#041: How to Overcome Isolation as a Freelance Professional

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey everyone. Thank you for joining me for episode number 41 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find the detailed show notes of this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 41 so today we're going to be discussing a topic that a few of you have asked me to cover. And that's the topic of effectively dealing with isolation when you're at work, at home. Professional. I found that this is a very common challenge. It's especially troublesome for those of you who are more extroverted. But I would say that introverts also have to deal with this issue and they struggle with this issue quite frequently. I still remember, I don't think I'll.

Ever forget this guy.

But I used to work with someone about 14 years ago who was an introvert and he was an attorney and he got into technology sales. And so he was someone I we actually started with this company at the same time. And he had come from a world, a traditional legal firm environment where you show up for work every day, you dress up every day. There was no telecommuting or anything like that. And he had a really hard time adjusting. And he confided in me that the only way he could make it work was by actually dressing up every morning. So he would actually even. He worked from home. We all did. We all worked from home. He would put on a coat and tie every day, walk to his home office, take his coat off, leave his tie on, and work in a, a suit and a tie every day.

He said that really helped a lot.

But he still struggled with isolation and he called me quite frequently and we shared a lot of this. So this is an issue that I think it's very common. And you know what I would say it's not just about feeling alone and isolated in the traditional sense. I think it's also about creative flow and maintaining that creative flow and that energy and that fun factor at a high level when you're out there by yourself. So this is not a topic that I'm an expert in. And so I wanted to bring in someone who has really thought this through and had ideas that she could share that we can all benefit from. Her name is Hannah Braim. And Hannah is a writer, a coach, author, and what she calls a sun chaser. She's originally from the UK and these days she spends a big part of the year trav around the world, basically chasing that sun and finding all the sunny warm spots. And at the same time, she writes for a living. She creates digital books and E courses. She's a coach. She teaches other people how to be kind to themselves on the inside so they can live the very best version of themselves on the outside. You can learn more about Hannah@becomingwhouard.net I'll include a link to that in the show notes. And what I like about her ideas and her approach to combating isolation is her holist approach to this challenge. It's all based on self care and making all those decisions based on being good to yourself first. So in this interview, Hannah's going to share 10 very practical and effective ideas for dealing with isolation. And she explains why each idea can work so well, even if you consider yourself to be more of an introvert. And which she is, by the way. Hannah is an introvert.

So anyway, with that, let's go.

That because you work at home and because you might be feeling a little more socially starved than usual, you know, you might want to meet up with them more often and, you know, vice, things like that. So for me, I. So I live with my partner right now, so my isolation is not. Is not as much of an issue right now as it was before we moved in together. But certainly when I first started out, you know, I was living on my own in a little studio and I did find myself feeling quite isolated sometimes. And I say that as someone who identifies as an introvert. So I really like my alone time. In fact, I need my alone time to recharge. But what I was finding, especially in the beginning, and you know, I've heard from other people, this is very common, is that I fell into that trap of feeling like I needed to be working on my business all the time. So I found it really, really hard to give myself a break and even make time to talk to friends on the phone, for example, was quite a mental challenge for me because I felt this constant pressure that, you know, I need to be working, I need to be building up my business. And that really came a turning point for me after about a year or two when I was just really unhappy and I had sort of a reevaluation, I guess, of why, why I had made the decision that I made to become a freelance writer in the first place and what was really important to me. And obviously I enjoyed writing, I enjoyed working with cl, I enjoyed the variety of projects. But it brought me back to what I mentioned to you earlier, which was the freedom and the autonomy. And I sort of took a look at my life at that time and I thought, well, how free am I really? Like mentally how free am I? And time wise, how free am I? And the answer is not very, because I was just spending all my time working and feeling this huge emotional pressure to be successful. And I think that's another important point to highlight later on. You know, what does success really mean? And we help all these sort of societal definitions of what success is. And quite often for a lot of people, by default, they think it should mean working really, really hard. So I had this reevaluation and since then I've done a complete 180. And I think my work schedule now is very, very different to what I could even have imagined at the time. So, for example, now I try to live by those values of freedom and autonomy. And so what I try to do is very much listen to what I am. So in terms of just my own lifestyle, I don't use an alarm clock anymore, which has been a real turnaround for me because I used to be very, very strict about when I had to get up and get on. And I also make a lot more time for connection, which is another thing that is really, really important to me. So I make time to connect with my partner, I make time to connect with friends. And through the work that I'm doing now as well, I've had a lot more connection with clients and with peers and especially with people who are also freelance writers. When I was doing that, I wasn't really making that time to network with people as much as I could have. And doing that, I found making time for that during my workday has actually it's helped me personally because it's helped me feel less isolated and it's also helped my professional life too.

