108) The AI Wake-Up Call: Save Yourself, Start Your Business and Take Back Your Time

Hate to break it to you, but AI isn’t going anywhere , but your job might. In today’s episode, I want to teach you how and why you need to save yourself. We’re diving into how AI can fit into your business, how to protect your time, and how to start building your freedom.

Technology is evolving fast, but you get to choose how you live your life.

Lately, I’ve had a massive wake-up call with technology,  both the rise of AI and my own screen-time addiction (I know you’re probably addicted too). I want to talk about how these shifts are impacting remote work, our attention spans, and most importantly, our freedom — financial, location, and emotional,  in a world that’s changing faster than ever.

If you’ve ever felt like tech is taking over your life (or maybe even your career), this is your wake-up call.

Today we will dive into:

• How many years of my life I realized I’d lose to my social media  addiction
• How AI is reshaping remote work and why corporate employees are the most vulnerable
• Why now is the time to start your own online business or side hustle (and how to use AI to your advantage)
• My “social media nutrition” metaphor that’ll forever change how you think about screen time
• The #1 app that helped me take back my life (and how you can use it too)
• Real talk about loneliness, connection, and how to stop using tech as a mask for your real feelings

🔗 Resources & Mentions

• App: Be Present — the screen-time app I swear by 
• Listen next: [Episode 33: My Career Assessment Process] — for a deeper dive into discovering your next remote-ready career

DM me on Instagram @christabellatravels
with the word “apply” to explore working with me 1:1

Or message “RRR” to book your free Remote Readiness Rating call with my team and find out how ready you are to launch your remote career

AI, digital nomad, remote work, start your own business, online business, location independence, career coach, Christa Bella Travels, Digital Nomad Life Podcast, Be Present app, screen time, entrepreneurship, freedom lifestyle

🎧 Ready to take action? Watch Christa’s free training “5 Steps to Work From Wherever” — your roadmap to building a remote business: digitalnomadlifeacademy.com/biztraining

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Why This Matters
• 5:54 Fear, Careers, And The Rise Of AI
• 9:58 Who This Episode Is For
• 13:04 Employees’ Risk In An AI Economy
• 17:55 Build Your Own Basket: Start A Business
• 22:39 Simple Starter Paths With AI Support
• 27:34 Adoption Lag And Your Advantage
• 31:16 Practical AI Prep For Freelancers
• 34:25 Screen Time Wake-Up Call
• 39:45 Coaching Through Addiction And Triggers
• 45:34 The Be Present App Solution
• 50:39 Social Media Nutrition Metaphor
• 56:44 Hydration, Exercise, And Fasting Rules
• 1:01:10 Bringing It Full Circle With Action
• 1:03:59 Work With Us: Apply And RRR

