Andreea Rusu: The Connector

Andreea Rusu: The Connector

Guest: Andreea Rusu Career: Marketing Manager Based: Nomadic Instagram: andreea.rrusu   Episode Description Andreea Rusu was sad and depressed in her Bucharest flat in June 2021, post-COVID, with no money to travel. So she bought a one-way ticket to Spain, spent half a year researching on YouTube and Google, and discovered the World Packers platform. She applied to 40 volunteer opportunities, got accepted to 12, and ended up in Anceu, Galicia—a 100-person village in rural Spain—to do some Instagram marketing for a co-living space. What was meant to be a one-month stay became five months, then extended to two and a half years of returning repeatedly. Because when she arrived, something shifted. On a date before the trip, someone had asked her, "Who are you?" and she could only answer, "I'm Andreea and I'm a video editor." At Anceu, surrounded by strangers who became family, she finally discovered the answer. She wasn't just a video editor. She was a community builder. A connector. Someone who made strangers feel like they belonged. Now she's building a directory bridging two worlds: community builders looking for places to volunteer, and co-living spaces looking for community builders. She's experienced 15-plus co-livings, understood the power of genuine curiosity, learned that what you feel is valid even when you grew up in a conservative environment that told you to shut up, and realised that being a community builder is actually a full-time job in mental space—even if volunteering looks part-time. If you want to know everything about co-living, about finding yourself by helping others belong, about the personal development bootcamp that is community building, Andreea is your person.   Timestamps 00:00-00:37 Introduction by Ibi 00:37-02:00 Andreea's story intro, depressed in Bucharest, one-way ticket to Spain 02:00-03:00 Discovery of World Packers, applied to 40 opportunities 03:00-03:30 Anceu co-living, Galicia, rural village 03:30-04:20 First month experience 04:20-05:30 Marketing volunteer role discovering co-living concept 05:30-06:50 Applied to 40 opportunities, accepted to 12, found Anceu 06:50-08:15 Stayed one month, emerged as community builder 08:15-09:30 The date question "Who are you?" identity crisis as video editor 09:30-10:30 InsideOut project by J.R., rural revival cause 10:30-12:00 Using InsideOut as excuse to stay longer 12:00-13:00 Two types of communities, online and offline 13:00-14:30 Building community in tiny 100-person village 14:30-15:00 Trust people, don't guide them through everything 15:00-15:45 Conservative upbringing, fear of speaking openly 15:45-16:30 Learning from others' stories, discovering multifaceted self 16:30-17:00 "What you feel is valid"—psychologist moment 17:00-18:30 Control freak lesson at team dinner, learning to trust 18:30-20:00 Lived there on and off, one year nonstop 20:00-21:30 Community expanded from co-living to village to neighbouring villages 21:30-23:00 Personal development bootcamp aspects 23:00-24:30 Permission to fail, observer role, awareness of impact 24:30-25:30 Friends around the world, friendships built through co-living 25:30-26:30 Material benefits, no rent, maintaining freedom 26:30-27:00 Meeting partner at Anceu 27:00-28:00 Been in 15+ co-livings, understanding different spaces 28:00-28:30 Current work in Belgium and building community for builders 28:30-29:55 Creating directory of co-living opportunities 29:55-30:30 Bridging community builders with co-living operators 30:30-31:45 Personal development benefits of volunteering 31:45-32:15 Observer role and impact awareness 32:15-33:00 Making friends worldwide, global network 33:00-33:30 Materialistic benefits, no rent expenses 33:30-34:30 Career development trade-offs, full-time mental space 34:30-35:45 Volunteered for 2.5 years, then stopped to process insights 35:45-36:20 Can you do both, job and volunteering? 36:20-38:30 Advice: doesn't depend on career stage, depends on values 38:30-39:10 Genuine care, nurturing vibe, can switch brain to others 39:10-39:45 Closing, thank you   About This Podcast Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.   Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/jo-hT8Yy9ZQ [https://youtu.be/jo-hT8Yy9ZQ] Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~40 minutes Published: 29th May 2026 Episode #14   THE CONNECTOR WHO FOUND HERSELF BY HELPING OTHERS BELONG I'm sitting in a French castle talking to someone who spent a total of two and a half years living in a 100-person village in rural Spain, not visiting or passing through, but actually living there as the person who helped strangers feel like they belonged. Andreea Rusu has this incredible energy about her when she talks about community building, this genuine warmth that makes you understand immediately why she's good at what she does. She didn't plan any of it. June 2021, she was sad and depressed in her Bucharest flat, and one day she just bought a one-way ticket to Spain because staying felt worse than leaving. She couldn't afford traditional travel, so she did what so many of us do when we're desperate to change our lives: she spent half a year Googling and watching YouTube videos until she discovered World Packers and the concept of volunteering in exchange for accommodation. "I applied to 40 opportunities like just, you know, random to see what clicks or not. I was, I had zero expectations. And out of these 40 opportunities, I got accepted to 12 of them. And I was like, really? People can offer you a free stay and pay utilities and other perks if you help them with a little bit of marketing." The one that stood out was in Anceu, Galicia. The description mentioned digital nomads working on their projects during the day, doing dinners and hikes together in the evenings. What was meant to be a one-month stay ended up being five months, and she kept coming back for two and a half years after that. What happened in those first weeks changed the entire trajectory of her life, though she didn't know it yet. WHO ARE YOU? There's this moment Andreea shares that explains everything about why co-living mattered so much to her. She was on a date once, and the guy asked her, "Who are you?" She answered the way most of us would: "Well, I'm Andreea and I'm a video editor." He stopped her. "I don't care what you do for a job. Who are you as a person?" She didn't know. "That question like struck me. I was like, who am I? Who am I? I don't know, who am I? I was, I knew somehow inside about my desires, my burning curiosities, but I didn't know who I am." That question haunted her. She'd spent her whole life identifying with her profession, never thinking about who she actually was beneath the job title. When she arrived at that first co-living in Anceu, she wasn't just looking for a place to stay. She was looking for herself. "I feel like I found my people, I found my world. I found myself first." She went as a marketing volunteer, meant to help with Instagram promotion and blog posts. Simple stuff. But she found herself naturally gravitating toward something else. Every new person who walked through the door, she wanted to know their story. She'd sit with them for hours, genuinely curious about where they came from and what brought them there. She started engaging people in activities, bringing them together, and the community builder role just emerged from that curiosity. "This is the job or the job, the role that came to me just because I was genuinely curious about people, I was engaging them in activities, I was like bringing them together." One month turned into five through clever negotiation. She pitched an art project called InsideOut by French artist J.R., photographing local villagers to raise awareness about rural revival: the idea that rural areas can thrive when you connect nature, slow-paced living, and remote work infrastructure. The portraits would take a month to ship from France, and she'd paste them on walls around the village. "I use this as an excuse like, hey, I cannot leave now. I have to wait for my project to be finished." It worked. And those projects started connecting the co-living community to the village itself. At first, locals were skeptical about all these strangers coming and going. But through rural revival and opening doors to invite villagers in, the community expanded. First to the village, then to neighbouring villages. Now it's spread across Galicia. The co-living wasn't isolated, it became part of the place. PERMISSION TO FEEL The personal transformation went deeper than discovering a new skill. Andreea grew up in a conservative environment where you didn't talk openly about what you were thinking or feeling. You shut up, didn't complain, toughened up. She spent years building walls, always looking over her shoulder, never knowing if anyone would accept what she had to say. Then one day she was crying, really struggling with something, and a psychologist from the community sat down with her. "She took my hands and looked at me and she said, like, Andreea, what you feel it's valid. It's real. Because I couldn't process what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling because I didn't allow it to to feel it first and to accept it." That sentence broke something open. Nobody had ever told her that before. That her