Well, it's. I couldn't. I mean, as you're talking here, I'm just nodding my head going, yeah, that sounds like me. That sounds like me. That sounds like me. It does become kind of a vicious cycle because the better you do, the more pressure you feel to maintain that, which forces you to become more isolated because you're no longer connecting with people anymore. Now, in my case, it's interesting that you consider yourself an introvert because I think many people in the audience can relate to that. They consider themselves introvert introverts. I, I'm kind of somewhere in the middle and I thought for, for a long time I thought, well, I, I don't really feel like I need to connect with people all the time. But you know what, when I pay attention to it, when I really think about it, I realize that I miss it. You know, if I go long stretches without really, you know, of course I have my family here, but I'm talking about friends and colleagues and so forth. I miss it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Well, I, I don't really feel like I need to connect with people all the time. But you know what, when I pay attention to it, when I really think about it, I realize that I miss it. You know, if I go long stretches without really, you know, of course I have my family here, but I'm talking about friends and colleagues and so forth. I miss it.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So, all right, so let's, let's talk about some, some very specific tips because I know that part of this process for you has been great. I mean, you were able to get to a place where you feel good about your lifestyle and the balance that you're maintaining. But what are some ideas and some suggestions you would have for listeners that they can implement to combat this isolation? I know you have a whole list of these and we can maybe address one one at a time.

Absolutely. Well, the first tip I want to share, which I think for me has been the most important tip, is it's a little more abstract, but like I said, it's probably had the biggest impact on my feeling of isolation. And that's to recognize that there's a difference between being solitary and feeling isolated. And being solitary means being alone. But you know, as many of your listeners are probably aware, we can be alone and still be content with that. But at some point it tips over into feeling isolated, which means that we have needs that are not getting met. So what I would recommend in this situation is really sitting back and thinking, okay, where is that tipping point for me? How do I know when I'm approaching that tipping point and just really develop that self awareness around what is going to bring me back from that tipping point? What is the difference for me between being alone physically and feeling isolated, which is an emotional experience.

Interesting. Very important distinction.

Yeah, absolutely. And once you have that self knowledge, then you're in a much, much better place to prevent it happening in the first place and to really establish that balance where you can be alone, where you can get the work done that you need to do, where you can Enjoy your alone time. And it can actually be a gift, but it's not going to tip over into being an emotional experience of isolation.

Okay, Very important.

The second tip I have that I have found really useful as well is to use the Internet. So a lot of people talk about things like Facebook and LinkedIn as distractions, and they absolutely can be. And I know that just as well as anybody. But you know, the great thing about Facebook and LinkedIn is that it is so easy to find groups of people who are doing similar things to you. So, for example, finding groups for creative freelancers or even creating your own, I mean, it's completely free. It takes two minutes to set one up. And if you already have a couple of people that you know who are doing similar things to you, who are, who are writers, for example, you know, it's really easy to send them a message, say, hey, I'm setting up this group. Because, you know, I realize that we all work on our own and perhaps it'd be cool if we all had a place to connect every day and to talk about, you know, what projects we're working on, some of the challenges we're going through. And even if that's online, just having that outlet where you can go and communicate with people and connect with people who understand you, you understand what your day to day life is like and you can celebrate the wins and, you know, have a little rant if you need to as well. It's not the same as connecting with people in person, but I've definitely found that even through odd random groups that I found on Facebook and just joined as a kind of spur of the moment impulse, some of my strongest professional alliances and friends have developed out of those online connections.

