What It’s Like To Work Remotely, with Heidi Koelle

When we got together with Heidi in January to discuss the digital nomad lifestyle, we had no idea that just a couple weeks later she would be locked down at her host’s place in Guatemala and I would be locked down in my apartment in Prague. And we ALL will be forced to work remotely. Well, at least all of us who possibly can. 

Being able to work from anywhere is a great advantage, as we’re currently experiencing. And it’s safe to predict that more and more people are, and will be considering this as a natural part of their lifestyle. Heidi made that choice a year and a half ago, partly to have the flexibility to travel the world while generating income. After six years living here, she left Prague – indefinitely and without any final destination in mind. 

I got used to occasional posts on her Facebook profile like, “Hi Prague, I’m coming to visit, who can have me?” “Meeee!” I answered when I was around. During her last Prague visit two months ago, Heidi and I sat in my living room to talk about the bright and dark sides of remote freelance work and the lessons she learned.

Watch Heidi talk about her relationship with Prague and continue reading about her “digital nomad” lifestyle below.

“Always a foreigner, but never a stranger.”

“I’ve got a feeling that this digital nomad lifestyle might be overly romanticized; what’s your experience?” I start. “It is,” Heidi confirms. “Because a lot of times, I’ll be working in a hostel, or in a rented room somewhere, and everybody around me is like, ‘Oh, I’m going to take the whole day off and go to the beach.’ Well, I don’t get to do that. With this lifestyle, you have to realise that you’re gonna spend a lot of time in a rented room, or maybe in a café, working.”

“So what’s the part that attracts you?” I continue. “I like being able to go somewhere different every month; that’s been fun. I’ve been to quite a few cities; Tbilisi, Sarajevo, Medellin in Colombia, and then I tried to live in Germany for a while. I’ve gotten to meet some interesting people. And I like the flexibility; I didn’t like the 9-5 routine. I’m not really cut out for it. But you have to have stable wifi.… And there’s money. Some months I can earn a lot. But other months I barely make anything. So you have to be very careful, because there’s no safety net.”

“Last summer, I didn’t earn much money because a lot of my clients were on holidays,” Heidi elaborates. “I spent a lot of time cooped up in Sarajevo. Which is a beautiful town and luckily, everybody there is also kind of poor,” she jokes, “so I actually managed to get by. But I was alone and I had to drop a lot of plans I had for the summer because of my poor planning. I felt kinda trapped. With no place to go,” Heidi admits, while not losing her grin. “I didn’t really belong in Sarajevo. Well actually, I haven’t really belonged anywhere,” she laughs, “except for Prague, in a weird way. I belong in a lot of places, but I don’t entirely belong. It’s like I’m always a foreigner, but never a stranger… some expression like that.”

“Each person has their own different story.”

“Last autumn, I had a really nice time in Tbilisi. One of my good friends was also there, and so we split a place, and had a great time. We both could live quite well with our salaries. And we did some day trips around the Caucasus. It was nice to have somebody that was there all the time. It can get lonely being a digital nomad…” Heidi pauses. “Or working remotely,” she corrects herself. “Actually, to be honest, I don’t know what I think about the term ‘digital nomad’,” she laughs. “It kinda sounds pretentious as hell.” “Yeah… it’s a term…” I smirk. “Actually, my friend and I were discussing this.” Heidi continues, “We met a lot of these ‘digital nomads’. A lot of them were kind of douchey,” she laughs.

“Each person has their own different story, their own different set up,” Heidi continues. “Some people had really top jobs before, and a lot of them were able to keep those while they’re being a digital nomad. But there’s also a lot of people that end up having to go look for some savings and moving back home to start from the beginning. Each person has some success, some failures. But even with some failures, it can still be worth it. You still learn a lot, and you can go back with one hell of a story to tell. I don’t think there’s shame in going home. You still had the experience.”

“If you’re doing freelance, this is most important -” Heidi offers a tip: “Try to find out your clients’ schedule ahead of time. Depending on which countries you’re doing business with, try to see what holidays are going on. And yeah, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. It’s kind of nice to be spontaneous with the digital nomad thing, but it doesn’t always end up well. I wish I had one job that I had a set contract with, and I knew I was getting this much a month.”

Plans for The Future

“I would like to start a project of my own, such as maybe starting my own NGO or consulting company. There are several ideas I’m thinking about. But I’d go for a job that gives me a steady income too. Because a lot of NGO work is quite underpaid.“

“And I have a blog,” Heidi continues. “It’s been a side piece for a couple years, but I would like to do some more things with it. I write a lot about travels; particularly Eastern Europe. I’m a bit of a geopolitics nerd, because that’s what my Master’s is in.

I try to write about the travel aspects, but also the geopolitical aspects, and how the locals see it. There’s a lot of travel articles, like ‘Things You Must Do’ with listicles; I’m trying to go away from that, because there’s so many of those. But I don’t want it to be like some academic article. That’s not enjoyable for most people. If I could generate some income with it, I’d welcome that. I’ve had a couple of my articles published on some travel sites. But there’s so much I need to do with the blog; I still have a long way to go.”

Message of Encouragement

“Is there a message of encouragement you have for someone who’s struggling with their direction?” I ask finally. “Well, I’m also struggling with my direction,” Heidi laughs, “so this is sort of the blind leading the blind. But it’s not the end of the world to be struggling with your direction; I’ve been kind of indecisive my entire adult life. It’s not a big deal; you don’t have to have it all figured out. I mean, we’re all just trying to get our shit together. If you want to do something, try it. Failure happens. And sometimes it can be fun. And you learn more from failure. So don’t be afraid to screw it up. But within reason, of course.” We share a laugh.

Being a digital nomad or traveling while working is gonna be very hard in the upcoming weeks, months and maybe even years. But for anybody who’s had experience with this lifestyle, the lessons learned will become a great asset in this time. And hopefully, those guys will share with us. Check-out Heidi’s blog and her Facebook Page to follow her journey.

For more stories go to Interviews.