was so normal
to work remotely anyway. And then I just sort of
got addicted to that feeling of, of being able to continue
on like a normal life, but just to be in totally different
environments like every couple of months. And why did you choose Brazil this time? Well, I chose Brazil
because shout out to my friend Harriet. She brought me here last year
for the first time because she came for a Selina
retreat experience and she loved it. And then she said, We got to go.
And she brought me with her. And this time last year and I just went
because she said it was amazing. I didn't really know much about. Here in Floripa? Here in Floripa. Exactly. And so, this year Harriet couldn't
come this time. But I said, okay, I'm going to go anyway
myself. And I have a few friends from last year, so I'm reconnecting with them,
but also making new friends. One last question
Just if you feel comfortable sharing, how much money
do you usually make per month? I make about £6,000 a month. Yeah. Great. It’s pretty good. So, yeah, I feel very grateful
that I'm able to make that money. And just to live. To live
life is like this. So I feel very grateful. Oh, yeah. Well,
thank you so much for sharing your story. And good luck as being a digital nomad. Thank you so much. It's great to speak to you. So what's your name? Hi, my name is Felipe. I work as a software engineer
for an American company. I work remotely. It's an asynchronous company. So you don't have meetings,
you don't have phone calls, and It gives me
a lot of freedom to work. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of work do you do that
lets you work remotely? Oh, as a software engineer, I do websites. I work on a no local website builder. It's like a competitor to webflow Wix. I know Wix. My website is through Wix. Yeah. I need to maybe change to yours. I became a digital nomad by accident. By accident. Yeah. So first become a developer,
then you work towards the asynchronous role. Yeah, it's a really good. I wouldn’t go back to an office work. No, no, no. And when did you start being... When
did you start working at this company? Uh, three years ago. Three years ago, during the pandemic. So everybody was hiring
and I found this role online. So I had to submit my resume. Yeah. So. And what's your favorite thing from
working remotely and having this freedom? I do my own time. So that's the best part. It's really flexible in that regard. So you're not stuck to the office. You need to be there at 8am
otherwise they are not gonna let me in. And did you study
engineering or something different? Did you change your life
to do what you're doing nowadays? No, I always from the beginning,
I've been a developer, you know, when I was a kid,
I had this blog where had millions of views
every month. Wow. So it was only logical for me to go this route, you know, did you study on university
or you learned by yourself? I learned by myself. But I did go to the university. I did analysis and system development. Yeah. And MBA in artificial intelligence
and machine learning. I think this is a very valuable
skill that you have. Yeah, I think so
too. It's the, it's the skill of the future. Yeah. One last question for you. If you want to share, how much money
do you usually make per month? $12,000. $12,000. Okay. So $12,000. So he makes $12,000 working from his computer
and staying here in the swimming pool. Maybe it's time for you
to leave your office job and go to the computer
and find a way out there. Thank you so much, Felipe. And I hope you enjoy your
stay here in Floripa. Thank you. See you. So what's your name? My name is Akira. I work nowadays as a content creator. And where are you from? I'm actually from Curitiba. But, like I started my digital nomad life, actually working for other corporate companies
in the past. Yeah. And right now, like,
I just decided to quit everything and set it to be like a content creator
and also keep traveling. Oh, so it's very recent. Your lifestyle as a nomad or were you doing it before? What's your story? Okay, so I actually started
on the startup world five years ago. I actually found myself
as a product manager and then I started
to develop my career into that. But at one time in my life I decided okay,
I don't want to work to anyone anymore. Yeah, I want to so create my own company. And some people on LinkedIn,
they invited me to create a company like Insurance Company
and I joined that company. I helped them to build from zero the
company to 120 clients. I think, Wow. And but then, like, I realized that I was actually working a lot like,
too much. I was working from 12 hours
to 14 hours a day. Wow. And then I got like
a really heavy burnout. And I said to myself,
okay, I cannot have this life anymore. Like, like life is not just working
is also like living a little bit more. So I decided to okay, let's try to get a another work
that is fully remote and I can get paid in dollars. It was pretty great. I was being able to travel a lot and but then I got burned out again
and I was like, okay, that's enough for me. I don't want to work
in the corporate job anymore. I understand. I had to quit my job as well
to start a new life. And I totally understand. You know, so right now I'm building content creation about lifestyle. Trying to convince people to actually
quit their jobs and live their dreams. What's your. What's your handle?
Yeah, so it's accurate. It’s @akiratsukamoto_ Also follow him and follow his journey. Only three weeks since I quit my job. Oh, and, like, Floripa is a place that I love to go. Like, here we can find, like, a lot of It’s really easy to meet a lot of people in here. Yeah. And so making your friends, specially
like people from all around the world, was it hard for you to do the transition
between corporate job to content creation? Was it difficult for you
and for your family? My family doesn't know
anything about it actually, so. Well, they are going to discover now
Mom and dad, if they're watching this...