I can definitely see that and I would agree with you there. And I would say, hey, start with where you're spending the most of your social media time.

Absolutely, yeah. And I've missed off G there, but just because it's not something that I particularly use a lot myself at the moment. But G is another great place that actually when I have seen it, seems to have more, potentially more dialogue and, you know, different kind of dialogue as well on Facebook and LinkedIn. So that's another recommendation there.

Okay.

Another thing that I, you know, I can't believe I didn't do this before. This is only something that I've really done in the last couple of months myself is form an accountability group. So this is similar to the Facebook and LinkedIn groups, but it's for specific people. So finding a small group of fellow writers, or it doesn't even have to be fellow writers. I'm in an accountability group with couple of other people who are doing quite different things. So we all have online businesses, but we are, we're in different creative professions, but finding people who also work from home, making the time to connect with each other every week or every two weeks. And you can do this over Skype or hangout, or if you're in the same kind of area, you can do it in person. And just yet again, having the opportunity to connect with people, staying accountable to what you say you're going to do, being able to talk through any challenges or ideas that you have with other people, and also you get the satisfaction of being able to help other people further their careers as well, which is a really awesome feeling when that happens. You can do that as a group. And I haven't done this myself, but I've known other people, especially writers, who have accountability partners. This can be really, really helpful if you're in the middle of a huge project and you have deadlines looming and there's always that point where initially you're really excited, but then you get to the hard part and your motivation just dips. And accountability partners can be really helpful. I know someone who has an accountability partner that checks in with her every day. So they just, I think they have a short chat at the beginning of the day to say, okay, this is what I'm committing to doing today. I'm going to do 500 words or a thousand words on this project and then X amount on that project. And then they have to email each other at the end of the day to say, yes, I did this or no, I didn't do it or yes, I did, actually did more than that. And even though it's a really, really small thing, it doesn't take much time. Just the knowledge that someone else is watching out for you and someone else is going to be checking up from you can be very, very, very powerful motivator and also helps you feel less alone because someone else is sharing your journey.

Yeah. And nobody wants to look stupid right at the end of the day. Yeah, I didn't do that again.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So there is that aspect of it too. And I think even though nobody wants to look stupid, I think it also is helpful for motivation just knowing that somebody else is there on the other end of an email or an Internet connection or a phone line who, if you are really, really struggling, you can pick up the phone and just go, ah, I don't Know what I'm doing.

Yes, that's very powerful. I've had a couple of accountability partners in the past and I couldn't agree more with you. I also like the idea of experimenting with a peer group and you kind of alluded to that. You know, where it's more people, maybe four or five, six people, and, and you meet on a regular basis. I say meet, but it could be local or it could be virtual and you discuss issues and you know, you could even take turns as to who's got, whose turn it is to have a hot seat or, or time to ask a question and on a. Do that on a rotating basis. That can be huge. I know that's as something I've tried on and off and now I'm part of a formal mastermind group, but just, even an informal peer group can be huge.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm really glad that you brought up the idea of the formal mastermind group because I'm also currently one of those and I know it's something that's not necessarily accessible to everybody, but just having, again, having that accountability, having that kind of support, even if you take away all of the other content that's usually involved in those kind of groups, just having that circle of peers is so, so powerful because you can, you can connect with each other, you know, even if you're spread out all across the world, as the members of my account of my mastermind group are, just knowing that we have our little Facebook group and knowing that we can all hop on Skype whenever we want and have a chat if we're really struggling with something or if we, you know, if we've just had a really great win that we want to celebrate with someone else or if it's just something that we want to talk about, it's so, so helpful.

Yeah, yeah. Couldn't agree more.

Great. So the next suggestion I have is finding a local co working space. Now this isn't going to again, something that's not going to be accessible to everybody, but co working is one of those things that just seems to have exploded over the last five years or so and they're just popping up everywhere. Now. The great thing about co working spaces is that you, you know, you get the benefit of having your, having that separation between your home life and your work life and you also get to meet a huge array of interesting people who are also working on their own projects, who might be working in similar fields to you, different fields to you, but again, it's just that sense of having an informal community that you can be a part of with other people who understand what it is like to be a creative freelancer, other people who understand what it's like to work from home, and potentially other people who are experiencing some of the same challenges of you because they've gone to work in a co working space. So that's another suggestion I have.

