Building a Nomadic Life with Chelsea Riffe

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Chelsea Riffe is a digital nomad & podcast coach, joining me to discuss the challenges and benefits she faces as she uses her travel experiences and problem-solving abilities to enhance her business and personal life.

Becoming a Digital Nomad

  • Transition to Nomadism: Chelsea shares her journey from a corporate job to becoming a digital nomad, including the challenges and motivations behind her lifestyle change. [00:02:32]
  • Living as a Digital Nomad: Insights into the day-to-day realities of nomadic life, including managing work-life balance and maintaining productivity on the move. [00:08:56]

Work Life Balance as a Digital Nomad

  • Discussing Lifestyle Choices: Chelsea shares how she handles conversations around traveling, assuaging the fears of family and friends, and inspirations for her current lifestyle. [00:17:05]
  • Cultural Experiences and Learnings: Chelsea discusses how traveling enriches her life and work, and the personal growth she experiences through her travels. [00:32:33]
  • Prioritization and Time Management: Chelsea discusses how she refines her scheduling and prioritization through regular reviews, highlighting the importance of rest and creativity. She also explores the impact of urgency culture on health and lifestyle, offering insights into creating protective systems.[00:43:31]

Find Chelsea at chelseariffe.com, @chelseariffe on IG, or listen to her podcast In My Non Expert Opinion

Click here to view the transcript for this episode.

[00:00:00] Ela Miranda: All right. welcome. We have Chelsea Rife, podcast coach extraordinaire here with us today. Welcome.

[00:00:08] Chelsea Riffe: Thank you so much for having me. Definitely not showing off my podcast extraordinaire with how long it took me to jump on and my tech issues, but that’s the lifestyle I live of being a digital nomad.

[00:00:19] So thanks for bearing with me and I’m, I’m very happy to be on.

[00:00:23] Ela Miranda: Of course, yeah, I have also been traveling for the past few months and it’s always an adventure, there’s always something, so.

[00:00:31] Chelsea Riffe: Always, like, you’re gonna hear some dogs in the back tonight, they decide to bark at the moon every single night, I don’t know why.

[00:00:38] You might hear a chicken or a rooster, like, you’re gonna hear some characters today.

[00:00:43] Ela Miranda: Oh yeah, I am, I’m currently at my parents and my mom hosts a school, so there are children running around and I’m like as far away as possible, but you know, they’re, they’re loud, so.

[00:00:55] Chelsea Riffe: Yeah, we’re gonna have a lot of characters, everyone, so it’s gonna be a play in your ears today.

[00:01:01] Ela Miranda: For sure. All right. Well, to start off, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and how you got started traveling?

[00:01:13] Chelsea Riffe: Yeah, so like you said, I’m a podcast coach. I really focus on content strategy, and I also am a full time digital nomad, so I travel constantly. This year, I think I’ve been to like, Ten countries and maybe 16 or 17 cities.

[00:01:28] It was never meant to be at this pace. And for some reason I Got myself into this cycle and I feel like I can’t break it and that is something that I’m I’m trying to be like Do I need to travel every single three to six weeks? So that is just part of my lifestyle right now and I’m in Albania So that’s just a little bit of context about me and I also run a podcast called in my non expert opinion I’ve been doing that since 2017 And I started that actually after a breakup really for creative, like self expression.

[00:01:57] And then I did it for a while, really like three or four years without making a dime or it wasn’t anything except a creative outlet. And then eventually when the pandemic hit, I started my own business. I was in Australia and I pivoted that business to eventually turn into podcast coaching. So now that’s what I’ve been doing really.

[00:02:13] Full time for the last like year and a half, maybe two years. And then what was the last part of the question? How did I get into traveling ? So I would say I caught the travel bug in 2012 when I studied abroad in Valencia, Spain. And then I started working for a corporate American company like most of us do after college.

[00:02:32] I was working an influencer on content marketing. I was moving up actually very quickly in the company. I was a manager when I was 25 years old. I was winning president’s club for hitting my sales quotas. I was taking my parents to Maui when I was like 26 because of the awards I was winning. And it felt really good at the time, right?

[00:02:50] You’re like, Oh, this is it. Like, this was what they were talking about. After college, you move up the ladder and you get all these awards and dah, dah, dah. But the glaring reality was the PTO days, the fact that I had to work when I was sick, so I would just actually work from home and if I wanted to actually take a sick day I had to take PTO, the fact that you don’t actually clock in and out at nine and five, you usually get in a little earlier and stay a little later.

[00:03:16] You don’t really take your hour lunch break because you feel, you know, guilt and shame, and you want to look like a productive person. And so while I was moving up, I just felt very disconnected from the reality of like, this is the rest of your life. You don’t get a winter break or a school summer break and get three months off.

[00:03:32] Like you get your 12 days of PTO, sprinkle in a few bank holidays, and that’s about it. And so when I took my PTO, I would always go to Europe or some international type of, you know, vacation. And it was always so rushed. I remember one trip, we did three cities in Europe in nine days, and it was psychotic.

[00:03:51] We, like, slept half the time because we were so tired. And that really started to weigh on me. Like, this is going to be your life. You’re gonna have to stack your vacation days and sprint through these cities. Or only get to pick one city a year, which just seemed asinine to me. So eventually I was like, you need to figure out a way to get out of this job and do something else.

[00:04:11] So eventually like 2017, 2018, it started brewing. Maybe I need to do something else and prioritize travel. And so I started hardcore looking at visas abroad and international companies I could work for. Ended up in Australia. I was there for a year and the first six months I had no intention of actually really starting a business.

[00:04:31] I was like, let me just explore and see what I want to do. And then as the months went on and I realized how much free time I had, because I wasn’t working a full nine to five, I started taking it a bit more seriously. Like the seed really started blossoming and then the pandemic hit and I was in Australia, so I had absolutely nothing to do. But focus on my business. And then while I was doing that and really focusing on my business, that reality hit too of, well, you actually could be a digital nomad. So not only can you create your own business, you can actually create your lifestyle and travel while you are building this business. So then that started to come to fruition in like 2020 after the lockdown, obviously.

[00:05:10] And then, yeah, the last two years has been pretty full on with travel with this year being the craziest.

[00:05:16] Ela Miranda: as you’ve, traveled and as you’ve, like, started to see all of these different like jobs and different lifestyles and things. How have you really found your motivation to keep working? Like, how do you balance, I guess, both doing the work and seeing these places, especially as you’re moving so frequently?

[00:05:38] Chelsea Riffe: Yeah, that is a great question. I would say the first thing I realized was I cannot work a normal five day, 40 hour work week. So I started to back out my schedule to take Fridays off.

