The Traveling Introvert

What are the pros and cons of being an introvert remote worker?

What is the longest time you have managed to keep a luggage tag on checked luggage?

Keeping your private life private is a good thing

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I'm going to answer a question someone wrote in. The question was my life outside of work is kind of uneventful. Could this hurt my career? [00:00:26][11.9]

[00:00:27] I found this question to be interesting because it's all about perspective. What does uneventful really mean. Because a lot of us do think that we lead maybe very boring lives. You know we get to work we come home we Netflix we sleep we get out we go to work come home you know that sort of thing. And for us because we're stuck in the every day of our lives we might feel that it is boring or uneventful and because we get told that networking and socialising is the backbone of getting getting on in your career or climbing that ladder. You may feel that having an uneventful and use this word sparingly uneventful social life. It could hurt your career and so I want to look at it in a different way. [00:01:14][47.6]

[00:01:16] Your life in your eyes may be uneventful but are you happy because I think this matters more than hurting your career chances. Are you happy with your life. Are you happy with what you do. When you come home is your home a refuge or do you hate being at home. Can you come home and relax and recharge. Does your home make you feel comfortable calm relaxed. If it does these things and you are happy then that's okay. If you don't go out much you stay home and you do things at home. Or maybe people come round to yours. [00:01:55][39.6]

[00:01:56] I know people who think their life is uneventful and they come home and they cleared a podcast or do puzzles or do charity work online or run a forum or even a gaming group. To them this is uneventful because they enjoy what they do outside of work and they feel it doesn't make a big enough impact on their career. But they are happy because while a career can be great. It is not everything and so finding a balance in your life is important. If you feel that you need to make more of an effort thats also fine and there's ways of doing that without feeling that you're you're cheating and then not being yourself just those same things that you do at home. Maybe you could do outside of your home with different people for example board game groups. There are a lot of boardgame groups around and boardgame cafes where you accidently end up meeting new people or meeting a new game which will then lead you to go and maybe do research on line and then you find a new forum then you find a different way of playing it and then you're learning this other thing and all of these things lead to meeting new people or otherwise and learning new things and so it's not about work your life outside of work being uneventful. [00:03:20][83.5]

[00:03:21] I think one of the problems is that people always ask how your weekend was and you think that you have to have an answer that it's like oh I'd have 3000 different things I am super man rather than I stayed at home and recharged because work is draining which might be the real answer. [00:03:37][16.0]

[00:03:38] So your life outside of work doesn't affect your career. Obviously there are some circumstances where if you doing some things certain things that people find out about might affect your career. But if you are private about your private life then it shouldn't be a problem and if people want to talk and ask what you do you can go to tell them the whole thing you can tell them snippets of anecdotes about what you do. People ask me what I do over the weekend. Sometimes I can't even remember because I tend to take my weekends in the middle of the week. For example my take a Wednesday offer Thursday off and not necessarily like a Saturday Sunday but also

Just because they are your clients now, does not mean they will be your clients later!

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Travelling Introvet. Today we are going to talk about follow up and the reason this has come up is because I did a post on LinkedIn which is very popular but also two or three things have happened recently that make me think that people just might not be aware of the implications of follow up. [00:00:33][18.8]

[00:00:33] So one thing I learnt really early on when I was a freelancer was the fact that I needed to follow up. I got this contract which involved me doing a lot of HR work we were working on this big project that involved sort of telling people all the different types of interviews that can be had different interview biases and how to get through them and so there was this huge checklist of things to do and then multiple people working on the project. There wasn't a project management software used but that's another matter. So I didn't really get updates or there was no communication from the client that I was working with. So at that time I did as I just did what we talked about and then I stopped and I didn't say anything. I was waiting to be told what to do next. And the thing was this was because I still had an employee mentality we get told what to do all the time. But as a freelancer I should have been more proactive. [00:01:31][58.3]

