Ever wondered why "smart" people (high IQ, degrees, etc) often feel unfulfilled? In this episode, we unpack the real measure of intelligence: designing a life you actually want to live. From ditching traditional success metrics to embracing emotional intelligence, adaptive skills, and your "zone of genius," we explore how rethinking smarts can lead to more freedom, fulfillment, and a lifestyle that makes you happy.

🧠 Redefining intelligence: Why degrees and IQ don't equal smarts. It's about applying yourself, creativity, and designing a life true to you.

😔 Why smart people often feel unfulfilled: Spending too much time in your head, ignoring your body, grinding without joy, and chasing the wrong ladders.

🌟 The truest form of intelligence: Building a life you love, not just climbing corporate rungs for the wrong reasons.

🤝 Multiple intelligences unpacked: From emotional (regulating stress) to adaptive (thriving without structure, key for nomads) and ethical (using power wisely).

💡 Zone of genius: Tapping into what you're naturally great at, turning it into a remote career, and avoiding burnout by aligning work with your strengths.

🔄 Adaptive intelligence for nomads: Functioning without routines, rebuilding after setbacks, and operating across cultures without melting down.

❓ Challenge for listeners: Use ChatGPT to assess your intelligences—what's your strongest, and how can it shape your dream life?

2025 hit like an earthquake: extremes of highs and lows, massive personal growth, and forced reinvention. In this raw year-in-review, we reflect on the lessons from a challenging year as digital nomads: rethinking travel, slowing down, community, belonging, and what "freedom" actually means when the old patterns no longer fit.

🌪️ 2025 in a nutshell: A year of extremes, intense personal shake-ups, and uncomfortable growth that ultimately transformed everything.

✈️ Evolving relationship with travel: Slowing down, embracing beach-bum life (tank tops and sandals included), craving bases, and ditching the need to constantly bounce around new places.

🌱 Personal growth unlocked: Jeff's dive into feeling emotions over overthinking, grounding practices, and solving problems from the body instead of the head.

👥 Community, belonging & loneliness: The raw truth of isolation, learning to spot genuine connections, and putting people on the "chopping block" who don't meet you in the depths.

🔥 Burning old ideas: Letting go of people-pleasing, head-heavy decision-making, and the myth that digital nomads must always be on the move to "qualify."

🧠 Advice our past selves needed: Stop making decisions just to avoid disappointing others, say no unapologetically, and redesign life around what actually feels good.

🔮 Looking to 2026: Building a life of 2–3 hour workdays, deep passions (like writing a book), meaningful community, and true time freedom.

💡 Redefining digital nomad life: Dropping the pressure to travel constantly, embracing slower rhythms, and focusing on joy, belonging, and meaningful work over endless wanderlust.

❓ Was your 2025 an earthquake too? Share your story—we'd love to hear what resonated.

Everyone thinks digital nomads are sipping coconuts on the beach all day… so let’s actually talk about what they do. In this episode, we break down a real, honest day-in-the-life of a digital nomad, from morning routines to work hours, productivity myths, and what the lifestyle actually looks like when Instagram isn’t watching.

We talk about:

🕗 "Do digital nomads even work?” A brutally honest breakdown of how many hours we actually work

☕ Morning routines that aren’t aesthetic (and why most nomads don’t start their day at sunrise yoga)

💻 Where the work really happens — cafés, apartments, coworking spaces… and why beaches are mostly a lie

⏰ Time zones: the silent killer of the digital nomad fantasy

🧠 Why productivity looks different on the road (and how nomads structure their days to stay sane)

🏖️ The biggest misconception non-nomads have about “working from anywhere”

📅 What a normal weekday looks like vs. travel days (spoiler: they’re not the same thing)

😬 The part of nomad life nobody brags about — routines, discipline, and invisible stress

🌍 Why flexibility ≠ freedom (and how experienced nomads actually design their schedules)

❓ Listener question that sparked this episode — and why it hits the core of the nomad myth

Looking for help getting a job that lets you work from anywhere?

Apply here for our program with hiring experts who help you land a remote job.

🧠 “Are you your job… or did your job eat you alive?” It's the identity crisis we don't talk about in the West.

🌍 Why travel exposes the lies you’ve told yourself about career success, and what happens when your old identity stops fitting.

🏋️‍♂️ How losing structure makes some people lose themselves and how to rebuild without falling apart.

💼 The subtle ways your career rewires your personality, and the moment you realize you don’t recognize who you became.

✈️ How a nomadic life forces reinvention...clarity, confidence, and why freedom is the best (and scariest) mirror.

😬 Why people cling to job titles like life rafts, and why you need to finally let go.

🧩 How to rebuild a life that actually feels like yours again without burning everything down.

Looking for help getting a remote job? Fill out this form to apply!

