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Welcome back to Nomad Cloud, we’re that friend that brings you charcoal pills and electrolytes when you’ve got bali belly. We’ve got you.

Today we will be adding a new section called The Hustle Zone.

The goal is to provide practical and executable advice to build your personal brand, scale your businesses and ultimately increase your monthly income so you can have even more time to do what you love. Let us know how you like it.

Also, Wellness and Lifestyle are combined into one section we’re calling Digital Detox. We find that more appropriate.

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^UPCOMING

• Controversy in the community

• Optimizing relationships with traveling

• How to get on TEDx stages

^{🔥 HOT OFF THE PRESS}

• I got a digital nomad visa — living large abroad (nypost)

• Young Chinese Seek ‘Slow Lifestyles’ Abroad (chinafilminsider)

• Cyprus digital nomad visa: Who can apply (euronews.com)

• They moved abroad hoping to save, they didn’t (cnbc)

^{🏊 DEEP DIVE}

Is Croatian Tourism Board Faking It’s Numbers?

Paul Bradbury is no stranger to controversy, some would say he embraces it. This week he’s shaking things up in a Linkedin post accusing the Croatian National Tourist Board of overinflating the effectiveness of their marketing.

Paul’s main criticism is primarily regarding the claim the Board makes of getting 8 million impressions and how that was a pointless measure of the impact of the marketing campaign.

“I couldn't help thinking that 250,000 kuna was an incredible amount of money to throw away on social media boosting. Why not invest that money in someone who could generate those clicks organically, genuinely, by producing great content and driving engagement?"

Paul makes an effort to show how he as an individual replicated the numbers with his youtube channel with far more engagement and effectiveness. He says:

“When I decided to start the YouTube channel, Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert, I had limited expectations. Although I knew my content was good, and I was ready to engage and build a community, the reality is that I have a face for radio, no budget, and limited access to quality video materials of destinations.

But that number of the 'successful' 8 million impressions would not leave me. I didn't have 30,000+ euro to buy those impressions, I would have to do it all organically. Budget zero, apart from my time and the time of my video partner, Igor Vuk.

Four months later, I have some answers.

Passing the 8 million impressions of a 'successful' project took us 34 videos, zero euro, and an investment of our time. By far away the biggest time investment on my side was engagement and building community. Here are my (100% organic and unboosted) statistics after 4 months of a journey into a media I knew nothing about - video.

Paul Bradbury Croatia Expert, the first 4 months in numbers - November 14 - March 14

34 videos

928,399 - total views (compared to 60,300 clicks at a cost of 250,000 kuna)

27,300 average organic views per video

8.4 million impressions

3.02 minutes average watch time

9,302 subscribers, all organic, compared to the Kingdom's 21,000 - over 12 years. A national institution with a budget v a small vlogger.

98.7% - positive likes

300 - 10,000 - YouTube likes per vid

30-1200 - YouTube comments - per vid

80% of traffic from within YouTube”

Isn’t this just another example of how effective influencer marketing is for brands?

What if tourism boards made an effort to recruit content creators among our collective?

Would this help them align their message better while benefiting our community at large? Food for thought.

Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover

Our opinion? Paul is the anger translator of all digital nomads. I know we often feel frustrated that tourism boards, governments, and entire political parties use the buzzword ‘digital nomad’ to fill their pockets yet offer no value to our community as a whole.

Next week I plan to share my experience and truths about my journey as a digital nomad in Bali. I already wrote this post about it on my social media and it’s going semi-viral so there’s something clearly there.

Overall I feel we must be brave in sharing our voices and I hope that more people like Paul step up to share their truths and challenge authorities that are so used to going unchecked.

This is not about fighting for no reason, or about who’s right or wrong in this situation. This is about having an open discourse about the issues that impact our community at large so I encourage you all to always speak your truth.

^{🧘🏽‍♂️ DIGITAL DETOX}

Hasani Ade shares some powerful words to help you reflect internally on the relationships you keep while traveling the world. Have a read.

How to thrive in relationships while traveling by Hasani Ade.

You've made it, you've found your way out of the rat race and a bright future awaits.

The anticipation to check out the new place, meet new people and sign up to the nearby co-working space.

As a digital nomad it can be a real struggle to establish longer-term connections and relationships.

You have to be a certain kind of person to leave everything behind to focus on yourself, your business and your dreams.

This lifestyle we live does come at a cost. We know that relationships form one of the pillars for mental health and wellbeing.

As our businesses grow and we develop, we find ourselves coming into contact with others who are also 'doing it', we learn from each other and support each other when we're together.

There are other times when we need to be alone, to focus on reaching that next level.

Our relationships become something of an anchor that can ground us, especially when the waters of life get choppy.

Eventually we come to realize that everything is for a time, everything passes, things change, and that's ok. It's part of what we signed up to when we decided to pack our bags and go traveling.

However we respond to change, it requires a great deal of energy to establish ourselves and our lives in a new place, but also being willing to uproot and move on at any time.

We can do well to remember that wherever we find ourselves, we can always find our home within.

Be sure to meditate often. It helps to give the mind a chance to catch up with all the changes that can come with being remote and global.

Stay in touch with good friends you meet along the way, the joy this brings is both a gift for you and them.

Whilst we're away living our best lives we will have family, friends, loved ones back home cheering us on. Try not to forget those people, keeping a connection to home is good for us in more ways than are obvious.

If you're dating as you travel, be careful with people's hearts and be as transparent as possible about how much you really can show up for them, to avoid confusion and unmatched expectations.

