84) How to Become a Digital Nomad in 2025

It's 2025 and I thought that what better opportunity than to actually dive in on what I truly believe is the best way to become a digital nomad. So that way this time by summer 2025 you are traveling the world to that tropical dream destination or you’re just able to quit the job your hate and start your life with the ultimate freedom of having a digital nomad business. 

Today, I want to share with you the fastest, easiest, and most effective way for anyone to become a digital nomad. Believe it or not, this episode is for you even if you don't have an audience, niche skill set, or even good at marketing. What I’m NOT going to share today is how to create a drop shipping business or a quick online scam to make $10k a month. I want to share with you what I share with my clients of the Digital Nomad Life Academy:  the real sustainable way to become a digital nomad even by next summer. 

Transcript

Christa: [00:00:00] Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life podcast. I'm your host Christa, also known as @christabellatravels on Instagram and I always say my handle at the beginning of every episode because I really want to encourage you to actually ask questions about your personal journey in becoming a digital nomad.

It helps inspire podcast episodes. It helps make me a better coach and it just honestly helps me help more people. I made this podcast over the past several years. I've been working on my digital nomad coaching business, helping hundreds of people become digital nomads because I'm so passionate about helping people live this freedom focused dream lifestyle.

And it really is a dream lifestyle to be a digital nomad. And I know everybody's dreams are different, but the thing is being a digital nomad really It doesn't mean that you're necessarily living out of a suitcase. It means that you have the ability to live however you [00:01:00] want, because you're not tethered to a specific desk or office.

You actually are able to make your money, your income, your livelihood from anywhere. And that really sets you free in a way that no other possible scenario ever could. Now, it's January 2025, and I thought that what better opportunity than to actually just give a full summary on what I truly believe is the best way to become a digital nomad at this time.

Now, maybe I will change my philosophy in a few years once AI really takes off and things change, but for now, the way that things are, what I'm about to share with you is the Truly, genuinely, the fastest and easiest, most effective and sustainable way for anyone to become a digital nomad, even if they don't have an audience, even if they don't necessarily have a robust skill set yet.

But if you do have an audience and if you do have a [00:02:00] skill set, then literally there is no excuse. You could actually be becoming a digital nomad literally within a matter of just a few months If you follow the guidance that I will share today. And I know that this is possible within a few months because I've seen it.

If you don't know me or you know, you're new to this podcast, I'll just briefly introduce myself. But yeah, my name is Krista. As I said, Krista Bella travels as my Instagram. I really recommend that you go check it out because you'll see that what I'm about to say is really true. I actually have been a digital nomad.

Since 2013, that's when I booked my first ever one way plane ticket to Thailand. And I've been living abroad ever since I've traveled to almost 70 countries at this point. And I've been working remotely the entire time. I've actually only ever had one month of my life. Since I started working basically when I was like 20 years old, since I was 20 years old, I've only ever had one month [00:03:00] where I didn't work and it was because I quit my job.

I went on a trip to India and then I went back and I got a remote job and I've been working ever since. So I've managed to To make a really great income. Actually, what my income is now is a multiple six figures with the possibility of me scaling it to seven figures this year. So I'm making amazing money.

I've got my retirement sorted. I've got my insurance sorted. I live my dream reality. Like I'm currently recording this episode in my bedroom in Bali, Indonesia. I live on a gorgeous tropical Island in a beautiful home. I have a dog. I have a routine and I have so much fun. So much life experience behind me, even though I'm in my thirties, I actually never thought that I would be able to travel this much until I was retired.

Like that's genuinely what I believed. So if you are new to the term digital nomad, you might be a little bit skeptical. Like you might think, Oh yeah, like these people that are doing it, they probably have some kind of trust fund, [00:04:00] or they probably have had some kind of amazing. experience that I don't have, or maybe they have some kind of special degree that I don't have.

I'm telling you, none of that is true. Like I started my digital nomad journey with literally 3, 000 to my name

and I was an entry level worker. Like, yeah, I had had a job for a couple of years. I did work in corporate in New York city for two years or three years, but I got super burnt out and um, yeah, I just really did not have much confidence in my skill set at all at that time. So if I can do it, if I can come as far as I have, then I know that Whoever you are, you can actually just follow my guidance and do it way faster than I did because I didn't have anybody teaching me this stuff when I got started.

