Drew Jones, SHIFT

It has been ten years since David Berreby published his seminal Strategy & Business article on digital nomads- The Hunter Gatherers of the Knowledge Economy: The Anthropology of Today’s Cyberforagers.  In the article Berreby draws on the controversial field of evolutionary psychology to point out that hominids have spent the majority of our evolutionary past adapted as nomadic hunter-gatherers, not as farmers, crafts people, factory workers, service workers, or any other mode of living and working invented since the advent of the agricultural revolution and sedentism (~10,000 years ago). 

The 3+ million years that elapsed between the emergence of early hominid species and the beginning of sedentism effectively wired us as nomads.  The 10,000 years since humans ‘settled down’ have not been long enough to fundamentally alter our hunter-gatherer hard wiring.  Since the development of agriculture and sedentism, the species has endured a succession of “social cages”- agriculture, city states, chiefdoms, kingdoms, nation states, and most recently, large corporations.  Jared Diamond goes so far as to say that the “adoption of agriculture was the catastrophe from which we have never recovered.”   

Until now…

The more networked our economy and society become, the more possible it is for people to live and work nomadically.  As the folks at Worksnug put it, “work is not a place you go, it is something you do.”  This flexibility gives people the opportunity to rediscover their inner nomad.  Berreby puts it this way: “Perhaps the information economy, that purely human creation, reproduces our ancestral environment, replacing literal landscapes and foraging with a virtual version.”

Nomads 2.0

They want to come and go as they please, wear what they like, work the hours that suit them- and not too many, thank you- because they value a balanced life more than piling up possessions.  They want to work in small groups and be a part of every decision.  Direct orders set their teeth on edge.  You must explain why you want them to do something or, better, show them by example.  You earn their respect by doing what they do.

The above quote is not (but easily could be) about today’s digital nomads.  It is an anthropological characterization of the !Kung San, a small group of nomadic hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia. 

·         Their ultimate value is freedom of movement.

·         There is a strong valuation on the personal autonomy of adults.

·         Most self-aggrandizing or dominant behavior is nipped in the bud.

·         They impose moral sanctions on those that don’t behave altruistically.

Berreby suggests that at the heart of nomadism is an egalitarian ethos grounded in an aversion to alpha males and dominant behaviors.  In the corporate context, this sets up a conflict with the kinds of leadership behaviors that are commonly rewarded.  No wonder, then, that senior managers are often the most vehement opponents of flexwork and telecommuting programs: They fear losing control over the people working for them.

Leading Remote Teams

In the absence of good-ole-boy networks and management by face-time, how does one go about getting the most out of remote workers and teams?  We suggest that there are (at least) 4 basic values that digital nomads share, and that any would-be leader of nomads needs to understand in order to be respected (and effective).

1.       Community: While they are independent-minded and value their freedom and mobility, they are also community-oriented and work well in groups.  They simply want control over the groups with which they affiliate.    This is why social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are so popular among digital nomads: they enjoy connecting with others in communities of their own choosing. 

2.       Transparency: Nomads, both traditional nomads and digital nomads, are what they say they are.  Everything is out in the open.  Goals. Objectives. Time lines. Budgets…  Communicate exactly what is expected of them, and you will get their trust.

3.       Trust:  The single-most important ingredient to leading digital nomads is trust.  Nomads do not need to be micromanaged.  If they have a technical issue/problem, they have a community they can turn to for help.  If you require them to come to you with every problem, then you better be able to solve the problems yourself!

4.       Results Only:  As Jodi Thompson and Cali Ressler demonstrated with the R.O.W.E. (Results-Only Work Environment) telecommuting program at Best Buy in Minneapolis, independent-minded knowledge workers want demonstrable results as much (or sometimes more) than their leaders.  Refine performance management systems and use them frequently and consistently. 

What other values do digital nomads share that are misunderstood (and mismanaged) by their corporate leaders?  Please add to the list and revise our initial 4 core values!   

Thanks for following along in this global series.  The last part I would like to share with you are some of the Global Tools I use to keep this all going smoothly.  If it weren’t for the following tools, I would not be able to live the fun nomadic life that I do.  Take some time to review the list and implement any of the downloads that fit for your business!

Recommended Global Tools & Downloads

• WordPress- This is who I use for my blog. I highly recommend it because it is easy, even for first time users. Just having WP is ok, but knowing how to make it function so you get a greater audience is why you pay a professional.

• Skype- I use Skype for my weekly client coaching calls, and also to communicate with my family.  If the other users are signed up with skype, your calls are free.  You can also purchase Skype credit to make calls to landlines and cell phones.  I use this to check in with my friends and family, or to call potential clients that do not have Skype already.  The calls are only two cents a minute to any country so consider setting it up even if you just want to stay connected with international friends!

• Firefox- I have saved a ton of time since changing my browser to Firefox. I can save my pages without having to re-open them later. This, alone, has saved me hours of research time and redundant opening of windows. Use it. Love it.

• Gmail- Outlook isn’t global, gmail is. I have switched out and never felt better. Global is better. I can check email from anywhere, forward several accounts to one, share documents, have a calendar, and store my contacts. They *of course* have better search tools for your email, as well. Save time, get gmail.

• Twitter tools- There are several tools that integrate with social media and make your life easier. I use a few that integrate well with Twitter because that is my main tool. Currently, I use Su.pr to track my posts and shorten my address. Ping.fm is great if you want to simultaneously update facebook, twitter and linkedin (plus a variety of other tools).  For checking in on updates, I use Twhirl. It is easiest to do multiple Retweets, or to thank people that are saying great things about you.  Another twitter tool you might want to check out is Destroy Twitter.  This is another integration tool and you can manage your tweets through your dashboard.

