Digital nomads in the Canary Islands - Who? Why? Where? How?
hi there - welcome back today we're going to talk about digital nomads a hot topic at the moment in the Canary Islands . Before i start let's do a few disclaimers for the forum warriors out there. There's been a lot of negativity in the various forums and also of course positive comments about digital nomads so all i'm trying to do here is to show you a different perspective and to introduce you to some of these people personally or by video so that you can make your own mind up and maybe learn a little bit about them along the way. I found it interesting talking to these people, I hope you do too. Of course if you do please give me a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe and likewise if you don't, please feel free to switch off and always feel free to leave me a comment below. I will always respond
whether it's negative or positive. All i'm doing here is trying to share some information with you. I chose a random selection of people from the various forums on which I asked the question of who would be willing to do an interview. Before i met these people I had no idea who they were. I didn't know their ages, I didn't know what they did and I didn't know which countries they came from. There's quite a lot of misconceptions about digital nomads or remote workers things like - they're backpackers, they're just hippies with a laptop, they're party animals, cheapskates, surf bums - and that's just a few of the things that I've seen and heard recently.
So let's start by clearing up a few of these misconceptions. Maybe a good place to start is with a definition of what a digital nomad actually is - this definition is taken from wikipedia so digital nomads are not backpackers they are professional people who have either chosen to (as they are self-employed) or being allowed to (if they work for someone else) to work remotely in a different country - digital nomads have salaries or are self-employed and like everyone else pay their taxes in the relevant country - digital nomads are not kids - typically from the people that I've interviewed, they tend to be in the age group 25 to 35 - of course some are younger and some are older - and like everyone else that is allowed to arrive in the Canary Islands by the Canary Islands government, they need to take a PCR test - according to a recent article in the Italian newspaper the 'Corriera della Sera' these tech savvy newcomers are an asset to the local economy - digital nomads tend to stay for a reasonable amount of time often three months sometimes up to six months or maybe even more - some are even applying for Spanish residency to allow them to stay permanently - the same article in the 'Corriera della Sera' says that digital nomads are not party animals and I quote..... digital nomads contribute substantially to the local economy here - they pay for hotels, they rent villas, they hire cars, they eat out, & obviously they do their shopping locally, and they pay for activities - many of them are learning to surf, for example - typically they are contributing to the local economy here between 900 euros and 1700 euros a month depending on whether they're in shared accommodation or in a privately rented villa - a large part of this obviously goes straight into the local economy - in another recent article actually written by one of our nomads Lea Masseguin, massage writing for the French newspaper 'La Liberation' and again I quote the article here.... it's also worth noting that the Canary Islands government is actively encouraging digital nomads and has invested substantial amounts of money to encourage this growth - on February 22nd of this year the Canary Islands government launched an action plan aimed at attracting these remote workers to what it considers to be the 'best office in the world' - I have to agree - the objective is to attract 30 000 of these remote workers or digital nomads in the next five years by investing half a million euros - according to minister of tourism this will enrich the Canarian tourism sector and make it possible to rejuvenate the destination - I include the link to this full article and the other articles quoted in the description below the video - digital nomads are not here to party - they're here to work like everyone - they have deadlines to meet, bosses to satisfy, and an income to earn - so let's move on and meet some of these people - I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed meeting these people - this is Chloe ?can I ask you what you do here? so I work remotely for a beauty brand based in the uk normally - and I'm in marketing - ?so what made you decide to come to Fuertentura? - it was the only place that was open so actually my very first lockdown I spent in the UK, it was quite lonely, I live by myself and really really desperate to get out as soon as possible and it was starting to look like there might be a second lockdown in the UK and I was checking BBC news every single day, checking the travel corridors to see where i would be allowed to maybe go out, and at the time I was only thinking of going for a weekend or to work remotely for a week - I wasn't thinking longer term and one day - 28th of October the BBC announced that 8pm that they opened the borders of Crete and the Canary Islands and I just literally went on British Airways & momento to check flights and booked it within like 15 minutes - I