[00:01:32] I then met this person this client in person because I happened to be in Australia and we met and we talked and all was good and I went back and I did some more work and then stopped again and then out of the blue. As far as I was concerned they stopped my contract and cut it off said it was good work with me. Thanks very much but my lack of communication was a real problem. This was a shock to me because I was new at freelancing and didn't realise that and I'd had some freelance clients who were micromanagers. I learnt from then on to overcommunicate and over follow up. [00:02:06][34.0]

[00:02:07] Now on the flipside now that I hire people what I've had with three different companies recently is a distinct lack of follow up. I've definitely had someone go "well I didn't back from you". From your email and it's been two weeks and so I didn't know what you wanted to do I didn't message you. My response was well if you didn't hear back from me and you want to know what was going on you should messaged me. And the other thing was where's I've had another one who was very much. She did some work Monday Tuesday. Didn't hear from me until Monday. The next thing you know she's like hey just wanted to let you know this if you had anything for me you know you could do this I could do that let me know how I can help. She's very proactive and so I gave her more work as she asks for it. Follow up. And that's just sort of one kind of type of follow up. [00:02:52][44.7]

[00:02:52] There are many different types of follow up that I could talk about but as a freelancer from a freelancers point of view if you do not follow up with your clients and even your ex client you are leaving money on the table and you're leaving it open for someone else to come in and do your work and maybe better cheaper faster or the same but with just better communication. [00:03:20][28.3]

[00:03:23] I had another vendor that I was trying out actually. And so this was the test phase and they did one task for me. That was two weeks ago and I haven't heard from them, nothing. Not a peep and so from my point of view. Maybe you don't want me to pay you. Maybe I did something I don't know . You want me to pay you right you want me to give me money for services but you are not asking for the money. This is a problem. [00:03:52][28.8]

[00:03:53]

In this episode I talk all things packing

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, we are going to talk about you know what I just changed my mind. We're going to talk about packing. The reason we are going to talk about packing is because I just had a dream about packing and going on a trip in a few days and I've done my first round of packing and my dream was about having a certain amount of stuff that was in my suitcase going into another room coming back. And all of a sudden the stuff had doubled or tripled and I'm still trying to fit that same stuff in to my same sized suitcase. So I guess packing is on my mind and there is so much about packing it is because I do certain things. [00:01:02][48.2]

[00:01:03] One of the things is I'm going to rave about packing cubes mainly because one of the things that I've discovered that's wonderful about packing cubes. Actually two things is and there is one bad point and a bad point packing cubes can cause you to overpack and overstuff because you can fit so much in a packing cube and it compresses everything that you have technically more space in your suitcase for other stuff and then you end up being too heavy. [00:01:27][24.1]

[00:01:28] Two plus points. I actually ended up using a packing tube in my backpack that I take with me that has my electronics and stuff like that. And normally what I do is I have on a small cube that has a change of clothes in it and one of the planes I caught not so recently anymore was one of those turboprops which has very little space and at the time my bag looked very full because it had food and other things in it. But what I did was I popped out my packing cube and said my bag compressed and could fit in. The packing cube just sat on the side. It was great because everything was still organized and nice. It's just it's helped save space. [00:02:08][40.0]

[00:02:08] The other thing I realized about packing cubes is put my clothes in packing cubes before I even put the cubes into the suitcase. I can weigh the packing cubes separately to have a rough idea of how much my suitcase might weigh. So what I did last night is that I packed my packing cubes in a different way of my suitcase. Normally I go down put it in the suitcase and then weigh the suitcase awkwardly because I'm kind of short and so doing that is weird but then I just scooped up all of my packing cubes because I have a scale and I put them on the scale. It was nice and easy and not so bad on my back. [00:02:40][32.3]

[00:02:42] So when I said first round of packing I wonder how many of you just packed the once because they always say that you should pack three or four times. Not everyone has the time to do that. We should sort of lay out your clothes that you want to take and then take a look see if the colour coordinated and what events you actually have to attend and how much you actually need. Do you have access to a washing machine. Can you mix and match some stuff. Do you have to wear them once. Those sort of things and then you know you must go through and cul do a second or third go round and it is very helpful because I don't really need that top just because you pull at the top and you want to wear it. Or Oh I forgot this I've forgotten that it's very good to sort of lay it out and plan it so people have packing lists to date. [00:03:25][43.6]