I had to figure it out all by myself. And if I can do it with such little money and resources and confidence, then I know that you can too. And I'm so excited to share with you the content of this [00:05:00] episode, because this is the advice. Like this is genuinely what you need to know if you want to change your life this year.

And I just want to actually take a moment and honor you for even having the desire in the first place to change your life. Already the fact that you're listening to this episode tells me that you are an incredibly brave person who probably thinks outside of the box and probably finds yourself to be a bit of like a black sheep personality or with everybody else that's around you.

I mean, you might be in the 1 percent of people who like, you know, everybody around you is an entrepreneur or you've met lots of other full time travelers or whatever. Like if that's you, cool, amazing. I'm sure you and I would be besties if we actually met. But um, if you don't have that kind of community around you, if everybody around you is doing the whole like.

The matrix kind of thing, right? Where they go to school and then they get a job, even though they don't really [00:06:00] like it. They just say, Oh, well, everybody has a job they don't like. And then they get married in their twenties and then they have a baby by the time they're 30 and then they buy a house and then they work for 40 years.

And then when they are 65, they retire and that's when they travel the world. If those are the people that you are surrounding yourself with or that you just naturally are around, then again, the fact that you're listening to this podcast says to me that you are a little bit different than the other people around you.

And that's, So, okay. It's more than okay. It's amazing. And I'm really glad that you found me. So let me just cut to the chase and get into the content of this episode because I'm here to help you. I want you to change your life and I want you to be around people that make you feel like your authenticity, your unique way of thinking is celebrated.

That it's not weird, but it's a gift. And I want you to see that your gifts. will contribute to the world in the most effective way possible when you are able to [00:07:00] set yourself free with your location and your career, which is what we're talking about here. It's all about career. This is about money. This is about business.

This is about the actual practical stuff that you need to do if you want to live a life of ultimate freedom. So I know that this podcast is called the digital nomad life podcast and Yeah, the whole thing is about being a digital nomad, which I think when most people think about being a digital nomad, they think, Oh yeah, you have to be traveling full time in order to quote count as a digital nomad.

But that's so not true. Okay. So I just want to actually like clear that up before we get into anything. Being a digital nomad just means that you can travel. Okay. It doesn't mean that you have to, it doesn't mean that you can't have a home base. It doesn't mean that you can't have a community, a gym, a dog, a family, whatever.

Like. You can have all of those things. The thing that makes you a digital nomad is that your income is not tethered to an office or any [00:08:00] kind of physical location.

 So, now that we're on the same page about the fact that being a digital nomad actually has nothing to do with how far you travel, where you travel, how long you travel, what capacity you travel, it actually doesn't really have much to do with traveling. What it actually has to do with is money, and whether you're able to make it from anywhere or not.

So if we know that the one factor that determines if you are a digital nomad or not is your location independent income, now we've got to talk about money. Now we've got to talk about how to make money, how to make money from literally anywhere. Now, Something that I think is really important for you to understand is that there are truly infinite ways to make money online.

But the thing is, the world and our society has not quite caught up to this fact yet. If you are not around other digital entrepreneurs, You probably have a pretty limited perspective on what [00:09:00] is actually possible for you to make money online. You might think that you are limited to the really common things that people tend to talk about on the internet.

And these common things, like the way that I think most people, if you asked just an average person on the street, Hey, what are the best ways to make money online? They might say one of the following.

Affiliate marketing is a really big one. E commerce, like selling products online.

Blogging is something that used to work really well.

Content creation, a lot of people who make money online are content creators.

Or people might say something like dropshipping.

Or online course creation. I guarantee you that if you have indicated to the internet that you are interested in making money online, you know, the algorithms are always listening. Our devices are always listening, and probably you've been given some kind of advertisement. You've probably seen some kind of content telling you that all of [00:10:00] these ways are the best ways to make money online.

Maybe you've even seen that there's this very alluring thing out there called passive income.

At least something that I've noticed in my many years of being a digital nomad coach is that some people who are just misinformed

or not fully aware of the remote work landscape come to me and they say, Hey Krista, can you teach me how to make passive income? Now my response to that

is I will only help you make passive income if I can see that you already have.

