Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, everyone. In today's podcast we have Rafaela. Hello, Rafaela.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Hello, guys.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Rafaela, for those who are unfamiliar with you, could you introduce yourself, please?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. I am a photographer and a content creator about travel. And I used to work in the corporate world. A few years ago, I had to change my life to be where I am today. And nowadays I post about my travels and about my experiences across the world as a digital nomad as well.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Nice. And can you share with us your beginnings, please?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: So it all started a long time ago. I've always been a person who felt like a creative and also a person who wanted to travel. I always had the passion for traveling, but I never knew how to make that my lifestyle. How can I travel and make money? That was something very far from my reality until a day, no. But then I decided, actually, I didn't know what to do. So I decided to follow the norm and do what everyone does. Go to university, do a normal life. And then I decided to study accounting, which is completely different from a creative career. Nowadays I'm a photographer and content creator. So accounting was very far from what I wanted to do in my life, but I did because society, family pressure. So I started studying and I always realized, I always felt like that wasn't for me, but for me to take the step to change my life took a few years for me to understand. Okay, what should I do? So, yeah, I did university. I graduated during the university. I took like a gap year and I went to Australia. And when I went to Australia, I had a realization like, okay, I don't want to have the office lifestyle, to stay from nine to five in the office. So I need to change something in my life. So I went back, I went to university and I was like, okay, I don't want to finish university. But then I had to finish it. I started working at a big corporate company called Ernest Young. And I was completely sad. I was absolutely sad. That was absolutely nothing to do with me. Until one day I was like, I went crazy and I decided to quit. And I had absolutely no plan, but I had a dream. I had a dream of traveling and working. I didn't know how to do it, but I had to quit to start living the life that I wanted to live. I was at the moment living in Brazil, and I decided to buy a ticket to London because it was in the beginning of COVID and the pandemic, so I couldn't go to many places. A lot of countries were closed, but I felt like I needed to go out of my country to start a new reality because everyone around me was expecting things from me. My parents thought that I was going crazy.
So I decided, okay, I need to go to a new country to build a new reality. And I didn't have a lot of money. I had like 3.5 thousand.
Yeah, 3500 saved and I bought the ticket. So I already got some money out of there. So I could survive in London for like two or three months. Not leaving very well, like, let's say two months. So I was like, okay, I need to get a job just to pay my bills. And while I do that job, I will build my future. So I got a job. I met a Brazilian there. I'm brazilian. I met a Brazilian there. And I was like, okay, do you know any jobs that are available? And she said, oh, I have a cleaning agency and you could clean one of the places, some of the places that I have. And I was like, okay, that's great. Because then I do the job like a labor job. And I won't be thinking.
For me, when you work in a corporate job, you are always thinking about your job because you have to deliver things for clients and things like that. And when you work as like a cleaner, I was there going to clean, going back home, and, okay, really focused on learning photography, learning how to be a travel photographer. I really started from zero, from scratch. I was extremely lost in the beginning, but then I started talking to a lot of creators on Instagram. I started posting on my page. I opened a page from zero. I had no followers, nothing. And I started posting about, I started doing short trips in the UK. So I was going to Brighton, Cornwall, started doing some photos and started posting about it and about my story and about my dream. And people started engaging. I started making. The community of photographers in the UK is huge. So I started connecting with them. And that helped me a lot to understand how it works to be a creator because I feel like a lot of people who live in the normal nine to five university style, they don't understand that content creation is also a career and how it works. So I decided to understand how that works more. Made a lot of connections. My page started growing really slow, but I started getting, like, my first photo shoot. A guy found me on Instagram and he was a yoga teacher and he said, how much do you charge for a photo shoot? And I was like, what? Someone wants to pay for my photos?
And yeah, I did that photo shoot and from there I started getting more paid photo shoots. But then I was like, okay, but I want to get in the travel photography world. How do I do that? So I started trying to get collaborations with hotels, with outdoor brands and everything. The beginning, just collaborations until I started charging the clients.
