alivewithad

alivewithad is a newsletter for Digital Nomads, sharing real stories and advice from experienced nomads to help you make the most of this lifestyle.

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Hey, Shagufta here! Welcome to the 15th edition of alivewithad.

Now, let me introduce my today’s guest!

Lights, Camera, and Action 🥁 👟🧗🏻‍♀️

Nomad of the Week is Edit Peter 🦘

Let’s hear her story told in her own words!!

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The Nomad Story

1. How did you start your digital nomad journey?

I've always been attracted to travel as most of you are. The world is so big and full of amazing places and I wanted to see as much of it as possible. I had my little girl four years ago in 2020, during COVID and COVID put a stop to my business, then I had a client facing business. I was a therapist but I couldn't have people in my house and then as time went on, I didn't want to have people in my house anymore because I'm here with my little girl.

I started a virtual assistant business which I still have but then eight months ago I met with a lady who told me about an amazing travel business that she's doing and instantly she had my attention I asked her how this works and she explained to me that not only you can earn a great commission on booking travel for anybody but you can also do it for your own travel. And because we get agent-only booking portals and agent-only rates, we can access travel at a much better rate than people looking online.

So if you, as a digital nomad, are looking for your travel on well-known sites like booking dot com or Airbnb, just know that commission is built into the prices and anything that you see. So when you book that travel for yourself through a travel platform that I'm using, that means you actually earn that commission back to yourself.

Besides that, because you're an agent, you will be posting about your travels and telling people, friends, family, and all the other digital nomads about it on your social media. These hotels, resorts, and Airbnbs want you to stay with them, so what they actually do is give you amazing rates, upgrades, better rooms, and better services because they would like you to send other clients their way. So you can not only benefit financially by booking your own travel or anybody else’s travel that you know, but you can also save amazing rates on your own travel. You can see the world for better rates because you're already traveling.

So when I saw this, the light went on instantly. I thought yes I want to do this, I want to take my family on more adventures, I want to do it at a better rate, and I want to make money alongside doing it.

So I started working with this eight months ago. I put lots of travel for friends and family and other digital nomads that I met online. I work actively on LinkedIn and Instagram so I do check with a lot of people and then it just came together that I can help not just friends and family—the immediate network but other people who are already traveling the world so that was a no-brainer for me.

And that was a second part of the business as well where I can help you to get started in your travel business and then obviously that adds another income stream to the business as well.

2. How do you balance work, travel, and personal time?

It needs planning! It needs planning as much as we all love spontaneity, it just needs a little bit of planning and maybe a couple of weeks to get your head around what you're doing. So it doesn't need excess planning for months and years and stuff but it does need a couple of weeks of planning ahead.

You know as I mentioned I've got a four-year-old daughter, and my partner also has a self-employed business, so we have the flexibility luckily. So if I see anything that we like, we can just go for it, we can just book it because my daughter is not in school yet. So for me, it's a very good balance because I can take my business anywhere I go. Saying that you still need to double-check, so I always like to check whether I'm going to have a stable Wi-Fi connection where I'm going because it's important to me.

If I have a client call or if I want to just spend half an hour booking travel for somebody who got in touch with me, I can do that. I also make sure that my phone is connected to the whole world. Before I go anywhere, I double-check that I will have network coverage, that I’ll have internet, and that I can use my plan. So it's always worth investing that extra sort of 20-30 pounds in your plan to make sure that you can use your phone worldwide. If you can't or if the country is not on the list, then I make sure that I can purchase either an e-card or as soon as I get to the airport, I can get a new SIM card. So yeah for those purposes you might need an extra phone if your phone is not unlocked. I think this is something very important that you will face as a digital nomad.

Apart from my day, I like to work early in the mornings so I usually wake up at 5:30 in the morning. I have a list of things that I like to do I call income-producing activities—the ones that move my business along. And then I can structure calls as they come in. I can attend video calls with people like yourself and then I can spend more time with my daughter as well. Again in the evening, I have my little time blocks where I do my income-producing activities which are not calls, posting, or being on videos but doing the work that moves the needle every day.

3. What’s your most memorable travel story?

I think it was for our fifth anniversary with my partner we went to Crete, I had to think because we've been to so many different Greek Islands. We went to Crete and it was in early November but Crete is still really lovely, it was still about 26-27 degrees warm. We usually hire either a bike or a car to explore. I never just go to one town and stay there.

One day we decided to go to Elafonisi Beach which is right down south in Crete. It's got pink sand from pink corals and it's really beautiful. I went to this beach and it was probably about two or three people on the whole beach besides us, a lovely restaurant just a few meters back so you could sit on the terrace and see the whole Beach.