feelings mattered. That she didn't have to process everything alone first, toughen up, present a perfect version of herself. She could feel something, accept it, then process it. The permission to feel changed everything. "I grew up in such an environment where you have to shut up, you have to do not complain, you toughen up. I had like these walls on me, always looking over my shoulder and not telling what I'm truly going through. And I didn't know who I am." Co-living gave her that acceptance. She watched people talk with ease about topics she'd been afraid to touch. Their openness gave her courage. If they could speak freely about what they were thinking and feeling, maybe she could too. She started sharing more. People encouraged her, added to her stories, complimented her perspective. It created this beautiful loop where the more she shared, the deeper she could go, the more she discovered about herself. Another moment: they were preparing a team dinner, five people cooking together. Andreea and another volunteer went to set up activities, leaving a guy to watch the food. She couldn't stop stressing. What if he forgets the potatoes in the oven? What if something burns? She was a control freak, couldn't enjoy the moment at all. The other volunteer said, "Andreea, learn to let go. Trust people that they can handle it. You don't have to be their mother." That lesson stuck. Trust people. They can handle things themselves. You don't have to control everything. Just have faith and relax. "I learned to to to relax, to be more at ease. It's okay with who you are. It's okay to trust people. It's you're safe here." Through these experiences, through watching other people be themselves, she discovered she wasn't just Andreea the video editor. She was Andreea who loves cooking and teaching classes and playing board games and talking openly about things that matter. And if that guy from the date asked her now who she was, she'd have a real answer. She'd been all those things the whole time. She just needed space to let them surface. THE TRADE-OFF NOBODY WARNS YOU ABOUT Here's what the glossy co-living marketing doesn't tell you: being a community builder is a full-time job disguised as part-time volunteering. Not full-time in hours. Full-time in mental space. When you're genuinely present in a community, when you're the person creating connection for others, you're never fully off. Andreea did this for two and a half years, almost three. She lived at Anceu for one year nonstop, then kept coming back. She learned that curiosity is infectious, that when one person shares something with passion, everyone else gets curious too. She learned to perceive emotions, to listen deeply, to notice her impact on others. But then she realised she needed to stop. She'd grown as much as she could in that role, needed time to process everything she'd learned, and needed to focus on her career. "You cannot really have time to develop a career. When I do things, I am very much involved. I cannot, I am with my mind and my soul into something." Some people treat their job as just a job with clear boundaries and easy disconnect. Andreea isn't wired that way. When she's in, she's fully in. Being a community builder and building a serious career simultaneously? Too much. She had to choose. But here's the paradox: those years of volunteering opened doors her CV never could. The job she has now, marketing manager for a Belgian company converting 19th-century townhouses into shared living spaces, came through co-living connections. Her network exploded. Her perspectives expanded. She discovered opportunities she never would have found sitting in Bucharest scrolling LinkedIn. She also met her partner through co-living, and they now travel together instead of separately. "I think this is something I want to let people know: once you go in co-living and you expose yourself, you get to enrich your perspectives and your network so much, your friends." Expose yourself. That's the key. Not just show up, but genuinely put yourself out there. Be curious. Have conversations. Care about people's stories. The returns compound in ways you can't predict. BUILDING THE BRIDGE Now Andreea's building a community for community builders, a directory connecting people who want to volunteer with co-livings looking for help. She's bridging the two worlds because she's been in both positions. I ask her: would you recommend this to someone established in their career, someone already making six figures in a traditional job? "I don't think I can say that just a certain type of person can do it, depending on their career stage. Not at all. It more depends on your values. Like what do you want? What do you need? What do you love?" The question isn't where you are professionally. It's whether you have genuine care for helping people have a good time, whether you can focus on others, whether you're willing to be fully present. If yes, the rest doesn't matter. The benefits are personal growth, friends worldwide, and permission to fail in a low-stakes environment. You become more aware of your impact. You learn to listen. You grow in ways books can't teach. FROM NOT KNOWING TO KNOWING Four years ago, Andreea couldn't answer who she was beyond her job title. She was depressed in Bucharest, not knowing what she was craving or how to find it. Now she's the person others come to for co-living advice. She's lived in 15-plus spaces, has friends scattered worldwide, works for a company she believes in, travels with a partner she met through this journey, and helps others follow similar paths. The transformation required leaving everything familiar, volunteering for years without serious income, learning to fail publicly, accepting discomfort as growth. Co-living didn't give her answers. It gave her permission to ask the questions, to try things, to fail, to speak openly, to trust that what she feels is valid. To discover she's multifaceted, complex, capable of more than she imagined. And now, if someone asks her who she is, she knows exactly how to answer. Andreea Rusu works as a marketing manager for a Belgian residential space whilst building a community for community builders.  Digital nomads and location-independent professionals featured on Ibi's Digital Nomad Stories podcast share insights into building sustainable remote careers. Listen to all episodes: www.ibimalik.com/podcasts/ibis-digital-nomad-stories

Ab Khurana: The Experimenter

Guest: Ab Khurana Career: Sales Executive Based: Nomadic Instagram: @ab.photolab LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/abkhurana/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/abkhurana/] Episode Description Ab Khurana treats his entire life as a series of experiments, including the experiment of having a normal life. Two years ago, the timing was right to settle, so he signed a lease in San Diego, built a routine, joined sports leagues, dated normally—all the standard stuff. Then, two years later, the timing was right to leave, so he left. Some people would call that a success. Some would call it a failure. Ab just calls it valuable experience. He doesn't theorise about what he wants. He runs experiments and observes the results. His framework: try ten things, you'll love three, hate three, and feel neutral about four. But only once you've actually tried them, not just imagined them, will you know what to orient your life around. San Diego taught him he's definitely a beach and sun person. That making new friends as an adult matters to him. That two years of routine felt good but not complete. Now he's pursuing the specific things his twelve-year-old self always wanted to do whilst the window is still open. Machu Picchu, check. Erupting volcano in Guatemala, check. Scuba diving certification despite being scared of water, check. Next up: the Galapagos Islands, a safari in Africa, a month on a farm with WWOOF making things with his hands instead of pushing pixels. And eventually, being a tourist in India, the country where he spent his first thirteen years but hasn't visited since. This is a masterclass in building self-knowledge through empirical living. When you stop predicting how you'll feel and start collecting actual evidence, you stop wondering what you've missed and start knowing what matters. The tetherball metaphor applies: you can stray as far as you want, but you're still tethered to something solid—whether that's good parents, close friends, or the three things you've discovered you genuinely love. Trust your inner fire. It's unique to you, and that's the point.   