10 reasons to become a digital nomad today

The academy for
digital design nomads
10
reasons
to become
a digital
nomad today

We are digital design nomads and believe that a diverse
lifestyle with rich experiences can nurture the soul and
spark brilliance. We despise routines, they kill curiosity,
make days blend into each other and destroy creative
minds. Start Loaded gives you the tools to be part of a
lifestyle revolution where work and travel come together
in harmony. A lifestyle that challenges convention.

Contents
See the world
Improve your lifestyle
Become more productive
Create a mouthwatering portfolio
Break away from the rat race
With change comes opportunity
Finding your element
Meet inspiring specimens
Creativity and inspiration
Help others
Knowledge and growth
4
5
7
9
11
12
13
14
16
17
18
10 reasons to become a digital nomad today

4
1See the world
T
his is one of the main reasons
to become a digital design
nomad. Seeing the world will
open your eyes to cultural diversity,
get you closer to adventure, allow
you to embrace new hobbies
depending on your location and give
you the freedom to choose your
schedule.
As a digital design nomad, you can
go anywhere you please. It’s really
that simple. If you think you like
the idea of living in a tree house in
Costa Rica because you think you
like the smell of a cassia tree in the
morning. Guess what? You can do it!
“If you don’t feel like
staying, it’s as easy as
packing a few dirty
socks and relocating”
Working on the road puts an
incredible spin on the way you
travel. You don’t have a time limit,
you’re not rushing to see 5 locations
on your 5 day holiday. With this
lifestyle you can soak up as much
as you want from a location. Maybe
you fall in love with a place and end
up staying there for years or the
rest of your life.

5
2Improve your lifestyle
I
f you live like a digital design
nomad, you’ll be lucky to
experience a life full of flavor.
Freedom of location, material
objects and a fixed schedule are
just some of the perks of this life.
You can also choose what clients
you want to work with and the type
of work that truly matters to you.
A healthy work-life balance with a
non-restrictive schedule can allow
you to design a bespoke lifestyle, no
more of that boring 9-5.
As you might have noticed, we’re
not very fond of routines at Start
Loaded. The problem with a routine
is that it quickly sets you in to a
default mode, making life boring and
senseless. It takes out the adventure
in life and the excitement to do new
things can quickly fade away. The
excitement of being in new place
fuels curiosity and creativity. All of
a sudden learning how to train a
racing pigeon in China becomes an
activity that one must indulge in.

6
Some call it post-materialism,
this theory explains it as “the
transformation of individual values
from materialist, physical and
economic to new individual values
of autonomy and self-expression”
Wikipedia.
With this lifestyle it’s easier to
ditch material objects that seem
unnecessary and start to value
other aspects of life. All of a sudden
things seem to be less important,
the craving of wanting more is soon
eradicated (mainly due to the fact
that your 55 litre bag will inevitably
explode if one more souvenir is
purchased.) Material objects are
soon replaced by experiences.
Traveling has many important
psychological effects, not all of
them are good, but here we’ll focus
on the bright side of things. “What
a lot of psychological research has
shown now is that the ability to
engage with people from different
backgrounds than yourself, and
the ability to get out of your own
“A healthy work-life
balance with a non-
restrictive schedule
can allow you to
design a bespoke
lifestyle”
social comfort zone, is helping you
to build a strong and acculturated
sense of your own self,” says
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, an
associate professor of education
and psychology at the University of
southern California.
Traveling will allow you to live
closer to nature and enjoying new
activities. Sticking in front of a black
box to watch the latest episode of
“Have I met your small pet Bobby”
seems a bit pointless when you’re
camping on the edge of a cliff.
It’s easier to become a surfer if you
live in a surf town, or go skiing on
your free time if you can live on a
mountain, being able to choose your
location can allow you to engage in
amazing new hobbies.