So it was a process. And all this time, I was still working as a cleaner in London because I wasn't still able to sustain myself with only the money that was coming in from photography. But that started changing with time until a point that I felt like, okay, I can quit my job as a cleaner. And at the same time, I won a competition, a photography competition run by Xiaomi. And they sent me to Svalbird to photograph to create content for the new phone. So after that moment, I was like, wow, I just won a photo competition. I am having clients. I need to take the risk. There will never be a moment that you will feel, like, completely ready to take a risk. So I decided, okay, I need to do that full time. And from there, I started traveling full time. It was when I actually started my life as a digital nomad about two years ago.
And yet from there, I feel like because I took that leap and I took that risk, other Doors started opening and I got many other opportunities on the way.
I started posting on YouTube as well. And recently I started growing my channel on YouTube, sharing my life as a digital nomen, my experiences, and I started also interviewing digital nomencl. And I think that's something that interests people a lot because people are really curious, like, how does that person travel so much, and what does she do? How is her life? Or his life? Whatever. And that's what I want to share in my page. I want to inspire people to do what they love and not to do just what the others say to them, to try to find their passion and to follow. Maybe it's not traveling, but maybe it's, I don't know, drawing. So go and start drawing. Change your life to do what you love. And basically, that's my story. It was around four years ago when I quit my job as an accountant and I bought my tickets to London, started working as a cleaner, and then everything happened. And now I am full time digital nomad. I am currently at an island, a remote island here in Brazil, working from here, creating content. And I'm pretty happy with where I am now. Obviously, I still have a lot of goals to achieve. I want to grow my channel, I want to grow the community that I am building and inspire more people. But I'm very grateful with where I am today.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: I have a lot of questions, but first come first. Where did you find the courage for. Try it.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: A lot of people ask me that because some people say, oh, you're so brave.
And I'm like, I feel like I would be very brave to stay in a job that I hated.
How can I stay and do something that I hated for the rest of my life? It even gives me chills to remember how sad I was when I was working in that place. And I was like, that would be brave. So I was in such, let's say, like a dark place that I couldn't think of staying. So for me, it would be brave to stay. But I do understand, I think, well, I looked at my future when I had to change my life. I was like, let me picture my future. Do I see myself in this? No, I don't. So I need to try. I need to at least try. I'm young, and even if you're not young, we need to try. We need to take risks. I feel like sometimes we live life so scared of what can go wrong. But what about the things that can go right? Like the people, the entrepreneurs, the people who open companies, the people who build great things, they had to take amazing risks. Yeah, it's scary, but I didn't take crazy risks. I took a job as a cleaner because I was like, I need to pay my bills. So try to take risks and. Okay, what will make your head feel a little bit more comfortable until you can do the full risk? But, yeah, I think that's why I'm so brave, because I just couldn't stay where I was.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Why did you choose photography?
[00:11:32] Speaker B: I am a very visual person. I always loved arts and movies and things like that. Always loved photography. It wasn't something that I was doing. It was like a hobby I wasn't doing professionally, but mostly like phone photography, to be honest. But I felt like I wanted to share my journey and the places that I go through with an artistic way, not just the backstage. I do like to share both. So if you see my page, there is a bit of both. But I feel like it's so nice to share your life in a cinematic and artistic way because it's my point of view. It's not just something raw, it's something that I put my eye on it. And I think that's why when I started, I was like, I want to do with photography and videography because then I can tell stories through my very unique perspective.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Did you have any friend who inspired you?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: When I was living in Australia, there was a girl that, she doesn't call herself a content creator, but she had like 20,000 followers and she was posting a lot. Nowadays, she doesn't do anything with that, but she did more like a hobby to post about her travels. And when I was going crazy wanting to quit my job, I sent her a message and I was like, tell me how that works. And she was like, rafa, I don't do that professionally, so I don't actually know. I just got a few collaborations here and there. But the thing that I could tell you is invest in photography. Most of the creators that I know, they invest in photography and just start posting. Don't overthink it. And I think she was. I did have other people that I follow, but no one that I knew, no one that I actually knew in person, just her. So she was a good person who gave me a lot of tips in the beginning. And from there I started meeting other creators and other people who also inspired me a lot.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: And can you share with us her tips, please?
[00:13:53] Speaker B: The tips that she gave me?
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Yes, please.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: She told me basically to not overthink what to do. Like, if you want to post, start posting. I think perfectionism in social media is something that doesn't go together. Obviously you don't want to post terrible content, but in the beginning you're going to be like, oh, someone is going to not like this photo, or someone is going to be a hater, or blah, blah, blah. Don't overthink it. People are going to think whatever they want to think, but you need to share what you want to share. So that was a good one.
Just start sharing. Don't be like, maybe in three months when I'm there, that I'm traveling more. No, just start sharing. Start sharing your short trips, start sharing your small adventures, and that will help with your journey. The other tip that she gave me was to network with other creators, and I think that's a very important tip because a lot of the things that I got nowadays were from friends that were already in the travel content creation world.
And how did I do that? I started just messaging a lot when I was in London. I started just messaging a bunch of photographers and saying, hey, do you want to hang out? Do you want to take photos together? Do you want to go for a walk together?
And they were like, yeah, people in the community are very friendly and that helped me a lot. So I think networking, it was something that she said that really helped me, and she gave me many tips about photography, like use that camera, don't use that camera or use Lightroom for editing. I didn't know anything. Use Lightroom if you want to do videos. Use premiere pro.
And yeah, she gave me a lot of editing tips, a lot of equipment tips, networking, brave, like this kind of things. And then after that, I took notes and I was like, okay, I'm going to follow one by one until I reach my goals.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: And when do you receive the next boost?
Yes, the next boost in your career, the next advice?
Someone who inspired you.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
So when I was in London, I participated in these events for photographers, and they were called the UK shooters. It's a community in the UK, and I think there was an event that they did. It was a female photographer and content creator event. And I remember I went to that event and there was this photographer videographer that she's called Alice, and she was talking about her journey and her content is so clean and beautiful. And nowadays she works with amazing companies like Corona. She creates all the ads, not all the ads, but like many ads in the outdoors and in the travel world. And she was telling her story and her journey, and that really inspired me. So I would say it was her and also some other people from that community, from the UK shooters. Also, there was another creator in the UK that his name is Sam from optical wonder. And he also really inspired me.
He always said, like Rafa, just keep posting, just keep putting your content out. Sometime it will reach people. He started his YouTube channel.
He was posting, I think, for like five years without having many people watching at all. And he also started photography from scratch. So that gave me a big boost. If he did it, I can do it as well. So he was a very big person in my journey as well.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Nice. Thank you very much. And can you share with us your current project, please?
[00:18:19] Speaker B: So my current project is to focus a lot on my YouTube and to share more about the digital nomad life across the world. I feel like people, it's still a very dark place for people like digital nomad life, content creation. So I want to put the information more out there, more public.
So at the moment, I'm here in this island of Brazil, and I did a series of interviews in Bali asking how people make money and how they live life as a digital nomad. And my project now is to do that in different hubs across the world. So now I'm in this hub, it's an island here, and it's full of digital nomads. So I'm doing the interviews with them and I'm going to put the series from Brazil up there. And maybe after I'm going to go to another digital nomad hub.
Yeah. So now I think my project is to really focus on my YouTube, to share with people how this lifestyle is possible. And it's not far. It's not far from reality. You don't need to be someone extraordinary to be a digital nomad. You don't need to go to study in a crazy university. You can just learn a skill and start offering online. And that's what I want to show to people, that it had never been that easy to become a digital nomad. So that's my current project. I do have some other projects with photography creation. I might go to some really cool destinations.
I still have nothing planned, so that's why I don't want to put it out yet, but I want to go to some very remote destinations to photograph, to film, and to also do the side of the cinematic side that, the artistic side that I like.
But yeah, that's basically my plans at the moment. Keep traveling, keep sharing, and keep inspiring.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: And how do you see the content creator industry?
[00:20:33] Speaker B: I think the content creation industry, I think some people say it's already full of people and you have no space. I think that's not true because content creation people connect with people. And you are like, I am Rafa, I'm the only, yeah, I'm the only one that is me. So I can connect with people that like my content as a person as well. So I think content creation is something that you shouldn't be scared of because, oh, but that person has better pictures than me or that person has a nicer personality. No, you have a unique personality.
Just believe in yourself. And I think at some point people will start seeing you and will start liking your content if you keep putting it out there.
Some days, like, the bad side of the content creation world is that sometimes we depend on the algorithm and the algorithm is crazy. We never know. We never know. Sometimes we put so much effort into a video and they don't reach the amount of people that we were expecting. So that could be very frustrating. And I already got in moments that I was like, okay, I cannot think like that. Okay, this video didn't do well. Always. I'm going to cry. No, you need to keep putting it out. Keep putting it out until you are out there financially. I think the content creation world has a lot of space.
I think people who are not in the content creation world still did not understand how important and how important it is for brands to work with influencers and to work with creators. Like, if you work with a creator that their video got to a million views. That's the new television.
Ten years ago, people were watching television and they were seeing the ads in between tv programs. And nowadays, no people watch Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and the ads are the people who are posting. So if your video got to 10,000 views, obviously brands are going to be interested and that's valuable. So I think people still don't understand that, how valuable it is. And yeah, it is hard sometimes to put yourself in the community and in the content creation sector, but as I said, I think we just need to keep pushing, pushing, pushing until you're there. And then when you're there and you meet people, I think it becomes easier for you to find clients and for you to actually be found as well.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: And do you have any advice for digital nomads?
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Digital nomads who are starting there?
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Yes. Noobies.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: Well, I think one important thing that we don't think about before becoming a digital nomad is that I'm talking about the digital nomads who are also freelancers. Freelancers. So they are their own bosses. You will have to have a lot of discipline because you're going to be moving around a lot. You're going to be your own boss, so you need to create some sort of routine so your projects will go forward. Otherwise you won't have someone saying, do this, do that, do this, do that. You need to organize yourself, for you to put the content by yourself out there.
So I think that's something very important. You're going to become a digital nomad, so make sure you have a system to organize yourself and to organize your goals and your lifestyle as well. Sometimes, because we're moving so much and we are always in different places, we don't eat as well or we don't exercise. So make sure that you put that in your, like in this island. I'm trying to go surfing every day. Today is not a good day for surfing, so I'm going to go to the gym. I try to keep that lifestyle and to eat well.
And about the lifestyle, about getting clients and how to start is in the beginning, you're going to find it hard. In the beginning, you're not going to find clients, and even after, you will have months that are not as good as others. But that's the life of a freelancer. That's the life of digital nomad. Like, you need to accept that some months it's going to be awesome and you're going to be like, wow, I made that amount and maybe another one, you're going to be like, oh, I didn't make that much money this month. And it's a process. Until you find the consistency, I'm still looking for the consistency. I have months that I'm super, wow, I made that much. And some others like, oh, I should have done better. But that's also like, again, don't get frustrated. Things take time. People who go to university, they study four to five years and then they get a job that pays really little. It takes ten years for you to be actually making good money, most of people. So don't pressure yourself to be the next million followers influencer or to be the next best digital nomad that makes the most money.
Things take time, be patient, keep pushing. And yeah, I think that's the most important one.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: And how they can find their first clients.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: So I would say in the beginning, as probably your networking is not that big, you should try the platforms. And in the platforms I would recommend upwork and fiver. I use upwork to find my clients. And on those platforms you can look for people who are looking for freelancers with specific skills. So someone has a YouTube channel and they need a video editor. So they're going to put there, hey guys, I'm looking for a video editor to give me a video per week and blah, blah, blah, that I found many clients like that. Or maybe you're a writer and someone needs a ghostwriter for their book, or they need an editor for their book and you can go there and say, I'm a writer. Or if you're a beginning and you still don't have a skill, you can pick many skills that you don't have to have a lot of experience, like a virtual assistant.
A lot of creators and entrepreneurs, they need someone to open their email, to organize their lives and they need an assistant. So I think you can find skills that are easier to start and then you open your profile.
How can I say on these websites and look for clients? And my biggest tip is for you to become a freelancer or a digital nomad, you need to be the active person. You cannot just sit and wait for clients to come to you. In the beginning, you need to be actively looking for them, actively applying for jobs. So in the beginning of upwork, I literally applied for 50 jobs. I know people who applied for 100 jobs, don't apply for two jobs and expect you don't have any ratings, you don't have any clients yet. So you're not going to be the first one, the first chosen so keep pushing actively and don't just. I met so many people who said, oh, rafa, but I did my account and I got no clients. Did you apply? Some people don't even apply. It's not going to come to you. If you're very lucky, it will. But yeah, so that's one way. And the other way is networking. Networking, as I said, is really important for any kind of career. And in the content creation world, I think it's even more important because if you have friends that are already in the content creation world, they always need people to help them out to work for them.
They have projects and you can be put in the projects to work with them. So yeah, work on your networking and also on the websites to upwork and fiver.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Can you share your experience on upwork?
[00:29:25] Speaker B: My experience on upwork was good. I still use it. And I had clients that they just pay great. I mean, like on time. And the upwork, they make sure that you're going to be paid correctly and you're going to be paid weekly and things like that. It depends on which projects you're working on. But I usually get paid per week or per hour or per video. It really depends on the project. But I had a good experience. I had clients that were returning clients. I still have clients that I got months ago and I still work for them. So I think that's the best part. When you become a freelancer, you see that the best clients are the ones that are returning, because then you already know the project, you already know what they're expecting, you already know how to communicate with them. So I think the main goal is to find three to four very good clients that pay well and that are returning. And not like every month, like, oh, I need a new client, I need a new client. In the beginning it will be like that, but then you will find clients will be there with you and you will be working together as a team.
So that's my experience with hubwork.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Nice. And can you share with her your future projects, please?
[00:30:51] Speaker B: My future projects are well related to content creation. I always say I want to inspire people to do what they love and to take the leap and to take the risk and live what they always wanted to live. So I want to keep creating. Grow my community, that's a big future project. Grow my community, travel more, meet new people and take care of myself. I think that's very important sometimes.
It was funny because I did an interview for my channel and one of the girls, when I asked her about her future plans, she was like talking about how she wants to take care of her body and things like that. And I think that's very important. We need to put in our future plans, not just about career. So take care of my body, have a balanced lifestyle because I changed my life to be a digital nomad, so I could have a balanced lifestyle. So when you change your life, be careful not to also dive so deep in your projects, which is great. Obviously, I love my projects nowadays, so sometimes I really want to work on it. But my lifestyle, no, my future plans is to have a balanced lifestyle while creating more, growing my channel, growing my Instagram TikTok, my community, and improving my skills, my photography, my videography, while sharing my adventures and experiences across the world.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: And how do you see the future of remote work?
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Well, I think from here it's just going to grow and grow.
The pandemic really showed us it's possible to work remote. A lot of companies that were super traditional did not let people work remote. Nowadays, some are completely remote or like, you just need to go once a month or things like that. So I know a lot of people who used to work in banks that were super strict and now they go once a week. So I think remote work is the future. The digital world is really growing. If we think about like 20 years ago, we didn't have iPhone, we didn't have Internet. I think 20 or 25 years ago, maybe 20. Yeah, it's quite recent. So we need to take that opportunity and not be scared. I think people are scared because it's so new. Yeah, working online is new, but a lot of people are doing it and they are making good amount of money. They are having a more balanced lifestyle because obviously some jobs you do need to go in person. When I have photo shoots, I do need to go in person. But I think going in person every day for ten to 12 hours or having to commute for so long, that's not needed anymore. Again, for some kind of jobs, you do need to do that, but in most jobs, you don't need to do that. You don't need to be in person all the time. And I think people are learning that, people are understanding that. And I think the remote work world is just going to grow from here. It's going to be a big thing in ten years.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: What do you think is the most common side hustle for a digital nomad?