Timestamps 00:00-00:41 Introduction 00:41-02:05 Guest introduction 02:05-03:33 Two and a half years nomadic in two stints 03:33-05:04 San Diego experiment, lease and routine 05:04-06:38 Why he left, timing and freedom before commitments 06:38-07:56 Long-term relationships and family considerations 07:56-09:18 Twelve-year-old dreams and pursuing new experiences 09:18-10:05 Maslow's hierarchy of needs discussion 10:05-12:34 Fulfilling relationship needs through community 12:34-13:29 Nomads more open and untethered from roles 13:29-14:20 Only getting one layer deep, something missing 14:20-15:23 Strengthening existing relationships 15:23-16:57 Electron metaphor, travellers vs settled people 16:57-18:21 Hopping on friends' trips, maintaining connections 18:21-19:42 US vs Europe vacation time, 15 days vs 35 days 19:42-21:48 Tetherball metaphor, being grounded whilst travelling 21:48-23:41 Good parents as foundation, unconditional love 23:41-24:58 Ten experiments framework, love 3, hate 3, neutral 4 24:58-25:54 Self-awareness through experimentation 25:54-28:11 Ibi's grounding, music and fire metaphor 28:11-29:59 Inner fire, comparing to others leads to analysis paralysis 29:59-30:13 Finding people who encourage your unique fire 30:13-32:37 AI discussion, cultural shift and adaptation 32:37-35:21 AI tinkerers, people who played the game before 35:21-38:42 Recent adventures, Machu Picchu, volcano, scuba diving 38:42-40:49 Future plans, Galapagos, safari, WWOOF, India as tourist 40:49-41:28 Closing About This Podcast Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/Tv0I1FYH2sI [https://youtu.be/Tv0I1FYH2sI] Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~41 minutes Published: 15th May 2026 Episode #13   THE EXPERIMENTER WHO BUILDS SELF-KNOWLEDGE THROUGH EXPERIENCE We're sitting in a French castle talking about Ab Khurana's two years in San Diego. The lease, the routine, the dating, the sports leagues. Normal life, basically. "And this sounds like an experiment," I say. "What did it yield?" He laughs. "It's funny to call it an experiment because to most people that's life. It's just, hey, get a lease and let's live here." "You've been interviewing too many nomads," he adds. Fair point. But that's exactly how Ab thinks. Not settling versus travelling. Not success versus failure. Just trying different things and seeing what works. The timing was right to get a lease in San Diego, so he did. Two years later, the timing was right to leave, so he left. He lives in the present, responding to what makes sense now. THE TIMING CALCULATION Two years ago, the timing was right to settle. His friend was moving to San Diego. The city appealed to him. He wanted to explore what stability felt like. So he got a lease, built a routine, made new friends. Then circumstances shifted. His friend moved out of their shared flat. He wasn't in a long term relationship. His job stayed remote. And crucially, he's in his early-to-mid thirties, which means the window for certain experiences hasn't closed yet. The timing was right to leave. It's not about one choice being better than the other. It's about responding to the moment and taking advantage of the situation as it presents itself. "I kind of just take advantage of the situation while I'm still in my early 30s or mid 30s before it gets harder to do. If you are going to potentially have a family, or potentially be in a long term relationship, it makes it a little harder." This isn't about running from commitment. It's about sequencing. Getting certain experiences out of his system now, whilst he has the freedom to do them, so that when commitments do arrive, he won't spend years wondering what he missed. There's something methodical about this. He's pursuing specific things the twelve-year-old version of himself always wanted to do whilst the variables align to make them possible. THE SCIENCE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE The real insight isn't that Ab experiments. It's how he uses those experiments to build self-knowledge. "Having done a few things or experienced a few things that were a little scary, a little new, or just things that the 12 year old me really wanted to do, I know for a fact that that is worth it and it's worth pursuing that." He's not guessing what brings him contentment. He has empirical evidence. His framework is simple: experiment with ten things. You'll love three of them, hate three of them, and feel neutral about four. Once you've actually tried them, not just imagined them, you know what to orient your life towards. You know what to avoid. And the rest doesn't matter much. This is the opposite of how most people approach life decisions. Most people theorise. They imagine what they'd like, consult friends, read articles, try to predict how they'll feel. Ab just tries things and observes what happens. THE TETHERBALL EFFECT The nomad paradox: you need to feel grounded whilst being completely unmoored. Ab uses a tetherball metaphor. The ball spins wildly, flies in every direction, but it's attached to the pole with a rope. You can stray as far as you want, but you're still connected to something fixed. That connection is what lets you experiment without feeling lost. For Ab, that rope is his parents. He grew up with unconditional love, never doubting whether they loved him, never worrying if their fights meant instability. That foundation, he acknowledges, is luck. Not everyone gets it. But it's what enables him to travel for years, try risky things, live out of a suitcase, because he knows he's tethered to something solid. "That stability was there, that feeling. I think that goes a long way, if you get lucky with that." Even without that specific foundation, the grounding can come through other means. Through discovering those three things you love and knowing, no matter where you are physically, that you're still the person oriented around them. The grounding isn't the place. It's knowing who you are. THE ELECTRON EFFECT Here's where the conversation gets interesting. We're talking about maintaining relationships whilst travelling, and I introduce a physics metaphor: electrons versus neutrons. Neutrons sit in the nucleus, stable and stationary. Electrons whiz around. The chance of an electron hitting a neutron is basically zero. But two electrons colliding? Much higher probability. Travellers are electrons. Settled people are neutrons. If you're constantly moving, connecting with people back home who are stable becomes nearly impossible. The collision points don't align. They're on holiday for one week a year, visiting places you've already left. You're living your normal life in places they're treating as special. But other travellers? You bump into them repeatedly. Same cities, same co-livings, same paths. The collision probability is high. So Ab has adapted. He hops on his settled friends' trips when he can, using his flexibility to meet them where they are. He knows how important it is to keep contact with his good friends. And he's learned something crucial about nomad interactions: "Oftentimes when I think travellers meet each other, on average, they tend to be more open and unguarded. Each individual is not in their kind of whatever role they play back home with their friends and families. They're a little untethered." You only get one layer deep with most nomad friendships. You're both leaving soon. But because nomads are more open, that one layer goes deeper than it would back home. Higher frequency of interaction. No roles to play. Less guarded. So even though it's technically shallow, it feels substantial. The American who's always been "the responsible one" back home can be someone else entirely in Mexico. The German who's stuck in family dynamics back in Hamburg can redefine herself in Thailand. Untethered from context, people show different versions of themselves. Often truer versions. THE INNER FIRE PROBLEM Ab learned something about comparison that most people don't figure out until much later. "It's quite a recipe for analysis paralysis and discontent to be comparing your own desires to those of others or your own kind of goals or dreams or intentions with those of others." He did plenty of comparing when he was younger. It's natural. But after enough experiments, he realised something: you can learn from others, be inspired by them, but ultimately you have to trust that your inner fire, your guiding gut feeling, is unique to you. It's okay to trust it rather than seeking validation externally. The trap isn't having goals different from others. The trap is thinking your goals need to match someone else's to be valid. Some people's inner fire is building a company. Others want to master an instrument. Ab wants to see an active volcano and learn to scuba dive and be a tourist in India. None of those are more or less legitimate than the others. Take AI, for instance. Some people wake up excited to experiment with new tools, build workflows, tinker with technology. Ab sees it as a cultural shift, adapts where it makes sense for his work, but doesn't feel compelled to be at the forefront. "The people who are excited about experimenting with technology, it's not just that AI came along and turned someone who is just uninteresting to somebody who's a tinkerer all of a sudden. You're already kind of should be of that mind." They were playing the game before, just a different game. The key is finding people who encourage your specific fire, not people who try to redirect it toward theirs. "Finding people that encourage that, friends or relationships, matter. Rare." Those people are rare. But nomad communities, he's found, tend to contain more of them. Because everyone there has made the unusual choice to live differently, they're less likely to insist you should want what they want. THE THINGS THE TWELVE-YEAR-OLD WANTED There's a certain satisfaction in telling your childhood self that you actually did it. Ab stood at Machu Picchu after hiking the Inca Trail. He watched Volcán de Acatenango erupt from close enough to feel it. He went underwater despite being scared of water his whole life, got certified, and now