7
3Become more
productive
W
hat would you do to
work anywhere, explore
the world, try out new
hobbies, challenge yourself every
day, meet inspiring people and
enjoy freedom whilst developing
your career? My answer is: anything
except wrestling a watermelon in a
public space.
Once you’ve tasted life as a digital
design nomad, it’s going to be hard
to go back to commuting for hours
in a metal box, next to thousands of
other metal boxes to later position
yourself in cubicle the size of a
public toilet. And if this means
working extra hours, putting more
effort in to your projects, perfecting
your trade and seeking out tools and
resources to commit to this lifestyle,
so be it.
Productivity isn’t the first thing
that comes to mind when you’re
traveling around the world. It’s
hard to stay focused when so much
is happening around you, but if
done right you can increase your
productivity and limit distractions.
Working as a digital design nomad
will allow you to expand your field
of work, sometimes you might need
“It’s going to be
hard to go back to
commuting for hours
in a metal box, next
to thousands of other
metal boxes to later
position yourself in
cubicle the size of a
public toilet”

8
to embark in projects that you
normally wouldn’t consider but will
help you grow.
Work doesn’t need to be done in
a fixed schedule. This can even be
more relevant to creative work,
sometimes forcing yourself to strict
working schedules can result in
poor ideas, low quality work and
frustration. As long as you can stick
to a certain amount of working
hours, you can choose your most
productive times of the day and life
your life according to that.
Commuting no longer becomes a
daily problem. With this tedious
part of the day eradicated it’s easier
to start working earlier and saving
countless wasted hours a year.
Offices aren’t always the most
productive workspace.
A study made by Mentalfloss
discovered that 91% of remote
workers report being more
productive away from the office.
The biggest problem with a busy
office is that it contains a staggering
amount of distractions, if you’re in a
position where you can control your
environment you can pinpoint these
distractions and eliminate them.

9
4Create a mouth-
watering portfolio
T
his one goes hand in hand
with the previous point.
Have you been struggling
to get your website out or develop
a portfolio that convinces clients?
Wait till you have to do it in
order to pursue your dream of
hiking the Himalayas or taking up
tango lessons in Spain. It’s easy
to become complacent when you
live comfortably. Comfortable
is dangerous, it helps the mind
go on to auto mode destroying
productivity levels and aspirations.
In order to get new work you’ll
need to create a portfolio that
will make people look twice. As a
digital design nomad you have to
increase your online presence and
display your best work, this should
be a primary objective and a great
amount of time should be dedicated
to this.
One of the main disadvantages of
being a digital design nomad is
economic instability, there’s no
guaranteed pay check at the end of
the month. But this has is perks, it
will keep you searching for clients,
producing high quality work and
learning more about your trade.
Remote work will also affect the
way you form relationships with
your boss or client, most of the time
you’ll be solely judged on your work
and not the outrageous colour of
your new shirt.
Understanding
cultural differences
in order to keep
clients happy and
complete successful
projects will give
you rich knowledge
and a portfolio with
characteristics from
diverse parts of the
world.

10
With new clients come new
projects, new case studies and new
possibilities. As a digital design
nomad you might be working as a
freelancer and will find that you’ll
work on projects from start to
finish, giving you creative freedom
and ownership over projects that
can later be displayed on your
portfolio.
The Internet allows you to
work with diverse cultures.
Understanding cultural differences
in order to keep clients happy and
complete successful projects will
give you rich knowledge and a
portfolio with characteristics from
diverse parts of the world.
Create great case studies whilst
developing these projects,
document the process and try to
get client reviews when you finish.
It will boost your portfolio and in
turn show future clients that you’re
capable of traveling and working at
the same time.

11
5Break away from
the rat race
O
nce you’ve broken away
from a traditional lifestyle
you’ll become more aware
of your surroundings, opportunities
and different ways of living that
make you excel at what you’re good
at. It’s kind of hard to break away
from a routine whilst working 9-5.
With this routine it’s hard to focus
on what’s important to you. Don’t
get me wrong, you might have the
best job in the world that allows
you to grow in incredible ways, but
there’s always going to be someone
telling you what to do and how to do
it.
If you live in a sedentary
environment it’s easy to start
following what others do. Getting a
car, fancy clothes and other material
objects seems like a great idea, but
in most cases this will only sink you
deeper in to debt. All of a sudden
it seems economically unwise to
quit your job and start on your own
when your debts are the size of an
elephant on top of an oak tree.
Living like a digital design nomad
requires entrepreneurship,
it requires taking bold steps
forward and always looking for
opportunities. If you work as a
freelancer you’ll be investing more
time and effort in to your own
business and building a brand. You’ll
become your own boss and success
will be completely up to you.
“If you work as a
freelancer you’ll be
investing more time
and effort in to your
own business and
start building your
own brand”