arrived here three days after booking my flight - 31st of October - wow - and actually that's when they also announced the lockdown in the UK - sI i've worked remotely before, I know it's not a problem for me, but it gets really lonely if you live alone, so yeah I was just desperate to see people and just the sunshine - ?so what's the typical day like here for you what do you do? - the dream - life so we wake up we've had a few times some sunrise yoga meditation sessions we have coffee all together as housemates and then all run to bedrooms to start working do my regular day of work lunch in the sun sometimes here with my housemates - the evening what's great is that we have a lot longer days here - they can go from going running on the dunes by the sea - meeting with friends - going into restaurants - you know most (well all of us) haven't been able to go to the restaurants and out in bars or anything during lockdown, so we appreciate it so much more - and I recently started trying to learn surfing - it's honestly - i can't tell you the feeling of being in the ocean 30 minutes after you had your last conference call- in front of the most beautiful sunset with other surfers - it's just yeah so lucky to be here - ?would you say there was a disadvantage to working remotely out here? - that is a very good question - i can't think of anything right now no - ?what would you say to someone who was stuck at home like you, who was thinking about maybe setting up their own business or seeing if they could work remotely what would your advice be? - absolutely do it, stop thinking about it, get on the plane - but i mean the work-life balance here is so different and it's incredible ?do you think you're going to find it hard when you go back to the uk and you have to work in an office?um i originally came here for one week thinking more than five months ago now - i love that and obviously being here you rethinking the way you work the way you live your work-life balance you're thinking why have i been working from an office all these years um and actually because everybody is having the same discussion it's honestly the number one topic at the dinner table every single evening - they're not going back - how can we make this work long term? we all i think - we all like our jobs we don't want to change career or anything like that - but how can we compromise and be able to do this at least part time ?and do you think you've found a solution? and so that's what pushed me to uh ask my boss if i could relocate to Spain and i'm very lucky they said yes - oh my gosh - so i'll be moving to Spain without even going back to the uk, because i'm getting all my stuff shipped here ?i wanted to know was there anyone that has been talking about another country that might be a suitable place instead of just Fuerteventura? it just happened because it was the only place that was open to be perfectly honest - the image i had of the Canary Islands was all-inclusive resorts - i'm living a totally different experience right now - yeah um so it wasn't that it was never really on my list -we've built such an incredible super tight community here that actually i don't want to leave - i get actually really emotional talking about it because it's i think it's such a beautiful tight group of friends, ?such a nice happy stance isn't it as a result of out of bad all this good is happening? absolutely and 100% the result of the pandemic actually because we would have never ended up in this situation that's completely extraordinary and there was even i think a sort of natural pre-selection which meant that we were bound to get along because everybody who came here was (you have to be active to come to this island because everyone i mean you do you surf you hike you cycle it's a sporty island) um so for sure you get along, you have to like traveling you have to have this get up and go attitude and not being scared of jumping on the flight because that's what every single person who came here just before lockdown did, because you had a window of three days to get your flights - well at least the people that i meet everybody is single because to be able to again jump on the flight like this and escape you wouldn't do that with a family or you know it's more difficult with partners so naturally you end up with this tight group of people who all share the same common denominators - yeah exactly um and we all arrived at the same time so it's like a big Erasmus 2.0 - uh and it's amazing ?do you find any
disadvantage with living with a lot of housemates? i can't imagine going back to living by myself now it's amazing i mean you have breakfast lunch and dinner with friends - that sounds like a fantastic life - i get really excited talking about it Let's meet two more nomads - Gianmario an Italian living in London and Eduardo a South American living in Italy ?so you're an Italian living in England & you're a South American living in Italy? yeah that's right ?and you both ended up in Fuerteventura? yes yeah - i was wanting to go somewhere because in Italy it was getting really tough living because it was like waking up at eight, working till six, and then everything was like closed - i couldn't go workout because all the bars closed everything closed at six yeah so that's why i wanted to go somewhere else where i can have like my freedom and to have just normal life - i read his post (Gianmario's) on Facebook about traveling yeah