How a Digital Nomad Built a Successful Career with Dayana Aleksandrova

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:00:00

I went to Spain and I got a job, I ended up working at a startup where I was in charge of sales. And you know, I can relate to that cubicle life. Even though I wasn't in a cubicle, I had a phone booth in which I have to sit to do cold calls. And I was not happy because I am a really, really bad employee, which is why I have my own business now, because I'm the type of person who doesn't care to be on time in the morning because I've got my rituals, and I don't want to be rushed. So I knew that I have to do something about it.

Unknown: 00:00:38

Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective, planning for your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:12

Hey, everybody, it's Jeff here, once again with the Freedom Nation podcast. And it is going to be a fun day today. Now this is going to be for you dreamers out in the audience a little bit that are sitting in a cubicle dying a little bit every day, or a business owner that is trapped in their business, you're gonna get to hear from somebody who really has built a life around freedom, really, from the very beginning. And today, I have Dayana Aleksandrova. On she is in Majorca, Spain, and we're gonna get to hear her incredibly cool story. So welcome to the show, Dayana,

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:01:51

thank you so much.

Jeff Kikel: 00:01:52

I'm so excited to have you on. It was fun doing the pre interview and hearing your history. So with that said, let's get started with your story. So tell us how you got to where you are today.

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:02:03

Yeah, so freedom has always been one of my leading, you know, desires in life. But ironically, I did not grow up with much freedom. So I was an only child to parents in Bulgaria. And I was born after the Soviet Union fell apart just thereafter. So my parents generation did not even have passports to leave the country. But I was lucky to have one. So when I was 15 years old, I applied to study in the US as an exchange student, I always kind of knew that I wanted to travel and because I had access to MTV with no subtitles, I sort of taught myself English. So when,

Jeff Kikel: 00:02:44

if I would call it MTV English, but we'll go with that.

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:02:48

So when the time came, I applied and got accepted to a high school in the US. And after that, I won a scholarship at $250,000 to study and College in Hartford, Connecticut opportunity again in the US. And that kind of kicked off my big move. I was the first person from my whole family to be on an airplane. And so that was pretty significant. And after that, I was thinking, okay, so I'm now in America, what do I do? But as fortune would have it, I couldn't get a job easily because my passport was quite foreign. So the only work that I could get for the year that I was given to try and make your work was door to door sales. So I went around. Yeah, I went around Massachusetts, not the friendliest of states and knocked on doors offer that sweet Verizon internet package that didn't last long. At the time, this is around 2016. Travel blogging was very popular. So this was just kind of the era when Instagram got quite popular, and I had found this girl and she was living the life and I thought to myself, Oh, easy. I'm going to become a travel blogger. So I decided to become a travel blogger. The first thing I do is and now in retrospect How could I do that? I buy a one way ticket to Bali because I saw that movie with Julia Roberts Eat Pray Love. So I land in Bali. I get out the airport and it's sweltering hot. And I'm like, This is not at all pristine or calm and there is no charming Brazilian guy here. This is a mess.

Jeff Kikel: 00:04:30

And Julia Roberts never sweated in the entire movie.

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:04:34

No, right. What is she having? So I stayed in Bali for about a week moved over to Thailand hoping for a better beginning. I did not get that. What I ended up doing in the process was confusing myself even more. So I retreated to Europe. I went to Spain and I got a job. I ended up working at a startup where I was in charge of sales. And you know I can relate to that. typical life, even though I wasn't in a cubicle, I had a phone booth in which I have to sit to do cold calls. And I was not happy because I am a really, really bad employee, which is why I have my own business now, because I'm the type of person who doesn't care to be on time in the morning because I've got my rituals, and I don't want to be rushed. So I knew that I have to do something about it. Now, I had something like 90 $100 to my Name, which I thought this is plenty. And so I decided I can make this work. So I went on the internet, I looked up, where can I live for free, that's warm and has palm trees, and it's cheap, I'm pretty sure. So up came an opportunity about, you know, doing blogs and writing for a resort in the Dominican Republic that was made up of tree houses. So I applied, got accepted, I paid my tickets, and I just kind of let everything go. And I thought to myself, Okay, I've got enough money to buy my tickets there. And if anything were to happen, I'll have to figure it out over there. So when I landed in that tree house, I stayed there for about a summer. And in the process, I landed my first remote client, it was not glamorous, it was one guy out of California, who paid me to write Human Resources blogs for people who worked at desks, which was so ironic because I was in a tree house. And that was kind of the story of how I got started working online. Now, in 2023, I have actually built two six figure remote businesses from my laptop, one in copywriting, and one in that marketing coaching and business consulting. And I have been a full time digital nomad, with my boyfriend for the last two years.

