Being a Digital Nomad: Interview with Kathryn of Compass Podcast
I had Kathryn Hunter from the Compass Podcast as a guest. Her podcast interviews location independent women. We met in a Facebook group, where she mentioned that she is a digital nomad and finds that it really works with her introversion. I found that intriguing and wanted to have her on the Introvert’s Bubble.
When Kathryn first became a digital nomad, her boyfriend at the time was location independent and they wanted to travel together. She got everything she needed for a two week test run, but two days before they were supposed to take off on their trip, he broke up with her. She decided to do it anyway! She traveled to visit her cousin and stopped to work along the way. By the time she got back, she realized that that was what she wanted to do and started making plans to do it. She has now gone through the US multiple times, and has gone through Europe twice, as well as other places like South America and Brazil. She got engaged and is currently in the year-long process of getting a Swedish resident permit so that she can live with her fiance.
Kathryn has been doing CAD for jewelry for thirteen years. She makes 3D computer files, mainly of engagement rings. She works with diamond dealers and jewelry stores and helps makes custom rings for customers. The industry is changing though, and she is in the process of finding something else to do. That’s part of the reason she started her podcast! She kept seeing women in travel groups who wanted to be digital nomads, but didn’t know where to start. She discovered that there were over a hundred jobs out there for people who wanted to do that and wanted to share others’ stories.
Working as a digital nomad helps with her introversion by allowing her creativity and energy to come from being on her own and not having to be in a physical office. She works mostly through phone calls, and most of the time doesn’t even have to call in due to being in Europe a lot of the time. This helps her save a lot of energy. She can also work when she wants or needs to work during the day, taking advantage of when her energy is at the highest. On the other side of things, she finds it challenging because she can go days without talking to someone and it’s easy to lose track of the day. It takes a lot of self-discipline and staying on top of things.
Kathryn says that it’s not super hard to find people to interact with or talk to because she can arrange for meet ups as needed, especially in bigger places where there are meetup groups or where she can find other digital nomads to meet up with. It’s interesting how you can meet people when you are traveling!
As far as other jobs she is considering, she shared about the podcast being the main thing she is working on right now. She also has a couple of side projects, like building up her own Shopify store with her own jewelry and designing custom bags. She is designing stacking bracelets with countries or coordinates on it. She and her step sister will be working on that together. She also loves designing things, so she wants to design suitcases and personal carryon bags that work for the exact needs of the traveler. She says that she has been in charge of her own schedule for so long that she isn’t sure how well she would take direction in a more scheduled environment.
I really enjoyed hearing about working from home as a digital nomad, and about how anyone can do it and find something that works for them if they search hard enough.
You can find her podcast, the Compass Podcast, on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play.