Living Life Beyond the 9-to-5 Grind

Ever wondered how to break free from the conventional nine-to-five grind and embrace a life full of travel and adventure?
 
 Addie Wieland is a licensed clinical social worker, therapist, entrepreneur, private practice owner, and travel and mindset coach.  Addie and her family have been living an alternative lifestyle for the past four years, traveling around the US in an RV.  She explains that the decision to become a digital nomad was sparked by a desire for more flexibility and the love of travel. Addie and her husband researched and planned their transition, including selling their belongings, buying an RV, and setting a launch date. They faced challenges such as leaving stable jobs and dealing with the opinions of family and friends.

Do you have a "letting go moment" or story of change you would like to share? Or perhaps a mental health question? Feel free to message us at mentalhealthish.podcast@gmail.com if you would like to share your mental health story, something you've overcome in life. You can be our next guest! You may also be anonymous if you wish. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Great Welcome, Addie. I'm really glad that we were able to connect. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:16

Good. Thanks so much for having me. This is exciting. This is like my second podcast, so I haven't done that many, so it's fun.

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, I'm glad you're here with us. Well, thank you once again for being here. I'm Cecilia. I go by Susie. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and just kind of where you're?

Speaker 2: 0:41

from and what you do? Sure, yeah. So my name is Addie Wieland and I am a licensed clinical social worker. I see you are too in Texas, and so I have my own private practice in Texas. Well, it's virtual, so it's, you know, virtual, but I am licensed in Texas and I work with mostly young adults who struggle with like self-worth anxiety, relationships. A lot of it is stemmed from kind of like emotional neglect from childhood or just some struggles from childhood. So that's who I really love to work with in my private practice. And then also I just recently started a coaching business, so I'm also a travel and mindset coach.

Speaker 2: 1:23

On the personal side, me and my family live a little bit of an alternative lifestyle. We have lived in an RV for the past four years and traveled around the U? S together. I have two kids, my husband, and now we're looking to actually go international, and so for my coaching program I kind of melded the two like therapy and love of travel, into one called Adventure Architects, and so it's just a three-month program for other families who are similar to mine, that really want to travel with their family but maybe don't know how so many families are always like oh, I don't know how you do it or we can never do it, or we'd love to do it but we don't have a job or we don't know how, or schooling or all that stuff. So my program kind of helps families who are interested in being a digital nomad family figure out all the logistics how to world school kids, how to like, plan a trip, visas, all of those fun things. So yeah, it's about me.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Awesome. Wow, that sounds really like I'm not. I'm a social worker too, obviously. Like I'm not doing private practice right now, but I know, when I was doing it for a while, like how crazy it could be, cause you're basically like an entrepreneur, so you have to keep track of all these things and and then you're doing coaching. You set now too, so it's like, wow, you're a busy woman.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Yes, yes, it definitely has its challenges, um, and so, like I started my private practice I used to. I did a lot of different things before private practice, like a lot of agency work. I worked at a. My last job before that was a college counseling center, which I really loved. But I started my private practice in like in 2020, a little bit before the pandemic, maybe like a few months before the pandemic. So it was actually before.

Speaker 2: 3:19

You know, people were going virtual and it wasn't really as popular. I mean, people were kind of doing it. I know like the VA was doing it, but not a lot of people are doing it. So there was still a little bit of like can you do that? And then, of course, like the pandemic hit and everybody was doing it. So that was really interesting. But, yeah, it's been. Private practice in itself is a whole learning curve, cause, yeah, it's not just therapy. You really are like have to put on your business woman hat, which has been interesting, fun and there's so much possibilities, but definitely a lot of pressure, because it's kind of just you figuring it out as you go.

Speaker 1: 4:02

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. But yeah, I think what? So I kind of love like what you're doing with your coaching site. So now the coaching and I was really like, oh, I want to learn more about it because I work right now for an agency. So I have, like you know, 40 hour work week and I'm a mom to a seven year old, and so I know how it feels, like wanting to plan trips or like just do things outside of work and like the usual. But then like feeling so like restricted by like oh, the school schedule, like, oh, she can't miss school, or like you know, like, yeah, I think things around that, and then like the frustration that comes with that and like, even if she misses a day of school, my phone is ringing and I'm just like I don't want to talk to you, like I don't answer those phone calls. So I was like, oh, this is really interesting, just like the lifestyle right that you help people with, like being able to plan things, or can you talk a little bit more about that?

Speaker 2: 5:12

Yeah, no, for sure, yeah, so you know, when we started four years ago, my daughter was four and my son wasn't born, so it was just really interesting to kind of, you know, go on the road and figure that out all out with a young kid. We decided to do like split schedules to where or maybe she was three, I think she was three we decided to do split schedules to where my husband would kind of work during the day and then get done maybe like at three, and then I would start my sessions like from three to seven or three to eight, I don't remember exactly and kind of do my sessions more in the afternoon evening time. I mean it worked. I feel like that first year that we did it was really hard and I feel like I was just working a lot and the split schedules was hard because we just never really had time to get well on the weekends kind of sometimes. So yeah, just to kind of figure it all out. You know, obviously she's now six, so she's now more in school age. So before that, you know, we haven't been doing a whole lot of structured things with her. But now that she's getting older, you know, we are kind of starting to think about that more.