[00:03:26] And if anyone finds this please email me or put it in the Facebook group. If you find an app a packing app that is capable of having you pack for more than one place at a time that would be awesome because I tend to get packing apps that very much like where you go Hawaii and Alaska and Brazil and they're like oh well we're are going to deal with Hawaii because that's the first thing you put...

In this episode I am talking about how I began speaking.

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to the Travelling Introvert. Today we are going to talk about public speaking. I have had a couple of questions come in about how I sort of got started speaking and it was an accident. I think I basically started off doing workshops for General Assembly and they tended to keep theirs because they sort of ran coworking spaces. I started off there. I didn't see it as public speaking for me it was more like teaching because it was a case of going in and talking about a particular topic that I knew and enjoyed talking about. This sort of expand into oh I'm traveling to these countries maybe I can speak at their coworking spaces because in most places around the world there are coworking spaces. And so I started doing that I started reaching out and saying hey I'd love to talk about this. At your coworking space, thanks. Sometimes I get a response and sometimes I wouldn't. And that was fine. And the places that I did get a response was one of two things that happens is one they're like well do you have an audience. It brings bring people to our coworking space or we have an audience. We will open up and people from our coworking space will come. I did not have an audience so I would only go coworking spaces that had audiences or could promote on my behalf and promote it on your behalf is actually a really good thing just because they already have an ecosystem there. [00:01:44][90.0]

[00:01:44] They are very appealing to, well depending what you want to talk about they are applealing to sort of entrepreneurs and small businesses. And not only that they have a built in community and so they have a built in network ready. They probably have a newsletter they have a bulletin board they have all these things locally that you just won't have if you're travelling. If you have a audience however the other way of doing it is just finding a space on maybe breathe.com or that there's a couple of places depending where you are in the world where you can type in looking for an event space and I don't mean sort of like a huge event space like a meeting room and you can hire a room from anywhere from I guess 25 bucks an hour U.S. dollars an hour. You know a couple hundred depending on where you are and what you're doing and it depending on how many people you need it for. And so if you have an audience you could say hey I am going to be in this city for this event. Come on down and it's a great thing because people who've been following you and interacting with you online get to meet you in person and it's a wonderful thing to do and you get to meet people and hear their stories and be like oh I'm so glad this has happened. [00:02:52][67.6]

[00:02:53] And so that's a wonderful thing but if you do not have an audience yet going to coworking spaces and asking if you can talk to their 10 people their five people. In Australia I know lunch and learns are very popular and you will not get paid but you know the exposure theory but you do get me some really interesting people so be careful of your mindset going in if you are looking to get paid every single time. That's great. Will it happen. That is up to you because you get to choose what you do or where you speak. [00:03:20][27.0]

[00:03:21] And after that the next things that really sort of step you up on the speaking thing is you'll find a lot of people will attend conferences to find speakers of the conferences to then invite them to other conferences. So if you do go to a conference and you do want to speak look around for those people who run other conferences or have attended other conferences I can tell you because there are so many conferences going around in the world that it's really hard to keep track of them all and sort of know when the dates are to submit

Breaking down which travel apps I use and why

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today I am going to talk about travel apps and the reason I say this is because I love travel apps and also they have gotten me out of some situations and just because there are many uses for them that I think people don't realize. So I am about to change phones and I'm looking at all my apps and I have a whole section called travel apps. So I want to talk about the apps that I have regarding travel and why I love and use them. And it's funny because I know a lot of people and a lot of digital nomads who travel a lot don't use some of these. I'm fascinated by them and I dont travel half as much as they do. [00:00:57][43.7]