12
6With change comes
opportunity
T
he beauty of putting yourself
in to unknown environments
is that opportunities seem
to come out of thin air. These
opportunities might not even come
from your field of knowledge. I
could see myself milking cows in
Patagonia before completing some
of the tasks that have crossed my
path.
Traveling changes mind-sets, it
makes you try new things, it helps
break barriers and makes you jump
in to the deep end. Even if that deep
end is filled with hungry crocodiles.
Change is hard, it takes great
courage to change your lifestyle
when you’re comfortable. But when
all you have to worry about is a
backpack and a few dirty clothes
it becomes easy to embrace new
possibilities.

13
7Finding your
element
Y
es I got the tittle from the
book “The element” and it
has everything to do with the
contents of it. It seems to me that
most people seem to be stuck with
one objective in mind, let’s make
more money no matter what. The
problem is that “no matter what”
can easily turn in a completely
wasted lifetime of perfecting the
art of: Moving your computer’s
mouse in your sleep so that your
boss thinks you’re being productive.
I don’t want to judge because this
could be someone’s calling in life,
but if you’re doing something just
for getting by, you’re not living.
Moving around keeps you on
your toes, it makes room for new
opportunities. It creates a healthy
environment where you try new
things. You have to become
inventive and resolve challenges
that you didn’t even know existed.
It’s easier to maneuver and change
course if you eliminate most of
the baggage. I mean this literally,
your belongings as a digital design
nomad will be quickly be reduced
to a few backpacks. It’s far easier
to change your direction and
find what you love if you drive a
bicycle instead of a war ship. A
new location gives you a fresh
opportunity to ditch what you find
counterproductive in your life and
build on things that give room for
growth and happiness.
“It’s far easier to
change your direction
and find what you love
if you drive a bicycle
instead of a war ship.”

14
8Meet inspiring specimens
C
ross cultural experiences
will undoubtedly push you
to encounter people from
different cultural backgrounds. It
will open your mind and allow you
to engage with people with different
points of view. After traveling for
a while, I’ve met a selection of
very interesting specimens. These
specimens come from all walks
of life and have challenged the
“normal” lifestyle in ways that seem
inconceivable. Every story motivates
me to carry on moving forward,
to find new adventures and to
challenge what’s conventional.
I met a guy who owns a 10 meter
boat called “Peter Pan” and has
been sailing around the world
with his cat. He trades Bob Marley
songs and fish for fruit. This sounds
completely insane, but he can do
this in remote locations where
computers are more complicated
to find than Wally, so after a few
musical transactions on to a phone,
he’s finds his boat generously
stocked up with a few groceries.
He’s hunted wild pigs in Samoa,
battled with life-threatening storms
for over 10 hours and even drowned
a deer being chased by an aborigine
in a river somewhere in Papua.
He committed his life to what he
loves, the sea, and by doing this
he’s collected an amazing array of
stories.
“I met a guy who owns
a 10 meter boat called
“Peter Pan” and has
been sailing around
the world with his cat.
He trades Bob Marley
songs and fish for
fruit”

15
Another very interesting character
is a German friend I met in Kuta,
Lombok. He’s been traveling for 14
months and funding his trip with
his number one passion: poker. He’s
an avid player that sees poker as his
job. It allows him to change location
constantly, experience different
cultures and explore casinos all
over the globe. He can earn enough
to learn new hobbies and move
wherever he wants to.
A Colombian/Peruvian girl I met
in the Malaysian jungle has been
traveling for over a year by working
for a few medical companies in the
USA. Her objective: explore the
globe. She found a job that would
allow her to do this and has now
seen more countries than the vast
majority of humans. She would wake
up in the morning, get down to work
and would then have the rest of the
day to explore.
The list is endless, but you can see
the trend here, these people do
what they love and manage to travel
at the same time. They are pretty
outstanding, but in the end they are
normal people like you and me, the
difference is that they’ve chosen to
challenge “the normal lifestyle” and
put themselves out there. This is eye
opening and deeply inspiring.