and do like smart working somewhere else - so you didn't know each other yeah so i was quite frustrated of lockdown in UK i stayed the first wave in London so probably the first wave arrived around early March and then since day one of lockdown i stayed in the house okay so then the the first wave and then the summer in Italy and then again locked down in London and i was like oh gosh i'm not gonna stay here for another another wave because i knew how tough it was based on the first experience - yeah and then i stayed in Italy and 2020 finished and then the start of 2021 i said i'm gonna put down a list of three bullet points and the first one was to work remotely from a hot place where Covid restrictions were quite lighter so then i put this post on Facebook and i put the person the viaggidiscovery (Viaggiventurenelmondo.it) is one of the most famous uh travellers blog in Italy on Facebook yeah a lot of travellers and they're organising trips right - yeah like i want to go here - who want to come with me - and i put this post and i actually selected three destinations - so the first one was Canary Islands in general and then second one Portugal and then the third one Dubai - the decision was quite easy because Portugal went straight away in January went straight away locked down again - so closed - Dubai different time zone compared to UK - Ed and i met two days before departing - we organised everything on zoom yeah so we check like the itinerary the calls everything yes we did um very nice excel spreadsheet with all these expenses that we were going through - we obviously wanted to travel with the budget - it's not like you know a trip that you go for a week or two weeks and then this amazing like ?can i ask you what your budget was? yes of course, it was like around 1500 (per person - yeah) and obviously we were budgeting for food, accommodation, entertainment like entertainment ,excursions, also the ca r we could consider fuel & PCR also was in our budget - PCR of course Covid PCR ?and how how have you managed with your budget? is it on on target? yeah it was so targeted - so good yeah - we track - well spotted everything 100 percent ?can you have a good life within that budget? absolutely yes yeah actually funny enough we arrived here for two weeks - like our objective was to stay in Canary Islands two weeks - one way flight so without return - and then the third day we were already discussing okay let's stay more ?when did you arrive? 23rd of January we started from gran canaria actually oh you did it yeah so we arrived to Gran Canaria and we stayed there for almost one month, one month and a half around yeah and then we decided to come here to Fuerte ?why did you decide to come here? to change yeah ?and how does it compare? it's like more relaxing less people yeah i'd say i think landscape is much different - probably is more wild here and yes and then this is important for I think in Corralejo especially the ratio of digital nomads compared to the population is much higher than Las Palmas which is the main city of Gran Canaria ?so have you met lots of other digital nomads while you've been here? not many not much ?but do you go out to lot or? during working days not much - talking a little bit about Fuerteventura we actually you know we started Ed and I travelling and then we met other guys in Las Palmas, digital nomads, so we rented this villa - we are six of us, we are all digital nomads and we are probably from five different countries - French, Sweden, Italy, UK and Ecuador yeah yeah we all do different jobs which is quite interesting ?can i ask how it works, living with other people - do you have like a cleaning rota or a cooking rota? you don't have really like a routine for example it's like somebody has an idea like let's cook and have dinner together so we go to the shopping market and we buy the food and we prepare something - i'd say technology really supports us - so as you can imagine if we have dinner together we want to split the the costs and we use a really nice app - there's an app that you put the expenses that you do in the day and the app just calculates, calculates all the balances ?what are your jobs by the way? i'm a business consultant - it's a project about like Smart Roads - it's it's a pilot - so i am a Civil Structural Engineer and i work for an Australian company that is as a satellite office in London - my current project is at the moment - i'm working on HS2 it's the fastest train line in Europe that connects London to Birmingham i'm working also on development that is funded by Cambridge University and is for senior living so it's for senior people ?people like us? ?and how does that work, working remotely? it's great - the first thing that we ask is for internet speed - every every time that we move around - how is internet connection? - even more like having a pool or bedrooms or kitchen first question yeah internet connection - in Las Palmas i found better connection than what i have in London ?how did you find the villa? Air BnB - yes 4 bed villa and we we share a couple of rooms per week and we do rotation - the pricing we're talking about 15 from 15 to 20 euros a night - and we look where we are right - it's really incredible yeah - ?and you've got the beach just down? there yeah yeah exactly so ?and you can walk into Corralejo from here? yeh you can ? can i ask about the HS2 just because it's so interesting and so current - when Covid is over, do they expect you to be back in an office? that's really interesting that, i think that's where we should direct our conversation - what's happening right now is that the business making money as long as there is workload we can handle it - so the technology is supporting us and we are productive - so now the discussion is the business towards the employees - are you happy to work abroad, remotely? - not essentially abroad because there are obviously families and stuff and so on and the and the easy answer is yes we want to be flexible but what about the double taxation? what about legal requirements? yes another important one - social, team building - i am not getting to meet my colleagues, so that perspective, like the social perspective is is very hot topic - we are trying to organise online socials but it's not the same - you can have a beer pint or two but it's not like a pub ?what about the taxation side of it? i just spoke yesterday with HMRC yeah and from the UK perspective is not an issue the issue comes when Spain finds out that you've been here for time - more than six months and they ask you well, you stayed a little quite a lot you - starting to pay taxes ?do you think there's a disadvantage to being a digital nomad other than the social aspect that you talked about from work?.......(long pause) mmmm I don;t see any.. that's a good answer okay ..so the answer of a 25 years old guy it's no, i don't see any disadvantages ?and can i ask how old you are? i'm 31 ?what do you see in terms of the age group of the typical digital nomads that you've met here? yeah so the the typical age probably is 25 to 35. ?what's the most, the major nationality - is there one that stands out? French i think ........also Italian yeah ? have you got an idea of where you might go next? Morocco - for
the next step we are living here until the 27th of April, the next step - we start from Africa and then we realise Africa, the south um east side of Africa so Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda - we are open to the world ?can i ask you about Covid and how you feel - do you feel safe here? yeah you feel safe yeah - i see like people - like there's people here is really taking care, like wearing masks, washing their hands every time, so yeah - obviously i still wear my mask and everything, but here i feel safe - because my mental health was quite affected - i was almost on the limit to be depressed when i was back home and like the fact that i was working every day and then everything was closed afterwards - my daily routine it was horrible and the only way to solve this this issue was to speak loud to my company and they supported me so we've been talking to these two guys for quite a while now we've just met some more have their housemates who all live together in this amazing villa ?would you like to introduce yourselves? and tell us what you do yeah i'm Lea, I'm from france from paris and i am a journalist ?did you arrive here at the same time as these guys? yeah same time, at the end of January in Gran Canaria and then i left and now i'm here since two weeks ?and do you like it? yeah i like it - very nice, different from Gran Canaria, but it's nice yeah ?and i believe you're from Sweden is that right? yes ?and do you find there's any disadvantages with being a digital nomad? not at all - I don't - i'm a freelancer like ?so you literally can live and work everywhere? exactly ?as long as you've got wi-fi and send you articles in? yeah yeah - here there are like numbers of villas - i think probably eighty percent of those they're are all digital nomads - ?yeah because there's something worth pointing out - if you guys weren't here, these villas would be empty? - exactly big villas would be empty ?yeah i mean your contribution to the economy is probably quite substantial because there's a hell of a lot of you now? .. and now let's meet Simonetta a lawyer and linguist from Palermo in Italy - and this is her lovely apartment right by the beach here - we are at the beautiful Bristol Beach area - this is Simonetta another digital nomad and she lives here - which is pretty amazing ?so Simonetta tell me what brought you here? if i had to say the first thing that brought me here it's surfing ?all right you're a surfer? i started surfing this summer and then i kept surfing during the lockdown in Sicily and then a friend of mine told me that he was coming here and he's also digital nomad, so i said okay why not - i mean, so i packed my stuff and i booked a flight and i just went here - ?and when did you come? i arrived on the 6th of February ?and you're staying until? just until - who knows - not too many plans - just a one-way ticket and i'm we probably stay until june maybe and maybe spend some time in other islands - i haven't decided yet - i'm originally a lawyer but i set up a legal translation firm seven years ago with a good friend of mine, a colleague - so we basically do legal translations in any language there, and we have people working with us - we set up a network of lawyer/linguists everywhere in the world ?so you can do that anywhere wherever you are? anywhere - all our linguists they live everywhere some of them are in Canada some in Mexico some Europe some in Indonesia - everywhere ?so can i ask what a typical day would be like for you - a working day? well working day okay - a working day would be like waking up be around 8 , 8 30 and then i get