[00:00:58] The first one I wanna talk about is TripIt. It is a free app and basically it will go into your email scan any emails hotel reservations, concert tickets, flight reservations and pour them into this one app. Now the reason why I love this app is because it is available off line. If you have just landed in a foreign country and you dont have internet and immigration ask you. So where are you staying if you don't know the address instad of being in a hot panic or cold sweats. You can look up the hotel or whatever is in Tripit because it works off line. You can put notes in and you can put photos in and you can share it with friends, family, co-workers, etc. and you can also have other people build an itinerary for you so if you have a V.A. for example setting up all of your stuff they can put it in there for you and be seen as a planner or as just someone who watches or someone who is a participant. So the free version is very very good. I've never used the pro version but I know it like keeps track of miles and stuff like that. [00:01:57][58.5]

[00:01:57] The next thing, airline apps always have the app of the airline you are flying with. Some apps are better than others for example some apps are just literally redirected to the web page. Other apps are more robust. You can check in using the app, you can have your boarding pass on the app and even if you do that take a screenshot so you have it in case you don't have internet. Some apps will show you like the layout of the airport that you go to or where the nearest lounges is or you can track your baggage using the app. So I highly recommend that just because there's been times where maybe you don't have access to a computer but you do have access to your phone and using the app is just a really good deal. [00:02:40][42.2]

[00:02:40] Exchange rate app can be useful. Not when I'm travelling but because I get paid from different people in different countries I have and different payments go out in different currencies. I find the exchange app is now ridiculously important to me even when I'm not traveling. [00:02:55][15.6]

[00:02:56] I am going to say Uber but I know a lot of people are not Uber friendly. Some countries you don't have a choice. And the reason why I like it is because if I'm landing in a foreign country and I don't know where I'm going Uber does. I'm not sort of relying on a local taxi driver who may or may not take me the scenic route. [00:03:14][17.8]

[00:03:14] The next thing that I do really like is Hotel Tonight and mainly because the app is fast loading. This sounds sort of like a really random thing for me but I've got the Orbitz app and that app takes so long to load and I have to swipe through some things and just putting in information takes that much longer than if I am in a rush or my battery is about to die. I am more likely to pick Hotel Tonight than I am the Orbitz app and Hotel Tonight I have now got there own rewards system where the more money you spend eventually you get more discounts and that sort of thing....

Do you have your own business?

Are you a vendor?

Take a listen 

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Travelling Introvert. Today we are going to talk about communication with vendor's. This has come up a lot in the past month and I wanted to talk about it because it's really important as someone with their own business or you out there who might be looking to have their own business. There's nothing more important than your communication with your clients/vendor's. [00:00:34][20.4]

[00:00:36] One thing that happened is that I was working for a client and their primary communication was a mixture of a lot of Facebook and social media tagging and then it followed with some emails and Slack was suggested. Now the way they introduced me to this method of communication was they emailed me most of the time. They Facebook tagged me a lot of the time but didn't ask if it was okay. And then they also just sent me an invite to slack. They didn't explain what it was they didn't explain what they used it for and they didn't explain why it was important. Fast forward about three months and this particular vendor was an event vendor and so I was speaking at this event only to find out that Slack was their primary method of communication and a lot of really important information regarding transportation getting picked up for flights and that sort of information was only being communicated through Slack which in itself isn't great but the fact that they didn't tell people that, hey for this particular event this is going to be our main method of communication you really need to jump on this is a huge misstep. [00:01:56][79.2]

[00:01:57] Not only that, Slack is not that widely used, those people who do use Slack think everybody uses slack and that's not the case. What is the case however is that most people use email. And so why you wouldn't try and make sure that you email everyone as well as putting this information in your preferred method of communication is beyond me. And then rollforward sort of a little bit past that they actually sent out a message asking what my preferred method of communication was during the event and I gave them that information and they failed to use it throughout the event. They just did the same Slack thing and this caused a lot of confusion not on my part but definitely from other people who attended the event and were not on Slack and don't have it on their phone and all these other things whereas email you know it will get through. [00:02:47][50.5]