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 3:36

Hey there and welcome to the Digital Nomad Life Podcast. I'm your host, Krista, also known as Kristabella Travels on social media. You can always feel free to slide into my DMs on Instagram. Let me know that you are a listener. I genuinely love to hear from you. And I love to put a face to the number, right? Right now, currently, I only have access to seeing how many people listen to my podcast. And I have no idea who you are or if you like it, which is a nice reminder to also please leave a five-star review on Spotify or Apple if you are listening on either platform. Um, now, okay, speaking of messaging me on Instagram, that is a great segue into today's topic, which is all about technology. Now, don't worry, I'm not gonna make this a boring episode. This is going to be much more of a thought piece. I've been having a lot of thoughts recently about the emergence of AI and how it's going to change the nature of remote work. It's going to change the nature of just work in general, like careers in general, which is gonna obviously affect me as a career coach. This is something that I've taken a personal interest in. Honestly, out of fear, I feel like I need to understand what's happening with AI so that I can suggest new career paths to my clients. If you don't know me, hi, I'm Krista. I'm not your average career coach. And people come to me when they want to make a major life and career transition. So, for example, if you feel stuck in the nine to five, if you feel feel frustrated by your corporate life and you want to do something different, something that's more aligned with you, and something that gives you location freedom and financial freedom, then I'm your girl. I help you figure out how your talents and skills can align with a business that actually makes sense for who you are as a person. Now, I've been doing this for years and um I have my method, which works really, really well. I'll speak about it later on in this podcast. Um, or you can listen to episode 33 of my career assessment process. Anyway, I have my process and I help people in a very specific way. And I've had this fear actually of, oh no, will I even be capable of doing my job if I'm not keeping up with AI? So I've been taking this personal interest in understanding AI and how it is going to affect the remote work or just the work landscape. And I want to talk about that today in this episode. But it's not just about the remote work landscape. I think I also want to talk about our, and when I say our, I mean humans' relationship with technology and our relationship with our phones and specifically our relationship with social media. Um, I have a really cool metaphor that I want to share with you that hopefully will help you lower your screen time that I'll share later on in this episode. Um, and yeah, I actually just can't wait to share with you this story all about um the shocking. I mean shocking, I mean this information punched me in the fucking face the other day. Um, shocking realization that I had about my screen time and about my life. I am someone who loves life. I am someone who loves to travel. Obviously, I've built my whole brand all around my love for travel. I'm someone who loves to optimize and refine my lifestyle. Like I have someone who has incredibly high standards for my life, for my income, for the people I spend time with, for my home, for my environment, for the way that I spend my time. Um, and this realization that I had about my screen time the other day, honestly, for real, broke my heart. And I just know that if I am someone who is so passionate about living my life to the fullest, I can't imagine how bad other people's screen time must be if mine is like this right now. So um, yeah, I'm doing whatever I can to take back my life. And in the process, I want to share what I am going through so that you can also take back your life too. This is the Digital Nomad Life Podcast. And my business is called the Digital Nomad Life Academy. Because at the end of the day, I don't just want to help people have a location-independent career. I want people to have good lives, help happy lives, authentic lives. I want people to live their life to the fullest. I want them to feel full of life. I want them to feel satisfied with their life. I want them to get to the end of their life and say, wow, I lived as well as I could have. I lived to the fullest. Um, that is my intention for whenever I come to the end of my life. And you know what sometimes I reflect on often is that I think if I came to the end of my life right now, I would feel pretty good about it. And I don't know if that is a confronting thing for you, but um I actually really encourage you to reflect on that for a moment. If your life, if you knew your life was ending in the next month, would you be okay with it? Or would you have all this regret? Would you have all of this like, oh, but I haven't done this yet. I haven't done that. Um I wish I could have spent my time differently. Like, would you have those end-of-life regrets? Sorry to get so deep and heavy early on, but um, that is genuinely something that I think about a lot. Anyway, um, let's talk about technology. Let's talk about screen time. Let's talk about not wasting our freaking life in front of our phones. And let's talk about how you can not uh fight against technology because honestly, this is a tsunami. This is a tidal wave. This shit ain't going away. It's only gonna get bigger and stronger. And in my opinion, we need to ride the wave, not try to fight against it. So let's talk about AI as well and um how you can start thinking about AI so that you don't end up getting swept away in the tidal wave and you get to live your life to the fullest. Okay, so before I get into this episode, I just want to acknowledge who I think that you are listening to this so that we can get on the same page. So the average listener of this podcast is who I assume I'm talking to now, and you might be someone who is interested in the digital nomad lifestyle. That doesn't necessarily mean that you want to travel full-time or live out of your suitcase or that you want to be able to travel for a few months at a time, or like it actually has nothing to do with travel. It just has to do with location independence, aka freedom. Um, so maybe you're someone who is interested in that lifestyle and you don't have it yet, or you're someone who is new to the lifestyle. Um, so yeah, and in both of these categories, whether you don't have it yet or you're new to the lifestyle, um, you may or may not be on the cutting edge of technology. Um, if you are amazing, this episode is going to be mostly catered towards people who are not super familiar with um emerging tech. Maybe you're someone who's actually felt a little bit scared of it. Maybe you're someone who's felt a little bit um disgusted by it, even. I I had a conversation with a bunch of friends recently that are, you know, my friends are a little bit hippie, right? And so am I. Um, but uh I also feel like I have one foot in the nature hippie world and then the other foot in the digital world. So um it was an interesting conversation because they were all talking about how they reject AI, don't want anything to do with it, um, and are just right here right now to make as much money as they can so that ultimately once AI destroys everything, they're gonna go live off the grid and um live on a fruit farm or something. Um, and maybe you have a perspective like that. Um, or maybe you're somewhere a little bit more in the middle, like I am. Okay, so I don't know if I'd ever want to live off the grid on a fruit farm. Uh honestly, that sounds like a lot of work, but um definitely I'm not like