it's opened an entire world of exploration he never had access to before. And India. Being a tourist in the country where he spent his first thirteen years, seeing the parts he never saw, experiencing it fresh. The Galapagos Islands are next. A safari somewhere in Africa. A month living on a farm through the WWOOF programme, doing physical labour instead of corporate work, practising French or Spanish, making things with his hands instead of pushing pixels on screens. These aren't random bucket list items. They're the specific dreams that survived from childhood into adulthood. The ones that, when tested through experiment, turned out to actually matter to him. Not everyone's twelve-year-old dreams are worth pursuing. Some of them are silly. Some don't survive contact with adult priorities. But the ones that keep coming back, that still feel important decades later? Those are worth taking seriously. Ab's taking them seriously. One experiment at a time. THE EXPERIMENT CONTINUES Eventually, Ab will probably get another lease somewhere. Do another round of the "normal life" experiment. Maybe it'll stick that time. Maybe the circumstances will be different. But right now, there are still experiences worth having, fears worth facing, places worth seeing. The twelve-year-old version of himself had a list. The adult version is methodically working through it, learning what actually brings contentment versus what just sounds good in theory. He's not running from stability. He's just not done experimenting yet. And when you think of life as a series of experiments rather than a series of commitments, everything changes. San Diego wasn't a failure. Leaving wasn't giving up. It was choosing to keep exploring whilst the opportunity exists. Most people spend their lives wondering what would have happened if they'd taken the risk, tried the thing, chased the dream. Ab's collecting actual answers. That's not recklessness. That's rigour. Ab Khurana works remotely in tech whilst nomading across the world, pursuing the specific experiences his twelve-year-old self always wanted. You can hear his full story about treating life as an experiment, finding what grounds you, and trusting your inner fire in: [EPISODE URL] Digital nomads and location-independent professionals featured on Ibi's Digital Nomad Stories podcast share insights into building sustainable remote careers. Listen to all episodes: www.ibimalik.com/podcasts/ibis-digital-nomad-stories

Elle Ota: The Modern Athena

Guest: Elle Ota Career: Program Officer, Human Rights Foundation Based: Nomadic Episode Description Elle Ota spent her summers underwater, diving to fourth-to-sixth-century Roman shipwrecks off the coast of Sicily. She studied classics and ancient Greek, worked as an underwater archaeologist, and seemed destined for a PhD analysing ceramics under microscopes. Her professors pushed her toward academia. The track was clear. But Elle had a problem: she has an enormous social battery, and a career staring at pottery shards in labs felt fundamentally lonely. So she made a choice, she picked living people over thousand-year-old ones. Today she works remotely for the Human Rights Foundation whilst running the U.S. fundraising arm for a Ukrainian aid organisation. October 2022 changed everything, she moved to Europe the same month she first volunteered in Ukraine. The parallel timeline revealed something crucial: remote work didn't just enable travel, it enabled impact. She could hold down her 9-to-5 promoting democracy and human rights whilst balancing weeks in conflict zones managing aid operations. Without location independence, none of it would be possible. She's lived completely out of a suitcase for two years, gaining perspective from Europeans and South Americans in co-livings across the continent. Not surface-level tourist perspective, the depth that comes from living with people, hearing their stories day after day, understanding how they think. She surfs, climbs mountains, learns to scuba dive despite childhood fear of water, and has built a life that lets her chase both adventure and meaningful work. When you ask if she's brave, she gets uncomfortable and she knows activists who've been tortured, soldiers in trenches defending their country. Her work feels comparatively small. But that's exactly the point: she's found a way to contribute whilst feeding her enormous energy to try everything.   Timestamps 00:00-00:37 Introduction 00:37-01:56 Guest introduction 01:56-02:44 Moving to Europe October 2022, transitional period 02:44-03:27 Part-time to full-time nomad journey 03:27-04:40 Value of having a base to return to 04:40-05:02 Returning to same places for familiarity 05:02-07:18 Living completely out of suitcase, 23kg limit 07:18-08:29 Kiev as difficult home base, travel logistics 08:29-09:19 Human Rights Foundation 9-to-5 work 09:19-10:31 Ukraine volunteering origin, October 2022 parallel timeline 10:31-12:08 Remote work enabling Ukraine volunteering flexibility 12:08-14:09 Nomadism enables building best version of life 14:09-15:11 Ibi's background and motivations 15:11-16:58 Maslow's hierarchy and trying different things 16:58-19:24 Gaining depth of perspective from living with Europeans 19:24-21:13 Nuance of understanding European countries beyond surface level 21:13-23:53 First-hand vs second-hand perspective, both valuable 23:53-25:40 Sicily discussion and tourism perspective 25:40-27:18 Underwater archaeology background, Roman shipwreck 27:18-28:52 Academia career path consideration 28:52-30:52 High social battery, choosing people-focused work over ceramics 30:52-31:12 Ghosts and archeology spirits discussion 31:12-32:17 Fearlessness observation from third-party perspective 32:17-33:57 What courage looks like, relative to activists and soldiers 33:57-35:20 Ukraine work feels comparatively small, adventure and adrenaline 35:20-36:16 Closing, Sicily reunion plans About This Podcast Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.   Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link:  https://youtu.be/hxsuI1ZNMI8 [https://youtu.be/hxsuI1ZNMI8] Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~36 minutes Published: 1st May 2026 Episode #12   THE UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGIST WHO LEFT THE PAST FOR THE PRESENT I'm sitting in a French castle talking to someone who used to spend her days underwater examining Roman shipwrecks. Elle Ota studied classics and ancient Greek at university, worked as an underwater archaeologist diving to a fourth-to-sixth-century wreck off the coast of Sicily, and seemed destined for a PhD and a quiet life analysing ceramics under microscopes. Then she made a choice that changed everything: she picked living people over thousand-year-old ones. Today, Elle works remotely for the Human Rights Foundation whilst running a U.S. fundraising arm for a Ukrainian aid organization. She's lived completely out of a suitcase for two years, gaining perspective from Europeans and South Americans in co-livings across the continent. She surfs, climbs mountains, travels to conflict zones, and has built a life that lets her chase both adventure and impact. The story of how an underwater archaeologist (yes, quite literally an archaeologist who works underwater, who knew!) became a nomadic human rights worker isn't about abandoning one passion for another. It's about recognising what fuels you and building the flexibility to act on it. THE SOCIAL BATTERY THAT ENDED ACADEMIA Elle's path to archaeology made perfect sense after her studies in classics and ancient Greek. Every day: scuba equipment, diving down to a Roman shipwreck, underwater excavation, bringing pieces to the surface, afternoons analysing them in labs. "I actually think it was the best job ever," she tells me. So why isn't she still doing it? Her professors pushed her toward a PhD, toward teaching and research. The academic track. And she loved the work itself, the puzzle-solving, the nerdiness of it all. But a career in academia comes with realities: intense competition for vanishing positions, work that "can be very solitary", years looking at pottery shards under microscopes. "I have such a high social battery that it's quite easy for me to be in co-livings all the time, and that is pretty counterintuitive to a career looking at ceramics under a microscope." She wanted work focused on people. On communities. On applying what she learned rather than just researching it. The underwater work was brilliant, but fundamentally lonely. Elle needed something that fed her energy rather than drained it. So she pivoted. She chose human rights work, nonprofit management, roles that put her directly with people trying to change things. And crucially, she chose remote work. WHEN TWO TIMELINES CONVERGE There's something about parallel timelines that reveals how much of life is shaped by being in the right place at the right moment. In October 2022, Elle moved to Europe. The same month, she went to Ukraine for the first time on a volunteer mission. She'd been watching the full-scale invasion unfold since February. Working her regular job at the Human Rights Foundation (40 hours a week, 9-to-5, promoting democracy and human rights in countries under authoritarian regimes). But Ukraine pulled at her. She wanted to help, though she knew you can't just thrust yourself into a