Second Act Success Career Podcast
Season 1 - ​​Travel and Build A Business You Love...Here's How!
Episode - #67
Host: Shannon Russell
Guest: Austin and Monica
Transcription (*created by Descript and may not be perfectly accurate)

[00:00:33] Shannon Russell: Are you at a crossroads in your career? Ready for a change, but you're not sure how to get there? Don't worry. We are about to produce your best life together. Welcome to the second Act Success podcast. I am your host Shannon Russell. I am a former television producer, turned boy Mom. I left my dream job to find family balance, and in doing so I produced my dream life.

Now I am a business owner, [00:01:00] podcaster, and career. My mission is to help other women like you find what they are truly meant to be doing. If you are ready to start over in your career or pivot to a new purpose, then get ready to be inspired by stories of women who have done just that. We will share advice and actionable tips to motivate you as you move along on your path.

It is time to shine. So let's start producing your balanced life of abundance today. This is second act success.

Meet Austin and Monica. They are a digital nomad couple, traveling the world, living out their dream while building a business, hosting a podcast, and helping others see the world through their eyes. When I met Austin and Monica, I became obsessed with their story, and I know that you will too. Let's dive into my chat with this inspiring couple.

All right, Austin and Monica, welcome to the show.

[00:01:56] Monica: Hi,

[00:01:56] Austin: Shannon. Thank you. We're super happy to be chatting with you today.[00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Shannon Russell: You guys are living the dream of what I think all of us want to do, which is to quit our jobs and go travel and just see the world. So first I have to ask you, where are you right now?

[00:02:11] Monica: We're currently in Thailand right now.

[00:02:14] Shannon Russell: No way. Oh my God, how incredible. How long will

you be there?

[00:02:18] Monica: So we actually leave here on Tuesday. We've been here for a. . And so we're, we're we max out Visas and now we're gonna go to Cambodian next.

[00:02:27] Shannon Russell: So incredible. So let's get to all of it. I wanna really talk to you about your journey and then get your advice on how you're making this work. So you too met in college, your college sweetheart? Mm-hmm. . tell us about just a meeting and kind of when you realized you were on the same page about what you wanted for your life.

I

[00:02:48] Austin: feel like being on the same page with wanting to travel and explore all sorts of things happened really early for the two of us we met in 2017 cuz we got married in 2018. I knew that. [00:03:00] Our apartment complexes and college shared a parking lot and we were assigned to the same groups in our.

and so we saw each other a whole bunch.

[00:03:08] Monica: Yeah. When Austin was really into it, and I just thought he thought he was all that and I wasn't into it at all, but he kept showing up in my life, so she was

[00:03:17] Austin: bothered that I asked her questions, , well, getting too close

[00:03:20] Monica: there. Who

[00:03:21] Shannon Russell: is this guy asking me questions?

You're like, no way.

[00:03:24] Monica: Yeah. I was like, I don't even know you. Stop trying to talk to me. , .

[00:03:28] Shannon Russell: That's what we're trained to do. Austen we're trained to just like watch out for guys and keep to ourselves until we're ready. That's

[00:03:34] Austin: true. She did share with me some unfortunate experiences with meeting guys and them kind of jumping the gun with trying to take her on dates and so apparently I'd at least getting to know her before asking her on a date was the right way to go.

[00:03:46] Shannon Russell: And you got married a year later, so it worked. Yeah. . Yep. So then what kind of happens, tell me about life as a newlywed.

[00:03:53] Austin: Before all that, we actually had gone on a trip together when we were just engaged. We got positions to [00:04:00] be medical interpreters for a humanitarian group in Guatemala and they weren't gonna let us on because we were engaged and they didn't wanna deal with drama of engaged couples, but somehow we convinced them to let us come and it was incredible. Uh, so that was our first international trip together. And so that's, that kind of set the foundation for our relationship, knowing that we wanted to be international travelers together. , we knew that that was gonna be a priority for us. So after college we were gonna go to the Peace Corps and we were gonna spend two years serving in Mozambique, but then that was the same time Covid happened. And so super long story short, that whole thing fell through. And that's when we kind of got stuck in those mundane jobs that we weren't super excited about. Yeah.