[00:05:49] And I was honestly modeling that after my study abroad program that I did when I was 21. I was like, I remember we would have classes on Thursdays up until noon, and they intentionally did that. So if you wanted to leave on a trip, you could have all of Thursday night plus a three day weekend and still get back in time for your Monday morning classes.

[00:06:06] So I was like, how can I make my schedule look like that? And that was my first iteration of having that work life balance, which to this day, I still take Fridays off. I don’t think I’ve done a client call. Or really anything big on Fridays. That’s like my catch up slash explore day. And then the second thing is that I’m actually ahead of a lot of my clients in terms of time zones.

[00:06:27] So most of my clients are in the U S. Funny enough, both of my one on one clients right now are in Europe, which I’m not used to that we’re all in the same time zone. So that is usually the case though, is I’m six to nine hours ahead. So even if I woke up at 9 a. m. and started blasting off emails, it’s 3 a. m.

[00:06:43] for them. It doesn’t even matter. They’re not going to see it. So I use my mornings to go explore. That is when I go do the activities, go to the beach, write, go to a yoga class, whatever I want to do. Even go to lunch, right? I really don’t have to be online until like 1 or 2 p. m. And that is very intentional.

[00:07:00] I purposely choose a lot of places where I’ll be quote unquote ahead of my clients. And then the last thing I would say is, There are times where I have no balance. Like, there have been times where I’ve traveled with groups, and an example is a company called Remote Year, and it’s a bunch of remote workers traveling together.

[00:07:18] It’s basically like study abroad for adults. Those trips, I remember being in Peru and telling this person, I feel like I haven’t worked at all. I feel like I literally have not worked a full, committed, deep work workday in like, 25 days, I felt so unproductive and it was because I was prioritizing travel and experiences way over working.

[00:07:38] And that was something that fortunately nothing happened, but I think there could have been consequences where, you know, a client could have been like, Hey, I’m, you know, we’re a little behind on this timeline or you’re not as responsive. And. I, I became cognizant of that before they did. And, you know, I was able to course correct myself, but I have to be very alert and attentive to that happening.

[00:07:59] Because it is something that, like you said, it’s, it’s part of my lifestyle and I have to plan ahead for it. I don’t just like show up in these countries and be like, woo, hopefully it works. I, I’m very intentional about how my calendar looks every time I move around.

[00:08:14] Ela Miranda: Yeah, that is definitely I think of an aspect of decision making that when it comes to travel that People don’t always necessarily realize Especially time zones. I feel like switching those, like, not only is it hard on your body, but like, just the constant switch, like, and being cognizant and aware of that is definitely super important. You have talked a lot recently on your own podcast and others as well about the challenges and some of the decision fatigue and all of those things that come with traveling.

[00:08:48] So what are some of the steps that you have taken to make both work and your nomadic lifestyle easier?

[00:08:56] Chelsea Riffe: I would say that the travel time zone thing is a huge one and actually having my Calendly reflect my ideal hours and having someone help me keep those guardrails in place. So what you were just talking about, not only is it challenging, but some places don’t do like daylight savings or the daylight savings days are weird or like the holidays.

[00:09:16] For us aren’t the same for them like three Kings Day in Spain is technically their Christmas And so they take off more of like the first week of January I didn’t know that stuff until I started traveling and people would be like that’s our holiday. I’m like, oh my god Yeah, I forgot it’s July 4th. Of course, no one’s working and I’m here in whatever Spain obviously no one’s celebrating so I again had to look ahead at my calendar and be like You can’t just go into these countries blinded, you need to put their holidays, you need to put your holidays, you need to understand if they do daylight savings, also just in general, like, when does it get dark?

[00:09:52] Right? I’m not trying to work at night for five hours and in pitch black. So that’s something I try to look ahead to is what are the hours, you know, is it normal to be a digital nomad there because some countries aren’t that open to digital nomads and they’ll have cafes that say like, no wifi, no laptops, you know, shut down, come grab a coffee and connect.

[00:10:13] And you’re like, Oh, I brought my laptop because I was going to work here. So this is awkward. And I need to look that stuff up too. I’d say the other thing is really prioritizing self care and my health. I got really, really sick last year when I was traveling. back to back to the point where doctors were like, you should really get your tonsils out.

[00:10:30] I got like flaming tonsillitis twice in a row. So I did a round of antibiotics and I swear, like five days later, it came right back. And then I was sick again for another few weeks. And then I, it was about to come back. And I feel like, I don’t know what happened if I just shut it down or my body is like, we can’t do a third round, but.

[00:10:47] That was very eye opening because I was pushing myself to the max. I had no balance. I was trying to squeeze everything in work experiences, socializing, dating. Like I really thought I could do it all. And my body was like, you actually can’t. So then I got really sick and that taught me. You cannot squeeze every experience into every day.

[00:11:08] You do have to say no to people. You do have to take care of your health. I ended up hiring a personal trainer in a lot of the countries I went to. By the way, when you travel in cheap countries, these things are very cheap, right? So, when I say I hired a personal trainer, it’s not like New York City where they’re 120 an hour.

[00:11:25] In Argentina… It’s like 14 an hour to hire a trainer. So that really helped me focus because not only did I want to show up and make all my appointments because I paid for them. I didn’t want to be hung over personal training. So I stopped drinking a lot too. And then when you are training three times a week, you also want to eat a bit healthier.

[00:11:43] So I think just that action alone really started to show me that my health is important. And I’m happy to report knock on wood this whole entire year I haven’t been sick. I haven’t been on antibiotics. I haven’t had to be like, Completely out of commission. And I feel like that’s because I started taking my health 10 times more seriously than in the past.

[00:12:02] I would say the last thing is community. It does get really lonely. It does get really isolating. It gets really challenging. And I feel like if I was just doing this by myself and never connecting with people, I would be in a very bad mental space and probably not be able to keep going. So whether that’s online communities, like we’re in one called pretty decent, and I’m always trying to join when I can, based on the hours, communities like that are really important to me as well as physical communities.

[00:12:29] So if I’m in the area and there’s like a wellness group or a group chat where everyone meets and, you know, hangs out on Sundays at the cafe, I really try to integrate myself in those groups because, like I said, it can get really isolating and I think we’re social creatures so we need to, if you’re a digital nomad, you need to like build that into your lifestyle.

[00:12:47] Ela Miranda: Absolutely. Connection is so important. Speaking of connections, I have noticed for myself that there are often a lot of people who do not understand this lifestyle and have a lot of questions about why you would choose to, like, constantly have everything in your life be changing. So, do you, have any strategies, right? Is there like, fallback answers that you have? How do you deal with, like, having really important people in your life, right, not understand this?