Play around with these tools and see which combination work best for you.  The ease of use and time saving should help you to better manage your global tools so that you can spend your time more efficiently.  I’d rather you be seeing the world and enjoying your life, so get to downloading!!

Thanks so much for participating in this blog series.  It is my hope that you now feel more equipped to take your business online and go global.  There are many other tips and tricks you can find my visiting my website.  Feel free to be in touch, leave a comment, and let me know future posts you would like to see on this sight.

If you’ve got a question, I’ve got an answer!  Leave ‘em below!  Also, if you have other tools you would recommend, please add them here so we can all benefit!

Right, put your pens downs, stop typing, hang up the phone, get off the jargon merry-go-round and take a deep breath.

Are you calm now? Good.

Now – if you’re in any way related to the IT world, (which I guess you will be reading this), then you’ll know how much the industry loves a new buzz word, a new craze, something, anything to follow! Any Monty Python fan will have seen the behaviour in the ‘Holy Gourd of Jerusalem’ scene…. Look it up.

Cloud Computing is the living embodiment of the latest vacuous piece of jargon that’s been doing the rounds all year. And yes, with a gun to my head, I’ll say that Esselar ‘does cloud computing’. The problem is that the phrase doesn’t really mean anything. Another problem is that people think its new technology and are therefore concerned about the longevity of the fad.

Under the hood of cloud computing, there’s nothing really new. It’s mainly traditional IT services packaged and sold in a new way. Nothing to worry about. This is a natural evolution. The main benefits being that you don’t need to buy the old IT ‘box’ anymore. It’s all hosted in secure data centres in the Internet.

So how does this all benefit us nomads? Can it keep us working? Is it secure?

There are various ways that cloud systems keep us working and I’m sure many of us are already using them. Hosted VPNs, for example, can get us connected to the applications and data we need from anywhere in the world with all the usual benefits of resilience, scalability and manageability at a price that’s fair. But more of an interest to us as users, especially considering all of the recent articles, reviews and blogs pointing to security issues within ‘cloud computing’ is, “are we secure?”

As with most systems, the weak link is the user themselves. If you know the name of someone’s pet, their child’s name or the name of their other half you’re very likely to be able to crack their password in no time. And it does happen, but if lists of static passwords are stolen, they could be valid for years.

Not only that but many users (none of us obviously…) use the same password for several portals/sites/networks. And for those of us using multiple complex passwords, would you be able to do this without that note on your phone or sticky label in the drawer?

So what is the answer?

Bear with me on this one as it’s something that until now has been the reserve of global organisations with thousands of users… With the evolution of cloud computing, two-factor authentication (2FA) solutions have now become viable for businesses of all sizes.

For those of us that aren’t too sure what 2FA is, it’s basically using the combination of something you know along with something you have as a means of securely accessing private systems. Think of the chip on your bank card and your pin number. But in this case, as well as your pin, you also use a one-time passcode that is generated from one of a variety of ‘authenticators.’ This can be in the form of a physical token on a keyring, an SMS message sent to your phone, a BlackBerry application or through an application installed on your desktop or laptop. The back-end servers that validate these passcodes are all now hosted in the Internet.

All of a sudden you can work remotely in complete security. So what’s changed? Because it’s all hosted you no longer have to worry about the ‘boxes’ being in your network. Let someone else worry about maintaining, patching, and upgrading them.

So my advice would be to embrace remote working through the cloud and hosted IT as we have been doing, but if you’re going to look into it make sure you consider your security and don’t take the unnecessary risk.

And remember that cloud computing is about more than SaaS and hosted applications; it’s full of often unconsidered services.

Ok everyone… If you’ve been following so far, we’ve gone through The Benefits of Going Global, Taking Your Business Online, Building a Global Audience Part I & Part II… now that we’ve covered some of the basics, let’s look at how to apply them.  The best advice I can give you about creating a global business is to stay on track and have a schedule.

Create a Schedule!!

When your business goes global, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and unfocused.  One of the things I teach people in my consulting practice is to set goals, and have a schedule that integrates your goals. Now you are in a position that you need to keep up a presence on your website, you have several areas that are going to help you get noticed.  I have outlined these areas below, and recommend that you put a day and time to each of these areas.  Otherwise, you will find yourself spinning and feel you have little to no organization for your time or day.

1. Blog Posts (outlining, writing, editing)- Determine first, how often you want to post.  I started by doing once a week until I gained more of a following and now I try to put new content up about twice a week.  Schedule time for generating ideas.  This will help you to outline your posts and build a general format.  When are your creative days?  Let those be the days that you write your material.  I give myself a few days after writing my posts to go back and edit.  This way, I’m not worried about posting it the same day.  Also, if you are worried about editing and formatting, you are not likely to stay in the creative state of writing.

2. Research & Finding Strategic Partners- You will begin to build networks through Twitter, Facebook, and your blog.  Part of the meaning of a network is your participation.  As you find others and begin to connect with those that share your same market and values, subscribe to their sites via RSS feeds & email or newsletters.  Pay attention to what they are doing and what is going on in their worlds.  This will help you to interact with them on a deeper level and support them as they are rolling out posts, products or services.  I like to tweet what I am reading as I’m doing it so they know they are supported.

3. Participating on Other Blogs - leave comments- People don’t know you are reading or what your thoughts are unless you speak up!  Take time after reading posts to leave comments, insights, or share how the post made you feel.  Be authentic and actually dig into the article.  By leaving comments and speaking up, the writer feels supported.  There is really nothing better than getting comments from your readers that Understand You!  So, speak up and let them know you are there.

4. Hosting or Writing Guest Interview Blog Posts- I think it is very important to bring the Strategic Partners you learn from into your site.  I host one interview a month with someone that is influential in my industry.  This is not hard!  I ask them if they would like to participate, send them my questions, and post the response.  The goal is to give my readers a chance to see that there are other people out there living an inspired life.