They don't know you quit? They don't know. They have no idea. Oh, okay, they have no idea. Because like, when I quit the corporate job and,
like, was going to build my own startup, they already, like, got really upset with me and that also happened
when I quit university. You also quit university. Yeah, I didn’t like it.
I did like 3 unis. Oh, really? Yeah. And didn't work out like it wasn't for me. You’re creative. Yes. Yeah. They got, like,
really f**cking upset with me. So, like, this one, like,
I'm just going to tell, like, after. Like I start to make, like,
a lot of money. They're like, then it will be safe for that. Okay. Do you have any future plans
for your content creation? What are your goals with that? I think my main goal of that as I realized that because when it was building
my own company, I know that
I was a really workaholic person. But I after that burnout,
I understood that like, That's not living at all. Like you need to enjoy other things. So I think my main objective of living
is like just to get to know
more people and understand, like try to get my curiosity, like all inside
of my head, like outside in the world. Yeah. Do my personal
objective with my content creation. Well, they were all like, there's much
more things to do besides work. You're like, Here are the interesting
things that you can learn about. And one less question,
just if you want to share, how much money do you make per month
as a content creator? Sure. As a content creator
I am actually making zero money right now. because you just started
as like only two weeks. So guys, let's help him out. Before that,
I was like working for a US company. I was making $4,000 a month.
A month? Yeah. So you saved that money
to do what you're doing now? Yes, 100%. Yeah. And do you have any goal of,
like when you want and start making money, do you have any ideas about that
or you actually on the first three months to get a lot of followers,
like a lot of loyal followers that will like my content
and like after the three month passes I’ll then, try to search it out
for like some partnership, paid partnership stuff like that. So my main goal is to get like 100 follow
a 100,000 followers in three months and then in six months. Like,
I don't have 100,000 in three months. Yes, that's the goal. And for six months
then like to start monetizing and getting like around the money
that I used to make on the corporate job. Okay. So he’s an ambitious guy and thank you so much! Wishing you all the luck in your journey. Thank you Another digital nomad here by the pool
and I've already asked her she prefers to do the interview in Spanish
so I'm going to do it in Spanish and put the subtitles for you to know. So what’s your name? Victoria, and where are you from? From Argentina. From which part of Argentina? I’m from Patagonia. Wow, beautiful! From Santa Cruz. And currently I live in Buenos Aires. And do you work remotely? Yeah. What is your job that lets you work remotely? I work for different organizations and companies that take care of the environment all around the And I manage the communication strategies. For different companies, the community in general and also governments so they can implement good practices solutions against the climate change And you can do it all online? Yes. Since when have you been traveling and working? Around 2 years. Yeah, and do you need to follow a schedule or can you decide it? How does it work? I can decide always, there is this freedom. A lot of times, in the morning after a meeting I do Yoga... Oh nice. I just got back from surfing. and then I’ll work until 9pm. Usually, I try to understand what are the goals for the week. And then move foward. Always. It doesn’t matter the day, the moment or the place. That’s good. With the laptop and good internet Everything is gonna work out... And where did you travel to after you became a nomad? I had the opportunity to work onile in Canada, now in Brazil, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Malta Wow! Yeah, I like it a lot and there are many other countries I want to visit. And I always try to travel in a sustainable way and slow, not to pollute so much with the transportation. And It requires a lot of effort to move around so much also... Were you always a digital nomad or did you change something in your life to become one? No. Una transición? I finished school online. Really? Yes. That’s so different! When I was 16 I already liked traveling a lot. And I went to Switzerland for a while. I didn’t know you could finish school online. Yes, you can. The ones who want it, can do it. Yeah, university as well. Oh okay. When I was working I realized I was not very efficient in an office. I liked the interaction with other people But at the end, I really like to have my quiet moments and work moments, when my body wants to work. And understand that energy. Last question, if you want to share How much money do you usually make per month? Per month.. It’s $3000. It’s good. I obviously try to save it. I try to live and travel. Obviously, It would be financially better to stay at home. Yes, of course. But yeah, it is around that. One more thing before finishing it, what are your future plans? Oh, I thought about that today. I would like to live in Germany. Yeah. Sometime to improve my German. And keep exercising with different sports. In different parts of the world. Maybe doing surf or skate. Maybe roller skating. I don’t know but going to new places and exercising my body. Having a healthy life. while traveling to different places. I think you are the first person when I ask what your future plans are doesn’t talk about your career. And I like that a lot because you... I feel like I achieved what I wanted. Exactly, you think first about you, your body... In my actions Thank you so much! It was a pleasure. Thank you. Are you a nomad? Sorry, what did you say? Are you a nomad? I’m a nomad, yeah. Would you like to give me an interview? Absolutely.