[00:04:42] Monica: So we ended up moving back, cause I mean we had sold everything to go to the Peace Corps and it was like two weeks before we were supposed to leave that the world came to a screeching halt. we moved in with Austin's parents thinking it was gonna be temporary and started working in healthcare, which is like, it was the worst [00:05:00] time to, to be in healthcare ever. We were so overworked. We were working 50 plus hours a week and our schedules were exactly opposite. Austin would get up super early in the morning and sometimes I would work until like one in the morning and so we would never see each other and we were back in his parents' house and we were newlyweds and we were never seeing each other and it, we really struggled. It was really hard.

[00:05:22] Austin: Our good days were when our schedules alliance, that we passed each other for 20 minutes and we could say hi and grab a bite to eat and. , the other one would be off. Yeah. So that was, that was hard. And I think that was the biggest catalyst for, for needing something different was never seeing each other.

[00:05:36] Shannon Russell: And you're in the middle of a pandemic and you're working in healthcare, which is stressful enough during that time. So this is not the ideal life that you had planned right then. what was the straw that kind of broke the camel's back that you knew you needed to, you know, switch things?

[00:05:53] Monica: Several things. I would say my main breaking point was working with a certain client. So we were senior [00:06:00] healthcare workers, we would go into their homes and take care of them. And I had one particular client who was super rude. And anyway, some, some kind of gross bodily functions, things happen.

Oh gosh. And I was just like, I'm done. I'm so done. I need out now. And so that's, . I started like researching. Anything to get us out. And I was, I always call it Pinterest shopping. I was Pinterest shopping for a new life because I needed something that didn't involve changing old people's diapers. ,

[00:06:33] Shannon Russell: yes. As wonderful as a role that is to do. You can only do it for so long, I'm sure. .

[00:06:38] Austin: Yeah. And shout out to anyone who's listening, who's doing that right now. Thank you. . Yes. We meet people like you, but yes, yes. I feel our stories in, in this moment are a little bit different because for. . Monica's the one who kind of, she kind of dragged me along to be totally honest. I was kind of in a depressed state. I was really still just kind of downtrodden, really disappointed [00:07:00] about our original plans not working out, and I didn't have a backup plan. And even though months went by, I didn't really formulate a backup plan. I just kind of accepted it. I'm like, well, we'll just do this until something better comes along. Mm. And so I was just kind of, Monica came to me with a couple different ideas and she was ready to get out of there as soon as she could and do something different. First I just like went along with it. It's ended up being one of the most incredible things I've ever done. Starting a business and traveling with Monica and I'm really glad she pulled me out of it. I don't know if I would've changed anything on my own without her Swift kicking

[00:07:33] Shannon Russell: the butt. Right. Cuz you're back home with your family too. So there's some comfort in that. I'm sure. So the wheels started turning for you, Monica, and you started thinking of like, what else can we do? Because going into the Peace Corps is a huge decision anyway, to just go and, , give your time for that and to get your. in that mindset that you're going to do it and then have it taken away from you. I can see how that's just such a disappointment. And so what were you thinking, Monica? Were you thinking [00:08:00] okay, I wanna travel the world, or I just need to get out of healthcare?

[00:08:03] Monica: I wanted to travel the world. It was in the middle of the pandemic, so I knew that it wasn't going to be able to start traveling immediately, but I wanted, as soon as it was lifted, I wanted to be able to go.

[00:08:13] Shannon Russell: A lot of us can feel that way. I wanna leave my little hometown, but I don't know how to do it and how can I work remote? That's always everyone's dream, especially since the pandemic. What were you finding that were options for you to be able to travel and make. Yeah. You

[00:08:28] Monica: know what? This is a really big topic to tackle because I really wish there was more information about the possibilities. I really wish, like I could go back and talk to myself now, . Yeah. Because literally the only thing I could find was either being a travel blogger influencer. or being a virtual assistant. You know, I'm a ponytail and glasses kind of girl. I'm not really super photogenic. I don't really wanna document my life with perfect pictures. So the only option was to become a virtual assistant. And so that is the route we ended up [00:09:00] going and it, it ended up working out fantastically for us. But I wish that someone had showed me that there was a different way and a better way

[00:09:09] Shannon Russell: to. . traveling the world and taking pictures sounds great, but there's no guarantee that anyone's going to buy those or that you're instantly gonna become an influencer. So I think you chose the smart route, at least being able to work for other people while you were traveling. but now everything's shifted for you and you have your own business together. So talk to us a little bit about that.