Speaker 2: 6:26

But really why I started this program was just, yeah, like I said, so many families as we've traveled, friends or family or random people, you know, when we they learn about our lifestyle, are just so interested in it, and I think, especially with the pandemic and a lot of people going online period for their jobs, I know it's a little bit changing now, you know, I think people just realized how they could do this, you know, and actually travel and work and, um, yeah, just kind of like be nomads, um, and you know, it's interesting, I always think about this like kind of random. But we, we used to be like that thousands of years ago, right, like we didn't really stay in one place, um, for a long time. So I wonder if that's like in our DNA that we like to travel and do things like that. But that's just exciting. But yeah, just with the kids. You know I, my kids, are both young right now, obviously, and I know that there's probably going to come a time when they get a little bit older that that they might not want to do this anymore. You know, I feel like when they get to a certain age, they're more about, like, their peers and friends and stuff like that, and so we just figured we're just going to do it now.

Speaker 2: 7:38

They don't really have a choice. I mean they do. If they really hated it, like, we would definitely talk about it because we want it to be like a family decision. But you know, they like to hang out with us right now and they like want to spend time with us and think it's fun and everything like that. So we figured why not? But fun and everything like that. So we figured why not?

Speaker 2: 7:57

But yeah, I think a lot of people are interested in just spending that quality time with kids and I think sometimes, you know, just depending for us like that whole nine to five grind, you know going to work, traffic If they have a lot of I mean, sometimes kids are in a lot of afterschool stuff, right so like shuffling them to all that stuff and then a rush dinner and then bed and then you start all over again.

Speaker 2: 8:19

You know it can just feel kind of exhausting and like you're not, you're not actually spending a lot of quality time together. Um, so we just, you know, we just chose to do something differently and really wanted to like prioritize quality time, but not to say that sometimes it's like a little too much time, especially living in an RV. It's a small space, you know, so tensions can run high with that. But yeah, we just we didn't want to wait, you know. I know I think a lot of people like want to wait and go see the world or travel when they retire, but you just never know. And so we just decided to do things differently and now, yeah, we kind of help others, you know, figure out all of the moving parts when it comes to living this lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Okay, um, when you're talking about the lifestyle, um, what does that look like? Can you give us like some examples of how that looks like maybe for you? Or like I know you mentioned an RV like I'm picturing like a road trip, like you hop in the RV, you take a road trip, but what does that kind of look like for you?

Speaker 2: 9:26

Yeah, so that is the kind of cool thing about like being a digital nomad is really it can look so many different ways and really it doesn't even have to look like full time.

Speaker 2: 9:35

You know, I know some families that maybe do want to keep their kids in school, but they just make it a point to like travel all through the summer or something like that, you know, or just long weekends, or you know, it really can look however you want it to look. But yeah, when I think about Digital Nomad, I think about either living in an RV that's what we did and I can tell you, like how I said, I've looked in all that, what we're about to do, which is go international and go overseas and just live in Airbnbs for, you know, a month at a time. We haven't fully planned it all out, so we're still trying to figure that out, but living in Airbnbs is another option and some people do that, even in the States where they just kind of go different Airbnbs or place um or um, some people who don't want to sell their house. So we like, actually, we, we, uh, we're from Austin. That's where me and my husband met and got a house and all that stuff before we moved around, but, um, we kept our house for a little bit and rented it out for income. So a lot of people do that like keep their house rented for income or even do like, um, house swaps, where they maybe swap, you know, houses and they go to another person's house. Maybe in another country, another person comes to their house, like there's so many different options. Um, some people live in like boats. That's kind of like our five-year plan, which is really crazy, but it's just like live on a boat and just kind of travel around. We want to like, we really love the Caribbean stuff, so we want to do that. There's so many different ways, honestly, to do it.

Speaker 2: 11:06

Um, yeah, how we did it was we had a um if people are familiar with RVs like a fifth wheel, which is an RV that attaches to your truck, not one that, like you drive it, you can't, you can't be in it when you're driving. But so, yeah, we the way that we did it. And again, if, if you're interested in like RV life, anybody out there, anything there's. So there there's like a huge community of RVers actually that do this and have been doing this for a long time, and it definitely, I think, increased after the pandemic. So there's so many like friends and communities and meetups and it's just like a whole nother world over there that I didn't know about until I joined it. But how we did it was we bought the truck, bought the RV. It does. It's called the mid bunk. So there's we like that.

Speaker 2: 11:54

You know, the thing with RVs is trying to figure out like the layout that's going to work for our family, um, but ours has a separate room for the kids, cause that was really important to us. Um, and then, like you know, I mean, large is relative, but for RV is kind of a bigger living space because we knew that the kids are mostly with us, they're not really in our room, so we got a smaller room because they're really only in there to sleep and like a bigger living area and then, of course, a master bedroom for us. I mean, I feel like it's pretty spacious. We also have a full fridge, which is important to me to have like a like a full fridge that you would see in a house. You know not, because some RVs come with like really tiny fridges and that seems hard for, you know, a family that lives in a full time.