stoked about uh the way that the world is moving with AI. I do feel quite scared of it myself as well. Um, but I also believe that if there's this thing that I know is coming, I want to do what I can to prepare for it as much as possible to make sure that I am safe. So um, how do I feel that I am safe? Well, I actually feel pretty safe against um the tidal wave of AI because I feel like I'm on a surfboard and I'm riding it and I can ride it. And at any point in time, I can just start paddling or grab paddle and or jump on a boat or whatever. Like I can ride the wave and I can prepare. Um, and there's I'm I'm not so vulnerable about it. But here are the people that I feel are really vulnerable against the tidal wave of AI, and they are employees, specifically employees of big corporations. If you are an employee of a big corporation, I thank God that you are listening to this episode and that you get to hear this perspective. Take it or leave it. I am just one person on the internet, but I do believe that employees are the most vulnerable people and you face significant risk of having no income at any moment. So the way that our society works is it's capitalism. We live in a capitalist economy, and you know, if you live in Sweden or Norway or whatever, where maybe it leans more socialist, it's still not. It's still like everybody needs to work and make money. And okay, the government might take care of you a little bit more than they do in the US, but still, like you want to be making money. Um, you want to be making your own money so that you can prosper, so that you can thrive. Now, with AI, with these people that are at the top of all these major companies, CEOs and founders and investors, etc., um, these are people that are gonna be able to leverage AI to swiftly become billionaires. There are more billionaires emerging than literally ever before. And um it's just creating so much more income disparity, also than ever. So um, the thing is about AI, you have an opportunity to not get left behind. You have an opportunity to not be someone who might have to rely on universal income at some point, which I really believe is a very, very real possibility. I mean, think about it like this. Okay, so um these big corporations, they're obviously going to make the choice that leads to the highest profit because we live in a capitalist economy. It is infinitely less expensive to have an AI robot slash agent do the work of a human who actually needs a human salary. So, of course, when good enough technology comes out for a large corporation to replace a human employee, they will. And you, if you are someone who's not keeping up with how AI is changing and evolving, you will not have any warning when that moment happens. This is very uncomfortable news that these corporations are going to have to give to the masses. It's gonna, you know, disrupt the news, the like actual current events as well. Like nobody wants to be delivering that news to the masses, but they have to. So, anyway, the point is they're just gonna rip off the band-aid and tell you at the very last fucking second, and then boom, you're gonna get the boot. In my opinion, having a job in a big corporation, you are literally putting all of your eggs in a basket that someone else is holding. So, someone else, you might think that that person is really secure and quote, stable. That is the word that I think traditionally people have been using when it comes to career, when it comes to income, having a quote, stable career, a quote, stable income. We have in our minds as a society translated those words to mean one very specific thing that there's some big man in a big suit that's holding a basket, and you can put all your eggs in that basket and it will be safe and secure. Now things are changing. At any moment, that big man holding that basket with all your eggs in it can just throw away your fucking basket or break all your eggs or just tip it over, give it back to you, and now you're holding everything, and um, that's gonna be a lot to hold. It's gonna be a big change for you if you don't have a plan. Now, what's your plan? Okay, so I'm not just here to fear-monger you. I'm not just here to be like, you should be scared, you might get laid off at any minute, which is true, but there's something you can do about it, and that is figure out how to start your own business. Start your side hustle, ASAP, I mean it, A-SAP, as soon as possible. You need to figure out a way that you can start making money on your own and create your own small, modest basket. I'm not saying that you should quit your job if you have a great job, if you like your job, if especially if your job can let you go remote, sure. Um, but uh yeah, I think it's time to build your own basket, my friend. So here's what you need to do. And um, here's how you can incorporate AI into it. Because again, I don't think that we should run away from AI. I think that we should be aware of it and try to ride the wave of it. So when it comes to starting your own business, what you need to remember is that a business offers value in exchange for money. So when you are going about creating your own business, what you're not gonna do is say, Oh, I really enjoy doing paper mache projects. I love paper mache. I love making bowls and cups out of paper mache, and it's so cute, and I make little masks. Um, so that might be something that you love doing and you want to start a business doing something that you love, okay, amazing. But is anybody wanting to buy your little paper mache arts and crafts? Like, does anybody see value, like enough value in what it is that you're doing to give you money for it and good money? So maybe not. But if you can find someone that does find a lot of value in it and they are willing to pay you for it, that's a business. So, for example, let's say it's a restaurant or a um a shop in downtown that has a big window display. You could pitch yourself to that shop in town and say, Hey, I am an amazing paper mache artist, and I'd love to make you a window display that will get you more customers in the door because they're gonna be so impressed by this. Or maybe you pitch to a restaurant, hey, like I will make you some really elaborate pieces that you can change out every few months to keep the restaurant fresh and trending and an interesting place that influencers can come take pictures with. So um, this is a weird example because it's not digital, but I don't know, just I was trying to think of something that was like super random basically, but how it can still be turned into a business. This is the beginning of the work that I do with all of my clients, by the way. I take a big inventory of what it is that you like, what you're good at, what you're interested in, and then help you marry it with a business idea so that you can start making money for yourself doing something that you actually enjoy. So, again, the paper mache concept is a bit random because it's not digital. So, with AI, it is gonna be different. And um, there's a slightly different way that we are gonna think about it. So, um, because you might not know a lot about AI right now, right? Um, you might be someone who's, again, a little bit scared of it. So, the way that I would work with you is I would still do the same inventory of all your personality interests, quirks, likes, dislikes, etc. But then I might think about okay, what is a way that AI can enhance this business idea? Let's take a super basic one. For a lot of my clients that have no experience, I often suggest that they go into something like being a virtual assistant or um a podcast manager or something like that, because there's not a huge barrier to entry for either of these roles. And um, yeah, you don't need to