Similarly, you can share your insights on other blogs.  Find out if other people in your network are interested in having a guest author.  This gives you a chance to get in front of their audience and show people your stance.  Getting exposure on bigger blogs helps you to grow your following and readership; ultimately positioning you to influence more people and change the world for the better!

5. Writing Back to Your Readers- When your readers contact you, write them back!  I have this built into my schedule so that every post gets a returned email from me.  I have realized you can get into wonderful discussions and even find out where people are in the world.  One of my readers will be coming through Bangkok soon and I can’t wait to meet up with him!  Build time into your schedule to get back to your biggest fans!

Here is an example of my schedule:

Monday: Tech Day - website, blog formatting, editing, newsletters

Tuesday: Writing Day - BusinessBackpacker articles, outreach articles, guest blog posts

Wednesday: Research Day - finding and interacting with other location independent professionals, global entrepreneurs, and researching tools for business backpackers

Thursday: Social Networking Day: finding and adding followers on Twitter, replying to blog comments, retweeting other articles, reading RSS feeds and commenting

Friday: Creative Day:  taking photos, video, uploading pictures to blog site, connecting with friends and family

What is your schedule like?  Take some time to get organized this week and then check out our next post on Global Tools & Downloads!

Be in touch!  What are your questions, concerns or comments?

I recently spent a couple weeks in the U.S., working and exploring, away from my life in Belgium, trying to grasp a sense of what makes the Silicon Valley the birthplace of the most innovative technology our world has ever seen. Why do new technologies pop up so quickly? And, how do they get very rapidly adopted and receive good Public Relations coverage?

During my time in the U.S., as a Digital Nomad, I traveled with my family while juggling my business life, dealing with the Venture Capitalist (VC) community, networking with entrepreneurs and handling press calls. Unlike some of my American friends, I felt fortunate to do the daily commute along the US 101. It gave me time to think and it somehow sparked the notion of “The US 101 Effect.”

The US 101 Effect…

United States Highway 101 runs north and south along the Pacific Coast all the way from California to Washington. In Northern California, US 101 is the vein that runs through the technology world’s famed Silicon Valley, directing people between San Jose and San Francisco and beyond. By driving up and down, north and south, every day, you get a pulse of what’s happening in the technology industry.

The first couple of days of my Bay Area stay, I was clearly too caught up in my old European paradigm, perhaps too jet-lagged also, to get the picture. The very first day, for instance – driving south from San Francisco airport – I noticed this giant billboard next to the freeway.  There was our competitor, box.net, waging war against Microsoft. I immediately thought “Why on earth spend good marketing money on a single billboard that probably no one notices, and challenging Microsoft, for Pete’s sake? Good luck!”

A couple of days later, driving back from downtown “Fog City” on the US 101, I witnessed a similar billboard. This time it was more like the clash of the titans:  Google versus Microsoft. I was puzzled! But as early as the next day it dawned on me when suddenly both billboards got covered on the TV news and gained wide-reaching bloggers’ attention:  one billboard, on a 50 mile highway stretch, that’s all Box and Google needed to get the world’s attention?!  I suddenly became very intrigued.

There is indeed something very exceptional about this US 101 – “US Tech’s El Camino Real.” It exhibits some sort of “economy of focus,” because so many people who use it are involved in the high tech industry in one way or another. It doesn’t matter who you are- in PR, a venture capitalist, or just a user of technology- everyone lives within and gets life from that ecosystem, especially in the geographic area that spreads from San José to San Francisco.

While on an average highway 99% of the people couldn’t care less, the US 101 is the life vein of a distinct and vibrant community. The commuters listen, they pay attention and contribute to the conversation; it appears they are genuinely interested. That is why a zeppelin can fly above the US 101 (and CA highway 85, one of its side-rivers) highlighting an at-home genetics test and its web site www.23andme.com.  Every day indeed (at least in August), an enormous blimp gets airborne from Moffett Field and flies over the road infrastructure of Silicon Valley, because the 23andme executives know that 99% of the US 101 commuters give a damn. They genuinely want to know what is the next best thing to buy, to invest in, to work for, to sell, to cover, etc.

 “Oh Dierbaar België…” – “Oh Dearest Belgium…”

In contrast, my home country of Belgium really lacks the entrepreneurial spirit found in California, and that’s not just my opinion. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a program that assesses national levels of entrepreneurial activity, conducts extensive research throughout Europe and has found that Belgium has the lowest level of high-growth expectation entrepreneurial activity in Europe.

“In the United States there is more early-stage entrepreneurial activity than in EU countries and Japan…  Some European countries – most notably Belgium, Germany and France – consistently have the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity levels. This possibly reflects the relative risk aversion of European inhabitants and their declared relative preference for employment over self-employment…”

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

 2008 Executive Report

[linkto: http://www.gemconsortium.org/]

As much as I regret it, I believe that this has a lot to do with the overriding sentiment in our country that success is unaccepted and failure anticipated, while in the US, the spirit feels like success is anticipated, failure accepted – with the chance to move forward and try again. This is also known as the “tall poppy syndrome.” We truly need to change this mindset if we ever want to play ball.

Those who live and breathe technology can only be envious of the Silicon Valley ecosystem that seems to have it all, in but a 50-mile radius. Simply have a look at any Silicon Valley VC’s portfolio. They really don’t need to venture far. There is so much fuel and wind in the Valley, enough to start California wildfires of new businesses, innovative technology and products.

Even in the depths of the recession, there is a positive spirit in the U.S. to move forward, an initiative that says, “We can’t rely on government. We must push through the economy ourselves.”  In the U.S., you feel a sense that “The glass is half full.” Most Belgians see this as naïve, but it treats the Americans well. They elected a President on the theme of “Yes, we can!” instead of “I don’t know, should we!?” a more Belgian sentiment.