Speaker 2: 12:35

Um, but how we did it was and again, everybody does it differently but we chose to do it like we called them trips, and so we would travel for about six months out of the year and then we would come back to Texas, usually in the winter, um, because we really didn't want to. The one thing about RVs is they're really not built for like extreme weather, so extreme heat or extreme cold, like they're just not insulated that well, so we didn't want to spend, you know, time in extreme heat or cold. So we decided to come back to Texas for the winter, but we would just pick kind of like areas of the states. So we did like a West coast tour where we um, did um like Yellowstone and Montana, and we spent some time in California, not everywhere in California that we wanted to Um, but we didn't end up anyways. We had, uh, my brother-in-law that lives in Sacramento, so we spent some time there. So we would do like West Coast, or I think another year we did West Coast, but more like Oregon, washington.

Speaker 2: 13:38

We did like a Midwest tour this last year where we did like Wisconsin, like all those, and then we did like an East Coast. So we kind of do it that way. If we did, like East Coast or anywhere Midwest, we love Florida, so we'd always stop in Florida before we went back to Texas. But that's kind of how we did it. But lots of families just usually families do follow the weather because, like I said, RVers, so a lot of times they'll spend, like the winter in Florida, is a huge popular one where a lot of families spend the winter in Baja Mexico, which we definitely thought about. So it's a really popular place to go and take the RV and then kind of like explore, you know, during the other times of the year, just depending on where they go.

Speaker 2: 14:25

What we also did prioritize which I think was one of the best things about this lifestyle is we prioritize like seeing friends and family.

Speaker 2: 14:34

So you know, if you think about it like what, you get a two week vacation.

Speaker 2: 14:38

I'm sorry, we get two weeks. I mean some people may four weeks, I'm not sure you know, depending on your job and you're not going to go visit, you know, a random cousin, more than likely, unless you're really close to them or something you know you're probably going to go to, like you know, vacation, right, um. So what we found really cool is like we got to see all of our the people that we would normally, you know, I saw friends from college that I hadn't seen for a long time. Um, in Maryland, one of my friends from college we literally hadn't seen in years has a farm, so we parked on her farm actually, and it was really close to DC, so we got to go into DC and like visit it Right In Florida. I have a cousin there who I didn't see very often but we would see them every time we went. So for me that was a really cool part. It was like trying to plan the trip around, you know, seeing people that we normally wouldn't really like take time off to go see.

Speaker 1: 15:30

That sounds awesome. That sounds like a six month vacation to me, just seeing it from the outside Right.

Speaker 2: 15:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Okay, so during this time, like in that example, right Doing a six month you know thing or whatever, where you guys like doing virtual work or like, and then like school, like I don't know, like, how does that all kind of work out?

Speaker 2: 15:56

Yeah, you actually bring up a good point, because I feel like it did take us a minute to get out of vacation mode and into like this is our life mode, because it's not really a vacation, right, but you feel like it is because you are in these beautiful places. So I know that that was, but you feel like it is because you are in these beautiful places. So I know that that was. Again, that was a difficult transition for us, because we'd go and we'd be in these beautiful places and we'd want to spend money like vacation, you know, and we just want to kind of like go hard, like try to see everything like we would normally would on vacation. So I feel like that that burnt us out really quickly by kind of doing that. So we really honestly had to kind of switch our mindset of like, okay, this isn't really a vacation, right, we're really just working and living in this beautiful place for a little bit, but we still have to like get things done. So how we kind of figured it and I feel like families are similar is during the week we tried to keep it real status quo. So we just tried to, you know, keep our schedule as similar as if we weren't in a house. Like I said in the beginning, we were both had virtual jobs, so my husband would work like nine to three. I'd usually try to take the kids out to like a playground or if there was like a museum or something you know, take them out for kind of the day, come back and have lunch, nap, and then my husband take over and I do the session. Then we do dinner, you know, bed at a normal time, like we just try to keep it really really status quo. Um, those the other trips, um, my husband didn't have a job so I was just working for the majority of them, I want to say, if I remember correctly, so, um, he would kind of be in charge of them during the day. And then, you know, um, yeah, I always prioritize taking Fridays off, um for me, for my private practice, so I would just work Monday through. Well, of course, I could do like some ad work, admin work, but we always called Friday like adventure day, so we'd go and that's kind of when we we would plan something fun, usually Friday, saturday, but not like Friday. It just kind of depended, not like crazy or anything like that, but we'd go, you know, do whatever was popular and whatever place that we were, um, but we tried, you know, to minimize. I mean, it's hard, you know, cause when you're in these places where it's like, oh you know it's known for crab or something like that, you're going to want to eat it. You know it's a little hard to do that, but we tried our best to like mostly eat at home during the week, kind of Friday, saturday, like I said, go out for lunch or dinner and do like some fun things.