have a lot of experience to do either one either. So, about being a virtual assistant, there was a while where I was like, oh shit, like I won't be able to suggest anybody being a virtual assistant anymore because of AI. AI is changing the nature of the virtual assistant landscape, which it is. There will be less and less um little tasks that a virtual assistant can take off of someone else's plate because AI will be able to do it for them. But if, but still, I believe that people are going to need some kind of human support. It's just that human better understand how they can use AI because the person that's hiring the virtual assistant is not gonna want to say, okay, I have this project that I need to get done. I know that AI can do it in 15 minutes, but I still don't want to be the one to go pull all the levers, et cetera. You, as the virtual assistant, need to know how to pull the levers rather than you doing all the work manually. Hopefully that makes sense. Um, so anyway, if you were to come to me and you were like, Krista, I want to start a business, but I don't know which one. Again, I would look at all your personality and interests, et cetera. And then I would still suggest to you a simple business idea, but we would also talk about what kind of AI do you need to incorporate into your business so that when you go to pitch yourself and say, hey, here's the value that I have to offer as an as a solopreneur, people know that they're not hiring someone who's a dinosaur, they're hiring someone who understands emerging technology. Now, to my comment about not having all your eggs in your employer's basket, when you do this for yourself, like let's say that you become a virtual assistant and you figure out how to use AI to run someone's calendar, you figure out how to use AI to manage the customer service, you figure out how to use AI to schedule emails, et cetera, you're still the point person for the person that's hiring you for your client. Now, when AI changes and makes shit easier for your client, your client can say, Hey, I think I actually can use a robot to do half of the shit that I'm asking you to do. You will already be on the cutting edge of technology because you're going to be working in it every single day. That by now you will have already come up with another plan for your own business. I met this guy over the summer who told me that he had eight different businesses and like six employees all together because he was using AI to scale and manage every single one of those businesses. And I was telling him about this predicament. I was like, yo, I'm a career coach and I'm a little bit worried that I'm not gonna know what to suggest to my clients if they want to create a new career for themselves. And he was like, Yeah, you know, the thing is, AI is changing incredibly fast, but human adoption of it is not. So he's like, There's still years before all humans understand how to use AI. So, like, all humans won't know how to use AI, but some humans will. And they are the humans that are at the top of all these corporations. They are the ones with all the control. They are the ones that will be laying off the masses. So don't be one of the masses who gets laid off and doesn't know what to fucking do with yourself after. Be one of the ones that chooses to leave early, starts your own business, and then is one of the few humans that actually adopts this technology and knows how to use it and can grow and change with the evolving landscape of career. In summary, the safest thing that you can do right now is to figure out what is the remote business that makes sense for the next like year of your life. Try not to think about it too long term because we have no fucking idea what's gonna happen in the future. We don't know what's gonna happen six months from now. So keep your expectations in check. If there's something that you can do to leverage to make money right away, get on it, especially if you are an employee right now. If you already are freelancing, make damn sure you're incorporating AI in every area possible that you can in your business so that you can be one of the ones that gets to survive the next change in technology. Now is the time for you to start educating yourself in the areas where it is relevant. You don't need to know how to use AI in every area. That would that's way too broad of a category. But if you can figure out where AI fits into your specific industry, into your specific role, you will be setting yourself up for success and for safety when most other people are not. And if you're worried about the people around you who need to heed this warning, share this episode with them. Let them know that it's time to honestly like save yourself. My gosh, I'm just having a little existential moment right now. I feel like I have so many moments in my life where I'm like, guys, save yourselves, save yourselves, where like I've saved myself. Um, like I like, oh my God, the way that I rode the pandemic wave and had the actual best time. I had so much survivor's guilt about it. I was living my best life in Bali, like an amazing destination. And and there were no tourists here the whole time. Meanwhile, everybody's back at home getting laid off, having miserable times, being trapped in their homes. Um, and I'm just like, guys, save yourselves, like, start an online business. Like, why wouldn't you? I don't understand. Like, instead of being trapped in your house, you could be trapped in an Airbnb in the south of France or in Thailand or whatever. Um, I'm constantly like, guys, save yourself. And this is a big moment where I feel really strongly that I just want to shout to the masses save yourselves and save yourself by learning about how AI fits into your business. I don't know if it's a matter of life and death, but like it's up there. It's important. This is your livelihood that we're talking about. I have this kind of, I don't know, I guess you could call it like a dark fear about the way that humans are going if they are not keeping up. And if not only are if they are not keeping up, but if they're also not balanced. So you just obviously heard me be very pro learn AI, understand AI, adopt AI. I really, I really obviously believe that this is something that we all need to be doing if we want to be safe and have a graceful entry into the next evolution of humanity. But it is, we are still humans and we are still humans living on planet Earth, and we need to protect our earth and we need to be a part of our earth. We cannot be separate from our earth. So this leads me into the next topic that I want to talk about, which is screen time. Okay, I gotta tell you a story. Um, bear with me, this is relevant. But, you know, at the beginning of this episode, I was saying I had this shocking, and I mean shocking realization about my screen time. It literally made me sick to my stomach and like snapped me into focus. And I was like, I gotta, I gotta make a change in my life. And I have made a change, and I feel really good about it, and I hope other people make this change too, because it's been really positive, even though it's actually only been a few days. So um I have felt for a while that I am unhappy with my screen time, specifically on my phone. Obviously, I need to be looking at my screen to do my job. So I don't mind that. Um, I don't mind that I'm looking at a screen often, but I do mind when the hours that I'm spending on a screen are not contributing to my livelihood or to my own good or wellness. These hours specifically, I feel very upset about when I scroll on Instagram. Personally, I have a problem with scrolling on Instagram before bed and when I wake up. I don't know about you, maybe you can relate to this. I think a lot of people can