[00:13:22] Chelsea Riffe: I think it comes down to values. So, you know, a lot of people that don’t understand it, they just simply don’t have the same values. They probably value different things.

[00:13:30] Maybe it’s material items, maybe it’s comfort and stability, and maybe it’s, you know, being rooted in a place and grounded. And for me, I value those things, but not as highly as I value other things like exploration and knowledge and education and culture. And so this is something that really only in the last six months, I realized too, that everything I do, I try to align in my values and it’s easy to see if I’m living them if I just look at my schedule.

[00:13:59] So if I value curiosity, And every day I’m going to a new cafe or taking a different walk on, you know, with the way down to the beach or meeting new people in a WhatsApp group that is fueling my curiosity value. So a lot of people won’t understand because. They also think you’re running away from something and it’s really hard to grasp that you might just want to be exploring the world because you actually can.

[00:14:23] And I always just think in my head, this is not like a verbal defense that I say out loud, but my internal thought process is like, if we have the capacity and capability to see the world with all these inventions like planes and trains and all these new things coming out like bullet trains and I don’t even know, I’m hearing all these new lines coming out, right?

[00:14:44] It’s like, why wouldn’t we take advantage of it and see as much of the world as we can and get to know different cultures? I think that’s something too that people might not put a lot of emphasis on, like they think you’re just taking vacation all the time. And it’s like, no, I actually want to go immerse myself in that culture and get to understand why do Spanish people take naps in the middle of the day and call it siesta time?

[00:15:06] Why do Australians actually value their, their lives over their work and stop working at four and go surf? Like, that’s a very big thing in Australia. Why do, you know, what is this culture does this and this culture does that? To me, it’s like, I feel like we have this really cool, opportunity to be like our own Anthony Bourdain and go like travel the world and eat different food and speak to different people.

[00:15:31] And so for me, It’s almost the same question of, it’s, if you almost flipped, flipped it back to that person, you could ask them, I can’t believe you buy a house. I can’t believe you buy a car. Tell me why you decided to have three kids at the age of 27. And their defense would be like, Oh, because I want to, I want a family, I want the car, I want the kids.

[00:15:53] And so that’s kind of what I think too, is like, exactly. I want to travel. I want to meet new people. I want to experience different cultures and different foods. So it’s just a values thing and yeah, some people won’t get it when I moved to Australia. I had two different friends moms asked me if I was going there to quote unquote find a husband and one of my friend’s moms literally said that she thought I was lying and that I had like a secret lover in Australia and I was like, you would know if I had a secret lover, I would be posting about him. I would be showing off my Australian boyfriend. I would be like, Hey, I’m going to go meet my Aussie man.

[00:16:28] And that just was that actually to me showed a bigger picture. Like I’ve had time to marinate on this too is yeah. Just what Americans value is the traditional milestones of marriage and home ownership and car ownership. And that’s something I’ve really detached from. And so I know when people are saying stuff like that, it’s just a projection.

[00:16:47] And they’re worried, right? How are you going to find a husband if you’re traveling all the time? How are you going to build credit and buy a home? And to me, it’s just, I can shrug it off now and be like, those aren’t high values to me. So it doesn’t really matter. And I’m going to keep doing what I want, how I want, because it aligns with. What I want to do.

[00:17:05] Ela Miranda: It’s so interesting to me to see like the things that people worry about as you have those conversations. I’ve definitely been repeating to myself often that, if people did not care about me, they would not be asking questions and trying to understand and framing it from that perspective has been really helpful. Both for me to be compassionate in my answers and to be like understanding. In general, one of my values of connection very much centers on believing that people are, at their core, good and, like, willing to connect with you. And so just remembering that sometimes the fears and the anxieties and the things that like come up for everyone are not aligned with the values and the ways that I want to live my life and like remembering that in order to reflect how I actually want to be responding in my answers has been, something I’m constantly working on, but.

[00:18:09] Chelsea Riffe: Oh, it is a work in progress. And I do have a quick story about that, that. When I was trying to quit my job, I was just looking at an easy transition. So I was looking at jobs in London that I could just transfer offices and it was going really well. And I was starting to interview and get into final rounds.

[00:18:24] And then I was taking it very seriously and like presenting to my current company, what it would cost and dah, dah, dah. And it basically got to the point where I was like, I’m pretty much 85 percent moving to London. And I was getting ready and excited. And so, you know, prepared. And my mom kept like. It felt like she kept digging at it, like, why now?

[00:18:44] Or like, do you need to go right now? And, you know, why do you need to go? And eventually one day I just point blank asked her, like, is there a reason that it bothers you that I’m going to London? Or that you keep interjecting? Because it actually makes me feel like you don’t trust my… Instincts like it makes that’s what it feels like like you think that i’m gonna fall flat on my face and not be able to pick up the pieces myself and She actually just admitted when you’re a mom this security alarm goes off where you just get really worried of like What if you run out of money and what if we can’t help you if we lose our jobs and then you’re stuck there and what if you get sick and can’t fly home and it’s that catastrophic thinking and she’s like you’ll understand when you’re a mom like every mom becomes this way and that actually made me have like you said more compassion and empathy for her because I was taking it as like she doesn’t want me to go she’s not happy for me she’s throwing me under the bus and doesn’t think I’m smart and can’t do this myself and in reality she’s like you Really what it comes down to is I’m just worried if something happens, we can’t help you because we’re not going to fly out there.

[00:19:48] And if we don’t have the money that you’re going to be stuck there, I was like, Oh, that’s actually pretty rational and like, reasonable to be worried about your daughter taking on a new job that might not work out. That is something, um, that I think could help too when, if anyone listening is going through this, and people are constantly pestering you and being like, why?

[00:20:07] Why this? I think it’s okay to just be like, is there a reason you’re worried? Or like, you know, can you walk me through why it, it’s like constantly prompting these questions? Cause I want to answer them. And you might get a different answer than you even expected.

[00:20:20] Ela Miranda: Yeah, absolutely. I think that we often get really caught up in like our own feelings and our, our own defensiveness, right?

[00:20:27] Like, I, I feel like you don’t trust me. I feel like all of these things. And when you actually sit down and have the conversation, as scary as that might be sometimes, right? It, it really does open up the door to much deeper connection and understanding. And as someone who, Constantly runs from conflict.

[00:20:47] I do understand that, like, it feels sometimes really scary to have these conversations, but, at the end of the day, I think just trusting that, like, you know, if everything is going to work out for me, then, like, all of these conversations and, like, all of these relationships are going to end up working out the way that they’re meant to.