Maybe it’s genetics after all

The genetic makeup of the US society is the immigrants, the people who fought their way to a new life in a new place. It’s especially the case in Silicon Valley. The population surrounding the US 101 is not made up of your average American; they come from all over the world. If we used the genetic testing of www.23andme.com, we would surely find the entrepreneurship gene in their genetic wiring. They are already adventurous, risk seeking, reward-seeking, so they tolerate that atmosphere and embrace it. The area surrounding the US 101 invites that attitude.

It took me a while to grasp the concept of the success of those billboards here, but I talked to people and saw how it affected them. Nobody would care in Europe. But in Silicon Valley, people talk about it. It’s a close community. It’s amazing how many people know each other, even though a lot of mileage is covered. In fact, people probably know who the guy is flying the zeppelin with the Web site emblazoned across the bottom, past the billboards of the warring software companies.

Maybe it’s time to stoke some business fires here in Belgium with a billboard of my own. I am hoping the wind shifts soon.

Steve Rubel is on day two of a week-long business trip, and he’s doing it without the aid (burden?) of a laptop PC. From his bio, Steve is “Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, …responsible for keeping Edelman and its clients in the vanguard.”

I, for one, am not sure I could swing it, but Steve and many of his commenters are able to pull it off. There seems to be a commonality of reasons and methods for breaking the laptop tether. Check out the post and tell us what you think. I think it is only a matter of time before even stalwart laptop luggers like myself can make the jump to laptop-free travel.

Isn’t regular-old reality enough? Why must we augment our reality?

It seemed like only a matter of time before the buzzy new smartphone features would be brought together to help Digital Nomads (that means you too, Mom) make the days go by more smoothly. Augmented reality is among the buzziest of the buzzy new features: using a smartphone camera, it adds a real-time overlay of information to a streetscape. In english: use your phone to view a live picture of an intersection and the app shows you the location of specific landmarks / transportation nodes / retail establishments relative to where you’re standing. Spin in place and it follows you, changing its perspective as yours changes. Don’t look down at a map, use your phone’s camera to be the map.

A new Augmented Reality app from WorkSnug (dodgy name) should be of particularly strong interest to Digital Nomads. The math goes something like this:

(”Yelp” + Wifi detector + Location sensing) * Augmented reality = Find me a place to work!

We don’t really know if it will work 100% like the math: I took liberties invoking “Yelp” instead of saying “preloaded database of retail establishments” because “Yelp” is shorter, and we yet don’t know if there’s a proper WiFi detector. But one cannot deny that, when it comes to a practical mashup of existing features that really aids those of us who work on the go, we’re definitely getting closer.

Stay in the loop: http://www.worksnug.com/

Thanks so much for following along in this series.  Last week we talked about one of the best tools to reach out to your audience:  blogging.  The second part of going global is to increase your audience through Social Media and Networking.  Staying in front of your audience in different ways allows you to grow your audience while building trust and relationships with like-minded people in your niche.

Social Media & Networking

Many of us use social media and networking tools for fun and to keep up with our friends and family.  But, how can we utilize these tools to grow our business?

1. Finding and building relationships with Strategic Partners- Try doing a search for other people that have similar interests as you.  They may be in the same field, or complimentary fields.  Get to know them online and find ways that you could benefit each other by connecting for calls, interviews, guest posts, or referring your audience to them.  Building online relationships is KEY to expanding your reach, and by showing up in different areas, you continue to build trust and be seen as the expert in your field.

2. Creating opportunities to share information with your niche- Be someone useful.  Don’t just let your audience know that you are having Starbucks.  Position yourself as a resource.  Post links to interesting articles, pose questions, create discussions and point out other professionals that have great stuff to say.  I like to recommend other useful links and track their success rate through su.pr. This way, I can see what my audience is most interested in and continue to point them in the right direction.

3. Building transparency creates more trust- Part of allowing your audience in to personal sites like facebook is that you open up the fact that you are a real person, Just Like Them. I like to keep things funny online and people connect with humor.  Don’t be afraid to let people into your personal network.  I still post all my party photos and ridiculous links.  It just adds to your likability factor!  One thing that I would recommend AGAINST is spamming your facebook friends.  I add links for my blog posts, but do not create a new group every five minutes or tag people in notes.  People will start to hate you if you spam their personal life, so keep it simple and fun, and they will keep coming back for more!

4. Reaching out and involve others in your life- Invite others into your world.  Get them interested in groups, forums, or even activities and destinations you will be going to.  One of my favorite nomads meets up with people on his travels.  I had a great opportunity to hang out and interview Chris Guillebeau, from The Art of Nonconformity, just because he made himself available. I try to make a point of letting people know where I am going to be so I can meet them in person.  By posting my status on facebook and twitter social networking can turn into real life meetings!

So, after all of this, I have one remaining question for you….

How can you reach out more to your audience and get them involved?

So far we’ve gotten you up, running, and setting up a Global Audience… So, what’s next?  After you get familiar with using your online tools, you will need to get organized and streamline your activities a bit.  Keep an eye out for the next post:  Global Tips, Tricks & Downloads.

Questions?  Comments?  Leave them below!

With businesses currently downsizing significantly, many smart, capable people have been suddenly released from the preplanned, functionally discrete environment of corporate life. They have been unplugged from the balance sheet and turned out into the world, with their only possession being their highly valuable intellectual assets.

To try to make a living, many of these folks become “consultants” of one kind or another. They turn to their home computer, probably get their own smartphone and start making phone calls. But they do so without the support of IT, HR, accounting, and the water cooler gang. These folks come from a world where technology and work habits are still a very complex system of restrictions to one of near-absolute freedom. These folks can now work when and how they please, and they own the results – good or bad – in their entirety.