[00:09:31] Monica: Yeah, like I said, we both started out as virtual assistants and we both ended up working in tons of different industries and doing totally different things. We all had our own clients and we weren't, we were in the same room, but we weren't building anything together. . it got hard . it was hard to juggle all the like we got so many clients so fast. We were super lucky, um, that we were able to do that. But then all of a sudden we were. We were working just as much as we were in our old jobs, [00:10:00] but now remote. And I was like, this isn't why we started working online. You know, it wasn't so that we could fill up our time and get paid hourly and then not be able to go out and explore and enjoy our lives and spend time together. So that's when we started looking at, at Pivot. and we ended up writing down. Like independently, wrote down a list of all of our favorite tasks that we were doing as virtual assistants, what we liked, what we tolerated, and what we hated as our roles. and then we decided that, that we wanted to build something together. So we came together and on the top of our list was designing. We both really liked the creative aspect of our jobs, and so that's when we decided to pivot and to niche down into web design and started our web design

[00:10:45] Shannon Russell: agency. it's funny that you said the list, because I tell my coaching clients that too, if you're gonna pivot to a new career, make sure. That new career doesn't have any of those things that you dislike, right? If you're gonna change, make sure you're changing for good. So I love that. That was so [00:11:00] brilliant to do that and then to see that there was that correlation of what you both wanted and that was the creativity and so, mm-hmm. , I know that you now have your business and tell us a little bit more about it, but you really work on show at websites. Is that. .

[00:11:14] Austin: This is really interesting. So we, we had put our list together and we realized one thing we both really love doing is graphic design. And so we're like, well, let's, you know, let's jump into web. We don't know any coding language, or anything like that. Like we had done a little bit of WordPress help with some of our, uh, VA clients and just the bare minimum because we don't know coding again. Uh, there was a lot of stuff that we couldn't understand and couldn't do without a lot of additional education and knowledge, but one of my VA clients was a web designer on. And so as we were making this transition, I sent her an email and I said, Hey, we are interested in starting up a web design business, but we really have no idea where to go, like how to start this, you know, what can you tell us? And so she wrote back a couple [00:12:00] ideas. And then the very last one was like, uh, if, if you're interested, in starting a web design business, I'd recommend checking out this person. Her name was Elizabeth she is a designer who's helping, other designers start up their website design business. And so we got in touch with Elizabeth and, purchased her course. and she teaches primarily how to do ShowIt websites. And so that's kind of why we ended up nicheing down into ShowIt and we wanted it to be focused on graphic design and not on the coding again. Mm-hmm. and Show. It's an incredible platform for that. It's all design based. So it was the perfect fit for what we were looking for.

[00:12:35] Monica: Yeah. Apart from that, I mean, we, in our virtual assisting, we helped a lot of our clients with their websites, and they were so frustrated with the clunkiness of, of their websites, especially at WordPress website. And so we really wanted the end result to be something that our clients can feel empowered to, to work on and change as their own businesses grow and evolve.

[00:12:58] Shannon Russell: That's incredible. So you took [00:13:00] someone else's course, you learned this, and you just set out to say, okay, this is what we're doing now. how did you kind of grow that business? And were you already traveling at that time? Mm-hmm. .

[00:13:10] Monica: Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, Guatemala was our first place after Covid that we, we lived, we were there for about four to five months, and that's when we pivoted our businesses in Guatemala. . Um, so it holds a special place in our heart. There is a lot of healing that happened in Guatemala. but we started, I mean, this is how we recommend that everyone starts, is we, we just started building a portfolio. So as we were taking the class, we started building mock projects. We built a website for my sister. We built a website for Austin's mom's dream business that she has no intention of starting so we just built a ton of websites to build up our portfolio and then we started getting testimonials from everyone we built the website for. And then we started charging. We started really low. I think our first website we charged for was like $500. And then we just [00:14:00] kept increasing it as we got more experience, as we got more, uh, people coming to us, more referrals, a bigger, more robust portfolio.