Speaker 2: 18:38

In terms of school, like I said, the kids were still pretty little by then, I think, yeah, my daughter was three, maybe turning four, so there wasn't really like a whole lot of school. And then my son was born, what like a year later. And for him, for him, you know, that was also a little bit different because I was pregnant on the road. So, um, my like, health insurance is good for the and I think most people's is. Actually you can access it anywhere in the states, not international, but in the states, um, so I just that was a little bit tricky. Um, families do do it, but people don't really like to. Just, you know, um, I don't know if it's like liability or something, so I kind of have to fib a little bit and say like, oh, we're new to the area, to like get in for appointments with that, but it was. I mean it worked, but it was just a little bit annoying to like call these new places to get my appointments.

Speaker 2: 19:33

When he was going to be born, we parked um a little bit early, like a month early, and I had him in Texas, um, and then we were there for like about three months and then we took off again, um, so again, we didn't really. I mean, of course we always we really follow the unschooling route. So I don't know if you've heard of that before, but I never really heard about it before. But I read a really good book called Free to Learn and he just talks about this concept of basically like learning is everywhere and we can always incorporate learning with our kids, you know, with really anything that we do Right, like with if we're going out to the grocery store and we're, you know, exchanging money. That's like math, right. Obviously there's so much like history and especially a lot of the places we went, like DC and all those places you know a lot of like history you know there's of, of course, like nature and animals, like wherever we kind of go. So we try to incorporate learning a little bit like that.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Of course they're still kind of young um, in children's museums and and things like that and, um, of course, like reading. We always focused on reading a lot so I'd always read to them every night. But we and families do this differently too. We didn't necessarily follow any like sort of set curriculum. When my daughter did get a little bit older, we like used reading eggs on the iPad. That kind of like helps them with sounds and stuff. But, um, we didn't reuse like any specific curriculum. But some families do have like an actual homeschool curriculum and they, like you know, do like table work in the morning and they're a little bit like more structured. But a lot of families do unschool too and it's just kind of whatever your kids shows interest in, you kind of provide activities or things like that to help them learn that way. So it's a different type of thing.

Speaker 1: 21:28

Yeah, that's very interesting and like things that I didn't even think about until, like you mentioned them right now the your environment, just things that you're doing, like I didn't even think of that, but that is very true.

Speaker 2: 21:56

Yeah, we're always kind of constantly teaching them, you know, and especially like when they're younger, they're so curious. Our daughter actually just today was raining and she was like how does, how does rain work? And I was like I don't really know. So I was like we need to look up a video so we can learn together, you know, how RAINN works. So it's kind of stuff like that, just like following their lead and providing like stuff to help teach them, you know now I'm sure this is different.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Maybe I'm not really too sure, but was anyone like I don't know and I don't even know who anyone is, but like was anyone kind of asking you about like your kids and like why they weren't in school? And I'm thinking about because, for example, like my daughter misses school, I'm getting truancy letters like hey, like you know, she's been truant this many days but I'm not really sure how the education part works Like you're able to like have your kids out of school, like I'm not really familiar with.

Speaker 2: 23:00

Yeah, so it definitely depends on your state. So I want to say California maybe is a little bit more strict, but don't quote me on that but for Texas it's pretty loose in terms of, like, if you want to homeschool them, you, you just do it and there's really nothing like paperwork wise or anything you have to fill out. You know, for our daughter, who's more school age now, it was a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different Maybe if, like, you had your kid enrolled and then you're wanting to take them out, you know, but because she had never been enrolled, we didn't really have any of that. Ish, not not that issue.

Speaker 2: 23:39

I know some families. Actually I think it was a family in California, maybe. I'm trying to think where she was. She would take like extended trips and, um, there's some like loophole where she could like request maybe work from home or something like that, and the teachers would just provide, like, the schoolwork and it wouldn't be counted as absences. I can give you. I think I follow her on Instagram and I remember her saying something like that.

Speaker 1: 24:05

I wasn't aware of that and now that you mentioned it, like and I don't know if that's always been the case or if this is something from COVID, because a lot of people wanted to do like hybrid after that or like even at home.

Speaker 1: 24:17

But I was telling you, my daughter misses school here and there and then I'll get these phone calls Right. And I was just ignoring them. And it wasn't until recently she took a trip with her dad's side of the family, so she had to miss two days of school. Yeah, so I actually let them know ahead of time, like, hey, she's going to miss school these two days. And they gave me an at-home packet, yeah, and I'm like, oh, just come, have her complete this at-home packet and the absences won't count. Like it's like she just did it at home. And I was like, are you serious? Like this whole time I was avoiding these phone calls. You know, whenever they called me and she was absent, like I was just like I'm like I could have just done this this whole time, like just grab the packet from the office.