I love that one. And you're right, they're popping up everywhere. We've had kind of mixed results here. Where I live, there was one that was fairly close to my house and they couldn't make a go of it. They went out of business. But if you go in town, I'm in the suburbs. If you go in town, there are a lot of different options. And I mean, I know what a lot of writers are thinking, oh my gosh, there's no way I can write in a noisy environment. Environment like that. They're actually fairly quiet, at least the ones I've visited. And if anything, I would invest in a good pair of headphones and then go ahead and subscribe to something like Focus at will, which is focuswill.com I'm a huge believer of that. Been using it for a couple of months, and it really will help you focus and concentrate. But at least you get that group vibe right. You're in there with other people. That alone can make a huge difference.

Yeah. And I found that doing that kind of thing is much more effective than, you know, for example, doing something like going to work at a cafe. Going to work at a cafe can be lovely. But what I found with that is that you're surrounded by other people who are out having a good time. And it's quite a different experience to being surrounded by other people who are also focused, also working. And in terms of noise, I've actually known people that have gone to record podcast episodes in a co working space and that have conducted Skype conversations in co working spaces. Just because, you know, depending on the space that you can find, obviously they usually are pretty quiet. And even if they're not, there's nothing to stop you getting a couple of friends together. And, you know, if you have space in your home, creating your own informal co working space where you just have a couple of friends over, you say, okay, now let's agree that we're going to, you know, if you use the pomodoro technique, we're going to do four pomodoros. Or if you, if you don't, just agreeing a specific amount of time that you're all going to Work in silence for. And then saying, okay, after that, we'll have a half hour break during which you can connect, you can talk, you can, you know, discuss whatever you're working on or talk about something completely different. You know, whatever you feel like.

Oh, wow. You know, I never thought of that. I used to do that in university. We would do these study blitzes, you know, for like a whole day and split it up. Would have a nice long lunch midday, and would be studying on different things. But the whole idea was kind of built in accountability because I couldn't start daydreaming and staring at the ceiling if I knew somebody else was there.

Yes.

I didn't want to look silly.

It goes back to what you're saying about not wanting to lose stupid. Right, right.

You want to look like you really like what you really concentrate, which is not what we typically do all day long. But, you know, we want to put this front that. Oh, yeah, I'm focused.

Yeah, right, absolutely.

So I love that idea.

Great. Well, another suggestion I had was sort of three suggestions in one, but something that I'm. I've just started doing where I am right now here in Mexico, just because. I mean, I guess another challenge for me right now is that although I'm traveling with my partner and we're sort of doing the slow travel thing where we move to different places every couple of months, which, by the way, I.

Want to ask you about there at the end.

Oh, sure, yeah.

Because that sounds intriguing.

Oh, I love talking about it. So, yeah, absolutely. By all means, go ahead. But, you know, another challenge that has come up for us and for both of us with this, is that we work online, we're traveling. And so although we have a core group of friends that we can stay in touch with online, physically, it's hard to maintain that kind of social contact just because, you know, when you move from place to place, first of all, you don't always find, you know, it's. It's hard to find a group of friends when you're only in a place for three months. You know, you can always meet people and so on, but usually the friends that we have back home are people that we have known for years or people that we've met through work and so on. And it does make you realize when you're an adult, it is actually quite hard to make friends if you. If you do work at home on your own. So something that I've actually started doing here recently is volunteering. So I just do a morning or an afternoon every other week at a local Spain neuter clinic. But it's great because it gets me out of the house for a start, which is something that I'm pretty good at anyway. But it's nice to go out with a purpose, not just to sort of have a walk or something, which is what I usually do. It's also helped me meet a lot of really interesting people. So there are a lot of activities, expats there who are really passionate about helping animals and educating the local community and stuff and really want to make a difference, which is something that's sort of really important to me and my purpose in life as well. And it's just nice, I think. You know, I was thinking the other day that I work so much in my head, and I'm sure it's the same for your listeners as well, that as writers, you work so much using your head. It's actually nice to do something where you're kind of using. Using your hands for a change. There's not much brain work involved. It's more sort of rote admin stuff or doing stuff with your hands, moving stuff around. It just really helps get you out of your head. So, you know, I say this with the sensitivity that not many people have a lot of spare time, especially, you know, I'm still building my business now, so I very, very much know what it's like. But volunteering for me has. Has really helped provide such a great. It's helped me meet people, it's helped me get out the house, and it's helped me provide such a great variety to my week as well.