breakfast to start the day and then meeting online my project monitors just to organise the day - and then you know just coordinating the whole stuff -talking to clients, sending some emails, revising some documents - and then i usually have a break, quite a long break, and so i stop between 12 30 until three 3 or 3 30 it's quite long so normally i try to do surfing or you know go for a walk or running or meeting friends - enjoying the amazing place where i'm staying - and then i come back at 3 or 3 30 home or sometimes i work in some bars or some places where ?so like co-working? because well also like in some you know little bars that you have on the beach - it really depends if i really need to concentrate, i really need to you know maybe edit a document, i need to be home just to be, you know more focused - while if i just need to coordinate and send emails and easier stuff and a beach bar ?any beach bar as long as it's got internet ?so what would you say was the disadvantage of being a digital nomad? there are not so many but i think the the the main disadvantage is just that you move so fast or you move to so many places that in the end it if you really want to set up a community of people or friends, it's kind of difficult - so i have friends and people everywhere in the world ?and what would make you move from here to somewhere else? first time i did it one of the first places was Argentina and i was really passionate about tango so that's why i went there - wow - so it all comes to hobbies, passion or you know just friends being somewhere, so in nice weather as well - i would love to go back to Central America, right now it's it's not possible because of Covid or Portugal as well - good weather, beach, surfing, nice people, nice food ?what about the cost of living - is there one place that you found that's much cheaper than anywhere else? well Argentina was okay, i mean it was not as expensive as Milan or London or other cities in Europe - i would say here it's quite it's quite cheap - but in general i would say that Spain is quite cheap - ? could I ask you what your rough monthly outgoings would be here in Fuerteventura? uh it's about, i would say €1500 - like cost like between housing, car renting, you know, renting a board if you wanna go surfing ?you're renting a very nice place? of course ?by the beach with 2 bedrooms? of course - you could always do it with less yeah there are a lot of surfing houses, but i i wanted to stay by myself yeah yeah space ?people have different ideas - we've met some other known nomads that live in these huge houses by the beach with five bedrooms and they all just live together, cook together, eat together and obviously their outgoings are much less? i could consider that but first of all i need to find and meet people that i you know feel comfortable ?I can introduce you to some? ?what would be your top tip for a digital nomad thinking of coming to Fuerteventura or anywhere really? yeah anywhere i would say that being a digital nomad you have to be very very uh strict with yourself yeah absolutely yeah ?you can look at the blue sky, the blue sea - hard to sit at your desk? yeah i can is that i would say that this time i would have never expected to reach this kind of you know way of living so i'm very very happy and i feel very lucky to be able to do it - it was not just you know being lucky i worked a lot - if i have to go back and see and look at my life when i was working in Milan - just no comparison at all - i would never go back never - sorry if they're one of my you know about ex bosses looking at this video - i loved you, i loved working with you, but i just prefer this ?so can you ask - how does the safety element of being here in the midst of a pandemic - how do you feel about that here? of course i'm wearing the masks when i'm going out but then the fact that all people come here take a test just before coming - there's a lot reduced risk - so my fears are well you know just slowly reducing, reducing, reducing - and then now of course, i try to pay attention, but i feel much more relaxed - when people call me from Italy, my family, my friends - i say of course that i'm sure that there will be someone like with the virus - i don't feel the same risk as back in Europe .... and now let's meet Giacomo the housemate of Chloe who we met at the beginning of this video we're here with Giacomo in his beautiful villa just by the beach in Corralejo and we're going to have a little guided tour to make jealous - show you what it's all about being a digital nomad - so we are four or five digital nomads at the moment and i was here last year i was locked down here for five months here with my startup team and so then in December you know in January i said why should i stay in Italy at the moment - let's fly back - that's what i've done - i'm going to stay for a few months ?are you sharing it with people that you didn't know before? uh no exactly we didn't know these people - they were - i came through through networking apps, i got connected to people, i started living in another place with two and then we got this place and then we moved here and then we find other people and three by five up & down all connected to the same fibre & so its superfast - we can take calls & all do video calls at the same and this is this is a trend in the area - house owners understood that now it's not tourists anymore - it's digital remote workers - so now they need to adapt ?i saw you studied at stanford? i did some years yeah i did business training at stanford - and now it's super exciting because we're launching my new networking platform, meaning that we connect you to people that you should meet and we tell you why, from a professional point of view - we do it within communities and communities are alumni networks our researchers any anything, any network any linkedin group - it's basically is going to use our platform it's a new linkedin that's what we're talking about ?what's the app called - 'lounjee' lounjee, and we created a community, a group, where we can create any unlimited type of groups it's like you know, like a slack type of thing - so it's for a group, but really focus on matching people, using geolocation, their professional goals and suggesting people - and we just launched it five days ago - it's growing and it's very good engagement - so we're actually gonna hire a person full time to actually develop that because potentially it's massive - because there is a need to connect when you're a nomad, to other people locally ?so how long have you been a nomad? uh not much i would say a year - ?so since the pandemic? ?so it was because of the pandemic? it was already in my plan to be to be spending the winter here - i know Fuerteventura since 2014, for surfing, and i said in the future as soon as my biotech company doesn't need me anymore, my presence, i would just move here for the winter - and it happened actually last year, without without me pushing - i was here and i found myself locked ?so what do you find the best thing about being here ? i would say the fact that i can do something that i like which is surfing, the weather, and i have to say that all the people that that i met and we keep meeting are super interesting communities of digital nomads - we have a photographer the house, different backgrounds, people from consulting companies, successful entrepreneurs and there is such a big melting pot - i call it kind of the Erasmus 2.0 you know the Erasmus program right? but this is more when you work, it's the same feeling - you are moving to a new place that you don't know people - it's like Erasmus - there is this dimension of you know, being part of a community, which is the Erasmus - in this case it's the digital nomads which is business - and then you help each other - you're going through the same problems - they've had the same challenges - opening a bank account, or getting the phone, or getting the fibre ready, you know - so it's a kind of uh the same feeling but 20 years later ?yeah it's amazing - and what is the mixed of nationalities - what's the majority of people ? in our group we have quite a bit of Italian, yeah but then we have Dutch, Germans, French, Belgium - age group i would say between 25 to 45. ?how did you come across the idea? it just randomly happened like a few days, a couple weeks ago, because we have this platform for communities and we say you know what let's try to for the digital numbers community - many people posting on whatsapp or on slack saying 'hey i'm a graphic designer' this is what they need - they just need lounjee - and so we said you know what - let's start, let's do it - we started and the feedback is very good and it's the highest engaged group ever that we have ever had - in five days like people chatting connecting, people met, new people met ?people from here? people from here start using the platform to actually connect - now there is something that actually fits - fits the needs ?and where are people being digital nomads on the island is it mainly in Corralejo? i think also, i've seen also people in the south, yeah but it's mostly i would say mostly here - here is more the sport - the surfing is mostly the top - the north shore uh and then and i guess also because of this younger population in here, and so digital nomads naturally are around this part of the island - but there are other people who are down south or in the middle of nowhere living in fincas - i know some fincas or people like artists or even entrepreneurs like completely isolated from the world, and they're living in their own finca in the middle of the island ?do you feel safe in terms of Covid here? oh yeah yeah yeah - i mean we we are careful , yeah safer than anywhere else i would say ?so what would a typical day be? you might go to surf early and then you come back, you start working - that's my co-working space, then you know just a breakfast, you chat with your flatmates, and then we start working - sometimes we work, we move maybe to a bar to work a bit and just to change the environment, or we stay outside at the pool - yeah until 5 or 6 and then after that, either we go surfing or we go playing beach volley at the Riu hotel and then we do activities like together - so that's why it's like, it feels like Erasmus - really it's very social, because we are like isolated yeah and we get together and so we organised hiking - we went for to the canyon down in the south we went to Sotavento - it's a very social - within the Covid restriction ?do you find that you are more productive working this way, than being in your office in Paris for example? oh 100% - it's because in this environment you feel more comfortable, you're actually more productive, uh you may be working a bit less, but more intense, and everyone's super concentrated - so we just work - if we have calls to take, we