These folks become Digital Nomads.

The problem is, nobody really offers training for becoming an effective, successful Digital Nomad. Perhaps we should. If I were to design the course it might look something like this:

101 – Introduction To Being A Digital Nomad
Synopsis: We explore the dual aspects of being “digital” and being a “nomad” in today’s workforce. Students will develop self-sufficiency in remembering passwords and will demonstrate understanding of both portability and completeness by packing a lunch for another student and delivering a critique of the job done for them.
Required: A new laptop bag that is heavy and too small

102 – Philosophy and Physiology Of The Café
Synopsis: Once the haunts of artistic introverts and beardy intellectuals, café’s have become the new cubicle for today’s motivated capitalists. Students will explore their individual tolerances for being stuck alone in their home offices and will acquire skills in identifying which café type is best-suited to their requirements.
Required: Bluetooth headset and a baseball cap

201 – “Wow! I Just Got My First Mobile Phone Bill!”
Synopsis: Students will work in teams developing CPR skills to better respond to the first cellphone bill with data plan they receive as a consultant. Additional techniques include calming exercises prior to calling to switch plans and set-up of Skype, iChat and GoogleTalk.
Required: USB headset and a single earplug.

202 – “What’s My Fax Number? Uhhh…”
Synopsis: After discovering that a home fax machine is practically worthless if they’re working at Starbucks, students develop mastery of the following: Applying a digital copy of their signatures to documents and converting them to PDFs; Receiving, editing, and resending faxes from their laptops without paper; Using off-the-shelf software to make business cards.
Required: Digital camera, Comic Sans typeface

301 – Conference Call Intensive Study
Synopsis: The conference call by cellphone is a nuanced event, balancing quality of signal, minimization of background noise and distractions, the ability to take notes, and delivering the perception of total engagement. By completion of this course students will be able to moderate a call with a foreign party while driving a bus full of Brownie scouts on the Taconic Parkway.
Required: Diprivan (Propofil)

302 – Creating Your Online Persona
Synopsis: Without the umbrella of your company, you are nobody. Now is the chance to create the “you” that you have always wanted to be online. Students work in teams to develop home pages, blogs, and Twitter accounts for themselves, and provide peer review of each other’s Facebook pages with particular emphasis on the Photos section.
Required: Updated headshot your mother would like

Like all things in life, we learn by doing. Most of my peers on the Digital Nomads blog have slogged through the ins and outs of being a digital nomad, and have acquired impressive skills and deep wisdom in how to function efficiently and effectively in the office-free world. My fear is the “apprenticeship” method of becoming a Digital Nomad cannot support this sudden torrent of newbies restarting their lives outside the cubicle.

Shouldn’t we do something about it?

Despite my relatively ordinary life, I’ve been lucky enough to have befriended a great many people of stunning talent and productivity. Many are writers, some are artists, some just spend most of their time doing really interesting things.

I used to think: Wouldn’t it be great if I create an organization that included all those people? What power it would have. I was vague on the details of what this organization would consist of. Maybe it would be a company. Maybe it would be a society of sorts, seeking out shared causes, embarking on great ideological journeys. Maybe it would just be a big party I would have. Or maybe, I sometimes fantasized, I would find myself in deep trouble due to some great injustice, I would put out a distress call, and my enemies would quake when they saw the remarkable assembly of smart, resourceful, strong-willed and creative people who would drop what they were doing, all over the globe, and come to my rescue. (In retrospect, I might have been influenced in this regard by Stephen King’s It, which had a similar plot.)

As I’ve watched the Internet evolve, I realized that this Great Collaboration I’d always dreamed about could really happen, and a few months ago, I started the gears turning. Revolving Floor is a curated community of writers and artists, including cartoonists, film makers, animators, and poets. We’ve already welcomed a few contributors who heard about the project, contacted me, and turned out to be a good fit. But mostly, the people whose work you see on Revolving Floor are old friends of mine, who happen to also be incredibly talented, and/or to have a very interesting and sophisticated perspective on life.

Revolving Floor is a digital nomad project. The organization has no office. There are no meetings to speak of. But collaborations have taken place, votes have been cast, and decisions have been made more or less by consensus. I’ve awarded an editorship to someone whom I have not actually met. The site itself was designed in New York, and built in South Dakota. In the comments, you can see some of the contributors talking to each other as if they’re friends outside the site… and they are, in that they have participated in group strategy sessions. But in most cases, they have never actually met, nor do they know what each other look like beyond the author icons at the top of the home page.

The Revolving Floor homepage on 8/23/09.

But the benefits of a digital nomad world, for Revolving Floor, are not all about the contributor’s ability to disregard location and proximity. Because the truth is that there are aspects of this collaboration that would not have been possible if we had all been in the same city, physically meeting several times per week.

I like to think I’m a pretty good web producer and publisher, and a decent writer. And, as far as online collaboration goes, I’m not a bad project manager and diplomat. I have a lot of online friendships with people who, in the physical world, are hard to get access to.

In person, I’m considerably less suave. But one of the miracles of the 21st century is that agreeing to work with someone and agreeing to spend the majority of your day in physical proximity to them are not the same thing. Could I run an office staffed by the contributors of Revolving Floor? Could they get along with each other well enough to have the strategic discussions we’ve been having on a regular basis, in person? I doubt it. Could the whole thing have been run by U.S. mail, or by fax? Forget it.

Huili Raffo creates animations to be embedded within his own essays.