16
9Creativity and inspiration
I
t’s easy to lose inspiration, some
days it seems like it was killed
slowly by the not so inspiring
words of an angry client. This
happens to every designer on the
face of the earth. The problem
arises when Mr Inspiration doesn’t
want to come out and play for over a
month. And he might be hiding due
to the fact that he doesn’t really like
the environment you reside in.
As a digital design nomad it’s
easy to boost your creativity
and inspiration. Changing your
environment and looking at the
world from different angles will
nurture your creative soul and
inspire you. Learning how to climb
a palm tree, hiking a volcano, or
diving in a sea full of jelly fish will
undoubtedly open your mind to
new realities and spark different
synapses in the brain. These realities
will spark brilliance, new ideas and
ways of resolving problems. It’s
pretty simple: The more you do, the
more knowledgeable you’ll become
and the more brilliant ideas you’ll
have.
A very interesting paper written
by William W. Maddux, Hajo Adam
and Adam D. Galinsky came to the
following conclusion: “Overall,
multicultural learning appears to
be an important mechanism by
which foreign living experiences
lead to creative enhancement.” In
short, individuals that had travelled
more performed better at different
creative tasks than those that
hadn’t.

17
10Help others
O
ne of the biggest
problems charities have
is transmitting what’s
happening thousands of miles away
from the people that have resources
that could potentially save lives.
When you move around the globe,
no-matter how you do it, you’ll be
closer to different people’s realities.
You can appreciate the lack of
sanitary services for the local
population in a remote village, the
excess of rubbish in a resort, the
harsh working conditions kids have
to endure or animal abuse.
When you’re closer you care more
because you live these experiences
first hand. If you can connect to
your environment you can help
change realities for different people
and ecosystems.
At Start Loaded we’re convinced
that being close to communities
can help us understand the specific
needs people have around the
world.
Our premise is simple, we believe
knowledge should not be limited to
a few privileged people and will do
everything in our power to share it.
It’s our duty to give something back
to the amazing communities that
welcome us around the world. One
of our ways to say thank you is by
personally giving a book to a child in
need for every course we sell.
“Our premise is
simple, we believe
knowledge should not
be limited to a few
privileged people and
will do everything in
our power to share it”

18
ConclusionKnowledge and growth
T
his is a combination of all
of the above. If done right,
this lifestyle will allow you
to grow quicker than the magic
bean plant. You’ll be able to get
first hand contact with the history
of a country and help you grasp
how it’s been shaped. Traveling will
allow you to dip your toes in to new
languages and hopefully allow you
to say more than hello and thank
you. I recently met a guy who had to
learn to communicate in Indonesian
in 4 weeks because he lived in a
village where he had nothing to do
but talk to the locals; who knew as
much English as I know Indonesian.
I still haven’t found a language
course that can achieve the same
results.
Being a digital design nomad is a
big challenge, it pushes you to the
limit of what you think capable of
achieving. Invoicing, budgeting,
marketing, business, programming
and helping my new neighbor kill a
chicken are all things that I had to
learn or develop in order to keep
my lifestyle. Learning in order to
survive can help you achieve things
you though were out of reach.
A big problem you’ll encounter
as a digital design nomad is that
you’ll find it hard to create a
solid social circle. This can be
daunting, especially if you’re
“I recently met a guy
who had to learn
to communicate in
Indonesian in 4 weeks
because he lived in a
village where he had
nothing to do but talk
to the locals”

19
traveling alone, so inevitably you’ll
have to put yourself out there
(even if this means joining a hard-
core motorbike crew that only
listens to Justin Bieber). You’ll be
constantly meeting new people;
these new people bring in a rich
mix of ingredients that can teach
you new skills, ways of surviving,
beliefs, political views and a fresh
perspective of life.
Freedom is hard to achieve, but
if we go by what it says in the
dictionary, we can conclude that
becoming a nomad can get you
closer to what we consider freedom.
This freedom will allow you to act,
speak, create, learn and move in
your own way. It’s easy to focus
on things that we love and this
lifestyle can allow you to do that. If
your calling is to suck eggs better
than your grandmother, we can
guarantee you’ll be able to achieve it
by becoming a digital design nomad.

Thank you for reading this eBook
If you’d like to see more material made specifically for digital
design nomads we have assets, courses and the latest news from
the nomadic world on our website:
www.startloaded.com
Feel free to share this template, you can also find us on the
following platforms:
hello@startloaded.com

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