[00:14:08] Shannon Russell: Did you realize that you loved it? Was it something that you felt, felt right in your life at this point? Yes,

[00:14:14] Monica: absolutely. Especially after struggling so much with being a virtual assistant.

[00:14:19] Austin: I think we each fell in love with different parts of the business, which worked out really, really well. Monica's much better and more in love with the actual design part, which is funny cuz that was the, you know, similarity on our list that led us to start this.

And I've ended up falling in love and being good at. Kind of organizational, systems part of everything and setting up, you know, project management things and making sure everything gets done sequentially. So we've become a really good pair in that way. We've each kind of grown into our own part of the business, but it's still like, it's still the same business. And so we get to work on it together and build it up kind of hand in hand, which is really nice. Right.

[00:14:55] Shannon Russell: You're not on top of each other. You both have your place in the business and you're working [00:15:00] on it together. Mm-hmm. , I'm so proud of you. This sounds so exciting.

Hey, it's Shannon. If you are enjoying this podcast, then you will love my weekly newsletter. It's full of career advice, productivity tips, and of course inspiring stories of women who have launched a new career that they love. Just go to second act success.co to sign up. Plus you'll get the My Success Vision Board to help you with your 2023 planning as well. Now it's back to the episode.

You've got a lot of other things going on too. You've got your podcast, which I wanna talk about. A podcast you can do from anywhere, which is incredible.

[00:15:40] Austin: Podcasting was one of those things where I was really reluctant to do it for a long time. Cause I thought it was just gonna be one extra thing on a list of things that already, that we had. Once again, Monica like, we gotta do a podcast. I'm like, okay, someday sure, but not now. And then a couple months go by and she brought up again and then she keeps bringing it up. I'm like, you know what? Sure, let's [00:16:00] try it out. And so we did a services swap with a podcast manager. She helped us get our podcast started and we in exchange, built her website and did her. And Oh, it was, it was perfect. It's exactly what we needed. Yeah. Because it's now become, one of my favorite parts of our business is recording and outlining episodes and, and sharing what we have with other people, and it's, yeah.

[00:16:22] Monica: It was really, I mean, it was really our passion project. We love web design, we love our business, but we also had this other aspect of of our life, which is traveling. And we are so incredibly passionate about getting to know other cultures and. And just expanding our paradigms and, and allowing other influences to change us as people. And I just think travel's such a great way to do that. Right. We had our web design side, but then we also had our travel side and we were kinda like, you know what? I think we wanna do more in that space. And that's where our podcast kind of fell in. So our podcast, a Profitable Nomad Couple Podcast is [00:17:00] specifically. The travel aspect of our lives

[00:17:03] Shannon Russell: and traveling as a couple. And it's so perfect because you're educating others on how they can do it too, right? That's a passion of yours as well is kind of spreading this lifestyle to other people.

[00:17:15] Monica: absolutely. Especially like whenever I think about us in 2020 when we were just so desperate for anything. My heart just bleeds a little bit for other people in our position, and it's so fun to be able to provide that content that we never had.

[00:17:31] Shannon Russell: And I think that was only a couple of years ago. And how much you've done in that time. It's amazing.

[00:17:36] Austin: Yeah. It's amazing how fast things in the online business space change how fast and it's, it's fun to be able to, you know, have these different ideas and roll with it and then make it happen. And. . this constantly evolving, changing thing, which we

[00:17:49] Shannon Russell: love.

Yeah. And the fact that we met in a, podcasting coaching group that we're in together mm-hmm. and we, haven't met in person. You're in a totally different country than [00:18:00] I'm in right now. And it's just cool that we can connect and help support each other's businesses. And I've said this before, it's my favorite part of being a podcaster is getting to form these relationships and really, help. Like if I'm talking with someone next week and I'm like, oh, I've gotta introduce you to Austin and Monica. It just kind of grows and we can just help each other and it's such an amazing community, don't you think?