Well, you know, I would add something to that though, Hannah, because you said a lot of people don't have much spare time. I think it depends on how you look at it. Right. If this is an important priority for you and you realize that there could be great value, you. You don't wait until you have spare time. You actually make this a priority before you figure out what you have left over at the end of the week. Right. And what tends to happen if it means something to you, if it's important, I've found that the time becomes available, you know.

Yeah, that is a great point. Yeah. And quite often, I think we say I don't have time to do something when the reality is that, you know, what we should be saying is, I'm not making time to do something.

Exactly, exactly. If it is important, you know, you'll find a way. And then magically things start to fall into place. I found now it has to mean something. To you. Because if you're doing it out of a sense of, you know, obligation, somebody you feel somebody expects you to do that, but it's not coming from the heart, then it doesn't usually work out.

Yeah, I'm really glad that you mentioned that, because especially where it's something like volunteering, whether is the feel good factor, but because you are, you know, you are giving up time that you could be using to build your business. So, you know, you are giving up your time for free in a lot of cases. So it is really, really important to find something that is meaningful to you and that is sort of close to your heart. So for me, animals is perfect because I love animals. You know, I can't have pets because I travel. So for me, this fills that gap.

Well, this is like renting kids.

Yes.

Like the grandparents who visit their grandchildren and they love them because they get to play with them and give them back to their parents. You're doing the same thing with pets. I love that.

Yeah, I get to cuddle a few kittens and puppies every couple of weeks. That's great for me, but I don't actually have the responsibility of having a pet.

Yeah, that's great. Any other ideas that you have along those same lines?

Yeah, I was just about to say I was thinking about this earlier as I was thinking about things to say, suggest for the interview. And, you know, it's not my cup of tea, but, you know, it maybe would be for your listeners. But I was just thinking about the volunteering that I'm doing now. And I remembered that when I was a student, I used to work at a record store. And I was very much working there because I needed the money. You know, it was kind of fun sometimes, but it was certainly not something that I would choose to do if I didn't feel like I had to. But I used to work with a woman who was a translator, and she lived in a very nice part of London and was working at home on her own all week. And so she would just work on Sundays at this record store purely for the social contact. So. Purely so she could get out of the house, spend the day around people. Feel like she was contributing to a team effort as well. But she loved it. And I remember hearing that at the time and thinking, oh, my goodness, why would you do that? It's not something I would ever do. She used to work here one day a week, but, yeah, she loved it. And I could really appreciate where she was coming from afterwards when I sort of got into this Experience myself. And again, that variety that she was looking for. So again, I say that with the caveat that avoiding burnout is also really, really important. And I'm not necessarily advocating that people should work six or seven days a week. I don't think that's a good plan. But it's especially useful, I think, if you are building up your business and maybe money is a little bit tight at the moment and, you know, so it can help you sort of get the steady paycheck coming in and also give you that social contact that you might not have the rest of the week too.

Yeah, I agreed. I think it's. It takes a different meaning. If you would be doing this more for fun than you wouldn't look at it as work. Right. Where in your example, for you it was work, you needed the money. This lady probably thought this was kind of fun.

Yeah, she did. And I mean, I couldn't understand at the time just because I hadn't had that experience myself. But I remember thinking about it a few years later as I was thinking about it this morning as well, and thinking, yeah, actually I can really understand where she was coming from now. And good for her for doing that.

Yes, great. Any other ideas? I mean, these have been fantastic. I think there's plenty in here. And what I would suggest to people is, look, you don't have to implement all these. Just pick two or three that you feel you could start doing right away and start there.