[00:02:48] So that's one thing about communication. If you are going to introduce communication to a client or vendor make sure you explain to them what it is and why they need to use it. It is part of your onboarding process. So if you prefer to be communicated by by voice message say so. If it's a case or email then say so if it's email plus the project management tool say so and explain why give them instructions on how to use it. [00:03:18][29.7]

[00:03:19] I know I've been onboarded with various clients of mine and they use a project management software and I just got told here you go and yes partly it is on me as an adult to learn the software but at the same time as an employer or project/client it is also nice to have it onboarding even if it's just a case of here go and look at these top three links or here go and do this and try these task and do it in our sandbox. These things make a huge difference to how you feel about a the tools that you have to use and the company and same goes for you. If you have clients that you want to use your specific software on. Tell them show them take 30 minutes of your time and do a Zoom video a live thing and show them how to use it because you want them to use it so you dont...

Two different ways to get to the same place.

[00:00:14] Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today we are going to talk about trains vs. buses specifically where now we're going to talk about buses and trains in the United States. Myself and a friend were going to take the exact same trip but five days apart and I said I am coming by train, you know make sure I get picked up at the train station. They were like I don't even think about train because there going to, was to catch the bus. And so we looked at it and it works out that the bus is great. I mean getting to the bus station in New York. The road where certain buses are depending on which bus you catch because a lot of low cost buses that leave from various points around New York you get on the bus and the bus journey takes four and a half hours. And for me I have to get the train where I'm staying in New York it's a straight shot on the 2 or the D. Well on the D not so much but a straight shot on the 2 down to Penn Station and from Penn Station I just get on my little train where there is wifi and plug points and a seat. On the bus, there is also Wi-Fi and plug points so that is not a differentiating factor but for me what is a differentiating factor is the amount of space, personal space that you get. [00:01:36][82.0]

[00:01:37] So buses are great but you know when someone is sitting next to you when they are sitting next to you almost on top of you and kind of touching you and you feel weird getting food out or going to the bathroom. Do you leave your stuff do you take your stuff with you. And what do you do. So there is that out with the train. A) It is a little bit quicker. It's 30 minutes quicker to where we're going. And yes you are sitting next to someone but not quite as close. There's a lot of leg room. Doesn't matter if you're in economy or in business and you put your luggage that's possibly a good thing because on a bus it just goes underneath and you good to go. But on a train you have to bring it on with you and find a luggage rack space and and put it up on top or not if you can or not. So that's the thing. So for me as I just I don't mind sitting next to someone but it's better that they're not sitting on top of me I'd rather have the space so I paid I think it was three dollars more to take take the train instead of the bus. However buses in other countries for example let's say in Mexico the long distance bus that you take is much better than say a greyhound or mega bus in the United States it's a between like Economy Plus and business it's not quite a life flat sort of seat but it does recline a fair amount and has a foot rest for you. You have an individual TV screen and you get given a water and a sandwich and chips or whatever it is before you board. [00:03:08][91.0]

[00:03:08] So that's long distance bussing in Mexico which is great in Korea, South Korea the bus that takes you from the airport to downtown because it's quite a trip is quite luxurious and the seats are wide and my sort of business class plane wide and you get drinks and the plug points and wifi. But the quality of the interior is leather seating in and very nice where else is have I had of experiences. Zimbabwe back in the day but this is probably more like 10, 20 years ago had the Victoria Falls train. Oh that was glorious and it was a sleeper train. So you got fed and watered and then that sort of thing kind of like the Canadian Rocky Mountain train that still exist now that goes from Vancouver to Toronto. That's a great little train to be on. So I know that a lot of the time people want to do maybe the cheapest option but you should look into trains and sometimes it's just better seating or you get more space. The wifi is good and you not sort of so cramped going to the bathroom it is more of a hassle. So depending on how long the trip is will depend on...

Do you know how you use your time? I mean really know down to the amount of time you spend on Facebook to the time you spend with clients?