Digital Nomad lifestyle 2.0
Development of a hype 1.0
into a sustainable movement 2.0
Every new idea passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
I am sure the Digital Nomad lifestyle is in the switch from stage 1 to stage 2.
It is June 2015 and I am sitting in the coliving and coworking space SunDesk in Taghazout, Morocco while writing these lines. The sun is shining on the rooftop, the sky is totally blue without any cloud, the sea looks as flat as a mirror and the internet is fast and reliable.
Digital Nomad hype 1.0
In 2007 Tim Ferriss published the bible for location independent working The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.
That inspired the first Digital Nomads, who were travelers taking their businesses on the road. In the next years few people got rich selling the Digital Nomad dream with crappy websites.
Thx to these internet marketing people “earning money in the internet” got a bad and spammy reputation > Digital Nomad hype 1.0.
I was also skeptical about the “lifestyle business” hype when I first read about it in the early 2000s. I never dug deeper and went on with my corporate career as online marketing manager in different online startups.
My jump into the Digital Nomad lifestyle
In 2012 my girlfriend and I went on a backpacking trip to Southeast Asia. A typhoon got us stuck for 3 days in Dumaguete, Phillippines. We read an eBook of a colleague of mine that totally changed our mindset and motivated us to try earning money online on our own.
We started to transform our “family & friends” blog into the professional travel blog Travelicia and took the first clients for website creation and online marketing consulting.
BOOM! We made our first income while being on the road traveling the world. I will never forget that feeling when we realized what just happened.
We started to investigate who else is living this nomadic lifestyle already and found out that there is still a lot of spam from those early “Digital Nomads” on the web.
BUT, there were the first really helpful websites with tips on how to set up a sustainable business on the road.
It’s all about connections > 1st DNX in 2014
We connected with the cool people living the Digital Nomad lifestyle and became real good friends. Thanks to these early connections we were able to start the first DNX conference for Digital Nomads in May 2014. We already knew every speaker on the DNX stage before. Our mission is to serve the best talks and workshops with the highest quality ever on the DNX events.
Digital Nomad movement is getting bigger > 2.0
Thanks to fresh and motivated people like Pieter Levels who started Nomad List, #nomads a Digital Nomad chat community and Nomad Forum the Digital Nomad movement gained awareness and traction again all over the world in 2014 > Digital Nomad movement 2.0.
The movement grows even bigger
In October 2014 we did the 2nd DNX event with 350 like-minded participants and headed to South America. After that DNX event we headed to South America and have been traveling and working with the MacBook in Brazil, Colombia and the Caribbean island of Curacao.
Coming back to Berlin in spring 2015 we organized the 3rd German-speaking DNX ★ Digital Nomad conference featuring 4 days full of programs with 500 participants. WHAT A BLAST!
More Digital Nomad projects all over the world
Since 2014 more and more really exciting Digital Nomad projects and coliving concepts have popped up: CoBoat, Nomad House, Copass, Hacker Paradise and Turn Point.
After the DNX conference we headed to Tarifa to start our 1st DNX CAMP where we hung out with like-minded Digital Nomads. We colived and coworked in a villa at the most beautiful places in the world and lived a healthy lifestyle.
In Tarifa we met our friends Johannes from WebWorkTravel and Peter from the Surf Office and many more like-minded entrepreneurs.
Small fisher villages to get productive
Sitting now on the SunDesk rooftop in the small fisher village of Taghazout with fast internet, we got into productivity turbo boost mode and got a lot of shit done.
I am always most productive when I am in small and simple seaside destinations like El Nido in the Philippines, Taganga in Colombia, Caye Caulker on Belize and Kuta Lombok in Indonesia.
Bigger cities for networking events
In 4 days Barcelona, Spain is calling for networking with other Digital Nomads and the DCBCN conference from the Dynamite Circle, a private community for entrepreneurs.
BIG BANG in summer 2015: 1st international
Digital Nomad conference ★ DNX GLOBAL
After Barcelona we will go back to our homebase in Berlin to prepare the next BIG BANG: The 1st international English-speaking Digital Nomad conference ★ DNX GLOBAL on July 31 and August 01, 2015 in Berlin.
We got registrations from more than 350 like-minded people from 30 different countries all over the world coming to Berlin in summer 2015.
This is just the beginning
The next DNX CAMP in September in Lissabon, Portugal is already sold out and in November we will go on a Digital Nomad cruise from Gran Canaria, Canary Islands to Salvador, Brazil with many like-minded entrepreneurs.
In December 2015 we will do the DNX CAMP in kite-surfing hotspot Jericoacoara, Brazil and celebrate New Years in Rio de Janeiro.
Digital Nomads shape the future of work > 3.0
I am sure what started in the last months is just the beginning of the Digital Nomad movement 2.0 and will lead into the Digital Nomad work option 3.0.
Digital Nomads will be the key players shaping the future of work.
Remote employees from companies will work all over the world, teams will be set by the time zone you are in. Startups and businesses will be founded on the road and freelancers will serve their clients from where ever they are.
THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT!
Let’s all of us enjoy the roller coaster ride!
❤ THX for reading and sharing ❤
I am Digital Nomad by heart and founder of DNX — Digital Nomad Hub.
Follow me on Facebook (fb.com/meurermarcus), Twitter (@marcusmeurer95), Instagram (@marcusmeurer95) and Medium (@marcusmeurer)