move - so it's very productive, but then at the same time at 5 o'clock at 6 o'clock we say yeah okay let's go and play beach volley ?so your working environment is very much here - you're not using co-working spaces - because there's lots of those being advertised all over the place i guess for for those people who are living in a small apartment yeah they might go to the co-working - ?maybe with not so good wi-fi? - yes correct - here we have good wi-fi - you have seen the house - i mean there are other people who are coming here to co-work with us ?so you are charging them rent? ?so what would your top tip be for a digital nomad who was thinking of changing their life and coming to Fuerteventura what would your tip be? uh take a one fly ticket ?just do it? a one way ticket - life is super super easy and whenever - we we just talked even yesterday - about the fact that everyone is super happy, everyone is super happy ?you look really happy? yeh, the dimension - we have the good people around - smart, interesting - we do activities - we can whenever we want - we could go back - it's not that we're locked here - ?and you will go back at some stage? yeah yeah, but the idea would be to start thinking about 'oh let's get this house' for example rent it lock it for six months for the winter yeah and we come back all of us we might see each other again yeah - in the same place and maybe we just travel - so we're planning to go to Sardinia this summer and to maybe do some co-working there and get a house - the same people - there's this global dimension of connecting people that are super interesting - so tips wise i think life is is easy yeah - it's much easier ? nd would you say it was more economical? oh than Paris - 100% yeah - it's you divide it by three the cost of living ?so what would you say your monthly living expenses were for example? let's say you know between the apartment and basic food, i would say you are around €700 - €800 - cost of food is quite cheap ?do you go out quite a lot? um maybe once a week we go for dinner with a few people - ?whatever you are allowed at the time - this week it's four - last week it was six? or even doing some movie nights here or dinner here ?do you think all the nomads are working in some way or another with each other? the majority are working for a company, so that means that you know they're working alone, however okay however what's happening is that you start collaboration - and now i might maybe have some investors coming from the digital nomads community - so it's like when you connect people yeah things happen yeah - and and it's so exciting to see also collaborations sparking professionally between the people - not just hey let's go surfing together - oh let's uh let's launch this little project together ?is there anything negative that you would say about your new lifestyle? um well yes maybe is the the fact that i miss my my friends in Paris - so the only thing missing for me is more the cultural part but then you're like you you have a trade-off ?and you have that in Paris? and you have that in Paris - so the a lot of people now are thinking about this idea of spending the winter here and the rest the spring - and the summer you spend in the city - ?yeah basically what we do? your your enthusiasm is very infectious - yeah i think anyone hearing it people will probably decide to put their pens down and fly away - straight away actually....
here we are interviewing Silvia another digital nomad living overlooking the beautiful bay of Corralejo which i think you can see even though it's slightly dark and now let's meet Silvia Imperadore a former corporate lawyer and founder of The Coaching Island, a well-being and transition coach so here we are interviewing Silvia another digital nomad living overlooking the beautiful bay of Corralejo which i think you can see even though it's slightly dark and we're going to ask Silvia a little bit about her experiences and why she became a digital nomad so maybe we should start with that question ..?why did you become a digital nomad Silvia? i've always been a digital nomad even when i was in corporate when i was in charity and i was an employee because that is my nature this is my spirit - a few years ago i decided to become an entrepreneur and i set up my coaching practice and very soon i realised that for me freedom and flexibility were super important, and i wanted to spend time also traveling - so then i created this online coaching practice that allows me to be anywhere in the world - so as long as i have my laptop with me and a good wi-fi connection - i chose Corralejo because i really wanted to to be by the sea - and in London i was missing that like sense of being close to like water ?well you couldn't get much nearer to it here - it's outside your window? and now I have found like the perfect place for me - it's a village but is like a proper town with shops and and bars and restaurants and also the beautiful beach - i have my own space here - it's quiet and it's peaceful and this is what i need for my - yeah ?for your work? - so i'm a well-being coach - i support managers and leaders around stress management, resilience, work-life balance, and self-care - they believe that it's possible, they start to see that everything is possible, that you should really follow your dreams ?what about a social life - have you found many friends? through the Facebook groups and other digital