Speaker 2: 25:02

That's funny, yeah. Yeah, I think it's something like that, but I know it can be like. You know, that reminds me of sometimes, things that we tell our clients like I know it's sometimes easier to avoid but do the scary thing. But yeah, I think there's something like that, depending on your state. So I just check your state. Certain states are stricter than others with, like, missing school or, you know, homeschooling or things like that like that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:37

So kind of taking it just back a little bit, like what kind of got you interested or started kind of with this lifestyle, like was there something that happened or what was kind of like the last straw for you, where you're like you know what? Like I want to do this, I want to try this out.

Speaker 2: 25:49

Yeah, it was actually really random. So, like I said, me and my husband were originally in Austin together. That's where we met. We bought a house, like the whole thing. Um, I feel like we really lived it up. You know, our pre pre-kid days had a great time.

Speaker 2: 26:06

Then I got pregnant with my daughter and we were, like you know, we don't um, we didn't really have a lot of family around in Austin. So we're like you know, we just don't know if we want to stay here. We were kind of deciding on what, where we wanted to do or where we wanted to, like raise her or all that stuff. So we decided, well, let's just go back to where my mom lives, and she lives in a smaller community in South Texas. It's really close to the border. So we decided to come back and live with my mom. We just moved into the guest house and we just rented out our house in Austin and so we had my daughter. You know, I got my job at the counseling center and my husband, I think, worked all jobs I don't really remember and then, um, we had my daughter, the whole thing. Um, for some like personal reasons, we had to move out of my mom's guest house and then we just lived with my sister who also lived in town, which actually was really fun. But, um, you know, after that we were just kind of thinking like what's our next move? Like do we want to buy a house here? Do we want to sell our house? Like what do we want to do? And house here, do we want to sell our house? Like what do we want to do? And we just couldn't. We liked the valley but we just didn't love it and we just couldn't see. You know, we didn't want to pull the trigger on a house. Like we kept getting kind of like resistant on that. So, honestly, it was so random.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Like I said, I've always loved traveling. I think my husband was never really a big traveler, but since he started or since we been together, we've traveled a lot. So he's kind of gotten the travel bug too. So one time we were visiting his mom closer to Austin and we were at Bucky's. I don't think you guys have Bucky's in California, but it's basically this huge, awesome gas station. I can't even explain it, but there's a lot of RVers that come through because it's huge station. I can't even explain it, but there's a lot of RVers that come through because it's huge. So we were just at Bucky's and I looked over and there was like a massive, like um RV that was just pulling in and it was just like a like I guess Oprah's like aha moment or like a ding, you know. And I just looked over there and I was like what if we like just bought one of these and like traveled? You know, my husband, he's totally always on board and he's like oh, that sounds awesome.

Speaker 2: 28:16

You know, it was really just a pipe dream, like you know, just kind of something you say, but not necessarily like something that you actually do. But after that it was just kind of like that little like what if you could do this, you know, like that little nagging feeling, intuition, I don't know. You know whatever you call it. So I just kind of started researching it and got more into it. Again, this is a little bit before, like online therapy was a big thing, but I did find a resource for how to become like an online therapist and all that stuff, and so I like delve into that and, you know, basically saw like this was possible, um, and then, of course, the pandemic hits. It was like even more possible, um, and we just kind of started like we found other people who live that lifestyle already. So we're like Whoa, like people actually do this in family specifically, actually do this, um, and so we just started following them on Instagram and kind of learning and my husband's really good with like he actually had never had an RV or anything that, but he's just like really good with stuff like that. So we just started looking into like what RV we might want and truck and slowly but surely, you know, got it was kind of a process. We had a whole storage unit. So we got rid of most of our stuff, um, sold my car, bought the truck and then, after buying the truck, um found this RV that we liked and got it. And then we like set a launch state.

Speaker 2: 29:43

Um, that was like the hard part. I feel like there was like six months after we got the RV, before we actually left, that we were just I don't even remember what we're doing exactly, but maybe just finalizing all this stuff, um, and that was when it was like really real, because I had to leave my job, you know, and it was a pretty good job, like I worked at a college counseling center, I was in management there. Um, I mean, I don't want to like say, but I probably was in line to like could be the director if I stayed. Um, you know, really I loved my colleagues, I loved the students that I worked with, I really loved that job. So it was really hard to leave that job and like take a risk to start my private practice. I think my husband did have a job at the time but you know, I think I had a better job but anyways. So that was really scary. So I feel like maybe I was putting that off a little bit.

Speaker 2: 30:36

But then, finally, you know, I think we I think the pandemic actually is what pushed it back bit.

Speaker 2: 30:43

Then we, yeah, we just decided to launch and we always said, you know, and we always say this, even now, like we'll just try it. If we hate it, it's not a big deal. We could literally we're on wheels, right. We could just come back home, sell it all, buy a house, and then it's fine, right. And that's kind of what we say now when we're planning to go internationally, like we kind of still have the same fears because it's very far away from home. You know, it's just it's a little bit different, even than RV life Time zone changes with, like you know, I see clients in Central right and so having visas, like having to figure all of that out, we're nervous again. So we're trying to to know, like we did it once, we could do it again and if we absolutely hate it, we just fly back home. It's not a big deal. So we kind of take that mindset like we may hate it but we can always pivot and that's kind of like the nice thing about this lifestyle is you're not like stuck, you know.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Yeah, definitely of like the nice thing about this lifestyle is you're not like stuck, you know, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 31:57

and then thankfully also, especially as social workers, I feel like there's just so many opportunities like, even if you were to change your mind like there's things to do, there's jobs, but anywho totally yeah, yeah, that's what I always said, like I could always, yeah, go back to whatever you know I wanted to, um hospital job or like any sort of yeah, job. So, yes, that is good.