crisis and expect to be useful. The opportunity came through Polish connections. She went on that first trip, offered her nonprofit background: fundraising, social media, grant writing, website management. Started volunteering with an organization on the ground. Over three years, those roles expanded. Now she helps run the U.S. fundraising arm, manages teams, considers them family. And here's what makes it possible: remote work. "I think having the flexibility of remote work was pretty key to me being able to do Ukraine work, because I can travel there, I can balance the two. I can work my normal 9-to-5 and also be volunteering for Ukraine." Without location independence, none of this happens. She can't be in Kiev for weeks managing aid operations whilst holding down her Human Rights Foundation role. She can't balance meaningful work with meaningful impact. The nomadic structure doesn't just enable adventure. It enables action. HUNTING PERSPECTIVE Elle describes herself as an American who's benefited enormously from living with Europeans and South Americans. Not just visiting their countries, but actually living with them in co-livings, hearing their perspectives day after day, gaining depth that surface-level travel never provides. We talked about the difference between first-hand and second-hand perspective. First-hand is what you experience yourself. Second-hand comes from talking to people, hearing their stories, living alongside them. Both matter. Both add layers. "You get to hear different perspectives too, and be very much surrounded by those, not just have one conversation with somebody, but when you're living with them in the context, you really start to gain a real depth of perspective." She's not just collecting passport stamps. She's collecting understanding. The nuance of what it's actually like to live somewhere, not as a tourist passing through but as someone embedded enough to see how people think, what they value, why they make the choices they make. This is what nomadism offers beyond the Instagram version: sustained exposure to different ways of being. Not a week in Barcelona, but months living with people from ten different countries, hearing how they approach work, relationships, risk, meaning. For Elle, this depth of perspective has fundamentally shaped what works best for her own life. She's not just trying things herself. She's learning from watching others try them too. TWO YEARS OUT OF A SUITCASE Elle's been living completely out of her suitcase for two years. No storage unit in Europe. No home base besides the one in California that requires 24 hours of flight time to reach. She watches with some envy as friends with European families can leave suitcases with them, return to bedrooms in friends' flats, maintain some anchor of normalcy. For her, going back to California is a one-month commitment minimum. The flight alone makes it impossible to pop home for a weekend. "I do think that there is a lot of value in having someplace to return back to. And actually now at this point, having done this for two years, this is something I'm looking for again." The freedom is real. She can pop from place to place, choose her locations, build the life she wants. But two years in, she's also feeling the trade-off. The lack of somewhere to leave things. The constant weight of everything you own on your back. She's adapted by returning to the same places repeatedly. Building familiarity. Creating informal homes in cities she knows, cafes where staff recognise her, co-livings she cycles back to. It's not the same as having a base, but it's better than starting from scratch every month. This feels honest. Not the polished "location independence solves everything" narrative, but the reality: two years of complete freedom has her now seeking some form of rootedness again. Not because the experiment failed, but because she's learned what she actually needs. WHAT COURAGE LOOKS LIKE When I observe that Elle seems fearless (underwater archaeology, moving to Poland from California, volunteering in Ukraine), she pauses to reframe it. "I think courage can look very different for different people. And so I know how that feels in my own heart. But going to Ukraine and doing all these things sort of look externally courageous and maybe they feel different on the inside." Here's her perspective: she works with human rights activists who've led protests against dictators, who've been imprisoned, tortured, whose families have been kidnaped for their work. She knows soldiers fighting in Ukrainian trenches, on ships, defending their country daily. Compared to them, her work feels small. Aid runs, fundraising, occasional trips to conflict zones (important, yes, but part of a larger tapestry). Not the front line itself. "Me going occasionally to Ukraine doing aid runs, fundraising, it's important and it's part of that tapestry of what we can accomplish together. But it feels comparatively very small." She's not diminishing what she does. She's contextualising it. When you're surrounded by people risking everything, your own contributions feel different than how outsiders perceive them. But then there's this: "I do like adventure. I like adrenaline, I like going into the mountains and surfing big waves and climbing and stuff, and I just want to try everything." That's the core of it. Elle has enormous energy, wants to be active, wants to experience as much as possible. The nomadic life isn't just about impact or perspective. It's about feeding that fundamental drive to try things, to push into new experiences, to live fully. THE INTERSECTION What makes Elle's story compelling isn't that she chose one thing over another. It's that she's found a way to honour multiple drives simultaneously. The archaeologist's curiosity, but applied to living cultures instead of dead ones. The desire for adventure, channeled into both mountain climbing and meaningful work. The social battery that rejected solitary research, now fuelled by co-living communities across Europe. The flexibility of remote work, enabling her to volunteer in conflict zones whilst maintaining stable employment. She's not pretending it's perfect. Two years out of a suitcase is teaching her she needs some form of base. The freedom comes with trade-offs. But she's building something intentional: a life structured around trying everything, gaining deep perspective, and using her skills where they matter. From underwater wrecks to Ukrainian aid operations. From California to wherever the next co-living calls. From thousand-year-old Romans to living, breathing communities who need help now. That's the pivot that mattered. Digital nomads and location-independent professionals featured on Ibi's Digital Nomad Stories podcast share insights into building sustainable remote careers. Listen to all episodes: www.ibimalik.com/podcasts/ibis-digital-nomad-stories

Miranda Miller: The Midlife Nomad

Guest: Miranda Miller Career: Writer, Editor, Marketer Based: Nomadic Instagram: @themidlifenomads LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mirandamillerwrites/ Personal Website: miranda-miller.com Midlife Nomads Website: Midlifenomads.com Newsletter: midlifenomads.com/subscribe Episode Description Miranda Miller didn't wait for the remote work revolution. She was already there. Since 2006, fighting for $15-an-hour writing contracts as a single mum in small-town Canada, scrapping together work on Elance whilst waitressing and working factory shifts. Then someone offered her $1,000 a day to work conferences. She had two babies. She initially said no. But then she called her mum to arrange childcare. Australia, London, the US—she caught the travel bug and never looked back. Eighteen years later, she's survived every era of remote work. The pre-COVID grind when nobody understood what she did. The COVID burnout when boundaries dissolved and she took on too much. The recovery when she had to intentionally reset, kill projects that weren't working, and choose what actually mattered. Now she runs Midlife Nomads, a community helping 40-plus professionals make the leap to location independence. Not the backpacker hustle. Not the 30-year-old grind. A different pace. Different priorities. Comfort over adventure. Sustainability over exponential growth. Three years of building slowly, choosing the right people over fast expansion. This is a masterclass in reframing. When you stop seeing failures as losses and start treating them as experiments, eighteen years of trial and error becomes eighteen years of compounding wisdom. She's killed beloved projects, turned down opportunities, bought fifty domains she'll never use, and learnt that the real skill isn't saying yes to everything—it's knowing which opportunities to pursue before you run yourself ragged. Timestamps 00:00-00:37 Introduction 00:37-01:48 Guest introduction 01:48-02:12 Been remote since 2008, part-time then full-time nomad 02:12-03:10 Travel durations and recovery time 03:10-04:08 Midlife Nomads origin and purpose 04:08-05:57 Different pace and priorities for 40-plus travellers 05:57-07:15 Starting as single mum, $15/hour struggles 07:15-08:15 Elance platform and women writers' network 08:15-09:12 $1,000/day conference work pivot 09:12-09:25 Catching the travel bug 09:25-10:23 Factory work, hospitality, finding what she's good at 10:23-11:33 Internet