nomads and the slack group ?what kind of age groups have you found that the typical digital nomads are? uh probably around 30-35 - there are people that are much younger and much much younger - very clever and smart people - i think my age is kind of not um very common ?so you're a little bit older? i'm older uh but i it's funny because i started to be a digital nomad in the beginning of my career ?and what advice would you give to somebody who was sort of looking for a change of career or looking to do something different and was thinking about becoming a digital nomad? i would say to be clear on on what is really non-negotiable for them, because sometimes people, you know they dream about being you know, being on the beach, on kind of a holiday life - but that is not what the digital nomad does - because actually as i told you - you also have to be very focused - otherwise it's very easy to kind of like get distracted - ?self-discipline has been something that i think everyone that we've talked to has said is an important element and of course good wi-fi? my first question is always 'how is the wi-fi - is it strong wi-fi - do you have fibre optics?' because especially with video calls you have to have it strong - ?yeah i think because there's no tourists here at the moment - i think digital nomads are the only people who are paying the rents - so i think people are looking at putting in fibre optics or the best internet solution they can? ?do you think you need to speak the language of the place that you go or do you just pick it up as you go along ? i don't think, so i don't, i think uh you know especially like if you speak english it helps ?and do you plan for the future - do you decide i'm going to do this for so many months - that i'm going to go there or do you just see what happens? and for the moment to be honest - i live for the moment - i practice mindfulness and i also teach my clients to do that - i kind of go with the flow, so for example i've been here since February the 6th and i've just extended my my staying until probably May ?do you feel safe in terms of Covid here? yes i do, i do - i don't go out like partying or like in the night or i don't go to bars at night - i hang out with people, maybe like-minded people - i can maybe go for dinner or like a chat and do maybe some activities outdoor - go hiking - there's plenty of space, plenty of places ?you can eat outside, you can drink outside, you don't need to go inside? exactly, exactly - this is what i like - we we kind of respect you know the the rules - so because of course also here there are rules to respect and exactly ?and they change all the time? they change everything so you have to kind of keep track yeah keep track and and and be kind of conscious yeah ?so um do you find it a reasonably cheap place to live here in terms of you know outgoings? i've noticed that for example um renting a car is okay, eating out because going out and having fish and like a fish dinner was um convenient, uh but but it's um it's it's it's not bad at all - like i think in general Spain and and here, for what i know, because i it's for me it's like a new experience, but i think it's it's good also in terms of renting - it's good place to to be ?okay so i've heard all these words bandied around by the people i've been talking to - so co-working, digital nomad, smart working - what do they all mean? yeah i think there are so many expressions and terms now - and for example i've noticed in my country, they call it smart working - and when you say that in the UK they don't really understand - they talk about remote working - a digital nomad is someone that works like in different countries and with a good wi-fi and online mainly - so it is remote from the office and because the office is you, yeah is your - you're carrying your computer and this is the office - like as long as you have like also a place to put your computer, a table, at the bar or in your flat - it's working not in the office - digital because of course it works online, using technology and nomad because it's not in the same place all the time ?do you find that a lot of people here just work out of the bars like below you there's the Uga-Uga bar, which calls itself a co-working space? well from what i've seen i've seen is like people sometimes they they want to have a balance so maybe they they do some hours at home, and then they maybe in the afternoon they come here - like it's kind of maybe also having like a bit more people maybe yeah more sociable and also for a change - because maybe they share apartment with others or maybe they feel lonely - ?bar owners in general are quite flexible about that - they don't mind somebody going there with a laptop and just ordering a coffee? yeah now i've noticed that there are also some um new working spaces there are brand new places - they are now becoming like a proper hubs for for that - so they offer all the facilities - they offer like a space, they have strong wi-fi - ?you could rent a cheap apartment share it with a load of people and then go out and work?... ?thank you very much that's been very informative i've very much enjoyed meeting you? - and me too ?thank you very much Silvia? ...... so thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe - see you again soon so if any of you nomads out there have got any tips and tricks about being a nomad please put them in the comments below.
2021-04-09 05:33