Oh, absolutely.

[00:18:23] Austin: Yeah. I was really surprised, like we've noticed that our network and our collaborations have grown exponentially since starting a podcast, and we've been able to connect with a lot more. In new ways that we weren't able to as just web

[00:18:37] Monica: designers. Yeah. The second we started podcasting, it just, our network just, it's thriving. It's so fun. I love. . And you know what,

[00:18:44] Shannon Russell: it's funny because people, I sure think that podcasters make all this money, and we know that's not true, but it's nice to be able to, to promote our other businesses, right?

You get to promote now, hey, and by the way, if you like our content, we [00:19:00] also design websites. So it's kind of that extra revenue. It, it feels like another full-time job, I'm sure. But. Fun, full-time job. .

Yes,

[00:19:09] Monica: it's, it's very enjoyable for sure. I was gonna say, it doesn't for me, cuz Austin does it all.

does .

[00:19:14] Shannon Russell: I was gonna say when Austin, when you said you are more of the organizational and kind of doing all that, I figured maybe you are planning out the episodes and, and Monica's um, joining in. I'll, I'll

[00:19:25] Austin: outline that. Show up. Yeah, basically I outline them and then she shows up to record and then I do all the editing and scheduling

[00:19:32] Monica: I do all of the promotion.

[00:19:34] Shannon Russell: Yeah. Oh good. Okay. Well, I love that. And you also, have a course right, to help teach others on how they can work and travel.

[00:19:41] Monica: Yeah, we were like, you know, we have this other part of our life and there are so many people like us. We saw so many people on different Facebook groups, like, I just really want to travel and work and I have no idea how to do it. And, and we were like, we, we can help them. . Yes. So we created a. To kind of fill in that [00:20:00] gap. Right. So our course is three parts. We have the mindset part, which is huge when it's a totally different lifestyle that you're doing. So it's really important to like nail the, the mindset of it first. we have a business section, we have a travel section, and then we also have a couple section, because doing it as a couple, running a business, traveling as a couple is just such a different dynamic than doing it solo. And so we thought that was kind of a fun perspective, fun little bonus

[00:20:25] Shannon Russell: for people to throw in.

As you said before, this is something that you didn't have when you guys were starting out on this journey. Yeah. So just to have that is so helpful. I find a lot of times when we try to pivot and start our second act, whatever it might be, that we are. Flailing and we're trying to figure it out ourselves. So it's nice to be able to give back to others and encourage them to come to this side with us and try something new and, and here's a couple tools on how you can do it as well. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Yeah.

What are maybe three pieces of advice that you would give to [00:21:00] another couple, or even a single person who wants to create this lifestyle?

[00:21:04] Monica: Just really understanding your why. Are you running from something? Are you running towards something? Either one's okay, but you need to know mm-hmm. . And then you need to know, really the core motivation for, for makings. Such a dramatic change because it's gonna be rocking. You know, you're gonna have to flounder a little bit. You're gonna make lots of mistakes. It's gonna be messy sometimes, but if you have that core, why motivation, it's all worth it. It's all worth

[00:21:32] Austin: it Looking back on our own journey, one of the biggest shifts for me happened when I looked at it in a different way. And when I adopted a mindset of like being able to grow into certain abilities and capacities rather than being stuck with what I have and finding a way to, to make that work. And that's really when things shifted for me is when I changed my paradigm and looked at things in a different. and then all of a sudden things started growing in our business and, and our network started growing and, and it [00:22:00] felt more, right? We felt more at peace with what we were doing. And so that would probably be my biggest piece of advice for someone who's, who's wanting to make that change, is to realize that you have the ability to learn new things and to jump at those opportunities because you are adaptable and your brain has an endless capacity to learn and.

[00:22:17] Shannon Russell: Right. Give yourself more credit than you normally would. What is the scariest thing about embarking on this journey of work and travel?

[00:22:25] Monica: This isn't always the recommended path, but we were so desperate for a dramatic change that we quit our jobs before we had any income, any clients.

Any really knowledge of what we were doing, we just set a date and we said, you know what, after this we're done and then we are gonna fully jump into making this work. And that was really scary. Like, I mean, we got clients really fast, but it did take a couple of months to kind of start building back up that income.