Jeff Kikel: 00:06:56

That is genius. That is absolutely genius. So you know, when you think about okay, so you, you took one hell of a risk, and you bought a ticket to the Dominican Republic and, and went from there. How did you? How did you find that first client? How did you get started, you know, building the structure your business?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:07:17

Yeah, so I knew that I was, you know, pretty good at writing. I don't have a degree in writing, I have a degree of philosophy. So talk about useful, right? You can

Jeff Kikel: 00:07:26

think long and hard about being unemployed. It's wonderful. So,

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:07:29

exactly. So I knew that I wanted to do something with writing. And if you have some basic skills, such as writing, transcribing, talking to people being organized, you can always find work online. Yeah. So what I did at the time is I went to a website called Pro blogger, which was pretty big at the time. If someone were to attempt this today, I would advise that you go to Upwork, because it's a really giant portal of online work from everywhere on the planet. And there's a project coming about every five minutes or so. So what I did was for 21 days straight, I just went really hard on applications. So an application would look like a one pager a paragraph of why you would want to work for a company and your skills. That's it. So I must have applied to like 50 or 100 opportunities. And this one first, I wrote me back and he was like, well, your writing is good. What can I pay you monthly to write unlimited articles for me, and I said, $1,200 flees

Jeff Kikel: 00:08:32

on Earth. But that number,

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:08:36

because my startup job in Barcelona paid me after taxes 1119. And I was like, I want to prove that I can make the same money without the office.

Jeff Kikel: 00:08:49

I'm living in a tree house in the middle of Dominican Republic. So you gave yourself a massive raise? Yep. So at that point, you just started kind of doing the same thing, just expanding out from there.

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:09:04

Yeah. So what I did for the first three years is I focused on writing content for people. So I would write anything, I wouldn't really write anything and everything. So I wrote about that human resource company. I also wrote city guides, where startup would send me information and I would make it sound nice. And an article. I also wrote about ergonomic desks and chairs, I wrote about how to start a website online for somebody. At one point, they got a retainer with a travel company, and that's paid me to manage a travel app for them. So slowly, but surely, I started getting one little client here, one there. And then in 2020, when the pandemic hits, I didn't have anything to do. I lost all my clients. I was in Bulgaria on my mom's couch because I thought Why waste money on rent? I was supposed to live in Spain. And at the time, I thought How can I make more money knowing what I already know? So I went on YouTube, and I looked up how to make money with writing. And I found a copywriting course. And I decided to give it a shot. I took that course. And as it turns out, it taught me a lot of really good things. So I landed my first big client on week, maybe seven of the course. And then slowly but surely, I started charging retainers of anywhere from 3000 $5,000 to higher until I ended up, you know, clocking in those 10k months. And that has been the North for me in the last two and a half years now.

Jeff Kikel: 00:10:39

That is awesome. That is awesome. So tell me a little bit about getting started. Do you think you know, well, you you haven't really ever had an normal job. So you know, you had you had the one job where you're in your phone booth or whatever? Do you think if you were sitting there in your phone booth, let's say you had done that a little bit longer, that you would have been able to start this business kind of on the side and get started?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:11:04