relate to this, which is why I'm telling you this story that frankly I feel a little bit embarrassed and ashamed of, but I'm gonna share it anyway because I believe that I'm not the only one in this situation. So, hi, I'm Krista, and I'm addicted to scrolling on Instagram before bed and when I wake up. So last week it was a Saturday, and I had signed up for a spinning class at noon, but I woke up at nine, as I often do. And so I had a few hours to kill. And um, I kind of like picked up my phone and I just I didn't have anywhere to go, right? I didn't have anywhere to be. I didn't have anything specifically to do in the morning. I hadn't made plans with anybody. So I picked up my phone and I started scrolling reels. And um, some made me laugh and some gave me a little insight into current events, but a lot of them were just like dumb. Like a lot of them were just vapid, like people just doing stupid shit, like just I don't know, just I feel like my expression was pretty static for most of my scrolling time. I'm sitting on my kitchen table, at my kitchen table, and I have a spiral staircase in the middle of my living area. So I look up and I see my cute little dog, honey, at the top of the spiral staircase, and she's just staring at me, looking at me from above. And I see her and I'm like, oh honey, are you watching me? And then she obviously doesn't respond because she's a dog. I look back at my phone, I scroll for another like 10 minutes, and she's still staring at me. And I have this, like, I don't even know, portal existential thought, whatever, imagination channeling download the thing. I just have this vision, this awareness, this idea that honey, when she sees me hold this little black rectangle in my hand, I go into another dimension. My body is still there in the chair holding this thing, but when my face is pointed at it, mommy goes somewhere else and she is not aware, she's not paying attention to anything, she's definitely not paying attention to honey. And then sometimes I snap back into it and she can ask for my attention, and then my I my soul, my spirit snaps back into my body. But when I hold this little thing, I am not present. Oh my gosh, this moment made me feel very sick, honestly. And then I thought about you know what, someday I want to have a baby, and like I think this is gonna, I think this probably is a huge issue right now with parents and children, where um, you know, baby. Babies are so attuned to their parents that like a baby is gonna be fighting for it. A baby should not be fighting for attention from a phone, right? So I was like, I have thought for a while that yeah, when I have a baby, I'm gonna have boundaries around my phone. But in this moment, I realized that I was actually really addicted. And if I had a baby right now, I don't know if I would be able to uphold those boundaries. Anyway, so I'm having this kind of little existential crisis at my kitchen table. And I'm like, fuck, I need to do something about this. In the past, I had done something about it. I had um, I had, you know, set the iPhone timer or whatever. But you can just override it really easily. So that didn't work for me. Um, so in the throes of my existential crisis, I remember that I had been advertised an app the other day. Okay, this app is called Be Present. Please download it. Please download it. This is not sponsored. Everybody needs to download this app. It's called Be Present. I'll mention it like 10 more times. Um, okay, so this ad that I saw, basically, this app was so effective in getting people to lower their screen time that both Meta and Google blocked the app from the app stores. First of all, gross. Second, that's super fucked up. Third, I was like, oh, okay, well, it's actually obviously effective. I think they had some kind of lawsuit or whatever, and now the app is back on the app store, and so you can finally download it. And I think that's why they were running ads to it. So, anyway, so I open up the app. I'm like, okay, it's time to get on to this Be Present app. I have to do something about this screen time. So Be Present says what's the situation with your screen time? Okay, I again I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. My screen time was an average of anywhere between six and eight hours a day, consistently, every day, for months. When I saw that number, I was like, oh my god, I am ashamed. I'm embarrassed. So I put I put this number into the app. The app tells me that at this rate, I am about to spend 30 years of my life on my phone. I don't even oh my god, I'm literally speechless. Like, I was shook at that number. I don't know if that number is shocking to you. I dare you to go put in how much screen time you have on Be Present and then message me about what yours is. If it's higher or lower than mine, I'd be so curious. I'm like, okay, I feel like mine, like I knew that it was a lot, but I didn't know it was that much. Anyway, I'm I see this number and I'm like spiraling about it. And then I'm like, fuck, I'm late for spinning this whole time, all morning. I was just killing time, and now I'm late because I got sucked in to this portal of vapid fucking content on Instagram. And now I'm late to do the actual thing that I wanted to do to nourish and take care of my body. So I get to spin class a couple minutes late. I I sneak in. Luckily, they let me in, but I'm there and I'm in this like head-spinning state where like I don't actually spiral about anything. Like I'm very good at coaching myself through things. So anyway, I thought, okay, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna move my legs while I coach myself through this because I'm panicking right now. Like this is a way bigger problem than I than I had been making it out to be. So um coaching, coaching myself through things is just maybe one of the best skills and tools that I've ever adopted in my life. Um, I hope that you learn how to coach yourself through things as well. So if you want to coach yourself through something, there's um kind of like a series of questions that you can ask yourself. And the point is you just need to be really honest and and really acknowledge and allow whatever the answers are. So actually, let me even bring up my notes because ultimately after class, I sat down and I wrote it all down. Okay, so the first question you need to ask yourself if you're coaching yourself through something. And in this case, I was coaching myself through the realization that I'm addicted to social media, to Instagram. So you want to ask yourself, how does this actually feel? So the things that I that I felt, I felt like, okay, when I'm on this app, I'm I'm technically there, but not really. I'm not present. I'm missing out on my life. Um, if 30 years of my life are gone, if I keep this up, that basically means that right now I'm essentially someone in my late 60s. Ew, um, that is not cool. Like I'm a young person, I'm frustrated, I'm mad. How is it possible that it is this bad? I'm mad at the systems, um, and I'm so frustrated. I like to be, I like to consider myself someone who doesn't um succumb to societal pressure, that's someone who is like strong in my mind, that is strong in my conviction. And now I feel like a fucking victim because I know I never consented to this addiction. I never chose this addiction, but it's like the companies are working against me. Um, and then I started thinking about all these other aspects of my life on how this addiction is probably negatively affecting. So, you know, I'm also staring at myself in the mirror. I'm in spin class when this happens and I see my body and like I am doing the most. Like I work out literally every day. Like I do something every day. Um, if I'm not strength training, which I do four to