So, .

[00:22:52] Austin: that uncertainty for sure was a scary part of it. Not knowing if it's gonna work. Like we had hopes obviously, that it was gonna work, but when you [00:23:00] first jump into it, you don't know how it's gonna go. And then you don't know. You don't know where your money's gonna come from. You don't know if you're gonna make enough money. Mm-hmm. , you don't know if it, what you're trying is gonna be successful. And so I think changing from a more structured, stable employee kind of role to something like this. , it opens up so many future possibilities and it, it feels clouded when you start. And so you're not sure what's gonna happen. And that uncertainty is really frightening when you first make that change.

[00:23:29] Shannon Russell: You are young doing this, so you don't have the house payments, the children, all of that to hold you down. But there are families who do this. all the time with kids as well, and I think so it can be done in that way too. You can make this work. Would you recommend having an X amount of savings before you do this? Now that you know what you know, would you recommend that to others? Yes, .

[00:23:55] Monica: If this

[00:23:55] Austin: is something I'm a little worried about what you're gonna say, I'm like, I would, I would also recommend having [00:24:00] savings.

By the way, ,

[00:24:00] Monica: if this is something that like, you feel like you need a really dramatic exit, you know, if it's not something that you can build up as a side hustle while you're continuing in your job. Like for us it wasn't, our mental and emotional and, and physical health was so, So broken. We were so desperate for something that we wouldn't have been able to do both if you were in that place. I definitely, I always recommend a runway of like, Six months. Six months to a year where you have all of your expenses paid for. Your housing payment, your food, you know exactly. I mean, you can absolutely strip back on your expenses, but know your basics. Know how much you need to survive and live a fairly comfortable life and give yourself that runway of six, six months to a year to to start. Cause cuz the money doesn't always come

[00:24:49] Shannon Russell: right. . and travel's expensive. So if you're traveling internationally, it's more expensive in some places than others, and you have to account for

[00:24:56] Monica: that. Yeah. Actually, the cool thing about traveling is [00:25:00] that you can earn in one currency and spend in a different currency. So that's been a actually a huge help to us building our business is that we can live in places where we have the, the power of the US dollar. That goes a lot. We just did the math here in Thailand and we have a beautiful apartment. It has a pool, it has a gym. We eat out like every day. , like we live a really good life here and we're spending $800 a

[00:25:25] Shannon Russell: month. I'm very jealous. One day, , I'll get the two kids and my husband on board. What are your next couple of stops, do you know? Or do you just take it month by month? So

[00:25:34] Austin: we have the bulk of this year planned out. So we're leaving next week from, from Thailand. We're going to Cambodia for a month. And then after we leave Cambodia, we're going to Vietnam for a month. And then we're heading back home. We'll be meeting up with my family for a couple weeks. My brother's gone in Africa and he's gonna be coming home for the first time after two. And so we're gonna meet up with him, spend a week or so with him, and then we are managing a cabin in Idaho just outside of [00:26:00] Yellowstone. It's a beautiful, beautiful area. It's right by Henry's Lake, so we'll be there all summer long, and we end that in September.

That's where our definitive plans end. We have some tentative plans for the fall, my family is really proud

[00:26:15] Monica: of us though cause they know we're gonna be for like the next nine months and that has not happened, since we graduated college, basically. .

[00:26:22] Shannon Russell: And the fact that you're getting to come home and see family is really nice, after being away for so. What would you recommend to someone who's about to start their second act today?

Good question.

[00:26:33] Monica: I'm putting myself in, in the space of somebody who, who knows they need a second act but isn't quite sure what they wanna do. My advice would be to. Moving forward with something, we get so paralyzed sometimes with all the options that there are, we always call it procrast learning or procrast planning, where you feel like it has to be perfect before you start, and the longer you sit in that phase, the harder it is to [00:27:00] start and the worse it is for your own well.