Yeah, I would recommend not implementing all of them just because, like you were saying, you know, it's for anyone who uses social media, the recommendation is always to start with sort of two social media sites and really get to use those properly before you move on to others. And I would recommend using the same framework for these suggestions as well. So just take the two or three that really appeal to you, that really resonate with you as you're listening to this, this, this podcast and implement those first. And, you know, if they work out, great. If they don't, you've got, you know, six or seven other suggestions that you can use as well.

There you go. There you go. I got a couple of ideas that, that, that I've seen other people do, I've done myself. One of them is joining an association or local group of some sort. And if it could be business related, great. It doesn't have to be. In my case, I became very active in a local association and to me it was a business development. I had a lot of prospects who were members of this group, but initially it became Business development. And then it became something that I really enjoy doing because of the interaction with other professionals. And I joined committees. I became one of the board members of this, of this group. And I planned events and judged competitions. You know, so it was, I was very active. And you know, I will admit that sometimes I dreaded going because I was in the middle of a project and I really could use all the time that I had to wrap things up. So sometimes it was a stretch, but every time that I kept my commitment, I was so glad I did because great things came out of it. So that would be an idea. And again, it doesn't have to be business related. Another one. And I haven't done this myself, but I, I have some colleagues who have. Either are regular meetup people, so they attend one or two meetups a month, meetup.com that's the place to go to find ideas. Or they've started a meetup of their own. And that can be pretty cool. I mean, of course it's a little more involved, but if it's a hobby, passion, your own craft, anything, anything where there's a group of people who would be interested in that. Creating a meetup is a great way to connect with others with similar interests, develop new friendships, relationships, and get out of the house.

Yeah, I think that is a really great suggestion, Ed, and I'm really glad you brought that one up too, because that was something that I made huge use out of when I was living in the UK still. And the great thing about it is, although it's when you're building up a business, it's really, really tempting just to focus all your time and all your energy thinking about your business. The truth is that it's often stepping away and doing something else for a while that is most helpful. Just giving your brain a break and taking time just to hang out with people or to do. If you're into candle making, going into a candle making meetup and meeting people that way who are also interested in it, even though it might not be directly related to your writing business, having that break will help your writing business. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

Oh yeah. I mean that's, that's actually when I get my best ideas, is when I'm out of the office, out of the house. It's. It's kind of like you really give your brain a break and your subconscious mind can actually start pushing ideas into your conscious mind that it couldn't do if you were under pressure in your usual chair in Your usual spot. It just. You need that change of scenery. You need new interaction.

Absolutely. And I mean, speaking of which, you know, I'm aware that we're both at home as we're recording this right now, but something that occurred to me as I was thinking about this is that starting your own podcast or video cast is also a great way to counteract any isolation that you might be feeling. I have my own podcast from my site as well. And I was just thinking that, you know, as professionals, we are both, although we're in different fields, we're both connecting now because of your podcast. And if it hadn't been for your podcast, I might never have heard of you. And vice versa, Right?

Oh, my goodness, yes. Yeah, that's a great point. I've made some great friendships just from interviewing people. And it started just as an interview. That's how we connected and the relationship developed and it's. I can think of two or three people where that's happened.

Likewise.

Yeah, so that, that's, that's a great idea. And you know, in fact, that's, that's something I've been wanting to do. And that might be a future episode very soon is on whether or not it makes sense to start a podcast. And if so, you know, how can you get started easily and cost effectively?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Because it, I mean, it is a bit of a. I think perhaps some people get put off because it can seem like quite a technical thing. But I don't know what your tech skills are like. But I know for me that if I can do it, anyone can do it.

Yeah.

So it's not as challenging or as daunting as it first appears.

Well, I wanted to shift the conversation a little bit into. Well, first I want to hear a little bit about your travels because I'm just intrigued by that. You, you travel a lot and you work from wherever you're living at the time. So tell us how you came up with that and how you manage that.