five times a week, I'm playing paddle or I'm dancing and like breaking a sweat. So I'm like, I'm doing the fucking most when it comes to exercise. Um, my, but my sleep isn't great. My body isn't changing really in the way that I feel like it should, based on how much I'm doing. And maybe my body isn't changing because I'm a frickin' empty log for six to eight hours a day. So now I'm like mad at myself. I'm just like, how did how did I let it get this bad? But again, it's like I'm I feel like a victim because it's not my fault. I know it's the app and their um their addictive nature. I start having a memory of being a child. And uh I remember one day, like in the living room, it was a summertime, and I remember saying, like, Mom, I'm bored. And my mom being like, Well, you could play outside, you could. And then what did I do? I went outside into my yard and I was on the swings. And I used to sit in the grass and I would make dolls out of leaves and flowers, and like that's what I would do with my time when I was a kid. And then again, I think about if I have a child, like, what is my child gonna be doing when they're bored? When was the last time that I felt bored? I never feel bored because I have this fake ass dopamine bullshit getting sent into my brain the second that I feel an ounce of boredom or loneliness. So, anyway, first question that you need to ask yourself when you're coaching yourself through something, when you are spiraling, you want to ask yourself, how does this really feel? And get in touch with the anger, get in touch with the sadness, get in touch with your victimhood, get in touch with just whatever the negative feelings are, allow them to be there. And honestly, I'm actually really glad that I was in spinning because I was also physically moving my body while I was doing this, which is a great um thing to do as well. Anyway, so once you ask yourself how it feels, now you've got to ask yourself, what are the fears? What are the reasons why I'm scared or why I'm hesitant or reluctant to let this thing go? So the thing about self-sabotage, which I would say like self-sabotage, I'm self-sabotaging because I know that my phone is a problem. I know that my endless scrolling on Instagram is a problem. I know doom scrolling is not good, but still I do it. Even though logically I know it's not good, I still do it. So um, if you are ever doing something when you know you shouldn't, that is you self-sabotaging. So when we're coaching ourselves through moments of self-sabotage, we need to be very kind to ourselves because the thing about self-sabotage is it's never that we, it's never because we hate ourselves. It's never because we are actually trying to cause harm to ourselves. We self-sabotage because there is a benefit to the thing that we are doing. It might not be a really obvious benefit, but I guarantee you you will find some benefit to the thing that you are doing that is self-sabotage. So for me, the benefits that I get from scrolling on social media is that it covers up my mask of loneliness. You know, I'm single right now, so I go to bed by myself and I wake up by myself. And those are the moments when it would be like so nice to have another person, right? So I actually think that scrolling on social media is a way for me to not feel that pang of loneliness. I notice that when I'm actually dating somebody, like I scroll way less. So maybe you're in that situation too. I also get a benefit from social media because I can see what my what my friends are up to. And as someone who lives on the opposite side of the world from many people that I love, I want to know what my friends' babies look like. I want to see what they did on vacation. I want to know that they got a new job. Like, I want to see these updates that they are publishing to their communities, to their networks. Because when I see them, I don't have to start from zero with the catch up. I get to say, oh, like your baby is so cute. Or oh my gosh, I love that you're loving this new job that you have. Or oh my gosh, I see that you've gotten super into cooking lately. That's so cool. Your food actually looks so good. Low-key. It inspired me to make breakfast myself. Like, I really like stories. I benefit from stories. And I feel that I would be sad and my life would be not as rich if I didn't have stories. Also, with reels, like um, I benefit from reels because I learn things. You know, I get current events through reels because I don't really keep up with the news and I never watch TV. So I feel like with reels, I I'm not living under a rock, which I think I would be feeling like I live under a rock if it weren't for reels. I get news about AI and about politics. I also learn things and they make me laugh. Sometimes reels make me feel some kind of emotion. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they inspire me. They I get to learn about new places and new things. Like, like there's value in the content that I see online. And this is why Instagram is so addictive. It's because they know that they're gonna feed you little bits of value that you are gonna feel like, oh, I'm benefiting from this app. I'm benefiting, benefiting, benefiting. Therefore, I need to keep consuming, consuming, consuming. So even though I know that my screen time is bad for my brain, it's not helping me with my body goals, it's taking away from my actual connection with people, I still am benefiting. And that's why the addiction is so hard to break. That's what makes it an addiction. So I bet you if you have ever been addicted to like smoking or vaping or something like that, you can relate to the fact that you know that it's bad for you, but you still get some kind of benefit from it. And that's why it's hard to quit. That's why it's hard to break the addiction. So we have to acknowledge first again, what do I really feel? Second, how am I benefiting from this? And why am I scared to let it go? So we need to acknowledge all of those things without any judgment to ourselves. And then we can move on to the next steps. Okay, so we want to ask ourselves, how would I actually benefit if I did let this go? So I know I would have better sleep, I would probably move more, I would be more creative, I'd probably have better memory, I would feel less depressed once in a while. Um, I would maybe make more of an effort to be in connection with actual people. So I know how I would benefit. And now it's time to go on to solutions. And this is where the Be Present app comes in. And I'm so grateful that this solution exists because the reason why they're so effective, this app, at lowering people's screen time, is because they use the same kind of gamification techniques that um social media uses to keep us hooked. So, some features that I love about the app basically um I and I like it better than just the one that's embedded into iPhone, like the screen time blocker thing. So you can always override it, but um basically when you are setting up the app, you set your app intentions. So um I I know that I can't just open Instagram one time a day. Oh, also a benefit for me for Instagram is I use it as for my business. Like people message me on every single podcast episode. People, I encourage people to message me on Instagram. So I can't just like get off of Instagram. I can't just quit, you know? I just need to have a healthier relationship with it. So that's why the screen time app on iPhone doesn't work, is because it only gives you one, like a certain amount of time to use the app. And if you Doom scroll one time, you've used up your full allotment of your time for the day. So what I like about the Be Present app is you can choose how many times you are willing to open the app and how many minutes you can keep the app