We have the beginnings of an editorial staff (Amy Meckler as Poetry Editor, Liza Donnelly as Cartoon Editor), but, for now, the administrative stuff is all done by yours truly. Since I don’t want the whole publication to depend on the durability of my aging laptop, I don’t even bother downloading most of the submissions; I receive them in Gmail, and open them directly into Google Docs. The image files are stored, and the project is tracked, in Basecamp. Photos used on Revolving Floor often come from the Flickr Creative Commons. I also created a Facebook fan page with a vanity URL (you need at least 100 fans to do this, details here). Revolving Floor also has its own Twitter account, which I use to announce every post. I actually have more followers personally than Revolving Floor does, but I always tweet a new post as RF, then retweet as myself, in order to keep up a professional appearance, and to show that it’s not all about me.

Most of the work, on my part, happens on my laptop, sitting here on a wrought-iron and glass table in my living room in Brooklyn. But I do some of it in local coffee shops and restaurants. I regularly correspond with contributors via email on my phone, sometimes even opening, reading, and giving feedback on attached documents without ever seeing them on a full-size screen.

Julie Lockwood & David Ayllon make collaborative pieces using both poetry and computer illustration.

These days, I have a different sort of daydream about my brilliant, faraway friends. I imagine that Revolving Floor is a Technorati Top 100 site, with millions of pageviews per month, enough sponsorship revenue to allow me to pay the contributors well, and to keep myself occupied with the site full-time. I imagine that I put out a call to my collaborators to come and meet here in New York… not because I’m in trouble, but because our project has become such a success that it seems ridiculous that we have never all been in the same room. We pose for a photograph together, have a few drinks, and then scatter ourselves back to the four corners of the earth. Not because we want to get away from each other, but simply because it’s time to get back to work.

If you enjoy Revolving Floor at all, please show your approval by leaving comments on specific posts. And if you want to contribute, or have suggestions on how to improve the site or its up-by-the-bootstraps marketing strategy, feel free to contact me at publisher AT revolvingfloor.com.

The major focus that changes when you head off into the sunset is that you need to build a global audience.  If you have been following this blog series, you have already read The Benefits of Going Global, and Taking Your Business Online.  In this post, we will be focusing on some of the online tools that will help you to build online networks, increase your site traffic, and position you to reach a global audience.  The two best tools I have found for this are Blogs, and Social Networking.

Global Outreach & Networking

We have just changed the game from local to global, and with that, the rules have changed.  You no longer need to focus on ‘looking big’; you need to focus on looking real.  Part of the glory of committing to your niche is the ability to cut the crap of trying to look impressive, and just genuinely be who you are.  People want that. Your audience knows they can’t afford the big dogs and they want to work with real people that understand them.  People like you!

The absolute best advice I can give is to be exactly who you are.  This is a Big Transition for most people!  When I first started my consulting practice, my focus was twofold:  I wanted to look big, and I wanted to look professional.  But, the problem was, I wasn’t focused on a niche, and I was promoting the part of myself that I thought people wanted to see.

I was trying to draw a big thick line between my professional life, and my personal life.

I realized that my business was suffering because I was not attracting my ideal clients.  I needed to let people into my personal life, and promote what I cared about most:  lifestyle. Yes, I was a business consultant, but I have realized that the whole reason I am motivated to help people change is so they can have a better lifestyle.  I needed to focus on business owners that wanted to go global, live like a rock star, and have the ability to travel more and work from anywhere in the world.  It was time to erase the line in the sand and start putting myself out there in all new ways.  Here are the best ways you can do this for your company…

Blogs

If you don’t have a blog, you are completely missing out.  They are by far the most cost-efficient, time saving, positioning and advertising tool that currently exists.

Last month, I asked Social Media and Blog Consultant, Cody McKibben, where I was at with my numbers.  I had 1,500 unique visitors that came to my Business Backpacker site and stayed for an average of two and a half minutes.  Now, think about this for a moment.  Is there any other vehicle you can think of where you can get in front of thousands of people in your Target Market and hold their attention for that long?  I am not networking, I am broadcasting.  I am sitting anywhere in the world and getting my message out there… and so can you!

Blogs create an incredible opportunity to:

• Build an online community that is niche specific
• Continue to position yourself as an authority and expert on your topic
• Increase your SEO and ‘findability’ online
• Develop a strong following of strategic partners that can help you increase your readership, sell products as affiliates, and refer you clients

Even if you are new to blogging technology, you can do it.  I have built a great following and a fun audience in a very short time-right around six months.  Learn more about if you are cut out to be a blogger.

Thanks for reading, and in Part II we will go further into Social Media and Networking to further establish trust with your readers and help you to build a Global Audience.

I’m signing off, but you shouldn’t!  Leave a comment below!

It was just over one year ago that Dell launched the Digital Nomads community. It’s been a great year and our community of nomads has grown tremendously. Our roster of bloggers has grown to several dozen, all individuals like you that have interesting observations and tips for living a digitally nomadic lifestyle.

Some of the most widely read and most commented-on content includes a post from Jay White of the site Dumb Little Man entitled “So You Want to Become a Nomad, Eh?” in which he shares what to expect if you embrace this style of working; my kick-off post on exactly what this community is all about entitled “Where Do You Work? I Work Everywhere”; and, a post featuring a Big Think interview with Dave Stewart on his use of technology. We’ve talked about technologies that enable one to be mobile, have given countless tips on travel and remote working issues, and profiled a number of people who embody what it means to be a nomad.

We were not the first to use the term Digital Nomads - that honor goes to many others including Mike Elgan, Chris Brogan and Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners, authors of the 1997 book Digital Nomad. The use of the term digital nomad is increasing in its use while other similar terms workshifting, location independent professional and road warriors are also used.

We’d love to do more and engage more of you on this community. If you have an interesting story to tell, let us know. I think we’ve done our fair share of top-ten lists but maybe you’ve got an idea for one we hadn’t thought of. If you aren’t following us on twitter, give us a try. If you ever tweet something that has a nomadic, mobility angle to it, add the hashtag #digitalnomads so everyone can find it. If you’re interested in our list of nomad stories, check out our Delicious list of articles that will increase your knowledge of nomadic issues. We’ve also got quite a few videos for your perusal on YouTube.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since this site launched. I can say from a personal perspective inside a large, multi-national corporation that my view on what makes for a productive, collaborative work environment is different than what it was when we started down this road. A year ago, privacy would have ranked much higher on my work environment requirements than it does today.