A thriving digital business where you are getting clients and you understand marketing. Because if you don't already understand business, if you don't already understand marketing, passive income is a very advanced way of making money online. And it's just really setting yourself up for failure try to attempt a passive income stream right away.

Now look, if you've been freelancing for a [00:11:00] while, If you have your own kind of business already, if you have some kind of agency,

then I would say, sure, I do think that there are some passive income options for you out there, and we can totally talk about it in my DMs. Honestly, feel free to slide in and let's brainstorm.

But if you are someone who has never had your own business before,

and especially if you're someone who doesn't have an online audience, you're someone who doesn't have a good grasp on marketing yet,

then whether you have lots of professional experience or no experience, either way, here is my recommendation for you on how you can make money online in the shortest period of time possible with the least resistance.

So what is that method? What I recommend that people do if they are wanting to become a digital nomad in 2025 and they don't have their own business yet, I recommend that they create their own small service provider business. Now I will [00:12:00] define that for you, don't worry, and then I will share with you how you can actually go about doing that.

So what a small service provider business is, is it's a business that offers some kind of skill, expertise, or a service in exchange for payment.

A small service provider business typically only needs one or two people in order for it to run and make good money.

And there are so many different kinds of small service provider businesses out there. It's really all revolving around, again, a service or a skill. Now, if you don't think that you have any skills, don't worry, I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But let's say that one of your skills is

using a specific kind of software. Well, if you're really good at one kind of software, and that software, by the way, it doesn't have to be something really complicated. That software could, for example, be Canva.

It could be an email management system.

It could be a specific AI tool.

So if you're really skilled in one software, there [00:13:00] are probably people that are out there that want to learn how to use that software better, or they already know how to use that software, but they want someone else to take the things that they are dealing with off their plate. In the Canva example, let's say that you are actually a Canva whiz.

Canva is like a photo and picture editing app, basically.

And let's say that ever since you were a little kid, you've been playing around with Canva and you're really good at it. Now, there are people like me, for example, who I have a lot of design things that I need to have created in my business. I make presentations, I make Instagram posts, I make podcast thumbnails, I make all kinds of things that require graphic images that could be created on Canva.

And even though I know how to use Canva, My time might be better used in other places in my business. And therefore, if I have a whole bunch of tasks that require Canva, [00:14:00] I might hire a person that's very skilled in Canva. And do you need a college degree? Do you need to have lots of professional experience on Canva in order for me to hire you?

No, as long as I can see that you have the skill set that's needed in order to complete the tasks that I have for you, I'm willing to pay you for that. And you would be shocked, you would be surprised at how many businesses hire service providers in order to complete tasks within their business. Even if that task is something that the business owner could clearly do for themselves, they just either don't want to or they don't have the time to.

Now there are so many other services that you can offer that have nothing to do with software.

Let's say that you're a really great writer. Or maybe you're super, super organized with your calendar.

Let's say that you're really creative and you love following trends on TikTok and Instagram [00:15:00] Reels.

Maybe you're really good with budgeting.

Maybe you have multiple languages that you speak. Maybe you're super into fitness and you know how to help people grow a juicy peach. All of these things are skills and services that you can offer to people that are probably willing to pay for them. Because even though maybe not every single person that you ever come across wants to hire you to help them grow their booty, you have access to the entire internet.

That is billions and billions of people that you have access to. And all you need is just a small percentage of them to be willing to pay you for your specific skill set. I like to call this concept Internet Abundance, and I guess technically it could be applied to other type of business models that I did mention earlier today.

Let's talk about e commerce, for example, and why I still think that a small service provider business is [00:16:00] so much better than an e commerce business.

So with an e commerce business, you have a lot of factors that are in play that will affect your profitability of your business. For example, you have the cost of running the digital store. You're probably going to need to run ads to that store because unless you have a product that's like over a thousand dollars, which, how many products are there that are over a thousand dollars?

And if you are selling something that's that expensive, you need really good branding. So chances are if you have an online store, you're going to be selling something that's under a few hundred or even under a hundred dollars. And that means that if you want to make really good money, you need to sell a lot of that product.

And if you need to sell a lot of that product, you need to have really good marketing and advertising. So you need to put a lot of money into advertising and you need to test it often in order for [00:17:00] you to get a good result with advertising. And none of this is even including how much the product itself actually costs.