open per time. So I set my I set my daily limit to be I will open Instagram no more than five times in a day and no more than 10 minutes each time. I think 10 minutes each time allows me to answer some messages thoughtfully. It also allows me to, you know, maybe scroll a little bit. It allows me to watch stories because again, like I find value in stories, but it but it will tell me, hey, you have 30 seconds left of your 10-minute timer, so I can wrap up whatever it is that I'm doing, and then it will close the app and it'll say, Okay, you just used one of your five times for today. And there's a widget right on your screen where you can see how many times you've opened it, and you also get a streak. So if you like, you know, have several days in a row where you have um succeeded with your app intentions, you your that number goes up by a day. So it's uh what else does this? Um, Duolingo also does this. Like you want to get your streak of using the app every single day, and um, it keeps you hooked to it, it keeps you addicted. There's also accountability, which I think is so funny and cool. Like you can add um accountability partners so that if you go over your app intentions, it will text that other person and tell them that you fucked up, which love me is some public shaming as a way to keep people aligned. Um, I just think it's it's so effective, right? So um anyway, I have set my phone time so that I open Instagram only five times a day, TikTok only two times a day, and each one for no more than 10 minutes, which still means that I'm gonna be spending over an hour every day on social media. But do you know what? It's a hell of a lot better than the four and a half hours that I was spending on social media. Like, I know that I'm still gonna have several hours of screen time every day, but like I think it's okay if some of those hours are on Spotify. I think it's okay if some of those hours are on Audible. I think it's okay for me to consume long form content because that's valuable. And if it's valuable, it I think it's okay. Even though um, obviously I still want to move more and sleep better, etc. So far, so good. I have not scrolled on Instagram before bed or right when I wake up. The last several days that I've had this app. And um, I haven't opened the app more than five times in a day. And um, yeah, I'm just feeling really satisfied with how it's going. And again, I just I really worry about the future of humanity. I really worry about children. Um, I worry about us just like, you know, us having L-shaped necks and humpbacks when we're all older because of the way that we are becoming increasingly more and more addicted to our phones. So I hope that you download the Be Present app and rate them so that more people in the world can also use it. And uh yeah, the last thing that I want to share with you is this metaphor. So um, you guys, if you if you know me, you know that I love love me a metaphor, love me an analogy. Um, and I came up with this one about how it's it's about phone nutrition or social media nutrition specifically. So I already told you, like I'm I'm really um doing the most to have a healthy fit body. Again, I work out like every day, I eat really well. Um, I'm always thinking about my macros, like how much protein am I getting um per day, which I know that I need protein in order to satiate my hunger and um yeah, give me the fuel that I need in order to have a healthy muscle mass. Um, so yeah, that's on macros. If you if you don't know anything about nutrition, basically macros are the main categories of food that you need on a daily basis, which is protein, fiber, carbs, and fats. So we need all of those things, just like every day we need food. And I am relating all of these different nutrition macros to social media use. So we have protein, uh, sorry, we're gonna call protein your direct messages. Fire is when you're posting on either you're posting anywhere on stories or static content. Um, carbs will be watching stories of friends, and fats are reals, and there's healthy fat and there's trans fat. So some healthy fat that's good for you, and then trans fat that's bad for you. Okay, so and we're also gonna call cooking creation. You can do all of your creation of content off of the app and then post it onto the app. Okay, so with your social media nutrition, the idea is that you are only consuming a certain amount per day. And if you balance your macros, that's how you're gonna have a healthy relationship with social media. So when you're balancing all the macros of social media, again, DMs, posting, watching reels, and um, and watching stories, you can have a healthy relationship with social media without you needing to go off of it. So um uh we're calling DMs protein because I think protein is probably the most important macro for you to be paying attention to if you want to be healthy and fit. So, why DMs on Instagram? Because Instagram and social media, it is essentially a replacement for human connection. I honestly never really understood when people say that social media caught like creates or enhances loneliness, because I I have I have literally always loved social media. I'm like, no, social media helps me not be lonely, it helps me connect with other people, it helps me, it helps other people be aware of what I'm doing and it helps me be aware of what they're doing. And it's a great way to stay in touch, like casually, because whatever. I just I had this perspective on on social media and how it wasn't contributing to loneliness. Now I understand that it is a false mask, it is a veil to cover loneliness. It's like this thing that we can go to the second that we feel lonely. It's like this little band-aid. It's like a little hit of morphine or a drug or something that like helps us ease the pain of loneliness, but it doesn't really ease real loneliness. The only way that can we can ease real loneliness is if we are in connection with other people. So that's why DMs are the most important macro that you can have. So if you're on social media, I encourage you to like make sure you're eating your protein, you're getting that macro of being in the DMs by messaging somebody, saying hello, responding to somebody, just like putting out some line of connection. And that is how you can have a healthier relationship with social media. Okay, the next thing is fiber, and that is prote, that is uh posting. Okay, so with social media, you can either be a consumer or a producer. Ideally, you are more of a producer than a consumer because if you are a consumer, you're just consuming all of these calories, calories, calories, calories, calories. But at least if you're producing, you're also cooking, so you're engaged. And in a way, it's like exercise. It's creativity, you're exercising your mind and you are exercising your expression. So I think it's always valuable to be posting and creating content, to be sharing on social media. That's what makes it a reciprocal exchange, right? Otherwise, again, you're just consuming, consuming, consuming. You can think about consuming without ever posting, you just downing a bag of Oreos. Okay, not good for you, doesn't help your body. In fact, it's just making you obese. So um I am committed now to posting more because that is how I'm going to get my fiber. That's how I'm going to have a healthy relationship with my social media by posting. Okay, next one is carbs. So, like I said, watching stories of friends, I wanna see what my friends' babies look like. I wanna see what vacation they took. I wanna know if they got promoted, I wanna know what their new habits and hobbies are. So I'm gonna consider watching the stories of my friends like carbs, an essential macro to have on a day-to-day basis, but not too