Asked what my ideal workspace would look like today and I’d describe a workspace with no walls, large open-air spaces with lots of open tables for impromptu meetings and team collaboration. I’d also be listening to Nature Sounds Radio on Pandora in a set of noise canceling headphones to block out the “loud laughers” that invariably would find me where ever I sat.

It would look very much like a place I worked out of a few weeks ago while spending some time in San Antonio with my family. We had relatives in from out-of-town and because I had recently returned from some time away and had deadlines to hit, wasn’t able to take the full time away. It was my first experience with co-working, the idea where individuals from different backgrounds come together in a workspace and work together, but alone. “Working alone sucks” is the mantra of the co-working community says C4 Workspace’s founder Todd O’Neill.

In this video, Todd gives me a tour of their humble space, open for just two months, and describes the type of people they’re attracting. If you’re ever in San Antonio and don’t feel like working from a coffee shop, I’d encourage you to look them up.

Your head may be swimming with ideas of The Benefits of Going Global…but just how do you do it, and how can you get started, NOW??

I’m a dive-in-head-first kind of a gal, so I took to the road and then figured everything out.  The benefit to you is that I am going to share my experience of what I did, but give you even more information of how I could have done it better.  When you decide to go global or become a digital nomad, there are things you need to keep in mind.

These were some of my major concerns before I took off, and they may be some of yours, as well. For example: how will you transition your existing client base; what niche are you going to focus on; how can you position yourself as a global expert; what are some ways to build trust with an online audience; and, how can you share information with potential clients?

All good questions and ones that I had to answer myself. Here are some steps on how you get there.

STEP 1: Train Existing Clients:

Let your clients know that the change is coming, but ease it into conversation.  What you don’t want is panic.  You want to be able to tell your clients that they will still receive the same level of commitment and compassion that you have been delivering all along.  If anything, you will have more time because you won’t have to be running around everywhere.

• Figure out your departure date and work in some transition time to train your clients on any new modes of technology that they need to learn;
• Remember-change is scary for most people so they will need to feel overly confident that you will be there to help them transition;
• If you can, offer them an incentive to stay on with you. I increased my consulting hours and gave my clients the same price so they could feel like I was more available.

STEP 2: Focus on a Niche (long-tail theory)

When you determine that you want to go global, you are best to find a niche. Why is this?  Well, before, you were just competing in your own town.  Now, you are online, and the big global conglomerates will bury you!  You don’t want to even begin to compete with their size, budget, or search engine results.  What you do want is to find a specific area of your industry that you specialize in and segment the market.

One approach that points to this is the Long Tail theory.  The Long Tail Theory in statistics looks like this:

Essentially, what we are looking at is applying this curve to any given market.  About 80% is going to be the mainstream market.  This is going to be very difficult for a solopreneur to break into.  Mostly the companies that can reach these markets are conglomerates or corporations.  What we need to do is move away from the mainstream market and down the tail to identify a niche.  It will be much easier for you to establish yourself as a dominant leader in a smaller community.

Similarly, if you are trying to position yourself as an expert, it is much more attainable to go further down the graph into a niche market.  You can easily carve out a particular area that you are excellent at and more easily stand out to a specific audience the smaller.  Why compete with the big dogs, when you could be dominating a smaller market and positioning yourself as an expert?

STEP 3: Position Yourself as an Expert

You position yourself as an expert by doing what you preach.  You can build trust with your audience by inviting them to get to know you on calls, interviews, speaking engagements, newsletters, and blog posts.  Make yourself available to your audience and know your niche. This will help your audience to know that you understand where they are coming from and that you are an authority on the subject matter.

When people see you as an expert, you are less likely to have to ‘sell’ anything to them.  They already respect and appreciate you and are ready to hear more.  Other experts begin to take notice of your work and you can begin to reach out and contribute to their audiences, as well.  I do this frequently, and recommend that you do too.

STEP 4: Building Trust & Sharing Information

Once your audience knows you as an expert, it is time to ensure that you build trust into the relationship.  Even if this is an online market, you need to make sure that your audience trusts you. Because your audience may never meet you in person, it is more important than ever to be consistent and transparent online.  Let people get to know you by being available and consistently providing quality information.  We will go into this more in the next post of Building a Global Audience, but for now… just make sure to commit to sharing the very best information you can find.

People are seeking out your services because you have answers they need.  If you can consistently provide valuable information, they will begin to trust you. Now that you have a niche, this makes providing and creating information much easier.  Your audience is looking for something specific, and there you are, ready to give it to them!

In summary, you begin to position yourself for going global by prepping your current clients, determining your niche, positioning yourself as an expert, and consistently building trust by providing quality information.  This will get you started and prime you for the next steps (and the next post!) Building a Global Audience.

Looking forward to your comments and questions!

There is always a lot of hype around the ability to ‘Go Global’ and creating a business where you can work from anywhere.  Of course there is!  Many people consider this the pinnacle of success and personal freedom.  It could be seen as the best opportunity in the world, the chance to finally have the lifestyle of your dreams!  I had always just dreamed of running a global business, but seven months ago, I took a huge leap of faith and bought a one way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand.

I didn’t know if it would work.  I had no idea what was in store for me, but the honest truth is: it wasn’t as hard as I thought.  However, there are things that I wish I would have known before I got started-which I am going to share with you through a series of posts.

My intention is that this will help you get excited about taking the leap, and will prepare you with the information you need in order to get started successfully.  So don’t just sit there, read on!