If you find yourself traveling with someone be sure to respect each other's aloneness, creating enough space for both people to develop themselves, smell the flowers and connect with their own inspiration.

Be a fool to underestimate the power of habit. When we're moving around the structures that we create for ourselves can change unexpectedly. Our rituals, practices, and habits can change drastically.

Keep up those good habits even when changing location. Remember you're not only on vacation, you have a company to build.

Make it a priority to find healthy food, fitness centers and where people who want a high-performance life hang out.

Be around others who also have good habits. Have friends who you celebrate with and ideally those friends are people you can grow with too.

Enjoy the journey and take photos for when you're old.

Keep following your dreams.

by Hasani Ade.

Connect with Hasani: Linkedin, Instagram

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^{🌎 NOMAD OF THE WEEK: Iwo Szapar}

Iwo Szapar is Remote-first Activist. Since 2017, as the CEO of Remote-how, and co-founder of the Remote-First Institute, he has helped 2,500+ companies (including Walmart, ING Bank, and Microsoft) optimize their distributed workforce.

He wrote the book "Remote Work Is The Way" and was featured in Forbes, BBC, and Business Insider.

Over the last five years, he has worked remotely while living in 15 different countries. Iwo is a dog lover, amateur surfer, and DJ. While not working, he reads history books and follows international affairs.

Connect with Iwo: LinkedIn

_{📲 HUSTLE ZONE}

Community member Sébastien, shares how to get on TEDx stages

Speaking on stage is the fastest way to build authority.

I mean you could write a book, but it's going to take a loooong time before it gets published.

You could also publish content daily, but it might also take some time before it picks up.

On the other hand, you could be on stage next week if you wanted to.

Of course maybe not on the most prestigious ones (which shouldn't take much longer either), but you can build up to it and you can already be on stage within a week if that's what you were to decide.

I want you to understand one thing: I've been 4 times on TEDx stages and traveled around the world to give talks at conferences, but I often got more out of sessions I've led privately for 10 people than speaking in front of 1000.

In any case, there's something mystical about the stage, about the spotlight, that gives instant credibility.

Now, speaking on stage doesn't immediately transform you into an expert or an amazing speaker (I wish!), but there's an aura that it creates that makes any speaker more attractive. And if you hone your speaking skills... You literally become the lead magnet.

A recent client of mine was doing his second talk at a major conference. We worked for 6 weeks on this talk for him to really nail it.

After his talk, people were queuing to come to speak to him!

Being on stage makes it easier to attract clients instead of looking for them. And if you do a great job at seeding (meaning making people feel like future clients), you'll convert so much more from any talk you do. That is so much easier (and fun!) than sending cold messages on LinkedIn or attending a gazillion networking events.

And beyond clients, being a speaker put you at eye level with the other speakers at conferences. It gets you into the speaker dinners and VIP room that gives you a chance to network with the top leaders of the industry, and actually makes you one of them!

This is how I recently got a chance to meet Gary Vaynerchuck for example, but also many other speakers, more known in my industry, that are now my friends and peers that I speak to on a regular basis.

This has been such an opportunity for growth and more importantly a feeling of playing with people at my level.

Now if I were to make a final point, and probably the most important to me: Speaking on stage gives an opportunity to leverage your impact.

If you have a unique edge on a message, that you know can transform people's lives (making them save time and money, or go through challenges with more ease), then I believe you have a responsibility to get up on stage and share your message.

It is such an empowering feeling to see people make changes based on a talk you've given.

For that, you really need to sharpen your message. To be very clear on the edge that you have.

I have recently been working with this client on his talk, and I insisted that he should be ready to go without notes or PowerPoint.

On the day of the talk, as it often happens, his slides were not working, but we worked so much on making his message crystal clear, that he didn't need any of it to convey his message and impact his audience powerfully.

As you can see... Public Speaking for me is much more than stepping up on the stage and speaking.

It is my mission to empower people with a vision to create a bigger impact by going on stage.

It is a win-win, where you get to attract more clients, be recognized as an authority, and get to create a bigger impact.

I really hope more people will feel the call to take their public speaking to the next level.

In the mean time, don't wait, and get on stage!

Connect with Sébastien: LinkedIn

^{📰 DIGITAL DIGEST}

^{🐦 TWEET OF THE DAY}

^{🗓️ UPCOMING EVENTS: RUNNING REMOTE 2023}

Do you manage remote, distributed or hybrid teams?

If so, you might be excited about our new partnership with Running Remote.

Running Remote is the leading community and knowledge hub for Founders, Executives, and HR leaders who want actionable strategies for scaling and managing remote and hybrid teams. Every year, they run the world's largest conference on remote team management with 100s of in-person and virtual attendees.

This year, the Running Remote conference is happening in Lisbon, Portugal on April 25-26. You’ll have two full days and 19+ hours to learn from industry experts with extensive experience leading, running, and managing remote and hybrid teams.

Here are some of the industry experts who will be on stage:

• David Allen, creator of the GTD framework

• Sunaina Lobo, Chief HR & People Officer at Marqeta

• Brian Elliott, Head of Future Forum & SVP at Slack

• Annie Dean, Global Head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian

• Q Hamirani, Global Head of Work Anywhere at Airbnb

The Running Remote website has up-to-date information on ticket prices, team discounts, and event details. Want to attend? Book a ticket now as seats are filling up quickly.

Click the link below and get 20% off!!

^{🎙️ NOMAD CLOUD PODCAST}

Nomad Cloud is a podcast where we share intimate conversations with the thought leaders, innovators, and pioneers of remote work.

Looking to get your business or brand into a newsletter with 8,000+ digital nomads and remote workers?