Speaker 1: 32:19

I feel like we definitely have job security but, yeah, I understand that scariness, though, of taking the leap quitting your job right and yeah doing this like I.

Speaker 1: 32:32

I actually quit my job when was it a year ago, february a year ago because I was gonna do like um, I was working part-time at a hospital and then I was doing like part-time private practice and I feel like I wasn't structured enough, because I feel like you have to have some degree of like just being organized and structured, because I just couldn't do it Like keeping track of like everything, and I ended up going back to my job because I'm like I'll just do my 40 hour work week and then you know I'm done whatever.

Speaker 2: 33:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:07

So I understand like that scariness though, this feeling of being scared of like quitting your job and like doing something new, Right, Right, Uh. Well, how did your family, friends or you know, how did people react at that time when you told them okay, I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to do this?

Speaker 2: 33:25

Yeah, yeah. So my mom is where I got my love of travel. She would always take us. She's, she's, you know, a travel bug, she. She actually just went to like Europe and she always travels. So I knew she would always be supportive. So she loved it, of course, and I knew that and she's sort of semi-retired, so I knew she could, you know, fly out and see us wherever we were, and she did, and actually that's some of our best memories is like her, you know, spending time with us in these full places. So she was totally supportive. My dad kind of like the same thing, I think he, you know, he's more of like well, how are we gonna make?

Speaker 2: 34:00

money and like I'm asking a couple questions like that, but nothing too bad. For the most part, I want to say our family was fairly supportive. I know other people and I've seen other people like on the Facebook groups and stuff like their families are not that supportive Specifically, you know, with like older kids that like they feel like they need to be in school or blah, blah, blah. I do remember when I told my aunt I mean she was kind of joking but kind of not and she was like please don't tell me no judgment to people that are. But she was like please don't tell me you're going people that are. But she was like please don't tell me you're gonna be on the side of the road like selling jewelry or something. I'm like no, like I'm not. You know we are gonna like work and stuff, you know. Um.

Speaker 2: 34:40

So, and just like a side note, I think sometimes people do feel like that people that live this lifestyle are maybe like trust fund babies or have a lot of money, you know, but probably most of the families that I've met like work. So it's either that they have like a virtual job and so they have to work, kind of like eight to five or whatever, or they own their own business, you know, and kind of like do it that way. There are some families who specifically plan like a gap year, so they'll plan for like a whole previous year to take like a year off, um of sometimes with like their work they can. Or, if they own their own business, but like sometimes with work, they can do sabbaticals and stuff, which is kind of cool. But I mean, not everybody will really do that. But, um, or they just quit, you know, and they take their kids out of school and they just save for like what they might need for a year off and like travel.

Speaker 2: 35:34

Some people do it that way. That was pretty cool, cause then you don't really have to worry about a whole lot, you know. Well, I mean, I'm sure you do, but it's just a little different way, um. So yeah, for the most part people are pretty supportive. I think, at the older that my daughter has gotten, definitely, um, you know people. I mean it's normal. But you know people are like, is she reading yet? You know, like comparing her to other kids her age that are in the traditional school system. So we just have to gently say like no, she's not reading, or we're not really worried about it. We know she'll read when she wants to, you know, and we're focused on this and to just kind of set those healthy boundaries you know with them. So I feel like as she gets older they get a little bit more concerned.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Yeah, and I feel like the comparison's always going to happen, like even if she were a student at a school, right, like right. Cause I'm going through that now. I mean my daughter, daughter's seven. She's a first grader, you know, she's starting her IEP now. She's receiving support and but it's like that constant comparison like where is she at compared to other kids? Is she up to the like, right? So? So yeah, I'm like the comparison is going to be there regardless yeah, I feel like, yeah, they, they get.

Speaker 2: 36:51

You know, she has a lot of cousins that are similar in age, so, um, they're, like, you know, so-and-so's reading really good, or whatever. She's not. I'm like, I'm really not that worried about it. Like I know she'll, you know, learn to read when she wants to, and we're working on it, you know. So, yeah, you right, it's probably always going to be there, yeah.

Speaker 1: 37:13

I do have to ask like how does it work, cause I know you said you mentioned that you're licensed in Texas. How does that work when you're providing virtual services like out of?