[00:21:06] And so, you know, We all have our own shit that we’re bringing into, like, everything that we do. It’s that, that saying, right? Wherever you go, there you are. And so there’s always things that you’re going to have to deal with as you navigate relationships. But, I think at this point in my own life, I’ve definitely recognized that, like, it comes down to being able and willing to do that work because building community is something that is going to take effort from you regardless of where you are.

[00:21:38] Chelsea Riffe: 100%.

[00:21:38] Ela Miranda: speaking of, somewhat untraditional paths, right? That people may not always understand. Did you have anyone that you looked up to as like an example or inspiration for how to build this nomadic life in this business?

[00:21:51] Chelsea Riffe: Oh, that is a good question.

[00:21:53] I’m trying to think if I knew people that were truly like digital nomads. I don’t know that I knew people as much as I just listened to people that traveled and worked and I had experienced enough of that in my corporate job where, you know, I would go all over the United States to do meetings and Just hearing, you know, there’s companies that have, uh, offices all over the world.

[00:22:14] And so I was like, you know, there’s people at these offices that will just travel to all the other offices. And so I kind of use that as a model of like, it’s not impossible to pick up and move around, but I actually don’t recall like a specific. Influencer or podcaster or person that I prepared for, you know, who helped me the most was expat groups on Facebook.

[00:22:33] That was when I realized how many people were doing it, because as you know, it’s really uncommon for Americans to not, not only work remote, like this is something, you know, really big and new in the last three, four years, but to do it at a pace where you’re constantly moving around and bopping around.

[00:22:49] Where you don’t even know where you’re going to live in six months. That’s even more uncomfortable and unconventional for Americans. And so for me, I felt very, in a way like Special like I’m the only one that’s doing this like wow no one else in the world is doing like even you ask that question I was like, I don’t really know.

[00:23:08] And then I realized when I got in these expat groups on Facebook like Americans living in Sydney, Australia, I was like oh my god there’s like 3000 people in here and everyone’s doing it and then I started my friend was like you should join. Anywhere that you want to move, you should join an expat group on their Facebook page.

[00:23:23] And so then I found expats in Barcelona, expats in whatever. And just seeing all these people that were doing it really helped me understand, okay, we can actually do this thing. And they’re giving me clear instructions on how to do it. They’ve been through it before.

[00:23:37] Ela Miranda: It is definitely like, I think something that has like really exploded in the past few years. Now that you’ve kind of spent a few years on the road and you have more experience here Has anything changed from how you thought you would set up your business? And is there any support that you’re building for yourself now in order to continue staying on the road?

[00:23:58] Chelsea Riffe: I think the way something that I’ve changed is how often I’m doing live launches and like big group programs because for me, Holding the container of larger people and live launching doesn’t always align with my schedule and bopping around.

[00:24:13] Uh, a good example is like today trying to get the wifi to work for this interview. If you’re doing a live launch and doing group programs and responsible for so many people in a container, it, you just automatically means you need to be. a little more tight with your schedule and where you’re staying and making sure you have that strong Wi Fi, et cetera.

[00:24:31] So for me, at least this year, I knew the pace I was going at. I couldn’t launch anything live. So I decided to really just focus on higher ticket one on ones and I have all of them on payment plans. So even if I don’t. Launch anything, or if I have a down period or whatever the case is, it doesn’t really matter because I have monthly recurring revenue.

[00:24:50] That’s probably one of the biggest changes I’ve made then that I want to keep doing that because it does allow me to forecast things where before, when I started my business, I mean, it was a wild ride. It was like, Yeah, everyone pay in full and then I would spend half of it and save the other half and be like, whoa, I don’t have any money like where am I living in the next two months?

[00:25:08] And that was chaotic. So I quickly learned I need a set amount of income coming in each month. So even clients that want to pay in full, I’m like, I’d rather you not I’d rather put you on a monthly payment plan because it helps me find that stability and know that it’s okay if I need to move or do something again, because I can predict that.

[00:25:26] I would say the other thing is. It’s taking the mornings off and taking Fridays off. It allows me to digest and reflect and process that period where I was traveling with that group. It was four months in a row and there were 26 of us and it was go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Never stopping. I mean, constant socializing experiences, dinners, lunches, things on the weekend, side trips, road trips, like go, go, go.

[00:25:51] And it actually. Got to a point where I felt a bit jaded where I’m like, I don’t even like half these things aren’t even exciting anymore because my dopamine is just being spiked every single day every single minute doing these things. And so I felt very like Unappreciative at times where I’m like it shouldn’t be like this I should be able to digest and process how magical this is.

[00:26:11] So part of my life Moving forward is like not to pack myself up like that right now. I’m in Albania and people are probably like, why are you in Albania? It’s kind of a random country to be in. I purposely chose it because it’s not that touristy It’s off season where I am in is a small beach town I know there’s not a lot of people here that i’m going to run into and so that was very intentional So I had the down time to process and reflect on what’s happened in the last year because it’s been so much travel so Yeah, moving forward, that’s important to me is like bake in that digestion and reflection time, or else you will get really jaded really quickly.

[00:26:44] Ela Miranda: I think it’s really important to like both from a health perspective as well You’re talking about like really focusing on like your body and I think at least i’ve noticed for me and just my mental health in general like having that time to like sit down and have that time to reflect and really like Just rest.

[00:27:02] It’s So, I love that.

[00:27:04] Do you feel like doing things, in a way that is considered like untraditional and a little bit different has helped you to center ease and leisure? Why or why not?

[00:27:14] Chelsea Riffe: Ooh, yeah. yes, because the way I was doing it before, I’ve always been very mindful of like my internal world and how I’m feeling.

[00:27:24] And so when I was working in corporate America, I did try to hire a personal trainer and meditate before work and start going to yin yoga classes and always spending my weekends doing something fun. Like I never worked on the weekends when I worked in corporate America and it still constantly led me to feeling completely burnt out, disconnected from any like bigger purpose or meaning and definitely no leisure time because at the end of the day, I also was in sales and sales is the high risk, high reward jobs where yeah, you get paid a lot of commission if you work your ass off and you are willing to stay the office later to 9 p. m. or work through your lunch break or. Yeah, sometimes working on vacation. I remember being in Budapest at the hostel with a group around us trying to like Send a spreadsheet on the hostel computer and i’m just like this is not how this vacation was supposed to go so Being able to do things this way not only has it Obviously freed up my schedule.

[00:28:23] Like I now choose my own time and when I want to work with people and how I want to work with people. So like automatically by default, I already get to experience a new lifestyle that allows me to do more leisurely and playful and pleasurable things, but just like confirmation bias works, I’ve now found a ton of other people that do this and the ways they live their lives.