Absolutely. For everyone who is still in a job, do not worry, it doesn't have to be your only reality. There are plenty of people who are starting side hustles every day. So when I was in college to pay my bills, I used to sell things on an app called Poshmark. It still exists today. So I would buy let's say nice Tory Burch flats that girls in my college liked and then I would put them on the app, and then I would put my price. You can go like if you are into like fashion, you can go to consignment stores, you can go to Goodwill, or whatever places have really big discounts and put that those products online and sell them at a profit. You can also start teaching people what you know. So for example, a lot of my you know, students that I coach in my programs, some of them are still in their nine to five. And so I tell them, if you're working for a company doing SEO work online, why not announce on Instagram that you're also coaching individuals on how to do this service and get paid. So that's a real example. My students started doing that. And she's gotten clients, and now she's doing this outside of her job. But you can get creative and do anything you can do. You know, you can create user generated content for different brands. And the beauty of that is they don't want models, they don't want influencers, they want real people, you know, moms like that, like people who are doing just a regular life, they want to see that. So there are plenty of ways to start a side hustle, and it will give you something to do that kind of lifts your spirit every morning. You know,

Jeff Kikel: 00:12:40

that's awesome. Well, it didn't mean it makes you feel like okay, if I'm getting up, and I'm going to work at least there's something that I it's a reward to me when I get home. That point. And you know, I think you've done a couple things, you've started to do much more than just individual contributor work, you know, where you're, you're selling your time for money. Now, you're also selling your knowledge for money. And you're expanding this out with courses and group coaching and everything else, which I mean, for everybody, that should be the way you go in the long run, because then it frees you up to do what you want. So what's your best advice for somebody that's, that's sitting there today that's in there. We'll use your example. They're in their phone booth. And they're saying, hey, I want to get out of this. What's your best advice for the the first place that you start?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:13:32

Yeah, so a couple of things, the number one thing I would do is pull out a Google doc spreadsheet, and right in one column, all of the books, all of the courses, all of the lessons that you've ever learned, anything you've paid for to learn. And then next to it, write what you learned in the process. Because a lot of people you know, we listen to podcasts, we listen to books, we have a lot of experience, we give advice all the time to others without realizing that this is actually what paid coaching is except you're not getting paid and thinking you're giving advice. So make everything that you know visual, once you see it, you cannot unsee it. So you'll realize that you have a lot more to offer than your regular nine to five. Secondly, I would start building a freedom fund, you probably talk about this as well. But the way that I would do it is I would make sure to have money for at least I'm on the conservative side. So I will say a year to live okay for a year without needing to dip into like getting loans or anything of the sort. And then I would start looking for a bridge job. So a bridge job could be anything that you work part time online. Let's say that you work in an office as an administrator, maybe you could be a virtual assistant for someone. Maybe you could be a project manager for someone online. So then I would start to make that pivot towards a career Online, even if it's part time at first, just so that you could leave the office behind, but I would absolutely make sure that you still have that safety net of at least one year to be okay. Without needing to be worried.

Jeff Kikel: 00:15:15

Absolutely. Well, that's wonderful advice. And I mean, it's, it's advice that is different from, you know, what I talk about, you know, maybe creating, you know, a business or something like that, that that's going to create income, but I it's wonderful advice for somebody that just absolutely hates what they do today. And, you know, doesn't they can't see the the end of the tunnel, and it's usually an oncoming train when they do, but, but you know, saying, Okay, let's let me start to generate some income, then I can find that bridge job. That doesn't take up much of my time that I can spend more of my time focused on this. And, you know, basically, you have the ability to go anywhere in the world that you want to which you do. So where are you know, you're in Majorca. Now, you said, you're going to be transitioning from there. Where's the next spot?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:16:03

Yes. So tomorrow morning at 6am. We're going to Ibiza for my boyfriend's birthday. And I know your listeners are going to appreciate this. I manifested my soulmate in the height of the pandemic on a remote island. So how that came about was I had been single for a while. And this is inspiration for all of you ladies and gentleman out there looking for your other half. I had ended up in Tenerife, which is an island off of Spain next to Morocco. And it was the jet It was January 2021. Nothing was happening. No people coming in from anywhere. Everything was frozen its tracks. But there was tourism inside of Spain. And so one day I don't drink but the one time I went to a bar with a girlfriend of mine. He walked in and started talking to me. And so we met and we've been together ever since for the last two years. And I was really lucky to find someone who was equally obsessed with freedom, like I am. And so we've been together to Gosh, we've lived in France, we've lived in the UK, different parts of Spain. We've lived in Costa Rica. We've been to Bulgaria, we've been to yeah, we've been to a lot of places. I'm losing track now and we've got a lot more plan on the itinerary in two years. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:17:23

that's awesome. So often, it's a what what's the where are you heading tomorrow, then? We're going to be so Okay, where's it Besa

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:17:30

Besa is that island just next to my Yorker, which is famous for like really rowdy nightlife. Okay. The other side of the coin is it's got this beautiful, rustic spiritual side where it's just blue green water. And just you know, people are a little bit on the, by my head dress, it's artisanal side of things. But you know, it's very laid back. So we're going there for about a week.

Jeff Kikel: 00:17:56

Nice. Love it. Now as he also somebody that is he working online, or what does he do for a living?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:18:03

So he had the transition, when I met him, he was doing phone sales, and he was doing inbound sales for a electric electric company out of the UK. Okay, so it was quite miserable. He used to sit on my dining room table, and just just be so miserable, I could see it in his face, he had to take all these calls, and people were complaining about their bills going up, as you know, anyone would. So I said to him, Look, you you have to make some changes. So he ended up taking a copywriting course as well. In fact, this 20 He took the same course that I did. But instead of going into copywriting, he decided that he was going to go into general digital marketing. So he went on Upwork. And he started looking for jobs. And he ended up taking three clients at once. So one of them wanted blogs, another one wanted some social media management. And the third one wanted some strategy. And so he was able to secure work for a couple of months, until ultimately he got a remote job with one of the largest crypto magazines in the world. So now he's doing that Monday through Friday, but he can do it from anywhere.

Jeff Kikel: 00:19:12

I love that. Love that. Well, you've just been a joy to listen to. I mean, in an inspiration. I mean, I think for a lot of people out there, they you know, you have a lot of people that want to go and you know, oh, well, I want to go and live in Thailand and all that well, yeah. But you do have to make a living. You can't just go in and do nothing. And it's just inspiring to hear you. You know, say hey, I'm just Yeah, I am going to create income for myself and you're creating good income for yourself, and being able to live anywhere in the world that you possibly want to live. So it's just it's an amazing, amazing story. And thank you for sharing that with us. So what I want to do is transition to the Fast Five questions now. You ready? You If Okay, so first question, you wake up in the morning business is gone. Yep. $500 in your pocket laptop computer a place to stay? What are you going to do first?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:20:12

Okay, the first thing that I would do is I would show up on my existing social media. So for example, on Instagram, and I will start doing live streams and telling people about, you know what, I can teach them right away so that I can help them get unblocked and get to the next level of what they're doing. So I would immediately start selling the skills that I have with the $500, what I would probably do is I would probably find a way do I have a house in this scenario, right place to stay? Yes. Okay, cool. So with the $500, I would probably get a couple of Instagram ads to kind of boost my visibility. And then I would invest in probably paid zoom, I know that paid Zoom is not the sexiest of tools, but it's very useful, because when you're coaching people, and when you're speaking with someone online, you want to give them that recording. So I will invest in a tool like that, I will get a website template for about 199. Or you can buy even cheaper for 50 bucks on Etsy, I would get a website, and that will be my entire business. And I would probably invest the rest of my money on probably stocks or crypto, whatever is trending because I don't want to spend everything, there's got to be something invested as well for Love

Jeff Kikel: 00:21:28

it. Love it. Okay, what's the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:21:32

Oh, um, I have been, you know, on the precipice of many business mistakes, because I like to pivot a lot. So I can't say that I've made anything fatal in terms of a mistake. The one thing I could think about is one time, I had a really good retainer with a travel company, and a marketing startup came to me and they said, Oh, we're gonna pay you $80,000 a year to write copy for us. So I quit my really comfy job at that travel company. And on day one, I just hated my new job. They were having me be on calls for like, 12 hours per day. That was not right. It was really bad. And so I lasted two months, and I kind of quit that job. And I went back to my old job. And I said, Hey, will you have me back. But luckily, by the time I was gone, the CEO has realized that he wanted to start a new project. So when I did come back, not only that, I think of the project, but they made me head of the project. So I ended up getting my own department. Nice. That's probably the one mistake, but it ended up working out. It was yeah,