as levelling the playing field 11:33-13:33 COVID impact: doors slamming shut, burnout, boundary issues 13:33-15:02 Selling time vs expertise theory 15:02-16:39 Packaging services and productising expertise 16:39-18:49 Contract mindset and reframing 18:49-19:27 Anxiety about proving productivity whilst nomading 19:27-20:12 Reframing mindset from corporate to outcomes-focused 20:12-21:22 Seeing others model the lifestyle, monthly check-ins 21:22-21:58 Becoming a beginner again, permission to suck 21:58-23:48 Building sustainably vs get-rich-quick 23:48-24:44 Three years building Midlife Nomads slowly 24:44-26:04 Daily routine and grounding practices 26:04-27:01 Energy management and seasons 27:01-28:18 Self-imposed pressure and recovering from perfectionism 28:18-29:35 Too many ideas problem, Writer's Den vs Midlife Nomads 29:35-29:58 Reframing failures as experiments, knowing which opportunities to pursue About This Podcast Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/Ishui5vvCbE [https://youtu.be/Ishui5vvCbE]  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~30 minutes Published: 17th April 2026 Episode #11 GUEST REFLECTION THE MIDLIFE NOMAD WHO HELPS OTHERS REWRITE THEIR RULES I sat down with Miranda Miller looking forward to hearing about Midlife Nomads, her passion project helping 40-plus professionals transition to location independence. What I got was so much more: 18 years of hard-won wisdom from someone who's been doing this since the term barely existed. Miranda has been doing this since 2006, when 'digital nomad' wasn't even a proper term yet. She's navigated every era of remote work, survived lockdowns that slammed doors shut whilst others' opened, and built Midlife Nomads over three years of slow, steady work. She's a master at reframing, turning hourly rates into value packages, burnout into boundary resets, failed projects into experiments. She's faced every challenge, made every mistake, and come out the other side with kids in tow. The advice she shares isn't theory. It's battle-tested wisdom from 18 years on the road: how to manage day-to-day life when your mind spins with project ideas, why giving yourself permission to suck at new things matters, and how the cage you're in is probably one you built yourself. THE $1,000 TURNING POINT Miranda became a mum at 24. By 28, she was a single mother in small-town Canada trying to get $15-an-hour writing contracts, fighting for business against people who didn't think they needed to pay writers. She found Elance, the original Upwork, in 2006. Built a profile over a few years. By 2008, she was doing decent freelance work but still working multiple jobs. Through Elance, she met other women writers and they formed their own private forum, taking on bigger projects together. Then one of those women came to her with an offer. "I need you to take on a client for me. It's working at conferences." Miranda's response was immediate. "Absolutely not, I can't, I have two babies." The woman paused. "Well, they'll pay you 1,000 USD a day." I laughed when Miranda told me this. Money changes things. She called her mum, arranged childcare for four days a month, and took the job. Australia. London. Conferences across the US. Representing an SEO company whilst taking university courses and getting into e-commerce. "I caught the travel bug big time at that point. And I thought, I can't go back to not doing this." At those conferences, she met people who saw what she was doing and wanted to work with her. The university courses gave her frameworks. The travel gave her perspective. It all compounded. WHEN COVID SLAMMED THE DOOR SHUT For most people, COVID opened doors. Remote work suddenly became acceptable. Companies scrambled to figure out how to operate distributed teams. Digital nomadism went mainstream. For Miranda, it was the opposite. "COVID was actually like a lot of doors slamming shut." She was in Ontario, Canada, which had strict lockdowns. Snitch lines. Only one person per family allowed at the grocery store. As a writer and introvert, working from home was fine. Not being able to travel anywhere? That got tough. But she also saw an opportunity. Small businesses were struggling, needing to pivot everything online overnight. So she helped them, taking on project after project. "There were a lot of us in marketing who felt like we needed to help people, especially businesses." The problem? Her boundaries completely dissolved. "Without travel, there's not that much else to do. So I'll just keep taking on more and more work." By 2022-23, she hit total burnout. Had to stop. The world was opening up again, and she needed to reset intentionally. "It was like an intentional resetting of the boundaries. We need to slow down a bit and get back to having a real life." TIME VS EXPERTISE I have a theory about selling time for money. You can max out around €3,500 to €7,000 a month depending on rates. After that, unless you hire people, you're stuck. The shift has to be from time to expertise. Miranda's response? "I think it makes a lot of sense." She sees this constantly at Midlife Nomads. People leaving stable careers with hourly rates, wanting to bring that same model into remote work. It doesn't translate. "They're going to compare you against the cost of what an employee would be. If you're saying you can have me for X amount of dollars per hour, that's what they're looking at." The reframe? "If you tell them I can save your business $40,000 this year by doing X, Y, Z, then it becomes a completely different conversation." She has one client she's worked with for 14 years. Package-based. Monthly deliverables. They've been acquired three times, and she's grown with them each time. "They don't really even care how long it takes. They just need to know that the research is being done properly, it's being optimised properly, it's fact checked." When life happens, she brings in freelancers to help deliver. The client doesn't care. They're not paying for her time. They're paying for outcomes. "It's a much different conversation than if it were just freelancing as a pseudo employee." This shift from time-based to outcome-based work sounds simple. But it triggers something deeper in people making the transition. TRUST ANXIETY AND PROVING VALUE Some nomads come to me with what I call trust anxiety. They're terrified about proving to clients that they're actually working. It's the shadow side of outcome-based work, especially for people coming from traditional employment. Miranda gets it. "I think that just totally makes sense for people coming out of a productivity mindset where you need to punch the card. You need to prove your value. You need to be a butt in a seat." But here's what she learned over 18 years: "They don't actually care. They want to see the end product, the outcome at the end of the month, the thing that's going to make the difference for them. Anything else is really just creating noise and paperwork." Early on, she tried everything to prove her value. Monthly newsletters showing she was keeping up with industry trends. Regular check-ins. Updates. "Nobody really cared. They're like, that's really cool that you're doing that. But it wasn't something anyone missed when I stopped doing it." She was trying to prove her value, but it wasn't adding value to the relationship. The distinction matters. "Just understanding and taking the time to check in to see why you're doing what you're doing, and is it actually producing an outcome, is super important." PERMISSION TO SUCK One thing Miranda emphasises: you're going to become a beginner again. "You might be an expert in what you've done, whether it's accounting or teaching or whatever you've done for 25, 30 years. And it's really, really hard to then become a rookie in the online business space." You might be brilliant at your core skill, but you've never had your own website. Never done social media marketing. Never built a service offering from scratch. "Giving yourself permission to suck is really important and is also really, really difficult." The internet gives things fast. Online shopping. Dopamine hits from social media. People assume building something online is equally fast. It's not. "If you want to build something sustainable, it takes time." Miranda knows this intimately. Midlife Nomads has been three years in the making. "It's not expanding or exponentially growing overnight, but it's slow and steady and the right people are involved, and that is something that has staying power." She's learned to spot the difference between sustainable building and what she calls burn-and-churn industries. Early in her career, she wrote copy for internet marketers, tapping into people's fears. "It's effective. Absolutely. But I realised I really don't like that. I actually want to build community and things that matter." Those things take time. You can't fake them. ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND BAD DAYS Miranda's day-to-day looks different every day, but there's structure. Journaling. Podcast episodes. Grounding routines that travel with her. But she's also learned something crucial: "Giving myself permission to have a bad day once in a while." Her work is structured so no single day's lack of productivity will cost her a client. She's learnt to manage energy, not just time. "I talk a lot about energy management because I've found over the last ten years how vitally important it is to recognise your energy highs and lows." Some months she's wildly creative, writing books, producing content. Other times? Admin. Social promotion. Different seasons for different work. "If you sit down at a blank page every morning and try to force something that's not happening, you're going to be miserable." Sleep quality is her indicator. When things keep her up at night, she sits down with a grid and asks: where am I spending my time? What could I put off for a few months? "So much of it I was putting on myself. It was internal pressure. Just getting okay with saying no to yourself once in a while was big." THE CAGE YOU BUILT YOURSELF Here's something I've noticed about nomads and solopreneurs: they can say yes to everything. The world is your oyster. Every opportunity is available. That freedom becomes its own prison. Miranda laughs about having bought countless domain names over the years. Every time she has an idea, she buys the domain. When she started Midlife Nomads, she also started The Writer's Den, another community and blog. She tried both for a while, then made a choice. Killed The Writer's Den. Twenty-year-old Miranda would have seen that as failure. Current Miranda? "It was an experiment. I tried it and I stuck with the one that felt better and that was more successful." "Reframing that as not a failure, not a loss, it was an opportunity." With a remote career, you meet inspiring people constantly. Ideas multiply. Opportunities appear everywhere. "You have to know which opportunities to pursue or you'll run yourself ragged." The cage nomads build isn't from lack of options. It's from having too many and not knowing when to say no, even to yourself. 18 YEARS IN Miranda's been doing this since 2006, navigating every shift in remote work whilst raising kids and building a location-independent career. She's burnt out and reset boundaries, experimented and killed projects, and built Midlife Nomads to help others make the same transition. The wisdom she offers isn't from a course or a guru. It's from nearly two decades of trial and error, reframing failures into experiments, turning hourly work into value-based packages, and learning that the hardest person to give yourself permission to disappoint is yourself. She's proof that this life can be for anyone who wants it, at any stage, with kids in tow, if you're willing to become a beginner again and give yourself permission to suck whilst you figure it out. And maybe that's the real lesson: 18 years in, she's still experimenting. Digital nomads and location-independent professionals featured on Ibi's Digital Nomad Stories podcast share insights into building sustainable remote careers. Listen to all episodes: www.ibimalik.com/podcasts/ibis-digital-nomad-stories

Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts: The Activist

Guest: Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts Career: Political Communications Specialist Based: Nomadic Instagram: @jocelynmacurdykeatts  Episode Description Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts spent ten years trying to save the world from inside Washington, DC. She worked as a political consultant, produced events for politicians, reported on protests, and built a career in progressive activism. But the system swallowed her whole. Networking became performance. Activism became about who you know, not what problems you're solving. The power center's ambient narcissism and daily energy tax drained her creativity. So she left. She told herself she just wanted to travel, write media advisories from Greek islands, take a break. But what she discovered was something deeper: distance gave her clarity that insiders never have. Being outside the US made her more effective at US politics, not less. She could think long-term instead of chasing viral moments. She could focus on problems over profit. She could build stability instead of reacting to whatever Twitter was talking about that week. Now she runs political campaigns from co-livings across Europe, more effective than she ever was in DC. She produces Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, teaching nonviolent resistance tactics. She's discovered anti-fragility, collective nobility, and that curiosity compounds exponentially when you're surrounded by courageous people. This conversation explores how leaving a power center can make you better at changing it, why comfort is the enemy in the modern economy, and what happens when you stop assuming everyone else is right and just try things. Timestamps 00:00-00:33 Introduction 00:33-01:37 Guest introduction 01:37-02:08 Political consultant for ten years 02:08-02:52 Burnt out on Washington DC power center 02:52-03:48 Activism distorted by power networks 03:48-05:08 Left to travel, discovering deeper reasons 05:08-06:24 Daily energy tax of maintaining normie existence 06:24-07:36 Creative liberation from leaving 07:36-09:51 Berlin and different assumptions 09:51-11:28 Anti-fragility concept and building resilience 11:28-13:32 Comfort is the enemy, disruption is the law 13:32-14:52 Nomadic mindset and capitalizing on opportunities 14:52-17:18 American left's problem, replicating failed strategies 17:18-18:42 Problem over profit mindset shift 18:42-20:42 Solving problems vs making money 20:42-23:56 Objectivity from distance 23:56-26:26 Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Jayapal 26:26-28:38 Building stability vs chasing viral moments 28:38-30:18 Surrounded by people you respect 30:18-32:31 Courage and collective nobility 32:31-34:47 Curiosity compounds exponentially 34:47-35:13 Closing About This Podcast Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/tuJIZKaTcOU [https://youtu.be/tuJIZKaTcOU]  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~35 minutes Published: 3rd April 2026 Episode #10 GUEST REFLECTION The Political Activist Who Realised Leaving America was the Best Way to Save it I sat down with Jocelyn at Chateau Co-living in Normandy, where we'd been living together for six weeks. She'd just spent the morning strategising media campaigns for American political activists. From a French castle. Whilst most of her colleagues were stuck in Washington DC traffic. She told me about spending ten years in DC politics, wanting to save the world. About getting trapped in narcissistic power networks where activism became performance. About leaving because she thought she just wanted to travel. And about discovering that distance didn't make her less effective at changing the world. It made her more effective. This is the story of someone who left the system and found she could fight better from outside it. Wanting to Save the World At 19, Jocelyn got into progressive politics for the reason most people do. "I wanted to save the world. That's what everybody wants when they're 19 years old." Good reason as any. The world needs saving. She spent ten years building a political life in Washington DC. Producing events for politicians and activists. On-camera reporter for protests and campaigns. Helping candidates and activists build media profiles. Doing the work she thought would change things. What she does specifically: helping progressive candidates and activists navigate America's right-wing media bias. Building strategies so the left can get the attention they deserve in a media landscape tilted against them. But somewhere in those ten years, something shifted. "I don't think I really realised, but I was actually just completely burnt out on Washington politics specifically." The Power Center Trap "You're a Londoner so I think you know the specific burnout that you can have from big power centres where there is this kind of ambient narcissism and everything costs thousands of pounds." She was right. I knew exactly what she meant. London. New York. DC. The big power centres where networking becomes performance and actual work gets distorted by influence. "You go into this world and there are so many people with power and money, and instead of saving the world, you're trying to form these relationships and keep these relationships and it becomes increasingly unclear, okay, is this leading to anything, or am I just stuck in this narcissistic social system?" The trap isn't that people are malicious. It's that the system itself distorts everything. Your activism becomes about who you know. Your strategies become about what's worked before, not what works now. Your energy goes into maintaining networks instead of solving problems. "I feel like being baked in this big American power city had kind of wounded my relationship with activism in a lot of ways. It felt like the things that I wanted to do were being distorted by all these layers of influence and networks of power and funding." Ten years in. Career established. Connections built. And increasingly unsure if any of it was leading anywhere real. "I was just like, what if I just left? Like, what's the worst that could happen?" The Unconscious Escape When Jocelyn left DC after COVID, she told herself a simple story: she wanted to travel. "I'm gonna write my media advisories from the Greek islands. Sounds nice." That was the conscious reason. Pack up the freelance work she could do from anywhere. Travel for a while. See what happens. "But as I travelled more