Well, this is so long term. Travel was something that's been on my radar for many, many years in the uk, Sometimes people take a gap year between school and university, and I never did that because I wanted to go straight into university. And then I was working and working and working. And I really wanted to have this experience of just getting out of England and experiencing what it was like to be in a different culture. And, you know, it's a big wide world. And I felt like I was sort of shortchanging my experience of it, only seeing part of it so long term travel was something that was very sort of high up on my, on my wish list. And that was partly what prompted me to build an online business was, you know, I mentioned freedom, autonomy earlier and I'll mention them again, like that's part of it for me is I, I've, I've never wanted to be chained to a job just because, just for the sake of it, basically. I've always thought that, you know, if I, if I do something with my life, I want it to be something that I'm really passionate about and something that also, because I think sort of my generation is really the first generation that has had that option from the get go with the Internet and with all these wonderful online tools that we have now with cloud storage and online working and Skype and all these amazing tools that we have access to. So a couple of years ago, my partner and I made the decision that we were tired of winter in England. I have no idea why it has a reputation for not having the best weather in the world. It's not, you know, we don't have extremes pretty much all the time. It's gray and raining. But at the last couple of years, we've lived in a city called Brighton, which is on the south coast. And Brighton is lovely during the summer. It is a gorgeous town, a gorgeous city, I should say. But in the winter, it is pretty grim. It gets really windy, it's incredibly cold, and it's just not a huge amount of fun to be there. So we had a, we sat down and we thought a couple of years ago, you know, we both work online, we both always wanted to travel. Why don't we just travel during the winter? And so we did that starting in late 2012 for the first time. And last year we traveled to Argentina and Chile, and then we spent six months traveling to different places in Mexico. And we had such an amazing time. And we didn't do the whole backpacking thing. You know, we, we did have rucksacks and we did travel very light. But we, we stayed in each place for about a month, sometimes two months. And that was lovely because it meant that we could work, we could still maintain the projects that we were working on, but. And we also really got to know a place as well. But we still got to see all these different places because we were away for about seven and a half months in total. So we had such a great time that we got back last year and we decided to do the same thing again this winter. So that's what we're oh, wow.

Wow. So I'm curious about one thing. Has it been difficult at all to maintain your clients and get new clients while you're away? Has the distance been an issue at all?

It's been something to work around. I wouldn't say it stopped me from doing what I do at all, because actually, for me it's been better because most of my clients are in the States. So when I'm in the uk, I'm talking to them late at night, whereas when I'm here, I'm talking, talking to them at a very reasonable hour for me. So it's actually been quite helpful for me. In terms of challenge. In terms of challenges, I think the most challenging times have been when we've been moving from place to place fairly quickly. So December 2012, for example, we did quite a lot of overnight coaches and we stayed in. We went to visit different Chile and we stayed in places for a few days to a week at a time. And that got very, very hard to maintain. And that was part of the reason why afterwards we decided, you know what, from now on we're just going to spend a month in each place because it's also more expensive. And one thing I would say about slow travel in particular is if you are building your business, if you, you know, especially for me, coming from the uk, which is. Has a very, very high cost of living, but even in the States, if you're building a business, it can actually be very useful to spend some time in a country that has a lower cost of living because any savings you have will go a lot further. And that's something that I found over the last couple of years.

I can only imagine. I keep telling my wife, I want to go to Argentina. While there's still a huge discrepancy between the dollar, the US dollar and the Argentinian currency, because you can have a great time in a place like that and live very, very well if you wanted to stay long term.

Yeah. I mean, we say even in Mexico, which is Mexico, I think overall has a. It depends where you go. In Argentina, Buenos Aires is fairly expensive compared to the rest of the country, but as is the south. But Mexico overall has a fairly low cost of living and we've been able to do things, things here like the cinema each week and all the stuff that we just couldn't afford to do at home. And we've actually ended up spending less overall being here, even though we have a really, really good quality of life and we can actually do things that we wouldn't, we wouldn't do in the uk.