[00:28:43] So now I get to see like. For example, one of my clients plays tennis for like three hours a day. And during the morning, he’s just like writing and creating and doing all these fun things. And when he was back home, he used to surf for like two hours. And in my mind, I’m like, what is he doing? Cause he has a very successful practice and what’s going on here.

[00:29:02] And right now he’s in Italy with his girlfriend. And they rented this villa for a month. And then I was able to see like, Oh, this is another example of someone who’s living very unconventionally. And the way they built their schedule is they just do like three back to backs each day. So it’s just like 12 to three is his back to back.

[00:29:19] So all morning. And then every time after three, he has all this time all day to do everything that he wants. So that’s just one example of, I don’t, I would have never found someone like that. Had I stayed in my structure because it’s just natural, right? What’s the, what’s the term I’m looking for? homogeny, is that the word?

[00:29:36] you’re just When you’re in a group of people, that’s what you’re used to. So when you’re working around a bunch of corporate American people, working late hours and 80 hour weeks and barely taking their PTO, you think that’s normal, but then when you go the opposite way and you’re like, Oh, let me try to take Fridays off and maybe I won’t work eight hours a day and let’s see what else is out there that becomes your norm and you start to attract people and see more people like that.

[00:30:00] So for me, I do think it absolutely helped me. Start to center leisure and prioritize things outside of just work tasks, because also, I think there’s a period where I hit a level of success in my business where my eyes are kind of open to like, this is just what it’s going to be at every level times 10.

[00:30:18] So you have the 10, 000 month. Oh, wow. You actually don’t feel this weird, magical feeling that everyone advertises on Instagram. So what is it going to feel like if I make a million or 5 million or whatever the case is? And it really started to hit me of like, my quality of life is actually the thing that I prioritize over my monthly income.

[00:30:37] So my quality of life does not have to be expensive. I love the beach. I love having a nice dinner here and there. But mostly what I love to do is be outside and hang out with people like genuinely. I like to just hang out with people and go talk and hang out and walk around all day. So when I thought about that, I’m like, Then how can you build your life like that?

[00:30:55] Just reverse engineering. How can I have more free time to hang out with my friends or be in places where the sun is shining and not have to work, again, 75 hours a week just to be able to hopefully catch up with a friend on a Sunday brunch? It’s definitely not easy. It’s hard all the time. Like, again, the scheduling and constantly figuring out where to live and the mental, like, overload of deciding, Is this place safe?

[00:31:19] And what’s the currency? And where should I live? Da da da But at the end of the day, I know for a fact I wouldn’t have gone to this place where I’m at right now of really understanding how I want to spend my time had I not taken that leap.

[00:31:30] Ela Miranda: Yeah, absolutely. I think like, that’s one of the core things that I end up teaching people is I genuinely believe that like at the end of the day, everybody actually knows what it is that they want to do and what it is that they need.

[00:31:44] But we’re often really disconnected from it because of culture and lifestyle and like, especially when it comes to neurodivergence, you’ve just been, taught for so long that, like, you shouldn’t acknowledge your needs, and you shouldn’t, ask for those things, and so, getting to that point of recognizing, you know, these are my values, these are the things that I need, and, being able to advocate for yourself, Is the first step to building any system because there are millions of different ways to do anything right and there are so many people who like have success and have done things but if you can’t define that for yourself.

[00:32:21] Those formulas aren’t necessarily going to be the things that end up working for you. You’re just kind of like shoving yourself into another box just because it looks different doesn’t make any changes there.

[00:32:32] Chelsea Riffe: Absolutely.

[00:32:33] Ela Miranda: One of the core principles of system design is the idea that each part has an impact on the whole. And I talk about this a lot when it comes to balance, right? That your life has an impact on your business just as your business has an impact on your life. So how would you say that this nomadic lifestyle that you’ve chosen, had an impact on your business? Like I know we’ve talked about a few things, but can you maybe go into a little bit more depth there?

[00:33:05] Chelsea Riffe: Yeah, I would say the first one is I’m a lot more patient and flexible in my business where that wasn’t the case when I worked in. Like corporate America again, you know, it was like a sin to be a few minutes late to a call or have to reschedule last minute. And now just with the lifestyle I live, I’m like, I get it.

[00:33:24] Like Wi Fi doesn’t work or you’re traveling and you miss your plane or whatever the case is. And I don’t, I really want to opt out of urgency culture and like adhering to these very strict, harsh, masculine, like rules of you have to do things this way. And so that is a huge thing that changed for me was.

[00:33:42] It’s okay. We don’t need to like charge someone 500 for rescheduling five minutes before where I’ve been in those situations where I see clauses of like, if you have to reschedule, we’ll, we’ll charge you this amount of money. And I’m like, that’s just not how I want to run my business. So I’m a lot more like soft with my business in that way.[00:34:00]

[00:34:00] Not in a way where I’m taking advantage of like I think people do really respect my time because to be honest because of my limited time I’m like, it’s okay to reschedule but we might not be able to talk for like two weeks because of how weird my schedule is. But I think that’s something that I’m, again, much more understanding of now.

[00:34:16] I think the other thing is. I’m very detail oriented because of both of these things. I actually didn’t realize this until probably the last two weeks, but you know, when you’re doing something, you’re just used to it. And so you’re like, Oh, it’s not a big deal. And then someone’s like, no, I never looked at it that way.

[00:34:32] And I realized that with certain things that I’m very like proactive with my client’s work, where I can anticipate a lot of things before they even realize they need it. And I’ll already come to them with a plan of like, Hey, let me be proactive and already show you the solutions. And so when, when I’m coming and bringing it up, I know that they’re going to ask me, well, what do you think?

[00:34:52] And I already have the options ready to go. That definitely came from traveling where I’m like, I always have to be thinking and planning ahead. I can’t again, just be like, oops, I don’t know where I’m living next week. LOL. Let me hope that I can find a place. It’s like, no, I have to look ahead and be proactive.

[00:35:07] And if this Airbnb cancels, what’s plan B. You know, if I can’t bring this bag, do I have a way to downsize? Can I donate somewhere? Like I’m really good at problem solving now. And so that problem solving and detail oriented nature, those both like feed each other from travel and business. I would say the last thing is, probably just creativity, right?

[00:35:27] There are so many things now that I’ll be. Reading a book about something so random and then podcasting with someone, and then I’ll go to the beach and then I’ll go take a plane ride. And like somehow all these things start to connect. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, this really is what I do in my business or what I talk about my business and vice versa.

[00:35:44] I’m trying to think of a specific example, but like, This happens literally almost every day where I’ll just be like doing yoga on my balcony and a download will come to me and I’m like, Oh, I should talk about that on the podcast. But wait, I actually did just talk about that with a client on a call the other day.