There was a little island where you could walk to because the tide was high out so you were only about like I don't know 20 centimeters in the water and you could go to this island and we were the only people on this little island and we could walk around and explore.

It's not a huge island but it just felt absolutely amazing. These are the reasons why we travel to have these experiences, to just feel the difference in the world and to just sort of get lost for a day or two or a month or two and just be because our lives are so busy when you get into the daily routine or when you're working a 9 to 5 job that when you get away, you get out of that routine and you get to see who you are and you get to discover new things and you get new perspectives.

I think this just stayed with me, this moment of being able to walk to an island where there is no one. It was surreal, it was beautiful, it was amazing and we were just speechless you know just walking around and saying no words.

4. What’s your biggest challenge as a digital nomad?

The biggest challenge is to make sure that I've got enough snacks for my daughter you know four-year-olds olds going to be really picky yes! So to make sure that I take food that is going to last for a week or so she likes snacks because if you go to different restaurants and she says no to most of the food, I still need to be able to feed her.

Researching as well you know what the local cuisine is and what I can give her. Luckily, you know in this day and age, most places are equipped with so many different options that she will find something and I got her into eating fish so that I can find that pretty much anywhere in the world but yeah snacks!

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Through the Lens of a Nomad

5. What’s the most affordable country you’ve visited?

It is probably Slovakia, Czech, Czechoslovakia. It's probably not very high on many people's list but I am a keen snowboarder, we love winter sports and Slovakia has beautiful mountains, the Tatra mountains and it is much more affordable for winter sports than Austria, than the French Arcs, Canadian Arcs, it is beautiful and right there in the heart of Europe. So you can mix it with other city breaks.

So you're really close to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna as well. You can make a whole round trip of it all. But for winter sports and hospitality, their food is really affordable, accommodation is really nice and affordable. You can stay in lodges with hot tubs and saunas already in the lodges, you know ski lodges, and have the experience that you would like to have perhaps that you would have in France. But I find the hospitality is warmer than in France.

The people are just more genuine, kinder, and more welcoming. It just feels like a smaller community feel. So if you're a beginner, especially in snowboarding or skiing it's a perfect destination.

6. What’s one item you can’t travel without?

My phone! Even if I don't take my laptop I can do all my work from this phone. I can still be connected to the world. I've got my whole business in here, my whole business yep.

7. What’s the quickest way to meet people in a new city?

The quickest way probably is to look for Facebook groups or Instagram and LinkedIn to find like-minded people because if you have a list in your head of what you would like to see as a digital nomad, probably other digital nomads will have the same idea. Or they may not have the idea, they just visit the country and they're looking for the same thing as you did, looking to share their adventures together.

So it's a great way to talk to people beforehand or ask for recommendations from people who have been to that destination or are there right now and then meet up for dinner or coffee. I would say always always always meet up with people in public places you know in cafes and restaurants. As much as we are all kind and loving individuals, you still need to be careful and be wary as a solo traveler—you need to put safety first.

8. What’s the best travel hack you’ve discovered?

The best travel hack is to pack less, just take less.

9. How do you find good Wi-Fi while traveling?

It's research. It's chatting to those people in the groups who have been there and going with recommendations because you have no way of knowing beforehand.

Know Your Nomad (Rapid Fire)

10. Favorite city?

Budapest

11. Top bucket list destination?

Maldives

12. Best travel season?

May to July

13. Essential travel gadget(s)?

My phone

14. Favourite way to travel (plane, train, etc.)?

It's going to be flying you know it gets me everywhere fast.

15. One word to describe nomad life?

Flexibility

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Favorite Digital Nomad Resource/s

16. Please share your go-to app, website, or a resource that helps you stay connected, manage finances, find accommodation, etc.

For accommodation and travel, I use my own business. I also have a huge community of other agents who support me so we share information and we share a lot of knowledge.

Let’s wrap up

17. If you could give one piece of advice to new nomads, what would it be?

My advice would be the same as I mentioned so far, do your research. It sounds glamorous, it looks lovely but you need to research to make sure that your expectations are going to be met. And never ever travel without high-level travel insurance to cover any mishappenings.

Please follow Edit on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Thank you for reading the 15th edition, I appreciate your support. ❤

I will keep publishing such interesting interviews every Sunday at 11:00 AM sharp. To not miss any edition, subscribe to the newsletter here. 👐

I see you next Sunday, till then keep traveling and conquering the world!

Your nomad friend,

Shagufta

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