Goodbye (home) office. Here's how to take your career on the road.

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Listen to episode 06: Becoming a digital nomad, with Mandy Fransz.

I spent March and April in lockdown in Normandy. As golden as the cage was – and golden it was, and green, and lush, and loving, and the food was delicious – by week 9, I was ready to bust my way out. I went back to London. I’m on week 11 here, and the same feeling is back. Walls are closing in, and I’m opening every door and window just to breathe. Cabin fever.

Nearly six months after our world was turned upside down, past the first flush of terror, past the anxiety and social isolation, comes another realization: I haven’t been this sedentary in two decades. If you’re a Borderline listener, chances are, you’re in the same boat. A metaphorical boat that’s stuck at port.

My wanderlust got bad enough that two hours passed between writing the previous paragraph and this sentence. I was googling camper vans. God help me, I’m a cliché. Nellie Bowles at The New York Times wrote about us. Apparently, the custom luxury van business is booming and who’s buying, of course, but wealthy tech bros.

It’s tempting to take your laptop and yourself on the road. What else do you need to do your job these days? If you’re lucky enough to be able to work from home, it doesn’t really matter where that home is. Digital nomads understood this even before the pandemic and have designed lives that allow them to “work and live wherever they feel happiest and most productive,” as Mandy Fransz, my podcast guest this week, puts it.

Mandy runs her own boutique consultancy, Make the Leap Digital, from wherever she happens to be in the world. These days, that’s home in the Netherlands, but she’s also worked from Bali, California and Colombia. She tells us how she got started and how we can too. One thing I loved about our conversation is how it busted the clichés of digital nomadism as pretty people showing off the #vanlife or their yoga retreat in Bali on Instagram. There are in fact many ways you can work remotel, even with kids, even with a full-time corporate job, and yes, even without followers.

My frequent international moves are one brand of nomadism, I learned. And I’m not done with it. I haven’t splurged for the van yet, but I did buy my first car and put camping gear in the boot. I’m out.

Listen to the episode

Mandy’s resources

• Remote workers on LinkedIn, the group connecting 50,000 current and aspiring digital nomads, launched by my friend and former coworker Alexander Besant 🙏
• The Rise of Remote Work, Mandy’s newsletter on LinkedIn
• Nomadlist.com, a site Mandy recommends, which lists the most nomad-friendly cities in the world, estimates living costs, helps you find wifi spots to work, etc.

Summer break

This is it for the short first season of Borderline. When I had the idea for this podcast, I wanted to get started right away, put a few episodes out there and see the reaction. I’ve learned a lot and most of all that I love it, so I want to build something that lasts. I’m taking a few weeks off for what little travel 2020 allows, but also to prepare an awesome season 2 and ponder how to grow Borderline into a sustainable project. I’m thinking more community features, other platforms, potentially a podcast in French (I know, two podcasts alone, nuts…) and yes, monetization. Globalists gotta eat, too.

I’d love to hear your ideas and opinions. Email me at isa@isabelleroughol.com. Borderline will be back in September.