Beach Commute - Digital Nomad Experts

Are you getting ready to test the waters as a digital nomad? The biggest first major choice you're going to make after deciding to go remote is where you're going to go first. 

It's scary and amazing. 

Fortunately, Jeff, Marisa and Diego have been all over the world, so we know exactly what things makes for an easy first destination. We also know exactly what makes for a very difficult first destination. 

Here are a few of the things we consider when choosing our destinations: 

1. Ease of language - do they speak your first language? If not, can you understand the basics? 

2. Cost - heading to Hawaii or Western Europe sure sounds sexy, but it's certain to break your bank in a hurry. We choose starter locations that won't completely drain your bank account. 

3. Access to internet - Everyone wants to go to the beach, of course. But did you know that your wifi will probably be much worse, and sometimes unworkable in certain beach locations? We take this into consideration. 

4. Community - Trust us, your perception of being a digital nomad will be colored negatively if you can find no one to connect with in your first destination. We selected starter destinations with strong digital nomad communities. 

Join us to find out which six destinations you could easily hit the ground running as a burgeoning digital nomad. 

Links mentioned: 

numbeo

Go Remote Course

We’re excited to introduce this episode with Mikkel Thorup, a digital nomad who has been traveling the world for 21 years.

In the episode, you’ll learn how Mikkel has:

-Made 7 figures while traveling the world full-time for over 20 years, even after being diagnosed with a learning disability in 3rd grade and dropping out of school at the age of 15

-Circumnavigated the planet more than 400 times, has traveled to 106 countries, and has lived in 9 different countries

-Helped people legally avoid paying taxes in their own country (and how he can help you do the same)

-Met his wife while living as a digital nomad, and navigated the birth of his two children in foreign countries (and how he’s managed to still spends time with his own mother while traveling)

-Continued to educate his children while traveling the world full time (without enrolling them in an in-person school), and how his kids are already becoming fluent in more than 3 languages

We hope you enjoy this fascinating episode with Mikkel!

Links mentioned:

-Mikkel’s Podcast:

-The Beach Commute ‘Go Remote Employment’ course: www.beachcommute.com/gre

-7 most common jobs for digital nomads: www.beachcommute.com/7jobs

In this episode, Marisa interviews Emma McCann, a designer from New Jersey who had a dream to travel, and quit her corporate job with no backup plan in place.

Emma now lives as a digital nomad, working as a UX/UI designer as she travels to epic locations in places such as Asia and The Middle East (while often keeping a homebase apartment in Brooklyn).

Marisa and Emma first met while living together in Oman in 2019.

In the episode, you’ll learn:

-What led Emma to quit her safe, corporate job (and how she managed to live with no backup job in place)

-How you can get a job you’re passionate about with ZERO formal training

-How traveling to Denmark sparked her passion for travel

-How she negotiated with her employer to let her work from Japan (and the secret method she used to rack up enough credit card points to fly there)

-What she does with her pet cat while traveling

-How she overcame anxiety when figuring out the logistics of becoming a digital nomad

-Why she loves to pursue culture shock

-How to work from different time zones than your company (and whether or not it’s worth it)

Websites mentioned:

Murray le Roux is a digital nomad from South Africa who works as a developer while traveling the world.

Murray and Marisa first met back in 2018 when they lived together in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and have traveled to several countries together since then.

Murray is an all-around fun guy, and this podcast episode is full of laughs and hysterical travel stories.

In the episode, you’ll hear:

-How a breakup from a long-term relationship led to the start of Murray’s travels as a digital nomad

-The 3 biggest hurdles he had to overcome in order to start traveling full-time

-The time Murray and Marisa may have accidentally got married in a buddhist temple

-Why Murray and Marisa stayed up until 4am the night they met (and how they almost got run over by a car while lying in the road)

-The time Murray risked his life at the largest balloon festival in the world

-The most important advice he has for digital nomads (which took him 3 years to figure out himself)

Listen to the full episode to hear all the juicy details and funny stories (and decide for yourself whether or not Marisa and Murray are still legally married 😂).

Links mentioned in episode:

Wifi Tribe: www.wifitribe.co

Meet Agnes Nyamwange, a digital nomad who grew up in Kenya, got her bachelor's degree in Uganda, and moved to the US to get her masters degree.

Marisa and Agnes met in 2019 while living for a month together in Lagos, Nigeria.

But traveling wasn’t always Agnes’ life…

While visiting the gynecologist one day, the doctor asked her a very simple question that changed her life forever…

She quit her job, and found herself broke and depressed drinking beer on the couch everyday until she discovered the digital nomad life.