If you have shipping costs. If you have storage costs. All these things are factoring into your profitability of an e commerce business. Now you could say, well, what about a digital product business? Like what about selling

templates for something on Etsy with Canva? Cause a lot of people tell you to do that. So if you have that, okay, you don't have storage costs and you don't have product costs. But still, how much money can you sell a template on the internet for? Like 50 bucks? That would still be kind of a lot of money for a template.

We're talking like 10 bucks, realistically.

So if you want to make 10, 000 a month,

and you have a 10 product, you need to sell a thousand of those products every single month. So, [00:18:00] you're definitely going to need ads. And with ads, you're probably going to be spending some money per sale, like let's say three dollars, three dollars per sale.

So that means now that your profitability is actually only 7. And if you want to make 10, 000

now, it's like you actually need to sell almost 1500 products every single month. If you want to do that, you need to really, really understand marketing. So this is why I am saying that I think that e commerce businesses, it's too complicated for beginners. For you to actually go about and do research on this, And then there's the professional for you when you need to dig into the marketing side of things. what you start with are business

Marketing, you don't need to have a big audience. You don't even need to [00:19:00] have that many clients in order for you to be making a full time income very quickly. there are different ways to approach the small service provider business model, but if you're following the way that I teach it, I teach creating a high ticket offer. What a high ticket offer is, is it's whatever your service is, let's say it's podcast editing or coaching. What you could do is offer, yeah, 50 bucks for an episode or 200 for a coaching session.

But if that's what you're doing, if that's what you're offering now, you need to have a lot of clients in order for that to work in order for you to make a good income with that offer. But if you can package up the offer and you say, yeah, I will only work with you if you agree to send me 15 podcast episodes at 50 a pop.

Now you have a 750 client.

And in that case, now you only need [00:20:00] 13 people in order to pay you and make that 10, 000 a month. 13 clients is still a lot, but you know what? 750 really isn't that much money for podcasting. Actually, I would say a podcast editor could easily command 150 per episode. So if they told their client that they need to sign up for 15 episodes at a time, now that's a 2, offer that the podcast editor is offering.

And now if that podcast editor wants to make 10, 000 a month, they only need

four to five clients per month. And that is actually very reasonable. And with that, you don't even need to really understand marketing. You could actually leverage your personal network. You could go give a talk at a conference. You could offer a referral feed to people in your community.

You could meet those people just out in the wild.

I have worked with so many service providers because now everybody [00:21:00] that I work with, I encourage them all to become small service providers. And I'm telling you the vast, vast, vast majority of my clientele, they get their first one, two, three, 10 clients all through their personal network.

So while I do teach my clients marketing, because honestly, what I want my clients to do is scale their businesses to the moon, I want them to become rich and successful. But I also want them to be making money right away. And so that's why I have them focus on the small service provider model where you can figure out how to bundle your offer into something that's reasonably over a thousand dollars.

And that is how you're going to be able to make a full time income with only a few clients.

It's actually a pretty simple process. It's a very simple business model. It doesn't require a lot require many contractors. It doesn't have a lot of moving parts. Honestly, the foundation of this is just having a really solid skill, understanding [00:22:00] your market, understanding sales, and knowing how to pitch yourself properly.

Now you might be hearing all this and you might be saying to yourself, Oh my God, but I don't have a skill. I don't know anything about sales. I don't know what I would do. And if that's the case, I just want to share with you quickly what my method is on how I help my clients get that clarity on what it is that, what kind of business that they do want to create.

So this is a service that I do offer. That's a paid service. So I can't just do it because it is very time consuming on my part, but I love doing it because the breakthroughs that happen in this service are seriously so epic and life changing. So I offer something called a career assessment. Um, and the way that it works is if you, for example, if you came to me and you said, Hey, Krista, I want to become a digital nomad.

I'm on board with the small service provider method, but I just don't know what my skillset is because again, I don't have a degree or I don't have any experience or I've been working in this one corporate field for the past 10 years and [00:23:00] I can't think outside of the box or think what else I could do to work online.

So I'm going to say, okay, I'm going to send you a mini course that I have. It's called the Digital Nomad Starter Codes, and essentially I walk you through all the different options that there are to work online. Not that I could ever list them all because there truly are infinite options, but I do break it down into six major categories, and then there's about 12 subcategories inside of each one.