[00:35:58] So, whoa, this feels like a weird synchronicity. And I’m like, I don’t think that’s an accident. I think a lot of us, our business is like this self actualization. Expression of what we already are doing or believe in or value. And so it’s not that surprising, but yeah, that pops up all the time.

[00:36:13] Ela Miranda: love to hear that and I think it’s really interesting the point that you’ve made about how a lot of times what we’re doing is very much like aligned with the things that we believe in and the values and the things that, You know, you are talking about all the time.

[00:36:27] That’s actually one of the reasons why I started this podcast is because I noticed like I’m having the same conversation over and over and over again with so many different people. And so, how can I, you know, optimize my time a little bit. And kind of like have these conversations, in a way that’s Not necessarily less one on one, but just that, you know, you have an understanding of where I’m coming from and the values that I hold, like, before we even get to the table and have the conversation. And I just think it’s really interesting too, to see, like, how the lifestyle that you build can absolutely, like, have an impact on the things that you’re thinking about and the things that you’re saying, like,

[00:37:09] I think prioritizing that downtime for creatives is so important, especially when the work that you’re doing is knowledge work, right? Like, you are selling your own ideas and your own, like, concepts, and so to have that time to process things and to, have experiences so that you can build on your own knowledge is so important and I always love hearing how people have prioritized that and like have come to some really cool realizations because everybody knows so many cool things and I love to hear about it.

[00:37:48] Okay. since the, podcast name is Building Blocks and Puzzle Pieces, right? One of the things I love asking people is has there been an unexpected puzzle that you’ve had to solve recently? Or just during your travels when it comes to your business or your life?

[00:38:05] Chelsea Riffe: Oh my gosh, 100 percent to the point where I signed up for a systems course because I was like, I need to figure this out was Basically my daily tasks and then other projects I’m working on. So for example, travel in and of itself is a whole like part time job.

[00:38:22] I am constantly figuring out where I’m going, the cost of living, where to stay, flights, blah, blah, blah. That again takes up a lot of my time. Now add my one on one clients who I work with at a very high level. It’s not just like quick pick my brain calls. These are deep content strategy calls. We’re outlining things.

[00:38:39] We’re building SOPs. We’re mapping out content calendars for six months. Like it’s a lot of brain power. And then on top of that. I have creative stuff that I want to do outside of those two things, which is I want to create a sub stack. I have a podcast. I might want to start another podcast. I want to write a book and all these things.

[00:38:56] I genuinely had magical thinking about where I’m like, you’ll just get them all done one day. And like, You know, one day you’ll just I literally thought this that I could just go somewhere for a week and like not work and somehow bang out like a whole New York Times bestseller book. I’m like, you don’t even have published work like it was truly delusional.

[00:39:16] And I just kept thinking like this is how it’s going to work. One day you’re going to sprint. through two weeks and you’re going to figure out your finances and then you’re going to dedicate another month to writing and you’re just going to write a book. And I realized obviously after a lot of trial and error, that just wasn’t happening.

[00:39:28] And so I needed to learn not only how to manage my time better, but how to build systems where to your point, things are impacting another, but not. Domino effect, like crashing it all to the ground where my go to method, honestly, up until probably like three months ago was basically wake up and attend to the most urgent tasks first and the clients who pay me the most, and then everything else comes second.

[00:39:51] And that just wasn’t working long term because I never got to my creative projects. I never developed a writing habit. My podcast was always done last minute. Actually, at one point I had to like stop the podcast because I had no systems or plan in place and it was always done, done very haphazardly.

[00:40:06] So eventually I was like, you need to learn this skill because it’s also affecting how I hire people. I hired a virtual assistant and I had a business operations person. And at one point My business operations person was, managing the VA. And I remember at one point being so lost in the sauce of what we were working on that we got on a call and I was like, I don’t even, I couldn’t even tell you the status of these projects that I assigned to everybody because we don’t have a system in place.

[00:40:33] And it got to the point where I would check in with the VA and she’d be like. I’m really confused what we’re working on and the timelines and the priorities. Like this is very confusing to me. And that’s always been an insecurity of mine is that I’m like bad at managing people. I actually asked my old job when I worked in corporate America to take me out of the manager managerial position because I don’t like keeping track of like projects at that bigger level.

[00:40:54] And that’s when I learned. If you want to be a creative person and usually have your hand in all these different pots, you usually do need to learn a project management system to be able to manage those projects. So keeping it all in my brain and thinking, Oh, let me just dedicate like a week to each project.

[00:41:08] It just wasn’t working. So that’s something that’s very prevalent as we speak right now that I’m working on is building systems that I can prioritize, not only better, but projects according to what I value and what I have the space for.

[00:41:21] Ela Miranda: I think that concept of like keeping things in your head is so common.

[00:41:26] It’s something I hear over and over again. This is something that is like so different for me that sometimes I’m like, I just don’t understand.

[00:41:34] I understand that, like, it is common enough for everyone else that they’re, like, so resistant to, writing things down and having a plan. And there are so many other ways to do it. Like, I’m not saying, you immediately have to sit down and write a list every morning or whatever, but, just, like, not keeping everything in your head, I think, is, like, the number one key to success when it comes to systems and personally just for my life, like,

[00:42:00] Chelsea Riffe: yeah, yeah, I remember on my plane ride, this is like low key why I love trains and planes too, because of that lack of wifi and access to other people. Cause you have time to do that thinking and brain dump. And on my plane ride over here, I remember taking out a sheet of paper and dividing it into categories like finances, work and creative, and just writing down a million things I wanted to do.

[00:42:22] And I’m like, whoa, like the fact that all of this has just been sitting in your head and you had nowhere to look at this or prioritize it or even map out the tasks. That’s something I realized literally in the last week that I’m horrible at. I would put projects on my task list. So it’d be like launch Substack on my like Tuesday to do list.

[00:42:40] I’m like, do you know how many steps go into launching a Substack? And so that was something that to your point, writing it down and seeing it has helped immensely. And I also think to your point of like neurodivergent thinkers and people that think nonlinear, especially strategists like myself, I think a lot of us have really good memories.

[00:42:59] I feel like I have a really good memory. Like I, I do feel like I have a photographic memory and I tend to confuse that with. Oh, so you can just not have systems and you can just like remember it all. And it’s like, it doesn’t even matter if I remember it all. Of course I remember it all because I’m writing it all down.

[00:43:14] It’s like, I don’t have a visual to prioritize things. So everything just feels urgent all the time. And that everything’s on fire every day. I’m like, I know there’s a better way to run my business. So totally understand writing things down and systems, like are the key to your freedom and creativity.

[00:43:31] Ela Miranda: And I love that point too. I know for myself what will happen is I will just kind of get stuck in a thought loop where like, I will constantly be coming back to the thing because my brain is trying to remember it.