During this episode, you’ll hear about:

-Why her friends thought she was crazy for booking a one-way ticket to Spain

-How she has tapped into a network of digital nomad friends all over the world

-The challenges she and Marisa faced together while living in Nigeria in 2019

-How living as a digital nomad completely changed her life

-Her one piece of advice for you, if you’re thinking about living as a digital nomad

To find out how travel has changed Agnes’ life (and how it can change yours too), check out this episode now.

Links referenced in the show:

Nomad Cruise - Skill-Sharing Digital Nomad Conference at Sea

Selina on Red Frog Island in Panama:

Special guest Jaime Goodman joins our digital nomad podcast to talk about how she quit a six figure corporate job seven years ago to spend her life abroad.

She discusses her emotional decision to sacrifice money for time and experience. Jaime decided that her yearning inside to travel the world and experience freedom outweighed her desire to work a high-powered corporate job, where she felt that she wasn’t growing.

This was seven years ago. Since then she has been traveling the world and going on adventures full-time. She occasionally picks up work on the road, but for the most part she had dedicated her life to experiencing all the world has to offer.

Some highlights from Jaimes experience:

-Living in a converted hippie van in Costa Rica and doing pilates on the roof.

-The Flapping Duck guest house for $5 per night, with rats in the showers.

-Couchsurfing in Milan with Italian fashion models.

-Cleaning toilets in a hostel during the pandemic.

-How to balance treating yourself with challenging your comfort.

-American competitiveness

Enjoy our conversation with Jaime “I’m gonna win in darts” Goodman.

Links mentioned:

Couchsurfing

Map to Nowhere Instagram

Map to Nowhere website

Are you currently working full-time for a company and wish you could travel more often? I've got good news! If your job can be done remote, your job can also be done on the road. 

A lot of people don't realize that there are a few simple steps they need to take in order to become a digital nomad. 

In this episode Marisa interviews Jeff on how he became a digital nomad while serving as the Chief Marketing Officer for the largest content marketing company in the world. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

1. How to ask your boss to work remote. 

2. How to nail your first few weeks of being a digital nomad, so that your company trusts you. Hint: Overdeliver like crazy at the beginning. 

3. Typical and atypical jobs that lend themselves well to working and traveling. 

4. Taxes - how to navigate paying taxes while traveling. (Hint: It's much easier than you think). 

5. Insurance - how your health insurance with your company works (or doesn't work) while on the road, and some thoughts on travel insurance. 

6. How to use VPN technology to login to your company's database. 

7. How to pick a place where you will have ZERO connectivity problems. 

8. How to maintain your mental and physical health while traveling

Websites discussed: 

NomadList - for finding average wifi speeds

Cell Mapper - for finding cell signals on a map

Beach Commute Go-Remote Employment Course

Do you have a dream of traveling the world and living as a digital nomad, but deep down, fear you’ll be lonely if you pack your bags and land in a foreign country?

If you have a fear of being lonely while traveling, we’ve got great news for you!

While the fear of loneliness is a very common fear for a solo traveler, we’ve found that living as a digital nomad has actually been the opposite of lonely.

In this episode, Marisa and Jeff talk about how they’ve made friends on the road while traveling, tips for you to meet friends while you travel, and why traveling as a digital nomad has actually been LESS lonely than living at home.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Links mentioned during the episode:

Beach Commute homepage: www.beachcommute.com

Want to get a remote job? Join our Go Remote Employment course where you’ll learn which remote job is right for you, and the step by step instructions to get a remote job that will let you travel: www.beachcommute.com/gre

Want to know the top 7 most common remote jobs for digital nomads? www.beachcommute.com/7jobs

Nomad List

Co-Living communities:

Remote Year

-Nomad cruise:

Nomad Cruise - Skill-Sharing Digital Nomad Conference at Sea

Once referred to as “digital hippies”, remote workers are now becoming better understood as the workforce has turned increasingly digital. And with that, people are realizing that they can travel WHILE they work.

While nearly NOTHING good came out of the pandemic, one good thing that happened was workers feeling empowered to say, “I want to work outside the office, forever.” And the companies who are slow to respond are seeing a massive resignation of employees.

While there are jobs that historically lend themselves well to remote work, we have seen a WIDE range of jobs, including a brain surgeon, professional poker player, biotech researcher, and more.

Welcome to Beach Commute, the ultimate digital nomad resource center. 

In this inaugural episode, you'll meet Jeff, Marisa and Diego, three friends who met each other while working remote in Bolivia. In this pilot episode you will hear the stories about how they became digital nomads, and their specific moments when they decided, "There is no way I can go back to normal life." 

They discuss what a digital nomad's lifestyle looks like on a day-to-day basis and some of the misconceptions we've seen along the way. They also discuss the implications of what covid has done to the remote-first workforce, possibly permanently. 

Join our email list at beachcommute.com/email if you want to get remote job listings sent straight to your inbox, and never miss an episode.

Your hosts:

Jeff Baker

Marisa Meddin

Diego Bejarano Gerke