much. We don't want to overdo it with carbs, otherwise, it's gonna turn into glucose, and that's what's gonna make us fat. It's gonna, it's gonna be what makes us obese. We need to manage the amount of carbs, aka we need to manage the watching the stories of our friends. We should watch them, that is good, but not too much, right? Like, let's not doom scroll on stories. And then finally, fats. For me, this was the danger zone. Fats is probably the thing that's going to like be most closely related to you gaining weight quickly. Fats is the easiest thing to cut if you want to lower your calories. That's true in nutrition. And also, again, true in your social media nutrition. It's true with your social media macros. So, with reels, as I mentioned earlier, there is value to reels, right? Like you get to see current events, you get to learn things, you can be inspired, you know about trends, etc. So we're gonna say that like if you're scrolling on reels, maybe a reel that really helps you, that really supports you, that brings value to your life, that might be like a slice of avocado or a little bit of healthy olive oil or some kind of healthy fat. But for the most part, those reels where you see people pranking each other, when you see people, I don't know, just doing dumb shit, like singing or whatever reels that are irrelevant to your life. Every single one of those, that's a French fry. That is not helping you in your body goals. It is not helping you in your nutrition, it is empty calories, or maybe it's not french fries, maybe it's like um again, like an Oreo or a potato chip or something. Just something that's trans fat, saturated fat, something that's got loads of seed oils, just like not good for you. Every reel that you watch, I want you to consider it like a little bit of trans fat. And that is my analogy of phone nutrition to real nutrition. And if anybody out there is into nutrition, hopefully this resonates and hopefully it gives you a little bit more awareness to your social media consumption. Um, oh, wait, there is one more. This hydration and exercise and intermittent fasting. Um, okay, so hydration, we're gonna call that long form audio content. So if you're listening to music or an audiobook or a podcast, like long form content like this, I think is super valuable. It's how we actually learn. It's how we, yeah, it's how we grow and evolve by consuming actual valuable content. Hopefully the podcasts that you listen to are valuable and it's not just like gossip. Um, but yeah, you can also consider it like that. Maybe a gossip podcast could be like drinking a Coca-Cola, whereas listening to a podcast like this might be more of like an electrolyte drink. Um, exercise, if you want to burn off all the calories of your social media consumption, that would be by spending time in nature or spending nourishing time with real actual people, right? People that are actually the antidote to loneliness. Um, again, cooking is creation, and that's always okay for your nourishment and to practice intermittent fasting. So only consuming your content during a certain amount of time during the day. So for me, I've decided that um I will not consume any bullshit content, any content at all. I just won't consume before 11 a.m. and not after 10 p.m. That still gives me tons of time for me to be fully indulged in my social media content. It allows me to do all the things that I need to do, to keep up with the people that I need to keep up with. It allows me to post when I need to post, to respond to DMs like hopefully yours. And yeah, um, I again I will keep using the Be Present app. I hope that you use it. I hope that this analogy helps you. Um, and I hope that you are inspired. I hope that you feel hopeful about your future. I hope that you feel excited about creating some kind of side hustle or going all in on your full-time business. So now taking this podcast full circle back to the first topic, which is AI, which is having your own business. Look, I'm here to help you. Okay. I mean, maybe hopefully this podcast inspired you to do something about your life, to do something about your future career. You don't have to work with me. Of course not. I can only work with like a few people per month anyway. But if you would be interested in working with me, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna slide into my DMs on Instagram and you are going to send the word apply. When you send the word apply, you will get an automated message from me that's gonna ask you a series of questions. It's like five questions. Basically, I want to know where you're from, what have you been doing for work up to this point, um, how have you essentially been relating to online work? I forget what all the questions are, but um, if you answer the questions, I will then have enough information about you for us to have a productive conversation. And then I can respond to you over the DMs. And if I think that I can support you, if you're like, because you know, some people, I can't help literally everybody in the world. Um, but if you are the kind of person that I think that I can help and you tell me a little bit about yourself by answering those questions, then I will be able to say, okay, cool, here's what I think you should do. Or I will then recommend that you set up a call with a member of my team and they can give you a remote readiness rating. The remote readiness rating, um, actually, if you just want to go straight into that, you can text R R R to my Instagram at Christabella Travels. Um, the remote readiness rating, it's not with me, it's with someone else on my team. But essentially, You're going to come prepared with your resume. You're going to come prepared with, you know, any business idea that you have had up to this point. And on that call, you're going to talk to somebody on my team and they're going to essentially assess how ready you are to be stepping into either a full-time or a part-time business completely remotely. So yeah, that is actually a completely free service that we are offering right now. I don't know how long we'll be offering this, but anyway, if you're listening to this podcast in Q4 of 2025, then the offer for the remote readiness rating free call stands. Otherwise, again, slide into my DMs with the word apply at Christabella Travels, and that will actually be me responding to you via DMs or I'll send you a voice message or whatever. Just make sure that you actually answer the questions so that we can have a productive conversation. By this point, you know literally everything about me, but I don't know anything about you. So in order to even out the playing field a little bit, I'm gonna need some information about who you are and what you want in your life. And then we can cut to the chase because I hate to have I hate surface level conversations, honestly. I can't fucking stand it. So tell me a bit about yourself. I genuinely would love to hear from you. I want to support you. I want to help you change your life. I want to help you have more freedom. I want you to be more authentic, and I want you to be safe in this changing world. Like with this again, tidal wave, this tsunami of AI with technology, I want you to be safe. I want you to be healthy, I want you to have a good relationship with technology, and I want you to be able to just live your life to the fullest. I want you to get to a point where if someone said, Hey, you have one month to live, you're gonna be like, Okay, I'm ready. It's a big ask, but I know that if I can get my life to that point, so can you. So sending you lots of love. Hopefully, I see you on Instagram in the DMs. Remember, that's our protein. Let's go, let's go. Okay, thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye.