- Name: Veva De Sousa
- Age: 35
- Profession: Coach while travelling
- Location: citizen of the world (Uk based)
- Home page: www.vecoach.me
Tell us a little about yourself, Veva!
Hello travellers! I am committed to drawing a smile on your face! I see myself as a ball of energy who loves magic moments in nature, surrounded by lively people while laughing and travelling the world. Opposite to my Yedi side, I am moody when hungry or sleepy. My biggest fears are losing those I love and not living the life I want to live.
Can you say something about the background of your lifestyle choice? What motivated you? What kind of considerations did you make?
Freedom drives my career path. Love drives my personal life. People drive my purpose in life. I guess my story isn’t particularly original. I am one of those people happy anywhere.
The most important thing for me was to create value for those around me. I wanted to feel helpful. I spent years trying out different careers paths. I studied marketing and enterprise, and I went to London in 2012 to learn English and find a well-paid job.
It took me three years to realise that, after being rejected by over 30 companies in my field, mainly because of my English and age, it was time for me to sit down and create the life I wanted.
Starting is the easiest part. The rest is pure fun, commitment and consistency. To choose the lifestyle I wanted, I had to create a vision. I became a certified coach because I wanted to empower people to be better.
How wrong I was…I ended up using coaching to empower myself first and create the habits and beliefs I needed to achieve my vision.
First consideration… who do you want to become in life? when you are gone, what’s your contribution to your people? and to the world?
Can you describe a day in your life?
At 5 am the alarms ring, and two things happen:
- I wake up.
- I hit snooze for 5 more minutes!
In a nutshell:
- Routine in the morning to energise my body and focus my mind. By 6 am I am looking at my workboard and writing down my priorities. Starting my day with intention makes a huge difference when you work remotely. As office people commit to being on time, I commit to showing up.
Then, I take time for myself. Exercise is key and even if all this sounds like a cliché: building a routine when your life is out of routine gives me mental peace
- Same page meeting (15 min) with the brands I collaborate and work with
- My most productive hours are from 10-13pm (everything important is done here!)
- Lunch, relax, beach, swimming pool, calling a friend/family, LinkedIn & social
media, nap… - In the afternoon, I do tasks that motivate me (because I know I get easily
distracted!) so it’s time for group coaching with other entrepreneurs, clients
proposals, designing… - At night I love watching documentaries. It became a habit to reflect on different
topics, expand my worldview and go to sleep with huge gratitude in my heart.
Needless to say, that some days I feel frustrated and sad, my days are chaotic, and I take a break and delegate what I can to my team. Having a community that empowers you and supports you feels like magic. Meanwhile, I may be covering my face with blankets and isolating myself to escape my problems.
I allow myself to have a sh**t day. One. The day after, I get back on track!
What inspired you to decide to live and work as a digital nomad?
I have no idea because I didn’t know about “digital nomads” back in 2014. I believe It came naturally. I remember I wrote down three things my lifestyle has to include yes and yes:
- Travelling
- Physical activity
- Community
From there, I just mixed all my talents, aligned them with what I believe in and channelled it all towards my purpose: happily achieving my entrepreneurial dream life.
What’s the most challenging part of your lifestyle?
The most challenging part is adaptability.
It seems the easiest in theory yet in practice, you need to take into consideration many things at once when travelling to different countries- food, culture, knowing more about their tradition, taxes implications, building a new routine, getting to know new people or even saying bye to those you bond up with!
In general, I personally deal with the following challenges and, as they can be a pain in the** without these challenges I wouldn’t be who I am becoming today!
I will mention a few:
- Workaholism
- It can get pretty lonely even if you are surrounded by people
- Lack of fun moments for the pure joy
- Financial stability
- Complications with tax implications, regulations and travelling restrictions
- Motivation when routine hits
- Always on the go after the next “shiny thing” – discipline!
- Emotional rollercoaster & wellbeing
Have you ever had any regrets about becoming a “free agent”?
Oh wow, this question put me to reflect. Actually, yes. This question depends a lot on which attitude you choose when finding out “bad news”.
I remember my dad being sick and feeling bad and anxious in case “ the worst happens”. At that moment, I regretted not being able to be home with him and my family. I curse the lifestyle chosen and beat myself up. I was scared. When things got a bit better, I reflected on it and choose to do something about it: turn your fears into actions.
This moment served me to adjust my lifestyle according to my priorities, and include in my travelling plans frequent visits to my family and friends.
How do you promote your services?
I love networking so I sign up for events that will interest my target audience and listen to what they have to say. Connecting your brand with your audience is a matter of:
- Coherence
- Emotional connection
- Communication
- Consistency
I go out there and become the live image of my product. Online events, online videos, email marketing and I love LinkedIn (it is worth the price before I thought it was very expensive) and I am also on Instagram yet, I use it more to research and spot trends.
Another way of promoting my services is through meaningful relationships and
collaboration with other brands. Creating alliances and synergies that build win-win scenarios for our clients, our team and ourselves.
Do you have any tips on how to work efficiently from home?
Know yourself, where are you going, with whom and why. Working from home is very personal. You may like certain environments, landscapes you may have different productivity hours, eating patterns… I started by asking some questions:
-
What lifestyle do you want to create?
-
What habits are NOT supporting that lifestyle?
-
What habits do you need to support your lifestyle?
-
How will your measure and reward the process?
Give your brain a target and start working towards it. In the long run, working from home will mean, focus, fun, productivity or whatever values are important for you to cultivate.
In my case: I love silence; I distract myself easily (so I have my own system in place to focus); I have water and snacks to avoid visits to the kitchen (boredom) and I have my phone silent to get the things done on time. There is no one formula. And there is no “easy”.
What are your favorite tools (online,- as well as offline) for organizing your work?
I am very visual, so this will serve you if you are too!
- Productivity- my agenda (digital and physical)
- Project management – Trello & active collab
- Design- Canva & Photopea
Post its. I love post its and whiteboards. - Bookings- Calendly
- Payments_ stripe and payform
- Taxes & Budget- Zoho
- Documents & storage- Google Drive
- Video editing- Vimeo
- Landing pages & forms- Jotform
- Self-develpment- our LMS, growth-u
- Motivation- exercise, nature walks, team calls to have fun, perks
How do you keep yourself inspired in your work?
Being intentional. What I do is not important, is how what I do could be helpful to others in their lives.
Inspiration comes from action and intention together. Some days I don’t feel like doing something, it feels heavy and difficult. And, that’s ok. When I feel super stuck, I take the foot of the pedal gas, slow down and remind myself of what I have accomplished and who I am becoming. If still doesn’t work, I ask my mentors for perspective.
One sentence that helps me: Keep going even if uninspired. This is not about you anymore. It is about growth along the way. One life Veva, one life!
What is your absolute favourite thing about working as you do?
Meeting so many empowering and valuable people that open my mind and soften my heart.
Describe where you live. What are your favourite, tremendous things about the location?
This is tricky! My base camp it’s been in London for 9 years. As a retreats organiser, I tend to spend time in the locations where we run the events. I am currently doing my master’s degree in neuroscience applied to coaching in Barcelona, so I will be there for three months in 2021.
London: It is a city that captivated me. Its diversity, its culture and its beauty. I found lots of opportunities here. It is tough and challenging but I became stronger thanks to you London!
Cádiz: I was born here. I love silence beach and joyful people what makes Cádiz a very fun and juicy city to work from. My family lives here, so it will always be a touchdown base city on a regular basis!
Lisbon: I travel often to Lisbon and potentially move here in 2022. It offers me the quality of life, culture and loving people.
Italy: I haven’t explored it in depth yet, but it is great to visit every year.
As you could see, I am not sure at all about which one is best. Each city has its own charmings so, I love to risk it and follow my criteria based on what I am feeling and thinking at the moment!M
What is the one piece of organising and favourite advice you want to give anyone considering taking the leap into the life of a digital nomad?
If it is already at the back of your mind: give it a go. Because even if you try to get all the certainty around in the world (will I make enough money?, what am I going to sell?, what if later on I want to settle down?), you never know until YOU KNOW!
All the certainty you need is within you. You are not alone!
Thanks for dedicating time to my words and looking forward to connecting with you.
Lots of love & adventure,
Genoveva
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