[00:27:03] Austin: Yeah. We've been learning a lot from this guy. He's really big in the business space. is Dean Graziosi. Yes. And he does, he's really big in the online learning education space. Um, but as we've been learning from him, one thing that keeps popping up is, is he keeps saying to take imperfect action or take uncomfortable action. And I think that's what holds us back. A lot of times. Wait for things to be perfect before making a. Or we wait for someone else to give us the green light, that it's okay to go. Um, but I think sometimes we just need to take that step into the dark and take uncomfortable action and realize it's not gonna be perfect the first time. Maybe you don't even have everything figured out. Maybe all you know is that you need to leave where you're at right now. You don't even know where you're going, but just take that one step out. And then as you take that step, the path illuminates a little bit. , and then you can see a little bit further, and you can take another step and then another step. Before you know it, you're in a, a space and you're living a life [00:28:00] that you love and you couldn't imagine being anywhere else because you wake up every morning and you're excited about what you're doing and you're happy where you are. But it wouldn't have happened if you didn't have the courage to take that first step.

[00:28:11] Shannon Russell: excellent advice. And you're right, I think every step you take gives you that little bit extra boost of confidence to take the next one. No one can tell you what to do. It's all within yourself So what does the next act look like for you two?

[00:28:24] Monica: Yeah, this is a fun question. I think our next act is really fully diving into podcasting. Obviously we've been in Adams group together and we really want to, to offer more of a coaching, more of a hands-on role to people who are looking to become digital nomads, who are looking to work and travel. Eventually we would love to, to host retreats even. Just kind of really inviting people into our world a whole lot more

than

[00:28:51] Shannon Russell: we have. You're gonna find such a huge group of followers and people who want to do that especially fresh outta college too, I've had some [00:29:00] clients who are right outta college work one year in their profession that they, went to school for and then they're like, I hate this.

Now what? And they wanna change. So I need to send them over to you. Tell them to travel the world , figure it out. with Austin

[00:29:14] Monica: and Monica

[00:29:16] Shannon Russell: Such a great mission.

Really. I'm, I'm so excited to see where you guys go, and I'm excited that we're in the same group with Adam to be able to stay connected. So where can my listeners, follow you and connect with you? So

[00:29:27] Austin: probably the best spot would be, Instagram. We love it when people reach out and ask a question or tell us something. Austin and Monica, by the way, is the

[00:29:34] Monica: handle and, and is spelled out. So Austin, a n d Monica,

[00:29:38] Austin: our podcast is a great spot. They come out weekly, so you'll hear some updates about what we're doing and hear some updates about, or advice and help on, making the shift to working online.

Traveling while doing it. And that's the Profitable Nomad Couple by the way. And then our website, Austin Monica, is another great spot to find out what's coming and what [00:30:00] we're up to.

[00:30:01] Shannon Russell: You've got a lot going on you guys, and I'm gonna link to everything in the show notes as well.

And make sure that everyone knows how to find you and follow you and see all these amazing places that you're traveling and, and working in. , thank you so much for being here and sharing your. Truly

[00:30:15] Monica: inspirational. Yeah. Thank you. It is so fun to be here and chat with you and get to know you

[00:30:20] Shannon Russell: a little bit better.

Oh, me too. Yeah, we'll

[00:30:22] Monica: definitely stay in touch for sure.

[00:30:24] Shannon Russell: Thank you for sharing your story with us, Austin and Monica. I am beyond jealous of how you are living life, and you really have made me realize that this could be a possibility for many of us if we just plan and dedicate ourselves to the purpose.

I know that I'll be following along on your adventures on social media, and if you'd like to too, then I will link to all of the ways to follow them in the show notes for this episode below. Thank you for spending part of your day with me. I hope you walk away with some career inspiration and some tips that you can take with.

If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to hit [00:31:00] subscribe and go back to listen for more episodes on career advice, tips from industry experts and career change success stories. Let's meet back here again next time for a new episode of the Second Act Success Podcast. Take care of my friend. Thank you for joining us.

I hope you've found some gems of inspiration and some takeaways to help you on your path to Second Act Success. To view show notes from this episode, visit secondactsuccess.co. Before you go, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss a single episode. Reviews only take a few moments and they really do mean so much.

Thank you again for listening. I'm Shannon Russell and this is Second Act Success.