That's fantastic. And you know, I know that you, you write a lot about self care and work life balance, and it sounds like this is a really big part of, at least for you, of really maintaining that kind of lifestyle and really bringing joy into your business and in your life.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you know, one of the ways that traveling has actually really helped me is because I've been visiting all these different places and although I've had a decent amount of time in each place, I have been aware that that time is, is finite. And so I think it's actually helped my work life balance because it's been a higher priority for me or it's helped me keep my work hours in check because I also want to go out and I want to explore the area that I'm in or I want to, you know, visit the beach or I want to do a couple of day trips to various places and really make the most of being where I am. So it's actually been very, very helpful to my self care and to my work life balance to be in all these different places.

I can only imagine. That's fantastic. So in wrapping up, I want to make sure listeners know where to learn more about you and your podcast. I mean, what would be the site to go to work? Where can they learn more?

Oh, well, thank you for giving me a chance to share this. So my website is www.becominghooyouare.net and you can also find details about my podcast there. The podcast is called becoming who you are and that's also on itunes. You can get in touch with me about anything in this podcast about work life balance, about self care at Hannah, that's H a double N a H at becoming who you are dot net. And if you sign up to my mailing list, I'm currently offering a free ebook which is the five most common blocks to authenticity and how to overcome them. And that might be of particular interest to your listeners because there's a whole section in there on community and surrounding yourself with the right people, which is very, very important for overcoming isolation.

Oh, I love that. Yeah, very relevant, very relevant. So guys, check that out. Hannah, I really appreciate you coming on today. This has been fantastic. Love these ideas and really enjoyed our conversation.

Yeah, thank you so much, Ed. I really appreciate the chance to come on. It's been a real pleasure talking to you.

Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed that interview again.

You know, I think this is a.

This is a more common problem that we might think it's an important issue.

And I'm glad I got to address it. And I'm glad that Hannah came on the show.

I I thought her ideas were fantastic. And as we mentioned, I think the idea with with really any new strategy or tip is to not try to implement all these ideas at once. I would pick one or two that.

Resonate with you or that you think.

You can implement right away and work on that first before moving on to the next idea, the next strategy. I wanted to remind you that you can grab the details show notes of this episode@b2b launcher.com Episode 41 so if you're listening to somewhere where you can't.

Take notes, you want to come back.

To this reference some of these ideas.

Later that will always be there on that page ready for you at a.

Time that it's convenient. I also want to make you aware of my new podcast, Smarter Freelancing. It just launched last week and this is a sister podcast to high income business writing. But where high income business writing is focused on the business of commercial writing, Smarter Freelancing is not focused on income specific freelance profession. Instead, it's for any type of freelancer who wants to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. And it doesn't matter if you're just.

Now thinking about going out on your.

Own if you've been freelancing for a while, or if you're somewhere in the middle. I'm telling you, this podcast is for you. If you want your freelance business to give you the time and the financial.

Freedom to live your purpose. Purpose.

So if that idea sounds attractive to you, check it out. You can go to smarterfreelancing.com or you can subscribe to it right on itunes. And at this moment I am looking at publishing every other week, twice a month. And you know, if you like the show, if you like what you hear there, I would absolutely love to get a quick start rating or review from you in itunes. It's a new podcast, so it could really use a little bit of exposure and a little bit of boost in terms of ratings and reviews because itunes really looks at that when they're figuring out the ranking, so it plays a big part in the algorithm. So if you see value there, I definitely appreciate quickstar rating or review and I want to thank you in advance for considering that. Finally, if you have a question about anything freelancing, I'd love to hear from you. And I've set up an easy way to do this. It's a voicemail system that allows you to ask a question, record it, leave it to me in a mailbox, and if it's something that I haven't addressed before or I haven't addressed it that specific way, I'm going to be doing shows every once in a while where I just take questions that I've received from some of my listeners and I answer them right there on the show. The website to do this is speakpipe.com forward/edgindia altogether speakpipe.com Edgar I'll include a link to that in the show notes. Very simple. You go to that page, you hit the record button, you ask your question.

All I ask is that you keep.

It to a minute or less. And if I like the question, I will play it in a future podcast episode and answer it right there. So that brings us to the end of the episode. I am your host, Ed Gandia. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have an awesome day.

The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B. Launcher.com.