The Freedom to Work from Anywhere

Ok, so let’s be real.  There are so many cool places in the world to be, why just pick one?  If you are a travel-oholic like me, you get destination stir crazy the moment you feel settled.  I spent years building up in a location, getting sick of it, then downsizing and moving on to the next cool place.  I think I have Location ADD.

This lifestyle has allowed me the ability to live cool places like Colorado, Hawaii, Australia, all over California, and Thailand.  While I have traveled to many other places for vacations, I consider living somewhere an entirely different experience.  Going to Italy for ten days or London for a week is a whirlwind of tour books and tourist traps.  But living somewhere lets you take in the full experience.

My guess is, if you are reading this, you are a lot like me.  Your resume looks like a roadmap.  You hunger for distant lands, exciting adventures, and a meaningful life. From experience, I have found that the most difficult part of relocating is finding a place to work.  I always had the idea of running my own business, and after getting my MBA, I started my Lifestyle Design and Business Consulting practice.  This took care of the business part, but after five years of being in school and building a start-up, I was ready for change.  Only one question remained:  How could I take my business with me?

Diversification:  Building a Global Business

If you have the dream to go global, be a digital nomad, or be location independent-you need to focus on building a business you can take with you.  With the technology that is now available, you can work virtually from anywhere.  When I first began to look into businesses that didn’t require brick and mortar, I mostly saw online businesses that were selling products.  They set up models to drop ship from locations and never had to touch the product themselves.  This allowed them low overhead, predictable profit, and a global audience-Brilliant!

But, the problem was this:  I did not want to sell vitamins or widgets.  I am not enthusiastic about consumer products.  I wanted to help people.  I wanted to change the world; in my own little way by showing others they can live their dream. So, I needed to look into other service based businesses that were national or international.  What I found was very interesting.  There were several types of service based companies that worked remotely.  Everything from web designers, coaches, consultants, authors, and a variety of tech based individuals.  Mission Possible:  the dream could be had.  But, how would I spend my time, and was there enough money?

Saving Time & Money

Since hitting the road, I have had far more time than ever before.  I used to spend time attending networking events, do public speaking, and generally attempting to be everywhere all the time.  This is no longer the case!  Networking has been replaced with social networking.  Public speaking happens on my weekly blog posts, and I’m no longer expected to be anywhere.  Ahhh.  Time.  After spending six weeks in Bangkok, I went off to my favorite location in Thailand:  Krabi.  I spent the next five months beachside.  I was able to go snorkeling, ride elephants, scuba dive, and rock climb.

Some people still believe that this lifestyle is expensive.  Not so!  When you work from other countries it can be much lest costly than staying at home.  Think about it:  you no longer have anyone to impress but backpackers, and they haven’t done their laundry for two weeks.  Just the fact that you have a clean shirt and an income is more than most travelers come equipped with so you no longer have the ‘Keeping up with the Jonses’ mentality.

Because you are on the road, the majority of your purchases will be consumables.  You don’t want to cart around everything you buy, so you simply buy less.  Part of being in other places in the world is that you gain perspective of what is really necessary and realize how little you actually need to be happy.

Leveraging the Economy

Tim Ferriss introduces the idea of leveraging economies in his book The Four Hour Workweek.  I couldn’t fully understand the ideas of geo-arbitrage until experiencing it for myself.  Here is the truth:  I can easily live in Thailand for one-third of what I could back home.  What this means is that you can do one of three things:  work less, save more, or increase your standard of living.  My hope for you is that you get to do a combination of all of these!

Initially, when I arrived in Thailand, I had a chance to spend my rediscovered time on important projects that had taken the back-burner in my business.  I found much more time to find and focus on my niche, build strategic online partners, write on my blog, connect with others through social media and networking and create information products. In the upcoming posts of this series, I am going to walk you through the steps of Taking Your Business Online, Building a Global Audience, and finish with some of the Global Tips, Tricks & Downloads I’ve learned since this wild journey has begun.  My hope is that this post has gotten you to realize that it is possible to take your business online, and go global.  And in my next post, I’ll share with you just how to do that!

Don’t stop there, leave a comment or question and I’ll get right back to you!

In a Web 2.0 world, should identity be part of the Obama administration’s “new New Deal” for the United States of America? I think it should.Infrastructure is a favored investment when federal spending is needed to prime the economic pump. In the ‘30s under the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), we built highways so people and commerce could flow through our country quickly. And we issued license plates to know who owned the vehicles driving on them.

Now we have digital highways. And they are fast — really fast. We travel on them at the speed of light. Everyone is on them. But what is missing is privacy and security — who’s who, how do you know for sure, and how do you prevent someone from pretending to be you?

We need government issued license plates for the Internet. Or to put it more accurately, a countrywide digital identity credential.

This is a big idea that could solve a lot of problems. In the best case, this would take the form of a digital identity credential issued by a single government agency. Other industries, such as banking, payment and healthcare, could potentially use the ID as a way to secure identity, online access and Web-based transactions. Much as Social Security numbers and Drivers Licenses did until cyber-crime made them as unreliable as ID credentials.

I work for Gemalto, a leader in Digital Security. We are an international company with 10,000 employees in over 40 countries. Our customers are mostly household names including telecom operators, banks, governments and many multinational companies. In 2008 alone we provided more than 1 billion smart cards, tokens and software and services.

As the world becomes more digital, our 1,300 engineers are creating solutions that guarantee that you can securely and easily use your digital services, such as ensuring you never lose the contacts in your cell phone, safer online banking and much more.

I have a lot to say about all issues related to security and could go on and on about this topic. But I’d first like to engage you, Digital Nomads, on your thoughts on digital security. Does the mere mention of it scare you? Do you believe there is a need?

These are the topics I’ll be discussing in future posts. Let me know what you think.