[00:43:46] And so that’s where all of that urgency comes from is it’s like, Oh, like, I am like constantly remembering new things and constantly coming back to things and it’s like if I just write it down, or I put it in a box or I like, you know, have an audio message like there are so many different ways to do it that’s not necessarily the point. The point is that, you have to have that place to, let it live so that

[00:44:10] Chelsea Riffe: Yes.

[00:44:10] Ela Miranda: it’s not coming back in that constant, like, thought loop so that you can come back to it. Because that process of review and being able to, come back and, understand how your work and the things that you’re doing are having an impact both on your life and also on like your output, you know, the things that you want to do, the things you want to create, is so difficult always, but is what the systems are there for, right?

[00:44:37] So that it captures all of those things and it makes review so much easier. Because constantly trying to like come back and like read through journal pages has just never been something that works for me, so.

[00:44:49] Chelsea Riffe: No, and to your point of review, this is truly something the last like three weeks that I realized I had no process around.

[00:44:56] And let’s use the point of leisure, this is something that I’ve really come to grasp this whole year is like my free time and how I prioritize my life and schedule and everything is based on the free time and leisure that I have in my calendar. And so I’m like, obviously I want to do a podcast series or episode on this and really break this down.

[00:45:15] But I’m like, I want it to be a little more research. Like, I want to look up the history of leisure and like, where did the 40 hour work week come from? And why does it feel so taboo to even say the word leisure? And why do we like, get so scared if someone says they only work five hours a day? Like, I want to do research around that.

[00:45:31] And again, going back to my like, magical thinking, I was like, Oh, you’ll just have a free day. That you’ll do some research and I’m like, that’s not true. I have a lot of free days. I usually have Fridays off and I’ve never gotten around to like researching this topic. So that’s something I’ve realized too is.

[00:45:47] My calendar does not need to be always filled up with client facing meetings. I think this is a really big, like ideology that was ingrained in me and my sales job, because it was based on how many calls are you doing? How many emails are you outputting? Because that was how you generated leads and sold more deals.

[00:46:04] So that’s something that’s again, it’s really hard for me to, to this day, understand that it’s not serving me, but still do it. I was just talking to my therapist literally two days ago where It feels weird sometimes to see free days on my calendar and I’ll just say yes to things and be like, yeah, let’s do it.

[00:46:20] Let’s do it. Let’s do it. And I’m like, why do we have to do it this week? Like, why can’t we just wait till the end of the month or space this out or not even do it this month? Like, what’s the urgency? And again, I know personally that’s something I’m working on is building in that, like, review and research time for the bigger projects that I want to work on.

[00:46:36] Ela Miranda: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s so funny It’s such a common idea to have like, oh, like I can just like research in my free time. Like that’s not like a whole job that some people have.

[00:46:48] Chelsea Riffe: Right. Right. I’m just like, oh, I’ll just do it on Friday. I’m like, you don’t even know like what you’re doing. What are you talking about?

[00:46:54] Ela Miranda: Yeah, and I’ve definitely, like, fallen into that trap myself, right, where I’m like, oh, well, like, obviously, I will just, like, read this, massive pile of books that I have when I have free time, instead of, like, scrolling social media, when it’s like, but scrolling social media is easy, and I have systems set up for that, and I don’t have systems set up for reading books, like, how is your life designed around these things, you know?

[00:47:19] Chelsea Riffe: It’s so funny when you realize that, that you’re like, I actually do have the time, I’m just not structuring it in the way that I want to, and that’s a big learning lesson I’ve gone through in the last two months as well.

[00:47:29] Ela Miranda: Mhm. And I think it like, also comes back to that understanding, you know, what is it that I want, and being able to review those times, being able to Be compassionate with yourself enough to like recognize, Hey, you know, I’m not spending my time in the ways that I want to.

[00:47:47] That doesn’t make me a horrible person. That doesn’t mean that I’m a failure, right? Like it doesn’t mean anything at all about me. I can just change my behavior. And I think it’s so interesting that Even when change is [00:48:00] such a constant in your lifestyle, that it’s still like. Recognizing where you need to change and being able to make those changes is still not always the easiest thing to do.

[00:48:10] Chelsea Riffe: No, it’s, because you, we really have this fallacy that one day we will all just figure it out. Like, we won’t have a to do list, we won’t feel stressed, we’ll be completely content at ease. And this is something I talk to my therapist about too, and she always reminds me, and I hope it will help anyone listening, is like, and then what?

[00:48:30] Let’s say you clear your email inbox and magically you have no emails for like six months, which would be like, that would never happen. Or you get the client and you ace the project and you read the 25, 000 books that you had piled up and you finally wrote the book. It’s like, And then what? You’re always gonna want more, like, it’s human nature to just keep moving forward and making progress, so even when you get all those things, it’s never going to be like, I’m done, the decks are cleared, we can just like, go to bed now, that’s just not how we operate, and so, this is something I’m really fascinated in recently, is like, why do we think clearing the decks Is like a real thing that’s gonna happen for all of us one day, which is not, and so that, that gives me some, honestly some peace inside of being like, you know what, we’re never gonna be done with everything, we might not get to everything, I might not read the 50 books I wanted to read this year, but good thing I have the rest of my life.

[00:49:23] Ela Miranda: Absolutely. I think that concept, right, of, Urgency is so prevalent in everything we do and without awareness, I think it’s really easy to fall back into that. It’s just very interesting to me to see everything is interconnected, right? The work that you’re doing on yourself, mentally, to unlearn, like, different patterns of behavior and all of those things, absolutely have an impact on everything that you do, whether it’s , business or life and, to see how, all of those things Interconnect and the lessons that you learn like, Lexi from Pretty Decent often talks about the growth spiral, right?

[00:50:02] That like you constantly come back to the same lesson and the same problems just with a little bit more knowledge now that you’ve made your way through the spiral. And I love that concept because I often find myself, coming back to the same lessons. Like, I always have to remind myself that it is okay to rest.

[00:50:18] Chelsea Riffe: It’s okay.

[00:50:20] Ela Miranda: It’s okay. I can sit down and the world will not end.

[00:50:23] Chelsea Riffe: It’s wild when you discover that.

[00:50:25] Ela Miranda: I know and it seems so counterintuitive like everything in my body is like absolutely the fuck not and then I sit down and it’s like oh actually this is true just like it has always been proven to me. So

[00:50:41] Chelsea Riffe: I so agree with you. I literally am going through that right now where I slept in the other day because I had a really bad night of sleep and I basically woke up at 11 and then I went to the gym and cooked and I have slower mornings like I don’t get up and like get on my laptop so by the time I even really started working it was like 3 or 3 30 and I just felt so bad about myself like I just felt like a piece of shit like why are you starting your work day at 3 30 and then I looked at my to do list and I got like So anxious, like you have to get these 10 things done.