Speaker 2: 37:23

state. Good question Again like because of the pandemic, it I think got a little bit easier. Like because of the pandemic, it I think got a little bit easier. But for most States I can't remember what how California is, but, um, for most states I know New York is different. But for most states where your client is like, it doesn't really matter where the therapist is, as long as your client is actually in the state that you're licensed in. So for me, my clients are all in Texas, you know, like based in Texas or in Texas at the time of the session. So it doesn't necessarily matter where I am. Again, there are some states not very many, I think like New York maybe, I don't remember specifically. I'm in a really good Facebook group. I can tell you that has all this, but that, like you have, if you're there, you have to. Um, if you're in New York, like something about how you can't see clients in Texas, which I don't really understand how you can even say that. Or, like, if you are licensed in New York, you have to be in New York when you're treating clients. So it's really state to state, state specific, but Texas is and, like I said, I would say most of the States are you can be anywhere, but your client has to be in the state that you're licensed in. Um, so that's like the main thing to think about I was going to think of. I was thinking about something else, it's like a caveat with that, but now I can't remember.

Speaker 2: 38:58

Oh, with insurance. So you know, for private, pay like doesn't doesn't. Again, it's just you go to like your board's rules, but for insurance, sometimes certain insurances are picky. Um, most insurances were fine because of the whole pandemic and I forget what they call. It was in motion with insurance. But, um, now that the pandemic has ended, like, specifically, I don't take BCBS, blue Cross, blue Shield, because they're pretty sticklers with. They came up with like a new thing that you have to be in your state or something like that, like you can't travel, or I don't remember specifically. So I just don't take them because they make it a little bit harder to travel. So if you take insurances, then you also have to think about, like, if the insurance has any specific rules.

Speaker 1: 39:54

But from what I know of, only BCBS has that rule or stipulation or something. Yeah, yeah, that is true. Yeah, it would be different like state to state and I didn't even think of that because I don't know. You always hear people like no, you, you can't see clients, you know, if you're not, if you're outside of the state, whatever. But now, thinking about it, it's like, well, some people are licensed in several states and yeah clients from several states.

Speaker 2: 40:16

So it makes sense, you know yeah, and um, it also depends on your like, the type of um profession. So like lcsw, right, um, it's mostly where the state. But like psychologists for example, they have like the sci-pac, which some states are in. So if you're licensed in those states, you can see people in the states that are in the sci-pac or something like that, and lpcs are maybe a bit different. So it also kind of depends on that. So it's a little convoluted to figure it all out, but luckily there's a lot of resources. I'm part of like a Facebook group specifically that is just for traveling therapists, so they provide a lot of like resources and support and that's kind of where I, you know, get all my well, plus you could check your board and all that stuff, get all that information. So it's just kind of navigating that a little bit.

Speaker 1: 41:08

Yeah, yeah, all right. So let's go into, like your coaching stuff that you do, cause I was looking at your Facebook group you know it looks really just the descriptions and stuff. I'm like that's me. But anyway, can you talk a little bit about your coaching and like what types of people you work with, what you help with, all that good stuff?

Speaker 2: 41:32

Yeah, yeah. So I just started my coaching program, maybe like in the past six months, so it was like an add on to my therapy business. Again. It just kind of developed from, you know, these families, kind of like I wish I can do it or wanting to kind of do it, um. So really what it is is like over the past four years and continuing, because we are currently again researching and planning like this big international trip, um, or living internationally for a little bit. So it's all of like my resource, all of my resources, resource research, like all of that stuff combined into one program on top of like a mindset piece. Because I feel like there is a big mindset.

Speaker 2: 42:14

When you do do something like this, like, I feel like a lot of self-doubt can creep in of, like you're being irresponsible, you're ruining your kids, or you know, yeah, how are you going to teach them? You know you don't even know how to do math or whatever those negative beliefs can come up Right. Or you know how are you going to make money, or just I feel like there's a big mindset piece that has to be focused on kind of first um, or at least kind of yeah, like reprogram that a little bit so you're able to kind of do this lifestyle. So I definitely bring in a lot of mindset. But how my three month coaching program is broken down is that I have a recorded course that covers all of these different modules that are related to becoming like a digital nomad family. So, like I said, I have a mindset stuff with a lot of like journal prompts and kind of meditations and stuff to help you reprogram those self-doubt beliefs, you know. Then I have a couple of modules on like just logistics, so like how to prepare, how to choose, like how you want to live this lifestyle, like RV, boat, airbnb, right. How to choose an RV, if that's like the option that you want to go with Checklists, right. Like if you're going to do international, like what to pack, right. The kind of thing that I thought about with this program is taking all of my knowledge, like basically me doing all the heavy lifting for you, and so you just kind of get it handed to you so you can feel confident and start and like be living this lifestyle without having to kind of put in all the hours of research or all of those things just doing. The group so it comes with a recorded course covers those different modules. So it covers, like I said, logistics, like visas, itinerary planning, all of that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 44:06

Then, of course, some modules on world schooling so that's kind of what they call when you travel and teach. It's like a kind of combination. But there's so many different terms with schooling, like unschooling, homeschooling, world schooling. But world schooling specifically is, yeah, how to just incorporate learning, like wherever you go, some um, it's really like a plug and play kind of curriculum to just use when you're traveling and how to like incorporate learning. Probably also some, I mean, really there's mindset in each one of these. So, like some mindset stuff are like you, if you know, what I say is if you know your kid, you're equipped to teach them. Um, so you know. I say is if you know your kid, you're equipped to teach them. Um, so you know, and most parents do so you're equipped, you're good to go. Um. So world schooling component then also I talked a little bit about um, just kind of like what I talked about with the whole switching from vacation mode to like this is your life mode, so, so I feel like some families again, they can burn out quickly because they're, you know, going into it like they're moving too fast.