This episode dives into the uncomfortable truths beneath the Instagram gloss of digital nomad life...loneliness, decision fatigue, shallow connections, and the emotional cost of constant mobility. Jeff and Marisa crack open the paradox of “freedom” that often leaves people more disconnected, overstimulated, and rootless than they expected.

One of our all-time favorite, and most listened to episodes for folks looking to start working from wherever in the world they want.

What's the first job you think of when I ask "what's the most common digital nomad job?"

Most people would think "Instagram influencer" or "Travel blogger." Right? Turns out this this is rarely accurate.

Jeff and Marisa pulled the latest digital nomad statistics, job salaries, and first-hand data from their 1k+ digital nomad network to come up with the top seven most common jobs they see in the digital nomad community.

They also provided salary ranges you can expect and experience needed for each.

This is not the regurgitated list you will see circulating around the internet - this is what you will actually see in the wild! This is first-hand knowledge and advice on how to get out there and working and traveling ASAP.

Want help getting a fully-remote job? Our Remote Job Fast Track program was designed by digital nomad career coaching experts specifically to get you hired with a company that lets you work from anywhere in the world.

Apple Here!

https://form.typeform.com/to/d6Vvtaa8

One of our all-time favorite, and most listened to episodes for current and digital nomads looking for their next destination.

Contrary to many people's beliefs, becoming a digital nomad often makes your cost of living more affordable rather than more expensive. The reason being is that the majority of major digital nomad destinations have a relatively low cost of living. As a matter of fact, it's one of the biggest criteria when digital nomads choose their destinations.

In this episode, Jeff, Marisa and Diego selected 9 awesome locations to live as a digital nomad. The criteria they used were:

• Cost of living under $2k per month, including rent.
• A digital nomad presence/community.
• Reasonably safe.
• Strong internet.
• Easy to navigate/travel to the destination.

Need help finding a remote job that lets you become a digital nomad? We help people like you find legitimate remote jobs every day! Join our email list and get remote jobs sent directly to your inbox.

https://beachcommute.com/email/

In this episode, Jeff sits down with Sasha Farley, a remote work expert and consultant, to break down what most managers, teams, and companies get totally wrong about productivity, focus, collaboration, and remote work.

There is science and biology behind the traditional 9-5 doesn't make sense for your brain or body.

In this episode you’ll learn:

It’s neuroscience… and wildly relevant for anyone who works online.

You can find Sasha on her website: https://www.sashafarleyconsulting.com/

And LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashafarley/

This week Jeff and Marisa answer your most-asked questions about life as a digital nomad. From healthcare abroad to giving up your home base, they're breaking down the logistics that keep people from taking the leap. No fluff, just honest answers from people who've lived it.

Here's what they covered:

🌍 Digital immigrants vs. digital nomads — Are remote workers settling down abroad for good? The shift is happening.

🏠 The home base dilemma — Keep paying rent back home or cut ties completely? There's no right answer, but there are patterns.

💰 Is the American Dream actually dead? — The numbers are brutal. We talk about what's replacing it and why people are looking elsewhere.

🏥 Healthcare abroad — The fear that stops most people. What it's really like, what it costs, and the stories you need to hear.

😨 "What if something goes wrong?" — Real talk about the risks, the unknowns, and how to think about them differently.

🛂 The post-national generation? — Tax residency, passport games, and whether digital nomads are creating a whole new identity.

Want daily remote job alerts sent to your inbox? Sign up here: www.beachcommute.com/email

Want our support that can help you land a fully remote job faster?
⚡️ Apply to Remote Job Fast Track here: www.beachcommute.com/apply

Your brain is designed to keep you safe, comfortable, and efficient. But what if "safe" is actually keeping you stuck?

In this episode, Jeff and Marisa dive into the neuroscience of why we get trapped in routines (even good ones), and how travel literally rewires your brain. Spoiler: it's not about escaping your problems, it's about building new neural pathways that make you more resilient, creative, and alive.

Here's what we cover:

🧠 Why your brain fights change: The biological reasons you stay in ruts, even when you want something different (hint: dopamine, efficiency, and survival mode).

⚡️ Neuroplasticity 101: How new experiences create new brain pathways, keep you young, and build emotional resilience.

🏃‍♂️ From running to rucking: Jeff's accidental discovery in Costa Rica that changed his entire exercise routine (and why he never would've tried it at home).

🌍 All travel is not created equal: Why an all-inclusive resort won't rewire anything, and what kind of travel actually creates transformation.

💃 Real examples from the road: How paddle, mezcal, zouk dancing, boxing, and pickleball became part of their identities simply because they were in the right place at the right time.

🪜 Start small: You don't have to sell everything and move abroad tomorrow. Even turning right instead of left on your daily walk can start the rewiring process.

Want daily remote job alerts sent to your inbox?Sign up here: www.beachcommute.com/email

Want our support that can help you land a fully remote job faster? ⚡️Apply to Remote Job Fast Track here: www.beachcommute.com/apply