and met other travellers, I realised there was actually something much deeper going on with why I left and why I was staying away." What she discovered wasn't just about wanting to see new places. It was about escape from something specific. "When you have a career that's based in one place, your life ends up being weighed down with all these concerns that feel so important, but they aren't. Maybe you need to have this expensive flat or car and you're seeing all these people every week and then there's not really a lot of energy left over to be creative, to be intrinsically motivated to really think about, what am I doing with my career?" She described it as the daily energy tax of maintaining what she called a "normie existence" - the constant low-level drain of keeping up appearances. Maintaining the right flat. Seeing the right people. Playing the networking game. All the things that feel necessary when everyone around you is doing them. Creative Liberation When that daily energy tax disappeared, something unexpected happened. Her creative and intellectual energy became far more available. Not because she was on permanent holiday, but because she wasn't weighed down anymore. She was careful to be honest about the transition. There's an adjustment period - maybe a few months, maybe a year - where you're acclimating to constantly switching countries and you won't be terribly productive. But after that? She was shocked by how much she suddenly took on projects that were more important, more exciting, more challenging, and more aligned with what she actually cared about. Why? Because she wasn't stuck in a limiting idea of what it meant to be a political activist. She wasn't in a sphere where everybody said the same things and did the same things. Meeting people constantly. Being challenged daily. New perspectives from different cultures. It wasn't just liberating. It was professionally transformative. The Anti-Fragility Advantage Jocelyn introduced me to a term: anti-fragility. It's an economics concept that rose in popularity during COVID - the idea that systems can sustain catastrophe but still be resilient. She thinks about it constantly in relation to nomad life. If you're going to be a serious professional and become a nomad, you're building anti-fragility. Becoming more aware of what you want to create, what problems you want to solve, and how to actually do that - versus relying on your network to tell you what to do. Here's the key insight: normal people assume a great life is built on figuring it out. But that never happens. You get older, the economy changes, technology changes. Even if you stay in the same place your whole life, comfort is a complete illusion. The advantage nomads have? Your life changes every month or two, so you're no longer allergic to the idea that things can be totally different. She saw this in DC constantly. People would do something that worked, then spend the next five to ten years trying to replicate it. But the world had changed. As nomads, you can't fall into that trap. You're forced to adapt constantly. "In the modern economy, comfort is the enemy. Disruption is the law of the modern workforce. And I think you should just internalise that and accept that." Distance as Advantage Here's what surprised her most: being out of the US made her better at US politics. Being out in the world makes you more aware of how important the American project really is, and what happens in the US impacts everybody. When I asked what specifically changed, her answer was concrete. In DC, she'd reach out to reporters she knew. The availability heuristic - the people you talk to every day become your default. Now? She gets very clear on the data. What's this reporter's reach? Are they actually an authority? Objectivity through distance. Another shift: moving from profit-focused to problem-focused. The biggest thing that shifted for her as an American was understanding that money and capitalism isn't the central driver of most cultures. That's a uniquely American problem. In the US, there's this professional assumption: if something is profitable, it's working. But just as frequently, the opposite is true. Profit incentives can disrupt actual deliverables. "If you solve a problem and you solve it really well, it will eventually become profitable. Maybe not immediately, but if you're looking to form a career built on brilliance and acumen over the long haul, it's better to be really good at what you do than to make a few thousand extra dollars tomorrow." The long-term thinking came from distance. From not being caught in DC's short-term cycles. Building for Stability, Not Virality The best example of this approach: Resistance Labs. Jocelyn produces digital events for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, teaching people nonviolent resistance tactics. They'd been running monthly sessions for about a year. Steady work. Building something sustainable. Attendees averaged around a thousand people. Then Alex Peretti was killed. The conversation around resistance exploded. Their next session got 6,000 signups. But here's the key: that success came from a place of stability, not from a manic place of trying to force themselves into a conversation. They'd been building for a year. When the viral moment came, they had something substantial to offer. When you're in DC, going to parties where everyone's hyper-fixated on the viral thing of the moment, you lose that perspective. From distance, she can focus on what has legs, not what's trending today. "When you're able to be objective and think long term, you frequently accidentally become part of a viral conversation because you've built something sustainable." The Collective Nobility Effect One thing Jocelyn didn't expect: the quality of people she'd meet. When building a career in one place, you get distracted by whether you actually respect the people you're networking with, or if you're just interacting with them because you feel you have to. As a nomad? Suddenly she had a surplus of people she genuinely respected. People she didn't have to talk to but loved talking to. Instead of obligatory networking, genuine inspiration. Every nomad has to be courageous to live this way. Willing to see what happens when you live in an entirely new culture. And when you're surrounded by courageous people, it brings out the best in everyone. She introduced me to another term: collective nobility. We talk about the bystander effect and how collective lack of accountability enables terrible things. But collective nobility works the opposite way - when people around you are creative, loving, and inspiring, it elevates everyone. "I am such an exponentially better person than I was four years ago, because I'm surrounded by people who make me excited to be a part of the human race." The Compound Effect What struck me most about our conversation was this idea of compounding growth. Jocelyn described it as exponential. Every time you say yes to something different whilst someone else says no and does the same thing, you diverge. A year in a nomad's life is probably like a decade in the life of someone back home. Not because of money, not even really because of travel, but because of curiosity that compounds. The more you grow your capacity intellectually and emotionally, the more access you have to different worlds, different life, different beauty. She's passionate about this because she sees an alternative to what we're sold: secure a large income, have a nuclear family, then wait to die. "I want that for everybody. Can you imagine if everybody in the world felt that way?" I told her: If you made the world feel that way, you would have successfully changed the world. Which is, after all, what she wanted at 19. Changing the World from Outside It Today, Jocelyn runs political consulting from co-living spaces across Europe. She produces Resistance Labs for Congresswoman Jayapal. She helps progressive candidates navigate media bias. She builds campaigns focused on solving problems, not chasing profit or viral moments. She does all of this more effectively than she did in Washington DC. Not despite being outside the system. Because of it. The distance gives her objectivity. The nomadic life builds anti-fragility. The constant change prevents the comfort trap. The collective nobility of courageous people makes her better. She's not running away from the fight. She found that fighting from outside gives her advantages the insiders don't have. The 19-year-old who wanted to save the world spent ten years learning the system. Then she left it. And discovered she could finally do the work she actually wanted to do. Sometimes you have to leave the system to see it clearly. Sometimes distance is exactly what you need to be effective. Sometimes the best way to change the world is from outside the power centers that claim they're changing it. Turns out, that's what saving the world actually looks like. Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts runs political consulting for progressive activists and candidates whilst living nomadically across Europe. Digital nomads and location-independent professionals featured on Ibi's Digital Nomad Stories podcast share insights into building sustainable remote careers. Listen to all episodes: www.ibimalik.com/podcasts/ibis-digital-nomad-stories