So the point of you watching all these videos is for you to open up your mind to the fact that there could be something absolutely perfect for you if you could just really get in tuned with who you are and what makes the most sense for your personality. So, you watch these videos to essentially get you up to speed and like on my level with how you are going to think about online work.

Then you're going to fill out this incredibly detailed questionnaire. When I say incredibly detailed, I don't mean that this is like a 30 minute thing. It's like a three hour thing where you're [00:24:00] filling out some really deep questions about your major life stories, how you feel about certain aspects of work.

Skills that you think that you have, skills that you know that you don't have, things that you're curious to learn about, etc, etc. This is not me asking for your resume or CV. That is not the kind of career coach that I am. I am the kind of career coach that helps you dig deep into your personality and help you find something that's actually truly aligned with who you always authentically have been.

So once you watch all these videos and you fill out this three plus hour worksheet, then you and I will get on the phone. I will review that worksheet. And because you've just surfaced so much information about yourself. Now, when I look at it with you on the phone with me on Zoom, I can just spot read it.

I can ask you clarifying questions and usually within about 30 minutes, I'm able to say, Oh, based on this trait and this trait and these patterns that I see within your [00:25:00] career assessment form, I suggest that you go into blank and I will suggest to you a small service provider business model business idea that is really aligned with again, who you are as a person.

Okay.

These calls, honestly, people walk away from it being like, Oh my God, my life is about to change. I've never had this kind of clarity before. And um, that really is the goal. And I think that that's because I don't know, I don't know anybody else who offers a service like I do. And I think that I really am uniquely positioned to offer this service because of the fact that I have been a digital nomad for over 12 years, which like, it was a really new thing when I started.

So I just really have a leg up from other people that, um, yeah, it helps me understand truly how vast the remote work landscape is. Plus, I just happen to be talented at this. So anyway, Take it or leave it. I'm just letting you know that it is, it is a service that I offer [00:26:00] and if you are someone that you're feeling like yeah, I really want to become a digital nomad, but I just can't get past that first part of the clarity experience, then that is what I'm here for.

I'm totally here to help you and I would love to help you understand what your gifts are and what skills are going to be the most useful. um, just one more note on the career assessment and like, you know, if you're a skilled person or a not skilled person, if you're someone who's been working in corporate for a few years, honestly, like you have no excuse. You should be able to become a digital nomad literally within a matter of months Because chances are you actually have a lot that we could work with.

My most successful clients, honestly, are people that have been working in some kind of corporate or professional space or job for a few years. And I'm able to say, okay, out of all the things that you've done at [00:27:00] work, like what are the things that you liked the best, what are the things that you didn't like?

And we're usually able to leverage some of your experience into an online business. And again, like. If you knew how your skills could translate into online work, you would have already created the business. So I'm here to help show you what your gifts are. And they're probably just hovering beneath the surface.

Now, if you don't have any corporate experience, if you don't have any professional experience, that's okay too. I will more be focusing when I look at your career assessment form on your actual personality and your interests and the things that you're curious about so that I can say, Hey, I know that you don't have any editing skills, but have you ever considered becoming a podcast editor?

It's just an example I'm using a lot in this episode because I'm thinking about a podcast because I'm recording a podcast. But there are so many skills that you can learn like podcast editing that you can learn within just a few months and [00:28:00] then you're going to be just as caught up to speed as all of those other people who have been working in corporate for a few years.

Because the thing about the business model that I'm teaching is that you don't need to go to You don't need to have a huge Array of skills. You actually just need one specialty skill and we can work with that. Remember, what I said earlier is that I'm here to help my clients get rich. Like I'm here to help them scale to the moon and grow their businesses.

But I also am here to help people just get started. I'm here to help liberate people. And if you don't have a robust skill set yet, or you're new to online business, you need to understand that you're going to start small, and that's okay. Small, still, you can quit your job. Small, still, you can afford to live in Southeast Asia.

Small, still, you

You can work towards creating your dream life. And once you've created your small business, [00:29:00] then yes, you can start thinking about passive income. Then yes, you can think about scaling. Then yes, you can think about raising your prices. Then yes, you can think about creating a huge audience where you have clients coming in for you without you even having to go look for them.