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Well, I think the most common career for a digital nomad is marketing. I interviewed many digital nomads and most of them do marketing, but a side hustle, I would say affiliate links. A lot of people do affiliate links, so they add their links to their website or social media and then people buy things through them and you can make a good percentage out of that. So affiliate links is a good side hustle. Some people invest, but I don't think that's the majority. Think affiliate links and eproducts, people are starting to sell eproducts, ecommerce, a lot of people are starting to do that as a side and then they fully go to ecommerce at some point. Drop shipping and things like that.
Yeah, I think basically managing social media as well.
That's basically, I think, the ones that I saw the most.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: And what do you think is the most profitable.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Ecommerce? I think ecommerce, I think if you understand, I don't do ecommerce. Hopefully one day it's because I have so many projects that it's hard to do everything I want. But ecommerce, if you know how to build a proper, from what I've heard and from all the people that I've interviewed, if you know how to build a company, know a store, and if you know how to choose the right product to make the store look nice and to use the ads in the right way, you can make good money with just selling products from other stores. You don't have inventory. You don't have to be worried about many people who do ecommerce. It's not their product. It's just a store they saw has nice products and they just do the middle between a client and the store. So I think that's the one that is the most profitable and also investing. But I still think that investing, not many people, I think ecommerce is more common than investing. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I've seen and from what I've interviewed, investing as well. But I think investing, I think you need a little bit more of understanding of the financial world and how it works, like crypto and bitcoin and things like that. But yeah, I'd say another one that is very profitable that I've been realizing a lot of people are doing is web developer and AI. So these guys or girls, they are making a lot of money because, well, everything is becoming digital. So every company needs a web developer, everyone needs an app developer.
So I'd say AI, ecommerce and investing.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: I'm going to ask you about the AI, but first, I have a very important question, because I follow you. I see your interviews and what was the most strange career or side hustle that you ever find?
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Well, if you watch my videos, I think it's a very obvious one.
So there was a guy in Bali that I interviewed and he's a Tinder coach. So he helps guys to find Tinder dates and to find Tinder girls. And he makes like 10,000 to 20,000 a month.
And he sells ebooks. He gives full consultation to guys. He said that, how does it work? Because I was like, okay, how is it to be a Tinder coach? How do you do that? And he said, well, I have different packages, let's say. So some guys, they want a full consultation about how to have confidence, how to reach out to girls, how to dress, how to have good pictures. So he does the full consultation, he flies out to the guy and he does everything. So that's like the high end client, let's say. And he has other ones who just buy the ebooks, he has other ones who get calls to do that.
And it was crazy when he said he was a Tinder coach. I was like, really? Does that exist? And my theory is that if you're confident in what you're selling, you're going to sell anything you can sell courses for. I mean, I'm not saying sell anything without quality.
I don't know because I didn't see his course, but I do think that he must have his quality to sell so much. So if you're confident and you do think that you have quality in what you're selling and offering, you're going to be able to find clients. People are out there, they are crazy to not buy things, but they're crazy for knowledge. And if you sell your knowledge, if you sell your confidence, people are going to go and buy it. So yeah, he was definitely the most, I was not expecting to find a guy who was a Tinder coach in my first video doing the interviews. It was so interesting. It was so fun, actually.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: And how do you see the AI impacting the freelance world?
[00:40:24] Speaker B: That's a good question. I think that's something we're going to see in the next few years.
AI is becoming like crazy and it already impacts graphic designers, photographers, videographers because it's starting to do the job of a lot of people.