Speaker 2: 45:10

You know we stayed places like two weeks to a month, but sometimes if you move too fast like that can lead to burnout, Right. Also, what I didn't really get to talk about a little bit, but like just all being together sometimes it's a lot of togetherness. So how to kind of build in your own me time, like get away. It is kind of difficult, right, because you don't necessarily have babysitters with you all the time. So you know you're just with your kids 24 seven. So kind of that like mental wellness piece, I think, is what I call it in the modules of just how to do this lifestyle without burning out and prioritizing you and like taking care of you and all of that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 45:49

Um, so yeah, and then I have just a couple of bonuses in the um. Oh, I forgot to say. The first one, of course, is like online income. So if you're not sure about how to um, you know, support yourself on the road, I talk a lot about online income in the course. I even do like a resume review to kind of like look over and I just there's like a couple of different options that we kind of walk through, whether it's pitching to like your current employers, and I have like a script and everything of like how to pitch to your current employers for online work, kind of researching the job that you have now like if people do it online.

Speaker 2: 46:25

Because, like I said, well, social work, for sure, there's like a ton of online options. But even like teachers, right, like people tutor and like there's all these options, nurses, a lot of the big professions you can transition to online. It might just look a little bit differently, but there's actually a lot of even, like you know, hairdressers or something right, you can do like tutorials and there's like all sorts of things that you can kind of do things just thinking outside of the box a little bit. So definitely talk about online income, because and with online income, like how to build a budget, you know what, how much savings you should have before you head out, how to save money while you're doing this, how to travel hack, if that's like your thing, like using credit cards for points to fly and all of that, or your stays and stuff. So that's a big portion of it too.

Speaker 2: 47:12

And then, like I said, a couple of bonuses the resume review.

Speaker 2: 47:16

The big one that I found is I have a VA that will help build like, let's say, you your first place is like Vietnam or something, or Thailand, you know they'll help build you like a one month itinerary where they'll just find everything for you and like fully set you up so at least you have like one under your belt and ready to go, like where to stay, you know what to do, where to eat, like all that good stuff.

Speaker 2: 47:43

So that's also like a bonus in there and I think a couple other bonuses that I'm forgetting. But yeah, that's pretty much the three-month program. So it's the recorded course that covers all of those things. And then it's twice weekly group coaching calls where you just come and basically any and all questions that you have I can answer right there, help you out, figure it out. You know, if you're struggling with like online income, work or whatever, we can kind of troubleshoot and help you do that, and so that's also part of the coaching program and all of this is basically the goal. Like six months you're ready to go and become a digital nomad family and like travel and do your thing. So yeah, that's that's really a program and, like I said, it's just kind of blending my work as a therapist with like mindset, mental wellness and also my personal journey as a digital nomad family.

Speaker 1: 48:38

Awesome. That all sounds really, really helpful, especially for anyone even considering right making this lifestyle change. So if any of that interests any of the listeners, go ahead and check out her Facebook group Digital Nomads United right Mindset and Travel Mastery for Families. So you could search that on Facebook and I'll also include the link in the description for this episode as well.

Speaker 2: 49:05

Yeah, so there's a ton of freebies in there. I go live every Tuesday on different topics. So, like recently, my group wanted to learn about like travel insurance, so I talked all about that this past week. But I have like lives in there from how to pack and a couple of freebies in there too. So it's a good group and also just like community within the group. You know, if you're traveling somewhere, have questions. It's a good group for that.

Speaker 1: 49:29

Well, thank you, addy, thank you for coming on and speaking on this. It was like just a really like interesting conversation, yeah, but also inspiring, like just kind of you know doing what you want to do, basically right, like not staying stuck in that nine to five like grind, and and so it's really inspiring as well yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2: 49:51

yeah, I mean I mean I feel like if I can do it I always say like I'm really nothing and I, I mean I'm special but I'm not that special. So if I can do it truly, anyone can do it it's just about kind of yeah, I feel like mindset's a big piece of that, knowing that you can do it truly, anyone can do it. It's just about kind of yeah, I feel like mindset's a big piece of that, knowing that you can do it and really like, if you don't don't like it, you can always change, change it up. It's not that big of a deal, yeah.

Speaker 1: 50:13

Yeah, very well said. So, thank you, addie, and I appreciate you coming onto the podcast and speaking about your, your journey, right? Yeah, coaching and just everything, just sharing your life with us. Yeah, Thank you for coming on.

Speaker 2: 50:29

Yes, I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.