[00:51:09] And like I said, I’m not that great at prioritizing. I’m like, usually you cannot get 10 things done on a normal day. Why do you think you’re going to get all these 10 things done in the next four hours? And, again, going back to my therapist, as you can tell, I have a lot of lessons to share from our session a few days ago, but she was just like, how do you know when you’re done with a day’s work?

[00:51:28] You know, like, do you have a cutoff or do you have an energetic capacity or something? And that really woke me up to like, yeah, I don’t really know. Like, is it 8 PM? Is it when I check off everything on my to do list? Is it when I feel tired? And that’s something that to your point, your body is like, no, you have to work.

[00:51:44] You have to get done. You can’t take the foot off the gas. When in reality, it’s like, It goes back to the whole concept of like, you feel like you have to clear the decks, but that’s not a real thing. I’m reading this book right now called 4, 000 Weeks. Highly recommend. I’m only like maybe 30 percent through it.

[00:52:00] And it talks about this whole concept of like productivity and efficiency being an absolute trap. Like it’s truly a psychological illusion. And it is making me feel so much better about not trying to get through the 20 tasks that I assign myself each day.

[00:52:14] Ela Miranda: Oh, I love that. I think that’s one of the biggest things that, review has really taught me is that, when I look at my to do list, and it is longer than my arm, and I immediately feel overwhelmed just looking at it, like, that is a sign that something is wrong.

[00:52:30] Chelsea Riffe: Right? Absolutely not good

[00:52:34] Ela Miranda: shit sometimes happens, you know, and sometimes things like back up and whatever, but it’s just not like, that’s not how I want to live my life. And if like, I’m constantly doing busy work to the point that I can never take rest, then something is wrong in like my business or the ways in which I’m doing things.

[00:52:52] And so that is absolutely like we said, you know, a lesson that we’re always constantly coming back to, but definitely been a really big lesson for me

[00:53:02] Chelsea Riffe: yeah, you need to read this book. It literally talks about this. It’s like, it’s actually illogical, like you cannot make yourself do more than what you can do, but we do it every day.

[00:53:12] We’re like, I technically know I can’t do two full on projects today. But I’m going to try and it’s like, why, why wouldn’t you just move that project to next week? And it’s just like you said, that sense of urgency of I have to get everything done, all my projects, all my goals, all my visions by the end of this year.

[00:53:28] When at the end of the day, like time is arbitrary anyway. December 31st is a made up day. Like all this stuff is so funny when you just zoom out and you’re like. Time is not real. Urgency is something we made up. Like, it’s okay. And when you decide what you really want to focus on, this has been probably the biggest lesson of this book for me.

[00:53:46] And again, I’m not even like halfway done. It’s just, you are going to have to make a choice of what you want to focus on and what you’re going to have to say no to. And that’s the hardest reality because we genuinely think we can just say yes to everything and we can squeeze it all in. When in reality, we’ve seen it.

[00:54:01] It doesn’t work. If it worked, we’d all be doing it and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

[00:54:05] Ela Miranda: Oh, absolutely. And I think that’s a really interesting concept too, like the things that you can say no to. I’ve definitely been, really interested in the idea that, like, everything you do is going to be some kind of a challenge, and so you get to choose which challenges you want to go through, right? I am moving out of the country in, like, the next few weeks.

[00:54:31] Chelsea Riffe: Exciting. Love Mexico City. So excited.

[00:54:34] Ela Miranda: And I’ve had a lot of people be like, oh my god, you know, so many challenges are associated with this. And I’ve really had to like sit down and be like, okay, all of that is true, right.

[00:54:45] It will be difficult. It will be a challenging, and it is difficult and challenging for me to like make my way through school, getting a degree and like living this corporate America lifestyle that I’ve been living and realizing that like, All of these things are equally challenging and so it’s a question of like where are my priorities and what are the things that I want to do because life is just challenging so if we’re like searching for, you know, some magical utopia where like nothing is a problem like we’re just never going to get there.

[00:55:21] Chelsea Riffe: 100 percent agree. And it’s interesting too about the travel thing like circling back to everything we talked about is. I find it more challenging to live in the United States, genuinely like full hard stop the amount of like, not only just energy that people value there. I can’t even get into right now, but what I mean is like out here, I don’t have a car payment.

[00:55:44] I don’t have a mortgage. I don’t have a utility bill. I don’t have to worry about keeping up with the Joneses. I don’t have access to Amazon prime. I don’t have a Sephora, like all these things that weighed me down back when I was home of like valuing material things and a car payment and let me I’m stressed out now because I want to upgrade or should I buy a home?

[00:56:03] I need to work on my credit score. Like none of that happens out here. So to me, I’m like, I actually find it easier on my mental health, easier on my wallet, easier to run my business when I’m not in the United States. So if that gives you any consolation, I hope it helps because I actually think you’re going to find it easier to live in Mexico City.

[00:56:22] Ela Miranda: That is absolutely the hope. I do appreciate that. So, now that we’ve kind of, kind of made a full circle here, I’ve very much enjoyed this conversation. So, if people want to connect with you, learn more about your work, and you as you’re traveling, how can people find you?

[00:56:40] Chelsea Riffe: Yeah, it’s basically my first and last name everywhere.

[00:56:42] So ChelseaRiffe. com, at ChelseaRiffe on Instagram. You can listen to my podcast. It’s called In My Non Expert Opinion. That is on Apple, Spotify, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And if you want to work together, go to my website. I have one on one spots as well as the course to help you launch podcasts.

[00:56:57] And then I also have a video library that can take you through different skills like pitching or monetizing or interviewing. So that’s always available. And then sign up for my newsletter. I’m going to be writing more. I’m really trying to de invest. I don’t know if that’s the right word from Instagram. So I’m going to be writing a lot more in my newsletter and podcasting. So that’s pretty much where you’ll find me getting the most deep.

[00:57:17] Ela Miranda: Awesome. Definitely check out the podcast. And run, don’t walk to go work with Chelsea. Or, walk as we are divesting from urgency, but you know,

[00:57:27] Chelsea Riffe: Yes. Yes. Light, light, brisk walk.

[00:57:33] Ela Miranda: Take the opportunity while it is offered to you and rest assured that it’ll all work out.

[00:57:39] Chelsea Riffe: Amen. Thank you so much.

[00:57:41] Ela Miranda: Yes. Thank you.

One response to “Building a Nomadic Life with Chelsea Riffe”

  1. Terry Quint Avatar

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