Jeff Kikel: 00:22:39

it was a fatal it wasn't a fatal mistake. But at least he got back and you ended up with better as a result of that. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't cover that in the, in the the interview that you are going to be on calls for 24 hours for 12 hours. today? Well, you were working half days, you had half days of calls, you know, 12 to 12. And then the other time you could spend writing. So I mean, it was I don't get what the problem is, right? What's a good book that you would recommend for our audience,

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:23:06

I would recommend, oh my gosh, this book is so so so so, so old, it's 110 years old. So you do have to excuse some of the language, they're being very old. But the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles is an excellent book. Inside you will find it you can listen to it on audiobook, it's only two hours long. Some of the fundamental beliefs about how to build a business and how to be wealthy in life come from this book. And modern day authors have many different ways of packaging what this really old 110 year old book contains, I would go and read it over the weekend, listen to it on an audiobook, it will really change the way you see wealth creation.

Jeff Kikel: 00:23:49

Awesome. Yeah, it's amazing how some of those old books, you go back. Yeah, you have to get past the language because it's not our common language. But it's amazing how much nothing has really changed in the tools and the tools and the delivery systems have changed. But business is business and human nature is human nature. So I love it. That's the first time I've heard that one. So we're gonna put that on the list of she came off with one that's even cooler than anybody else thought. What's a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend to our audience, like a software tool, whatever you want. I've had everything from a yellow legal pad and a pencil up to really advanced software.

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:24:30

Oh my gosh, okay, so my Yeti Blue Microphone. I love my mic because it cancels out noise so right now my boyfriend is packing around me for a visa but you can't hear him because the mic is that good. And then for finding clients and kind of running your business I quite enjoyed type form because in my coaching practice and when I do marketing work for clients, before I get on a call with anybody, I have to know whether they are the right fit and if I'm the right fit for them. So I have created A type form where you can fill the information out. It's like a choose your own adventure type of quiz. And by the end of it, you will either have an option to book with me, or it will be like, thanks. but no thanks. We're not the right fit for each other. So definitely those two type form and my Yeti Blue mic.

Jeff Kikel: 00:25:17

Nice. I love them both. All right, last question. What is your definition of freedom?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:25:25

Living by own rules, and not having to answer to anyone. So freedom could look many different things to many different people. But to me, Freedom looks like waking up, and being able to just leave the house and go anywhere that I like, regardless of you know, borders, passports, genders, all of these things. Freedom is also being able to dedicate all of your time to something you love. And also freedom on a more sentimental level, is being able to, let's say, for me, I fly my mom out to visit me. I lost my dad when I was young. So I just have my mom and I fly her out to different countries so we can spend time together. So you know, if I had to play by somebody else's rulebook, I wouldn't have this time, like, I'm taking time off to visit her for her birthday in Bulgaria, three weeks. And so that's something that I valued more highly than anything.

Jeff Kikel: 00:26:18

Yeah. And you can basically just tell clients, hey, I'm going to be out for this time to this time and do bad. Or work extra hard and get some work done so that you have the capability to do that. Well, Dayana, you are just a joy to talk to. I just love your story. And thank you for sharing that today. If somebody wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way?

Dayana Aleksandrova: 00:26:39

Oh, thanks, Jeff. So the best way to find me is most likely Instagram. So I am Dayana. It's spelled da Yana underscore, Alec sound Rova. underscore, and that is also my website, DayanaAleksandrova.com. And I would love to hear from you guys. If you did listen to the episode. Please DM me, let me know. And I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you

Jeff Kikel: 00:27:03

thank you for being on. And we'll put those in the show notes, folks. So if you want to get in contact with her, just go and click and that will take you right to her. So Dayana, thank you have a wonderful trip, enjoy your time with with your boyfriend over and the next island over. And hopefully we'll catch up to you soon somewhere else in the world. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you. And folks, we do these shows twice a week. So make sure that you are subscribing to the channel. So you know when these are coming out. And we're gonna be doing some extra ones very soon really talking about the Freedom Day principles and concepts. So make sure that you are subscribed to the channel so that you get those when they come out. Thank you all for being on and thank you. We'll see you here the very next time.