But I think, well, it will impact, a lot of people will lose their jobs. But remember like 30 years ago when people were saying like what about these careers are going to disappear and then people are not going to have jobs because of the Internet and blah, blah blah, no other careers came with Internet. So I tried to see it in a positive way. Yes, maybe some things are going to not going to be lost, but they are going to be less transformed, demanded. They are going to transform. I don't think that. Yeah, and then you're going to find yourself in the new AI world. I'm going to be like, okay, maybe people are not looking for this kind of photo shoot anymore. But one thing that is important, the human eye is still something valuable in my opinion.
And your experience is also something important.
It's still not as good as a human. I'd say maybe it will, but then again, it will transform to another things that we don't even know. Like if you ask someone 30 years ago, a content creator, what is that? What is social media? It doesn't exist. So it's hard for us to see what kind of careers will come with AI. But I do think it's going to open to another whole world and like what was NFT, and it's going to open for a new world. And I'm actually excited to see where that's going to go. I think I need to try to implement AI more to what I've been doing. I still didn't, but I'm just trying to see it positively. Instead of being scared of losing clients and stuff, just try to transform what you're doing and implement that.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Nice. And do you have any other insight from your interviews?
[00:42:47] Speaker B: I think one thing that, from everyone that I interviewed is that almost everyone had to take risks, had to change something in their life to do what they are doing. Nowadays, most people, they have a similar story to me. They were working in the corporate world and blah, blah, blah. So they have something in common, that it's the drive to do something that they love. And that's something I love about the digital nomad community. It's a lot of people who were not happy with their life and they did something, they actually did something to change. And I think the insight that I bring from digital nomads is that if you're not happy with something, you have the power to change it. And all the people who I interviewed, and I think that's why people really liked the interview, because that inspires people to follow what they love. And I think that's my favorite thing about the digital number community. It's just a lot of people with so much drive to follow their dreams and to try different things, people who are super open to different cultures, to different realities. And yes, I think that's my favorite thing about, and my insight from the digital nomad community.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: And do you have any beautiful story from your community?
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I actually met a girl yesterday here at the hostel, and she has a similar story to mine. She was working in finance and she always had a dream of traveling, but she was always just dreaming about it, working in the corporate.
And she started becoming like, really?
She was always down and always feeling sad. And that started happening more and more. And her life became, she said her life became like kind of, you know, when your life is not exciting anymore. And she said that she was in that point and I was in that point as well. And one day she didn't tell anyone. So it's very similar to my story because when I bought the tickets to go to London, I didn't tell anyone.
She bought tickets to go to Costa Rica. She got a job at one of the Selena's, which is the hostel that I'm staying. It's a co working hostel. And she bought a ticket to work. She got a job. She applied to a job in Selena and she got a job and she bought the tickets. She didn't tell anyone. Just a few days before she bought the tickets. And she said the moment a few days before, she was crying the whole time, like, what am I doing with my life? Because when you are in your comfort zone, you don't want to change it. You want to just stay there. But then she said the moment that she stepped in the airplane, she felt like, that's right, that's what I need to do. And her life changed completely. Now that she works as a travel agent and she also works at Selena's here and there.
And I don't know, the way that she told her story that she was feeling so down and something changed so rapidly. And nowadays she's just doing what she loves and feeling more fulfilled.
I don't know. I think I have many stories. I don't remember any other specifically, but this one was yesterday and she told me. So I think it's very fresh in my mind. But, yeah, I think it was nice to see that she also took the crazy idea and it worked so well for her.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: So, Rafaela, thank you very much for coming here, and good luck with the next project.
[00:46:33] Speaker B: Thank you so much. It was lovely sharing my story and talking to you and I hope you guys feel inspired by my story. And, well, if you want to see more of my content, make sure to follow me on Instagram, YouTube, travel with Rafa. Thank you so much.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: You're welcome. And see you soon. Bye.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: See you. Bye.