All of that is possible for you. Definitely. No matter who you are, But you do need to get started and you do need clarity on what the best service is for you to offer the world online.

So to summarize, the small service provider high ticket model is the best, fastest, easiest, least resistance way for you to become a digital nomad in 2025. And the key things that you need in order to make that happen is a really good business idea, and the confidence to sell whatever it is that you're offering for over a thousand dollars.

Now that might also sound scary to you and that's why inside of the program, which I didn't [00:30:00] even mention yet, it's called the Digital Nomad Life Academy. The program that I have, we focus a lot on mindset, on manifestation, on money mindset, on confidence, On self concept because all of these things are so important to you having success in your entrepreneur journey.

If you go ask chat gpt, Hey, what high ticket small service provider business should I create? It might tell you what might be the best thing for you to create, but it's also not going to tell you where you're not believing in yourself, what you're missing gaps are, You What your gaps in knowledge are.

For that, you actually need a coach.

And what ChatGPT isn't going to do, is it's not going to surround you with other people who think and dream the same way that you do. For that, you actually need a community.

What chat GPT is going to do is it's going to inventory what's on the internet. And as I mentioned at the [00:31:00] beginning of this episode, the world just is not caught up with how vast the remote work landscape really is. It's still pretty limited to Telling people to think about, yeah, you can do this job, or drop shipping, or e commerce, etc.

The internet just doesn't have the decade plus of experience that I have of being a digital nomad, being in community, seeing how vast the options are. And actually working with hundreds of people in order to help them change their lives on not just a career and financial level, but a lifestyle level.

I'm making this podcast because I really believe that the world needs more impassioned people. And you, whoever you are listening to this, you deserve to be one of those people. I believe that you don't belong commuting to a job that you don't think is inspiring.

I believe that you should never have to suffer seasonal depression ever again in your life. I [00:32:00] believe that you should never have to ask for vacation time if you want to go spend time with your dying grandparent. Or at your best friend's wedding. You are entitled. Truly, as a human, to go experience life in the way that you want to live life.

But when you stay stuck listening to what society is telling you is the only way to make money by having some job that you don't think is great, but you know, everybody else doesn't like their job, so why should you? When you listen to those kind of messages, you give all of your power away. But you have the power to change your life.

And you have everything that you need inside of you.

and whatever it is that you're missing, you can easily learn online. I'm here to guide you through that process, to introduce you to hundreds of other people that think and dream the same way that you do, to answer your questions, to support you, to help give you clarity, to help you change [00:33:00] your life this year.

If you're feeling inspired and motivated, or you're actually just curious on how I could help you, or if you're skeptical, no matter what, if you are feeling compelled at all in any way to just have a conversation about how the digital nomad lifestyle might be possible for you,

slide into my DMs now. With the keyword roadmap, and I will send you a mini training. It's about 30 minutes long. That really breaks down more into detail, my philosophy on how I help people. And it also will explain to you more about how the Digital Nomad Life Academy works.

I spend a lot of time and effort and energy inside of my program. I do have relationships with every single client that's in there. And it's really important to me that the right people are inside of the program. So I'd love for you to watch that training, just so that you actually understand what it is that you're getting yourself into.

And if you watch that training, the roadmap [00:34:00] training and you still feel like, yeah, I'm on board with this concept. I'm ready to do this. At the end, I ask you to send the words, apply now to my DMS, and then I'll send you the application. So based on your readiness now, if you are feeling like you want more information, then slide into my DMS with the word roadmap.

Or if you're feeling like you're just ready to go, you trust that I'm the person to support you in this journey, then you can just send the keyword apply now to my Instagram at @christabellatravels. And we will have a quick conversation. I'll let you know if I think that you're a good fit for the program and we can get you started.

We can get you that career assessment and we can get the ball rolling on your digital nomad life. So again, those keywords at Krista Bella travels on Instagram is roadmap. If you want more information or apply now, if you're ready to just say yes to the digital nomad life.

I hope that you got a lot out of this episode. I know it was [00:35:00] very practical and to the point,

but that's what I'm here to bring you in 2025. I wish you all the success, all the freedom, all the luck in the world. And I hope to see you in the next episode. Thanks. Bye.